This week’s CAT Scale Rig of the Week is a classic truck that displays the history of modern trucking.
With classic styling and great looks, this 1956 International RF 405 has an air filter out of its side, a Luber-finer (filter) on the other side, and a bold grille.
This particular rig features a Hall-Scott gasoline engine. Hall-Scott also made boat and airplane engines, and with an overhead camshaft, they were very sophisticated for their time. The power of this gas engine was equal to the diesel engines of the time. As diesel engines improved, they became more powerful, and gas engines were phased out of large trucks.
Gas engines also cost more to operate, need more frequent tune-ups and have ignition system failures. With diesel, the heat of the compression fires the fuel, so you don’t need an ignition system.
This truck was purchased by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the public utility for Northern California, to haul large and heavy electrical transformers wherever they might be needed on a temporary basis. It spent 35 years in California and is now located at the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum.
Do you use the CAT Scale app and have a rig you’d like us to feature as the CAT Scale Rig of the Week? Send photos to [email protected].
A former military public affairs specialist, Cody Graves has a journalism career that has spanned radio, television and print. For the last ten years, he produced special sections for Arkansas’ only statewide newspaper. During his time in the U.S. Army Reserves, Cody served tours in El Salvador, Iraq and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In his spare time, he plays guitar in a local band and spends time with his dogs, Lucy and Daisy.