There’s a romance to the world of trucking that the 1970s bestowed upon popular culture (“Convoy,” Smokey and the Bandit, etc.), but the realities of the open road were often (as several of our commenters can attest to) a little less glamorous (here’s a link to an interesting video on the trucking world of the early 1980s). Nevertheless, the trucks were super cool, including this 1979 International Transtar II Cabover that Barn Finder T.J. found on Marketplace in Garden City, Kansas. If you have a need for a 1970s big rig in your life, it may be helpful to know that this truck “runs great” and has “brand new tires and batteries,” certainly at great expense. The asking price is $10,000.
Like many readers, I have a distant fascination with trucks. I didn’t grow up with them and I’ve never worked in the industry, but anyone with a love for machinery can’t help but be susceptible to their charm. I particularly love the ’70s flat-nosed Transtar for its styling; somehow, International (almost) always got the look just right. I would probably get rid of the lethal lug nuts if this truck were mine—there’s such a thing as going a step too far in the name of fashion.
According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, who has uploaded plenty of documentation on International Harvester products, the Transtar II had a Cummins NTC-290 (whose name indicated its horsepower rating: 290). It is a 855-cubic-inch inline six with a turbocharger and a torque rating of 831 lb.-ft. The seller says that it’s fed through twin 120-gallon fuel tanks, and it feeds its exhaust through a five-inch stack.
I’m sure truck interiors have come a long way in the last 46 years or so, but this one has an AM radio (but will you find any active channels on the dial?), along with air conditioning and heat. The transmission is, according to the product materials, a “T-129 (RT-910) 10-speed twin countershaft Roadranger.” The seller quotes the mileage at 379,193 (and includes a picture of the odometer to prove it).
I kind of wish I was the person who had the space for a big COE from the ’70s (along with a CDL, for that matter). The ad says that the seller “has no use for it anymore,” which is too bad, but that brings up a good question: What does a 2025-26 buyer use a 46-year-old cabover for? If you have dreams of a cool Transtar, let us know what you’d do with it in the comments.
Careful what you wish for,,what a day, chainsaws, garden tractors, oh my and the site is back, and now THIS? Oh boy, ( turbo spooling up), settle in, folks, this will be a fun one. I was hoping someone would write up a “Trashstar” someday, a huge tip of the hat to Aaron, you( hopefully) opened up a can of worms here.
1st, I happen to know, this is an old “Pumpkin” ( Schneider) truck. I had a good friend that had one of these, spec’d the same, 290. 10 speed, Reyco spring rear, big tanks, it’s a Pumpkin truck, alright. Schneider had 100s of these.These were the anti-Freightliner, if a company didn’t have FLs, they had these. They had a funky greasing system, I see removed, that was supposed to lube critical points while on the road for a spell. All they did was make a mess. Like the 5 digit speedos of cars, I can say without reservation, this truck has a MILLION,,,300K, and still at it. I drove a similar truck, only a “shiny 290( 300) and a 13 speed. I don’t care for cabovers, but I liked the Trashstar, the 4070B was a stark improvement over the old 4000 series, but not much. These trucks shook like a whowho in church,( as if she’d be there anyway) but they racked up the miles, and air ride for for the elite, this was just the way it was. Has tube type tires, I don’t recall Schneider having those, but easily swapped the 22.5 for them, but get rid of them. It’s 2026, not 1967. These had the nastiest blind spot of any truck I drove, and am surprised that right tank isn’t creased, but this truck hauled a lot of TP, Schneiders mainstay for years, and the drivers that drove them made America work,,and wipe,,, Amen
Now, a bit of a down side, hey, trucks rule our lives, BFs started it,,. Trucking is in peril, companies are throwing in the towel every day. And BIG companies too, not just O/Os, which are practically non-existent today. The industry has gone about a huge change from when this truck rolled. There is simply no interest, and ironic, in that, trucking has never been easier. Why, rolling apts, electronic doo-dads, automatics, we would have loved, but did it the hard way. Like the chainsaw post, this was considered a step up from an old Emeryville, and drivers loved them. I would love to see the horror in the face of a new applicant, :0, see ya’,,,I’m telling you, we’re going to have the National Guard driving AM Generals pulling Swift trailers, you’ll see.
