1930 AA Tractor Trailer owned by Joel Champagne of Covington, Louisiana. The following details came from the MAFCA website; I have contacted Joel and asked him to join our group and hopefully send more photos, particularly closeups of how the 5th wheel and trailer connection are handled. The former owner and restorer was Cecil Richardson of Muncie, Indiana. He bought the truck at a farm auction in 1976 for $190.00. It had set out and was in bad need of repair all over. The restoration was completed in 1982 as a short wheelbase grain bed farm truck. It has all original type parts. It has a stock Model A Ford engine under the hood that develops 40 horses. The transmission is a 4 speed that was built by Warner Gear (now Borg Warner) here in Muncie, IN in early 1930. The rear end was originally a 6.6 ratio but was changed it to a 5.14. There is no history of the truck prior to Cecil purchasing it at the farm auction near New Madison, Ohio. In the spring of 2001 Cecil saw an ad on the computer for a 30s era fuel transport semi trailer and thought it would be an interesting challenge to convert the truck into a semi. Over the years he had seen several photos of Model AA truck semis but had never seen one. So he contacted the owner of this trailer, Doug Smith of Ankeny, Iowa and purchased it. It is 3 compartments (150 Gal., 150 gal., 300 gal.). Doug told Cecil that his father was in the fuel business and had purchased the tanker used in 1939. He brought it home and used it as a bulk tank for this fuel oil. He even plumbed all three tanks to one valve. Cecil managed to haul it all the way from Ankeny, Iowa to Muncie, IN nose down on a tandem axle car hauler. It was pretty straight and solid but he had to sandblast it, install patch panels on the rear compartment doors, cut and install new saddle timbers under the front of the tanker, install new dual wheels and tires and paint it. In the spring of 2003 he removed the grain bed and sold it in preparation of the fifth wheel to convert it to a semi tractor.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 22:38:24 +0000