IAR Recyclers Newspress May / June 2016

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Page 18 Recyclers News Press
Crush U Pull It Software
Salt Lake, UT
DeVries Equipment
Ankeny, IA
EZ Crusher
Annandale, MN
Holiday Wrecker Service, Inc.
Tiffin, IA
Hollander
Plymouth, MN
IIADA
Panora, IA
Integrated Recycling Technologies
Monticello, MN
Iowa Metal Recycling
Evansdale, IA
Kabele Truck & Auto Parts
Spirit Lake, IA
Legend Smelting & Recycling
Joliet, IL
LKQ Corporation
Chicago, IL
Van Horn Truckload of History
Lloyd Van Horn
through 1920. But the mortality rate was high; 49 companies failed or
were bought out by the end of 1920.
Short-lived trucks such as Acorn, Webster, Condor, Dearborn, Fargo and
Gumprice have been largely forgotten except by antique-truck collectors.
A moving company that built its own trucks called Harders. Le Moons,
Lumbs, Moguls, Wonders and a truck called Rex also lumbered over
Chicago streets. The trucks of some of those short-lived companies are
worth big bucks as collectors' items. A fully restored All-American, which
sold for $1,595 at the end of World War I, can fetch 10 times that from a
collector--or more.
Restoration of an antique truck can cost 10 times its selling price. "When
I got started (about 30 years ago in 1995), the really rare trucks were in
such bad shape that it cost a fortune to restore them. Now they're almost
prohibitively costly," said Van Horn.
That's why he maintained what he calls his "boneyard" behind the muse-
um--for parts. It consists of a pile of rusting hulks atop which sits the
skeleton of a Chicago-built Old Reliable. Old Reliable was typical of Chi-
cago's early truck builders. The Henry Lee Power Co. in 1911 decided to
build a 3-ton motor truck and named it Old Reliable.
Old Reliable's Model B is as good an example as any of an average
truck for its time. It had a 28.9-horsepower engine that provided power to
the axles via a double chain and could carry up to 2 1/2 tons of cargo.
Top speed was usually no more than 20 m.p.h., which produced a bone-
jarring ride on solid rubber tires. In most trucks of that time, the cargo
was considered more important than the driver, who often rode in an
open cab. The Model B carried a price tag of $3,500.
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