Great post, made an old gearjammers day, fo’ sho’!!!!!!!! see video posted separately, just in case, you know. :)
I know, who put a nickel in me, BARN FINDS,,,that’s who. I’d have to bring out the big guns on this( Geomechs, don’t fret, he’ll be along soon, he’s as predictable as 6:00 at 5:30 on these posts), but I think NTC-290s were tan, and the 300 I sat on top of, was red. These motors were changed quite often. I drove both. 290, and 300, and the 300 was a dog through the gears, but once in the “big hole”, 13th, it would do 65mph down and up. These, I think, are called “Formula” motors. We called them “castrated’, as they were turned down to 1900rpms. Older Cummins would do 21-2200, and get you over the hill. If you watch the Convoy video, you can see a couple of these, one in the left lane,,,HA!, you NEVER saw a Pumpkin truck in the left lane, and drivers were courteous then, and stayed to the right, unlike the “elephant races” of today, where both trucks are again the gubnor, on speed control, drivers playing video games, uncaring who they are holding up.
Cabovers were really everywhere, and for good reason. Length laws were in effect, and a shorter truck, meant a bigger trailer. A few feet made a difference after a year. In the early 80s, the 9670 came out, and was even more popular, again Schneider used them exclusively, and the drivers lived in them. After deregulation, overall length laws were abolished, and you could have as long a tractor as you wanted. Things gradually changed, aerodynamics became the hot button, and cabovers fell out of favor. I don’t think any US truck maker offers a cabover today.
Once again, I’m not sure the author or the site can possibly know what it was like to drive these tin cans. I didn’t think these trucks had A/C, if so was a roof mounted unit, and just so you know, these images take me back to a time when things weren’t so complicated, any uneducated schmoe like me could make a living. Good friends, common sense, on our own, a feeling of accomplishment after a trip in one of these, let’s say, you never left the yard without a vice grips and baling wire. Today, all that’s needed is a cell phone, and consequently, with automatics, has changed the caliber of drivers I’m not entirely sure I’m comfortable with. These “mega” pileups so prevalent today, is a direct reflection of how our instant gratification society has changed. And can’t go without saying, the CB radio, practically non-existent today, saved our butt many times. We were “in tune” with what was going on, not playing video games on speed control. Also, there is a lot of unfair racial descrimination today, and breaks my heart. Due to the lack of interest on our part,, people from other countries are doing exactly what our forefathers did, come to America for a chance at the good life. I don’t care where they come from, they deserve a chance too.
Here’s salute to the truck drivers of our country, we couldn’t exist without you.
In the 1970s the standard color for all N-series Cummins engines was beige, with the black and red color schemes starting in the ’90s, if im not mistaken.
This Cummins is red because International wanted it that way. Back in that era many manufacturers had a color that they used for all engines, regardless of who built the engine. International installed International Red engines, Paccar (Kenworth & Peterbilt) installed white engines, Ford installed Ford Blue engines, etc.
Howard,
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that I think you may be incorrect about this truck being an old Schneider truck. I see no signs of this truck being repainted and, this setup was also very common for a farm truck…which this appears to be. We have had a family farm (214 years now) in Ohio and it is, literally, 10 minutes from the IH Springfield plant. In the 1970’s, in this area, you either farmed, or you worked at IH. Of course, this is where they built Loadstars but, every farmer bought an International in our area, including us. I was driving an S-Series grain dump by the time I was 10 years-old. I have also bought and sold a few vintage cabovers and driven them cross country. This paint looks to be original and, the frame and undercab areas on this truck are way too clean to have been a Schneider truck with 1,300,000+ miles on it. I bought a 1975 White Freightliner out of ND that was in the same shape and had been used on a grain farm it’s entire life and only had about 250K on it. It is now owned by one of the foremost collectors of White Freightliners in the country.
Please tell me if there’s something I am missing but, I’m not seeing it.
Hi Mike, thanks for the shout. You are right, IH made thousands of these trucks, and were all spec’d like this. Reason I say a Schneider truck, is, I had a friend that bought one just like this,, and whoever painted it, you couldn’t tell. Farmers had a shred of class, and got a little fancier truck than this. This was a bare bones truck, like Schneider had. That pedestal by the left fuel tank, I’m sure held the greaser, the big tanks, farmers didn’t really need 240 gallons of fuel, single air horn, the Budd wheels, many farmers still used spokes, and many Schneider trucks did run south a lot, or did local stuff. Schneider probably didn’t get rid of these until a million miles, but you are right, there would probably be more wear. Fun to speculate though,,:)
CONVOY, I had to recite the 1st 2 verses for my chauffeurs license,,hot really, but not much more. Look at all the cabovers, circa, 1974. Most of them IHs, with companies that are long gone. CONVOY!! By the way, I realize the blooper, i’s a cabover FL with a reefer on, not a Pete, and I don’t recall the National Guard either. Old balance beam scales, those were the days! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVifNkBrn7E
I’m with Howard. Buicks chainsaws medium duty tractors and now an International cab over!! Love it!! I’ve already mentioned I drove a cab over Freightshaker in the early 90s hauling medical gas cylinders in the NY metro area. And I can totally attest to the blind spot on the passenger side of these. That and aprox 6 foot in front of you was also a blond spot too believe it or not. These used to be everywhere years ago. I’m glad this one still seems roadworthy. I wouldn’t use it professionally, but definitely would love to drive it on my days off. Theres nothing like “feeling ” an old rig as you drive it, hunting for gears. Thank you so much for writing this up Aaron. This is great!!!
