Old logging truck with two engines

alloy

alloy

Dan, Retired old fart
H-M Supporter Gold Member
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Jul 5, 2014
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My wife and I took a day trip to the Oregon coast today. We went through
Astoria and down to seaside. It was packed. About 1/2 of people were wearing masks.

We came back on hwy 26 and stopped at Camp 18. If you are even in the area it's worth stopping. http://www.camp18restaurant.com/

They have a lot of old logging machinery there and one of them caught my eye. It looks to be an old Ford truck with a boom on it. Looks like it had a crane on it from the big ring gear mounted to the frame.

What was special about it was the second engine they put on the front of it. It's a big Cadillac engine with a turbo hydromatic trans hooked to the looks to be the original flat head V8.

After we did our tailgate lunch I went to get a closer look. They attached the Caddy enine/trans to the front of the flat head at the crank. The flat head didn't have any pistons and rods in it, and obviously no heads on it.

It was interested how they did it. The only questions I have is how did they oil the main bearings with no oil pan on it, and how the heck did that stock Ford flat head crank hold up to the huge Caddy engine?
20200815_135354.jpg20200815_135335.jpgford3.jpg
ford4.jpgs
 
Making do with what you got. Love the ingenuity.

I grew up in Tillamook, not far from there, just down the coast. Love the area. Thanks for sharing. Camp 18 looks like a check mark for a place to check out.
 
After checking out that website , I really need a trip to the mountains . It's been 10 months now since getting up to my property . :( That looks like cool place ! :encourage:
 
Thats intriguing. Did you notice if they still had a gearbox behind the flat bed? Essentially an automatic feeding into a clutch & manual trans. I bet it has a story to tell, just debating between worked hard, and put away wet, or a project that never came to be.

Interesting to think of the full torque of the Caddie eng/trans in first gear, going through the flathead crank. Also not much meat holding the two frames together.

Thanks for posting, those are great pictures to ponder over.
 
The advantage is you could drive the truck to the work site, put it in neutral and leave the cadi running to run the hoist.
 
It had the original trans and PTO hooked to the side of it.

I'm assuming they used it that way, but there wasn't any info on it like most of the other machines they have.
 
I haven’t been to Camp 18 in years.
Next time I drive by I will seek out that old boom truck.
Had a ‘47 Cadillac torpedo-back in high school with that big flathead V-8 & hydro trans.
Fond memories, thanks for that.
 
Manual Mac said:
I haven’t been to Camp 18 in years.
Next time I drive by I will seek out that old boom truck.
Had a ‘47 Cadillac torpedo-back in high school with that big flathead V-8 & hydro trans.
Fond memories, thanks for that.
Click to expand...

I didn't realize anyone on here lived close to me. I'm up the hill in Silverlake.
 
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Small world. Shoot me a PM sometime, we’ll compare notes.
Cheers, Steve
 
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