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Take a gander at this tricked out orange and white Freightliner Cabover with a decidedly box-y theme. Quite the bumper, isn’t it? It makes it look like a plow. There is a lot of styling done here.
There’s those four round headlights set into the bumper set, and they darkened the divider for the windshild(s) so it looks like one long black bar. Overall, there a rectangular theme here that goes along with the natural rectangular-ness of the cabover. Would like to see a front-on picture of this.
The photo is by Paul Rioux, who does a lot of great truck photography on the net. If anyone comes across his actual site though, please message us so we can send some people over there.
Freightliner started out in 1942 and they have a CANADIAN connection (this blogger is Canadian himself). According to Wikipedia:
“In the 1930s, Consolidated Freightways (CF) decided to produce their own truck line from reconstructed Fageols, after finding most heavy trucks lacked sufficient power to climb the steep mountain grades in the western United States.”
Now note that Fageols were an early-20th century company founded to make farm tractors, as well as motor trucks and cars.
“The trucks were branded “Freightliners”, with the first units produced in Consolidated Freightways’ maintenance facility in Salt Lake City around 1942. After production was interrupted during WW II, manufacturing began again, in CF’s home of Portland, Oregon. In 1949, the first truck sold outside of Consolidated Freightways went to forklift manufacturer Hyster, also based in Portland.”
That first made truck from 1949 is still around. It’s in the Smithsonian collection for people to view it in Washington, DC.
The story continues:
“Lacking distribution capability, and seeking higher volume to reduce production costs, CF entered into an agreement in 1951 to sell their trucks through the White Motor Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, and their dealer network in the US and Canada. This relationship endured for the next quarter century, and the co-branded “White Freightliner” cab-over-engine models (COE) became a familiar sight on highways across the continent.”
These “White Freightliner” look like the square box COE you might be familiar with — just a box on a chassis. Picture
“Manufacturing began in Burnaby, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, in 1961, to reduce the duty penalty on the complete vehicles sold in Canada. Assembly plants in Indianapolis and Chino, California complemented the main plant on Swan Island in Portland, serving the US market. In 1969, a new assembly plant was opened on North Basin St., which was then converted to parts production.”
Burnaby, for those not familiar with the Lower Mainland in BC, is the third-largest BC city (by population) today, and is immediately to the east of Vancouver. It became a “city” in 1992,” 100 years after incorporation of the town.