Hi Dave, yeah, I get that “feeling” everytime I stand up. The “romance” usually fritters away after about 20 minutes. The IH “Sightliner” cabover, with windows by your feet, was supposed to eliminate that, it did not. It’s difficult to explain how these rode. The spring/tandem rears would begin a “harmonic” vibration, that would literally shake the cab, hence the term, “Freightshakers”. Air ride helped eliminate that. It would start at about 42mph, and usually last until maybe 55, these trucks only topped out at maybe 65, with a 10 speed, empty, downwind/hill, a bit more with a 13. They all had 4:11 rears mostly. They made great city delivery truck, with short turning, just hope you had P/S!
Howard, my company was cheap. Sprung suspension, solid mount cab. The only air ride was the seat. And on the Cross Bronx Expressway every single day…… Well…… You get the picture.
-Dave
Boy, 10 new 10.00R20 tires on aluminum budd wheels no less. I’m surprised they found someone to change those. (The inner drives are steel.) It looks nice, but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone to drive it for a living. The modern rigs are nicer inside. You’ll have a hard time getting your pants on in that bunk. If a guy were to have a use, perhaps hauling grain a couple months in the fall with it, by then you’d be tired of it. I hope it gets preserved and used by a hobbyist or something like that.
Cool ol shiny 290 !
Can’t add much except I’m surprised to see it sitting on Budds and not Daytons. Make some farmer a great truck.
Hey Jim, yep, most of these older trucks do end up on a farm and can skirt a lot of regulations by licensing it as a farm truck. Just don’t get caught at a scale with farm plates. Most of them pull grain wagons, and not very far. Just think, as an added bonus, if the farm no longer provides, you can enter the exciting world of owner operator trucking with this, if you could find someone to drive it, that is,,don’t laugh, as the trucking world continues to deteriorate, a person might be able to haul some loads, you know, off the grid, with aluminum foil in the grill, to ward off electronic surveillance,, like we used to. History has a knack of repeating itself. No cameras on this rig,, :)
Hey Howard, Considering the miles, location and photo background, I was surprised it wasn’t a farm truck and didn’t have a wet line.
Aaron, you pretty much described my relationship to big trucks. I never had first-hand experience with them, just some passing shoulder-rubbing with oil field trucks and farm trucks when I was a kid. But I always found them quite interesting, and cool. And I too thought these Internationals were the best looking over-the-road trucks.
I began my driving career in 1975 and these were everywhere. I drove mostly on the east coast so cab overs ruled the roads. I only ever drove one of these, it was a big cam 400 with 13sp. Road Ranger and Air Ride suspension. The only thing I didn’t like was they had a very cramped cabin.
I mentioned before that I went to National driver school in Novato, CA in 1974, learned to drive with 10 speed, 13 speed, and a little with two stick 15 speed, I think. Then, I had one job with an owner operator from CA to IN with a Freightliner. It was me at 6′ 1″, the owner at about 5′ 6″ and the 15 speed. Very cramped for me and it did not work out well at all. The owner did 90% of the driving, brought me back to CA, handed me a $100 bill and said goodbye. I got a job at a sawmill after that in Mendocino County.
The company I started driving for in the late 70’s started you off in worn out Mac cabovers! If you “behaved” after your 90 day probationary period you might get moved up to the TRANSTAR or GMC Astro! The Internationals had tiny bunks! The GMC’s were like going to a king sized bed! Like the one in the ad, we had 290 “fuel squeezers” with road ranger 10 speeds! I got a ticket on the NJ Pike once in the International!
Nope! Do Not miss those days!
Mount a wrecker/recovery deck on it and hook the hook to the front bumper and tow itself off. .
My first Big unit was an IH cab over eagle….but by the time I got it we call it the buzzard lol
Never been a trucker but this truck sure looks nice. Would like to try driving it where there is not much traffic. Owned a few 4 speed muscle cars so that might help me a bit with the shifting. Probably not!
John
Yes John, probably not.
The only time you use the clutch is starting and stopping.
