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Would you believe this machine comes from way back in 1969? It was recently owned by Wilkins Oklahoma Truck Supply, which is out of Tonkawa, Oklahoma, a city with a population of just a little over 3,000 people. Its a Peterbilt 359. The 358 (288 single drive) was Peterbilt’s first tilt hood. Basically it was a tilt hood 351. It was available from 1965 until 1976. The 358 was later available with a fiberglass hood. The 359 was the first wide-nosed conventional made by the company. It came in 119 inch and 127 inch long hood BBC configurations.
It carried Detroit Diesel 12v71 engines and other specific types. Between 1967 and 72, the truck had a small-windowed “Unilite” cab. Why do they call them Peterbilt? A researcher, Dylan Baranski, explained: “The company was founded by T.A. Peterman in 1939 from the ashes of Fageol Motors.
“He was originally a lumber salesman who was having trouble getting logs to his lumber mill quickly enough. So, he started rebuilding surplus army trucks & improved with each successive vehicle he made. Sadly, Mr. Peterman died in 1945, but his wife Ida sold the company to 7 people in the company’s management, who expanded the company & made it into what it is today.”
By the way, a note of Fageol Motors. The original Freighliners were built from Fageol parts because the tractors of the day couldn’t handle the rough slopes and terrain required by some industry companies. The pictured Peterbilt is obviously a sleeper model.
At the time it was made, the late 60’s, 30″ and 36″ sleepers were available. You could get bigger ones, where Peterbilt would work with Mercury to paint the bigger (40 or 60″) custom sized sleeper. Peterbuilt themselves started making bigger ones in 1978.
Raised roofs (high cubes) started in 1986. Images by Hank’s Truck Pictures
