How often do you get to drive an unrestored classic truck that appears brand new? This is a unique occurrence. Now, this particular truck is rare by itself. It’s a 1970 International Harvester 1300D “All Wheel Drive” 4×4 Dually fire truck. It’s very difficult to find an IH dually 4×4 of this vintage, but this particular truck has just 7,400 miles on the clock. Yep. This 46 year old fire truck has super low miles, it was well maintained, and it looks amazing inside and out. The only rust I could find was just above the windshield on the driver side.
When our friend, Dan from the Blue Star Auto Group called me about it, it was very easy for me to say “I will be there right away to see it!” The truck is there and it is for sale there for $12,999 as of yesterday.
This truck was surprisingly easy to drive. Yes, it took a few minutes for us to get acquainted. I initially had trouble finding third gear or reverse gears. However, the clutch was low effort and I got a hang of the 4-speed manual transmission fairly quickly.
The truck is powered by a 345 cu-in V8 motor that was rated at precisely 196.7 hp and 309 lb-ft of torque, which is a lot of power for 1970. The “All Wheel Drive” label does not refer to a computerized AWD system of today’s trucks. It simply means that you can lock the hubs and make it so all wheels on this truck are driving it when 4×4 is selected.
The truck has no regular radio or air conditioning, but every feature works, including the strobe lights and the sirens. This truck is a true time capsule from the 70s and I was fortunate to spend some time with it.
I truly enjoyed my time in this classic fire truck. I hope it came across in this video.
