Posted: 05/26/2010 02:46:29 PM PDT
PLEASANTON — Truck enthusiasts enamored with manual transmissions, elbow-grease power steering and air conditioning systems that works by manually rolling down the windows will have all they can handle starting today.
More than 500 unique trucks and their owners are expected to descend on the Alameda County Fairgrounds for the 39th annual American Truck Historical Society's national convention and antique truck show that starts today and continues through Saturday.Truck lovers from across the country are expected to gather for three days of meetings, tours and one long convoy of trucks that will end the convention with a five-bridge tour on Sunday.
The convention is making its first appearance in Northern California, and the event is free to the public with the antique truck show running from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. all three days.
Early registration numbers had 515 trucks lined up for the show, all at least 25 years old and ranging from pickups to semi trucks. That number is expected to grow to more than 800 during the event, said Bill Johnson, executive director of the American Truck Historical Society.
"Most people will be amazed at the quality of workmanship of the trucks," said Johnson, who owns 14 trucks. "The austere working conditions with these trucks is great. People can see how things have changed."
Cemex, which has a facility in Pleasanton, is bringing one such truck, a 1948 Ford F-6 concrete mixing truck. The15-foot truck is a glimpse at yesteryear. It is 25 feet shorter than today's models and has a 3-cubic yards of chain driven cement mixer, instead of the 10-cubic yards hydraulic powered edition of today."For anyone in the industry to see this is amazing," said Manuel Gill, the San Francisco foreman for Cemex. "The amount of work to restore this truck is amazing. Construction equipment is used up and thrown away. No one really saves it."
Dennis Chan has been saving such construction vehicles for the past four decades and owns more than 30 trucks. Chan's trucks are mainly Class eight, which weigh more than 33,000 pounds each and he is showing 33 of his prized possessions at the show.
"I started as a young kid," said Chan, 65, president of the American Truck Historical Society's Central California chapter.
"I was born and raised in Courtland and am a farmer," he said. "We started playing around with trucks a long time ago, so you had to love them."
Chan, owner of the Sacramento-based Redi-Gro Corp. restored his first truck in the 1960s and has since tried to restore one to two more each year. Restoring the old giants doesn't come cheap. Chan said most truck enthusiasts can spend anywhere from $50,000 to $60,000 restoring an old semi trucks.
"People can restore classic cars and still get reasonable (gas) mileage," Johnson said. "But these old trucks probably get three to five miles per gallon and some of these trucks have come thousands of miles to be here. It just shows the investment and love they have for these trucks."
Robert Jordan covers Dublin and Pleasanton. Contact him at 925-847-2184.
keep on trucking
What: American Truck Historical Society's annual national convention and antique truck show
When: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., today through Saturday
Where: Alameda County Fairgrounds, 4501 Pleasanton Ave., Pleasanton
Admission: Free. Parking is $8.
Details: Visit www.aths.org
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