Shows you how much I know about trucks! I better stick to my F150 and muscle cars
John
Oh and the cornbinder buzzard had 9th n 10th swapped around and by the time you put it in the big hole you were officially whoopin n ridin lol
That works OK on the high side where you’ve got the momentum but you lose 4th on the low side which can be a problem around town.
Overdrive.
When I scolled through today’s listings and saw this I knew Howard would be all over it. Thanks good buddy you did not disappoint. I won’t say it made my day cuz it is just starting, but it sure did perk up my morning.
I got to drive one of these a few times. It was a Transtar Eagle with the 400 and 13 speed. It rode a lot nicer than the R model Mack I was used to driving.
How’s this for a trip down the old highway? Took me completely by surprise. Got a lot of customers still looking for parts for these. Sadly, a lot of them got an axle removed, frame shortened, and moved off to places in the Pacific, like Phillipines where they’re highly sought after.
Memories under the cabs of these are vast. Personally, I preferred a conventional because so many tilt mechanisms were faulty and you spent a lot of time trying to get the cab lifted up. Fairly easy to work on once that task was complete.
Oh yes, you can’t tip the cab forward without something heavy sliding out of the bunk and landing on the windshield. A cab over is the only truck that will have stars on the windshield–from the INSIDE.
The vast majority of these out west sported at least Cummins NTC350s, a lot of 400s as well. A 290 was relagated to switch tractor at the terminal.
It’s almost weird not to look at something like this and NOT see a Jake Brake. Most of us busted-knuckles look at a good ol’ Columbus Vibrator and think something is missing if there isn’t a Jake on it. On the bright side, the lack of a Jake saves a lot of time performing an overhead adjustment.
Cabovers are the norm in Europe most probably by law? I know very little about trucks in general but I do hold a certain fascination towards them and a lot of respect for the profession. I totally enjoy all the insight provided by the author and all the comments, especially from famous Howard…..happy new year to all.
ERB another cool move
This is the tractor that got me into trucking. A driver for Stoops Express abandoned his load in our parking lot. After a week I called the company with a WTF? And they asked me if I could get it to Florida ( I was in CO.) I said OK. When I got the rig back to Indiana, they offered me a job! I begged off for a few years but then went on to have 20 years with Stoops that was absorbed by Burlington. Transtars weren’t terrible, but the standards evolved rapidly in the 90’s! When I see the wheel holders out there now, I’m glad I got out of it!
As a four-wheeler pilot, I used to enjoy driving in Europe where vehicles of this sort were limited, by law and gearing, to 90 KPH.
All trucks and buses had a required “tattletale” on the dash with a new disc every day which was kept on file for a year. During that year, any law enforcement official could gain access to the discs and issue summonses for overspeed, after which the former driver became a pedestrian.
The speeds I see today by big rigs absolutely terrifies me.
in the 70s, I drove three of these one of them had a 290 Cummins in it one out of 318 Detroit and the other had a 350 Detroit I was driving. I would much rather run than Detroit than the Cummins. They were much smoother with 13 or 16 speed you could just go all day long. I don’t like these long nose trucks they use today. You can’t tell when you run up on somebody. You can’t see the car in front of the cab overs were just. Way better and way safer for the public around you you could see them
In the mid 70s I drove a cabover IH with a day cab (ugly). It had the 318 and 13 SPD, big grain bed and pulled a belly dump pup. It was a dog in the hills but a scalded cat on the flat.
With only the windshield between me and whatever I would hit head-on I would definitely be the first on the scene!
Thanks again to all who respond, posts like this hit a nerve with a great many folks. I’m not sure how many brain surgeons, or astronauts dealt with a cabover IH, but if you are here, somehow these trucks touched your lives. This, while fun to reminisce about the “old times”, actually sent me into a bit of a depression cycle, thinking about my life as a truck driver, good friends that would give you their steer tire, and vise versa, now gone to that big rest area in the sky( I hope) and how I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. The cabover IH was just a step in transportation history, while horribly out of date today, it was a Cadillac compared to what the Transtar replaced, the Emeryville, I think. Very similar to the Astro that replaced the GMC “Crackerbox”.
I realize it’s 2am(MT) and many are in their comfy beds, but by now, I, and many others, was half way through my 1st thermos of coffee, on my way to some grocery warehouse with a 4am appt. The reason for my late night ramblings, almost like a CB radio. This , considering the subject matter and the people that are reading this, may like to know this stuff,,, I read, a big trucking co. Standard Forwarding, is closing, after 91 years. 230 drivers are out of work. I knew someone that drove for them. I look at pictures like Geos “Erb”, it shows who was very big in the 80s. We just don’t need big fleets like that anymore. Rather than our goods made in Pittsburg,( or wherever) most goods are made overseas. Those big container ships that glide silently through the night from far away ports, those things carry 10-20,000 containers, and there are 5400 of those ships today!!! THAT’S where all our freight went, and the “trickle down” effect of that, well, it’s a trend not likely to go away any time soon.
