I80 Truck Museum

[IHRedDrive]

They apparently expanded for the second time. If you've been here, always a large rectangle, now an "L" shape structure. Several IH trucks. These two '86 GMC's caught my eye and @DirtBoyz07 Ford Big Boy. If you've never been, highly recommend.

[New Englander]

6-71 in the GMC?

Beautiful restorations. What City is that in/near?

[ihrondiesel]

Walcott, IA, right on I-80 at the I-80 Truck Stop

[IHRedDrive]

25 minutes ago, New Englander said:

6-71 in the GMC?

Beautiful restorations. What City is that in/near?

8V92 Detroit, 13 speed. And yes, there were some oil drips on museum floor mat 😁

[Sledgehammer]

I always liked the hood scoops on that vintage of Ford truck. 

[IHRedDrive]

Stopped to pay homage to the Farmall plant on my way home. The main building looks to be in some use. @DR.EVIL may know. Building same as ever, missing the IH logo of course. Second pic is a stock photo.

 

[sandhiller]

16 minutes ago, IHRedDrive said:

8V92 Detroit, 13 speed. And yes, there were some oil drips on museum floor mat 😁

If there ain't oil under it........

There ain't oil in it.............😉  😄  😂

[KY2674]

1 minute ago, sandhiller said:

If there ain't oil under it........

There ain't oil in it.............😉  😄  😂

Dad ,a huge Detroit lover no telling how many over the years, always said it's when they quit leaking is when you have to worry. 

[jeeper61]

1 hour ago, IHRedDrive said:

And yes, there were some oil drips on museum floor mat 😁

That's how you know it's got oil in it 🤣

Those leaky Detroits keep many steel cabs from an early death  

[Red Collector]

"World's Largest Truckstop"... I've stopped by for gas and/ or snacks a handful of times over the years. Never took the time to go through the full museum, but if memory serves they have a truck or 2 in the main truck stop. One of these days when I pass by there I will have to take more time

[SASW6]

We stopped and went through the truck stop and the museum on the way back from the RPU in Des Moines. Well worth the stop!

[mikem]

8 hours ago, KY2674 said:

Dad ,a huge Detroit lover no telling how many over the years, always said it's when they quit leaking is when you have to worry. 

When I was about 6, I got to go on my first flight on North Central Airlines...Good old DC-3. (Dad flew them in WW-II)

When he asked how the flight was, I said Great, but there was oil running across the wing the whole trip!

As I remember the reply had something to do with 'finding a parachute when the oil stops.'

Mike

 

[DR.EVIL]

The old FARMALL PLANT office building has been rented out or bought by the State of Illinois for office space for various state agencies, like Dept. of Child Services,  or the State Planning Dept. The state moved in shortly after IH closed the plant.

   That building with the truck with two 5x88's on it is exiting the main gate, and that building was known as The Motor Building.  Each floor did certain operations or processes to build engines way back in the early days, 1920's ,'30's, and '40's. There was a room with a copier I used a lot when I worked out in the shop, had to walk over a quarter mile to get to it, and the "Burden Stores" where you picked up supplies, tooling, safety equipment, shop rags, etc was on the 2nd of 4 floors, I got to the Burden stores only 2-3 times, and never got to the 3rd & 4th floor.  Was still small part machining going on , parts moved up & down via pallet Jack's and freight elevators, think there were two elevators, one on each end of the building. Guess I always felt that there was plenty of time to snoop around in all these places because FARMALL was going to be there FOREVER.

   Most of the center part of the plant has been tore down, the western end of the plant like where the old warehouse area was before IH built two automated warehouses, and the building where the 2+2's were assembled still stands and was bought by Mclaughlin Body a year or so ago to increase cab assembly for new green combines.

    GOOD friend who I met working at FARMALL about 1979 says his employer, a steel tubing supplier looked at renting space at FARMALL when the Christenson Bros who first bought Farmall from IH was trying to create a Manufacturing mall. They had limited interest, don't think they ever had over 50% occupancy. Probably had too many vacant buildings from all the companies that closed when the BIG shops all closed.

   I belong to several FORD Facebook web pages about Ford trucks, the F-series, that I posted about Dirt Boyz's Dad's truck, and a N and C series page. I only ever drove an L-9000 from Davenport to Des Moines with a small load of returned tires to FARMALL, Our only Louisville was wore out, the 290 was more like a 190,  the ride was rough, but the driver ergonomics was much better than the RoadBoss's I drove the most or the S2200 IH I drove close to a year.

