Re: Gmc 637 v-8
 

Really Neat story! A good friend of mine is a volunteer fireman and is a design and sales engineer for a big emergency vehicle mfg. Today's engines have huge diesel engines and pumps 2-3 times the size of that engine, but the tilt cab GMC with that Really big V-8 is really neat. Fire trucks don't normally get lots of miles but lots of hours.

I imagine with some creative thinking you could use that 65 ft ladder to wash windows, trim trees & bushes, and with the pump and water tank clean gutters & down spouts.

Dad hauled livestock back in the late 1950's and all of the '60's. Guy he drove for had two tilt cab GMC tractors but had 401, maybe 478 powered, 5+2 transmission. They were much nicer to drive & ride in that the CO-190 Corn Binders that replaced them.

Re: Gmc 637 v-8
 

Interesting story.

Have you seen the '72 9500 Fire Truck with the 637 on YouTube?:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTlATTlb82U

Re: Gmc 637 v-8
 

Thanks guys and Bill, I have seen those vids.
Tilt the cab up and you have full access to the engine including the gear shift, starter, choke and throttle at the carb.
That knocking sound in the second vid, is the air compressor, pumping up the air tank.
Most old big trucks sell real cheap, because most people don't have a place to keep then.
Many go to the scrap yards.
As for using it to wash windows or trim trees, the ladder raised and not extended is probably about 30 feet.
Total vertical reach is 65 feet. I even measured it not long after I got it.
As you noticed in the photobucket album, a lot of the pictures were taken from the ladder.
Guess who took those pictures.
http://s893.photobucket.com/user/2-T...?sort=3&page=1
Most of the time, I don't fully raise it.

Don

Re: Gmc 637 v-8
 

Just wondering, Does your wife hire you out to neighbors to wash 2nd & 3rd floor windows and clean gutters, trim trees & bushes?

Having a 65 ft tall rotating ladder would have it's advantages to most home owners!

Neat old GMC! I spent a lot of time co-piloting for Dad driving two GMC tiltcabs, single axle tractors hauling livestock. Think they were 401 powered and 5speed trans and 2-speed axle. I remember one had a "Working 5-speed", meaning you shifted from high 3rd into low 4th, then low 5th, then to high 4th, and finally high 5th. The trans would work it's way out of 5th gear, had to wrap a rubber tarp strap around gear shift to edge of sleeper bunk. If you had to downshift you shifted axle.

I sure liked the GMC tilt cabs better than the CO-190 Binders or Emeryvilles!

Re: Gmc 637 v-8
 

I believe they are Clark Transmissions. I had 2 thru the years. One in a '62 6500 and the other in my '67 7500. What's nice about those combinations is that you can go thru 9 Gears and only have to Downshift the Rear twice.