Dieselpunk + Steampunk Culture
Lord K's Garage - #29. Divco Milk Trucks
The Divco truck was built by the Detroit Industrial Vehicle Company and its successors. These trucks became a part of the American way of life.
Chances are your milkman drove a Divco truck. So did most other delivery services. The Divco was manufactured form 1926, until 1986. The Divco truck was a multi-stop delivery trucks unlike any others. The only vehicle that stayed in production with the same basic model for a longer period of time was the Volkswagen Beetle. Today many people consider Divco as the icon for the multi-stop delivery era.
In 1922, George Bacon, Chief Engineer for the Detroit Electric Vehicle Company designed a remarkable new electric driven milk delivery truck. It could be driven from four positions, front, rear, or either running board. However as we know electric trucks were no match for a gasoline powered truck. This was the main reason the George Bacon and others formed the Detroit Industrial Vehicle Company (D.I.V.CO.) to produce his invention using a LeRoi gasoline engine.
1941 Divco-Twin Delivery Truck by aldenjewell @ Flickr
In 1937 the Divco was completely redesigned with a welded all-steel van body and a snub-nosed hood which was used with virtually no change up to the end of production.
1948 Divco Milk Truck and Mini by bsabarnowl @ Flickr
1949 Divco models (UM-8, UM-8E, ULM-6)
Similar appearance in the Fifties:
Photo by sjb4photos @ Flickr
And in the Sixties, the song remained the same:
Photo by sjb4photos @ Flickr
1965 Divco Crystal Milk Truck by Jack_Snell @ Flickr
- Divco Twin
Twin Coach Motor Company manufactured buses and trucks. The Twin Coach truck was manufactured in the Ohio area but most of the trucks were sold to customers in California. One of the biggest customers of Twin Coach was Helms Bakery.
They used these trucks until 1965 when they stopped delivering bread.
Photo by dmentd @ Flickr
Photo by Jack_Snell @ Flickr
In 1937 Divco Truck bought the Twin Coach Truck Company. Divco called their version of the model Twin Coach used, Divco Twin.
1941 Divco-Twin ad via paul.malon @ Flickr
Text: old cars and trucks pictures, jcristmuseum
Special thanks to aldenjewell @ Flickr for the 1949 Divco Brochure. Headline pictures via PTA Transit Authority
Comment
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Comment by Joseph C. Moore on March 21, 2010 at 10:35am -
There are metros around, and not in that bad of shape, The issue with me is the gas Mileage. Its original engine wasn't bad a Four banger. got maybe 10-15 MPG in the city. And even if you put a metro body down on lets say an S-10 chassis, the mileage still wouldn't be great.
I'm shopping right now, there are allot of models out there, element, xB, Cube, Soal. Which all get a mixed mileage of about 30.
I use a Saturn Vue now, with a hydrogen booster, it works well but with what has happened to Saturn, Parts have already become an issue.
JCM
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Comment by Neil Crompton on March 21, 2010 at 7:16am -
Them Harvester Metro's look very nice as well. Although I would wager there as rare as rocking hoarse teeth. Especially to find one for a reasonable price.
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Comment by Joseph C. Moore on March 20, 2010 at 5:54pm
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Lets not forget the Internatioal Harvester Metro, I would love to own one of these. I own a small vending company and would love to have one for my route.
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Comment by lord_k on March 20, 2010 at 5:19am -
Good luck with your project, Neil, it sounds great.
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Comment by Neil Crompton on March 20, 2010 at 5:13am
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Absolutely love Divco trucks And many thanks for sharing these superb examples. We are in the process of hunting an old Divco for my wife's mobile baking business. There's a couple in a sorry state of repair at www.goldenrod-garage.com. We wont be doing a strait restoration job, but rather mounting the cab over modern running gear. As it would have to deal with modern motering conditions on a daily basis.
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Comment by IRON CROSS on March 19, 2010 at 8:18pm -
very nice class and elegancy even for a comerical vehicle in australia we have and had nothing like this this type of vehicle could make a comeback in this age of high fuel prices and envromental needs
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Comment by Larry on March 19, 2010 at 8:09pm -
The fact that it had such staying power shows the genius of its design.
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Comment by lord_k on March 19, 2010 at 6:23pm
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I'm next in line for the Dick Tracy Special Edition, count me in.
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Comment by Sparky Gage on March 19, 2010 at 5:16pm -
I think we are getting to the point of too many early designs to copy. Ford, Chrysler and Government Motors are having a hard enough time copying there own past successes. I think it's going to take a small company with some ambition to attempt to retro something like this.
Ok, so who wants a Dick Tracy version that is a mobile communications center? Complete with a dish or beam antenna that rises up out of a hatch in the top! Or is that just me?
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Comment by lord_k on March 19, 2010 at 1:41pm
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In our postmodernist era this lovely car is begging to be copied. But nobody's willing to do it. Very strange.
© 2013 Created by Tome Wilson.
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