1959 IHC BC-150 Truck

This is fun photo for me.  It shows our first two grandsons with the truck that was on their property when their folks bought it.  The oldest will be a senior in college next year!!

When our daughter and her husband bought their home (an old ranch house up in the mountains of Colorado), this truck was sitting on the property.  Obviously, being the motorhead that I am, I kept looking at it each time we visited them.  They found the owner and bought it for me as a Christmas present (‘97) - boy was I surprised!!  For that reason alone, it is special to me, but it is special for other reasons.  I have become very involved with a bunch of “crazy “ IHC folks on the internet and have attended several of their events.  They are great people!  Lastly, it is a bit of a rare animal.

The body was not too bad, but the engine was really stuck.   

On November 11, 2001, I towed the BC-150 to our house.  The photos below show the truck behind the  IHC Toterhome I had built.

In April 2002, I got the truck running.  As of December, 2003, I have about 1,400 miles on it.  I even used it to practice for my CDL driving test using a fifth wheel trailer that we had (see photo below).  The six cylinder engine runs good, but lacks power for highway speed and big hills. 

Advertisements and Data Sheets for the BC series of trucks:

Part of the fun of these projects is researching the history involved.  Shown below are two magazine ads for this family of trucks.  They are thumbnail photos—you can click on them for larger photos.

These are photos of actual magazine pages that I have in my collection.  The ad on the left is from the inside cover of the August 22, 1960 U. S. News and World Report, while the ad on the right is from an unknown edition of the Farm Journal.

Note: I have quite a bit more material that I want to add to this section - stay tuned.

About the truck:

The truck is the forerunner of the Loadstar truck line and was their  medium truck line for the period.  The line consisted of a series of trucks from lightest model (BC150) with the heaviest being the BC180 (had a GVW of over 25K pounds). 

The BC150 had a production of 660 while the next model (BC160) had 13,998 (for comparison, the “long nosed versions had production numbers of 4492 for the B-150 and 45,606 for the B-160).  The BC models were only made from ’59 to ’61.  The small number of BC-150s produced make this truck a bit rare.

I was able to obtain a copy of the line set ticket for the truck and it was equipped with the optional BD 264 six cylinder engine, T98 four speed transmission and a two speed rear end.  It has a GVW of 9K pounds.

In my research, I found specification sheets for the BC-150 model (click here).  If you look closely, there are two different frames for the various wheelbases.  For the 167 inch wheelbase, the frame is bigger.  The frame on my truck has been shortened to 126.5 inches (you can see the welds and there was some reinforcing).  Measuring the frame would suggest it is the heavy version.  I will be lengthening the frame by 36 inches so it will be close to the longest wheelbase offered.

The now famous Loadstar line started its long production  run in 1962.  The BC line was an experiment to make a truck that was a combination of a cab-over and conventional truck.  Because of the relatively short nose, the engine compartment extends into the cab more than most trucks.

The Rebuild:

Over the past 10 years or so, I have been gathering parts for a total rebuild of the truck.  Among those parts are a 392 IHC V8 engine with a T35 five speed transmission and a Brownie 6041 four speed auxiliary transmission.  Recently, I purchased a period correct 36 inch sleeper (see photo below).

In late December 2013, I began the rebuild of this special (to me) truck!!

Here is a photo showing the trial fit of the 392 V8 engine:

This engine is out of a Loadstar and the only accessory was the alternator.  I have gathered the mounting bracket for the IH air conditioning compressor/alternator (passenger side) and the air pump/power steering bracket (driver side).  I will be using the IH AC compressor as an on-board air compressor and will be using the air pump bracket as part of a mounting for a rotary air conditioning compressor for cab air.  I will be adding power steering using a Saginaw box (push/pull type) out of a mid '60s truck.

More details to follow.

Updated 1/23/14