I visit another site anonymously that is exclusively for truckers, The Truckers Report ( I won’t say who I am there) and while my advice is clearly dated, I like to keep up on just how low the industry has sunk. There is no smoking gun to this, a culmination of many factors, but top of the list includes, restrictions, lack of qualified drivers, operating costs, reduced freight, and the biggie, insurance. Again, these mega pileups, don’t go unnoticed, all those companies( and you and me) experience huge spikes in their premiums, or dropped altogether, a recipe for failure.
Luckily, me, and several others from the cabover era here, can sit back with our back braces on at the kitchen table, and boast about the old days, but I bet everyone of us that drove these, wouldn’t have anything to do with modern trucking, and a crisis waiting to unfold. Europe isn’t any better, I’m told.
To all these drivers, I say, good job. It was a job that few appreciated and in the end, it will be dry roads, coops are all closed, and Free Bird on the 8 track, Amen.
You and your road buddies sure paid their dues, lots of emotions and realistic observations in your “late night rambling” ….Total outsider here who always had great respect for your profession, I like the human core of your “rambling” (to use your own word…😁).
Cheers, happy New Year.
Thanks, Dlegeai, you know, I didn’t think of it as “paying our dues”, just another busy day in the tin can. We never really got any respect, except the 1 finger salute, but it wasn’t a job where we were looking for respect. For most that wanted to be alone, the job was a natural. There was one invention that changed my attitude towards trucking forever,,the cell phone. For the 1st time, I could be tracked, and the 1st time I had a cell phone ring in the truck, my union bread hauling job, the sound freaked me out. It just wasn’t a sound I associated with driving a truck, and interest went down from there.
HOWARD,
You have written everything I wanted to say. I started out in that Cabover IH hauling steel around the mid-south. Ended up being a line-haul driver for two different freight company’s.
Most the hands I ran with are gone now. Some just right after retirement.
I Ended up driving mostly Macks but drove alot of other brands too.
Still have my old Cobra cb and hook it up in the shop every once in a while but hardly anyone on ch 19 anymore.
Thanks for the memories these big units bring back
Thanks Halfcab, and if you happen to pass me on that highway to Heaven,( I hope) I’ll be sure to blink the lights! ;)
10-4 roger that👍🏼
My old man bought a brand new 1970 CO4070 Transtar for $20,000 from the local Farmall tractor dealership to haul our potatoes to East Coast markets after the local railroad gave up on perishable commodities. It had an 8V71 318 HP coupled to an RTO913 Road ranger transmission driving 38K rears with 4/10 gears.
I cut my teeth in that at 16 years old. First trip to Boston, the only training I got was “don’t put the tomatoes on the bottom” on the back haul load.Ha! Drove various Detroits for 20 years, racking up over a million miles before I decided it was time for a new career in welding. I consider those years to be the golden age of trucking.
Ya, they were noisy, messy, and you had to shift a lot, but they got the job done.
My favorite reference for Detroit Diesels was that they were like a teenage girl.
They talked some pretty in town, but when you got them out in the country, they wouldn’t put out.
Also you could tell where a Detroit had been at a rest stop there would be gallon oil cans piled up lol…
Hey I wound up doin a little welding too
That oil helped rust proof the underside. Those oil strips in the middle on vintage highway pics,,Detroit made. Once, I helped out a family member that had a trucking co. (A&H out of Footville,Wi), I don’t recommend that, btw, hauled a load of water on a tri-axle IH4200 milk truck with a 318 from Waukesha to Janesville, about 80 miles. Boss said, “that truck uses oil, take some with you” Aye aye, Cap’n. Check the stick, nothing, put 3 gallons in, took 2 with me. Got to Waukesha, while being loaded, check the stick, nothing, I put the 2 gallons in, still a gallon low. I thought I was going to have to stop for oil! But oil was cheap, a lot cheaper than an overhaul, and adding oil when getting fuel was just part of it. I watched the oil pressure, if it fluctuated,, it was low on oil.
That’s pretty funny, Steve, I could write a book on funny trucker sayings alone. Thing is, we had too much time to think!
Pulling in to the truck stop, I’d jump out and tell the petroleum transfer engineer to fill’er up, three tanks, (because they only looked for two) put in a gallon of oil, and check the air in the seat.