   Some day I have to make the tour of the museum. SON lived only about 6-7 miles from the truckstop if he drove the back roads, He spent lots of money on his RAM 2500 at the chrome shop.  I've checked out the truck museum on-line, interesting stuff!

[IHRedDrive]

2 hours ago, DR.EVIL said:

The old FARMALL PLANT office building has been rented out or bought by the State of Illinois for office space for various state agencies, like Dept. of Child Services,  or the State Planning Dept. The state moved in shortly after IH closed the plant.

   That building with the truck with two 5x88's on it is exiting the main gate, and that building was known as The Motor Building.  Each floor did certain operations or processes to build engines way back in the early days, 1920's ,'30's, and '40's. There was a room with a copier I used a lot when I worked out in the shop, had to walk over a quarter mile to get to it, and the "Burden Stores" where you picked up supplies, tooling, safety equipment, shop rags, etc was on the 2nd of 4 floors, I got to the Burden stores only 2-3 times, and never got to the 3rd & 4th floor.  Was still small part machining going on , parts moved up & down via pallet Jack's and freight elevators, think there were two elevators, one on each end of the building. Guess I always felt that there was plenty of time to snoop around in all these places because FARMALL was going to be there FOREVER.

   Most of the center part of the plant has been tore down, the western end of the plant like where the old warehouse area was before IH built two automated warehouses, and the building where the 2+2's were assembled still stands and was bought by Mclaughlin Body a year or so ago to increase cab assembly for new green combines.

    GOOD friend who I met working at FARMALL about 1979 says his employer, a steel tubing supplier looked at renting space at FARMALL when the Christenson Bros who first bought Farmall from IH was trying to create a Manufacturing mall. They had limited interest, don't think they ever had over 50% occupancy. Probably had too many vacant buildings from all the companies that closed when the BIG shops all closed.

   I belong to several FORD Facebook web pages about Ford trucks, the F-series, that I posted about Dirt Boyz's Dad's truck, and a N and C series page. I only ever drove an L-9000 from Davenport to Des Moines with a small load of returned tires to FARMALL, Our only Louisville was wore out, the 290 was more like a 190,  the ride was rough, but the driver ergonomics was much better than the RoadBoss's I drove the most or the S2200 IH I drove close to a year.

   Some day I have to make the tour of the museum. SON lived only about 6-7 miles from the truckstop if he drove the back roads, He spent lots of money on his RAM 2500 at the chrome shop.  I've checked out the truck museum on-line, interesting stuff!

Thanks Dr. E learn something all the time from you. One other question - has the Deere plant along 5th avenue in Moline been there as long as Farmall? 

[oldtanker]

The truck museum is well worth the. Now that they have expanded it next time we are visiting out grandkids in Cedar Rapids I'll go back down there. Wife and I saw a few years ago when we went to a ACMOC event at the Cat plant in Peoria IL.

 

Rick

[DR.EVIL]

On 3/24/2022 at 8:39 AM, IHRedDrive said:

Thanks Dr. E learn something all the time from you. One other question - has the Deere plant along 5th avenue in Moline been there as long as Farmall? 

IH bought the Farmall plant in 1924 if I remember correctly, production of the Original FARMALL started there in 1926. IH bought the plant off  Moline Plow Company, who around this time merged with two companies from Minneapolis to become Minneapolis-Moline. I couldn't find anything saying when Moline Plow actually built the plant. Willy's-Overland bought controlling interest in Moline Plow around 1918/1919 and came with buckets full of cash, I suspect a large part of the plant built shortly after 1918. In 1916, Moline Plow started building the STEPHENS Car,  guy named Stephen's owned a significant portion of Moline Plow.  But the Depression and stopping building the Stephen's car, Moline Plow sold the plant to IH in 1924.

     I could find NOTHING on-line saying when the Deere Plow-Planter or now known as Seeding Systems plant was built, but having been inside the plant with my little brown Package car, it's a new less cramped facility than FARMALL.  My guess is the building of Plow-Planter was to start production of Deere's #290 corn planter in 1941.

    I got my copy of TRACTOR WARS, book by Neil Dahlstrom, the guy who gave the commentary and expert editing of the History Channel show by the same name that we discussed at great length. NEIL'S day job is Corp. HISTORIAN for Deere. That's why that show ONLY showed Waterloo Boy/Deere, Best/Holt/CAT, and Ford. Not a single mention of International Hzrvester on the show AT ALL. Think it was around 1920, IH had produced over 50% of ALL the tractors built in the US. IH did get mentioned a lot in his book, as they should have.

     Next time I get back to Moline/Rock Island I'll have to take some time and snoop around that part of town. There's got to be some buildings in that area with corner stones with the year the building was built.