In 1930 my Father needed to replace two tires on his 1919 Maxwell truck. He put the tires on the rear (load bearing) of the truck and moved the best two old tires to the front (they had been the rear ones). But the rear tires were bigger in diameter and the truck wouldn’t turn as tightly to the left as to the right without rubbing the dragline.
When he went to town he couldn’t make a U-turn so he had to circle the block. That took him by the high school tennis courts where my Mother was the PE instructor. He asked her for a date and the rest is history.
The family kept the old truck, which had become running gear, engine and metal parts after the wood rotted away. I found a 1917 truck on Long Island with enough wood parts for a set of patterns.
I restored the 1917 first and then 1919. The ’17 has buggy top, 19 open is an open cab.
— Gary Gates, Wichita KN
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