International Truck - International Harvester 1210

September 12th, 2006

My Dad owned an International truck. It was a beastly thing, not in size but in steel and sound and power. It was also a dependable vehicle, and the one I learned the most about automotive maintenance with. My Dad would tinker and tweak on that International truck, doing everything from fussing with the four-wheel drive caps to greasing the somethings—the bushings or bearings, I think—to getting us kids to do the reaching into smaller, tighter places to retrieve bolts he’d dropped or spark plugs we had been fascinated with from the start.

The International truck model he got—which if I recall was the International Harvester 1210–in the seventies was, evidently, one of the models that contributed to making International Truck Corporation one of the largest truck manufacturers around. It makes sense that the 4 x 4 was a great heavy-duty tasking truck, which Dad used for hauling lumber, going to the motorcross and snowmobile races, and doing minor farming jobs, as the International truck line began as and continues to be one of the premier bug truck industries.

It also makes sense that this line is ideal for vintage enthusiasts, and even off-roaders and hot-rodders, if you will. Many guys modify the rigs for derbies/races, or for just kickin’ it. One guy, for example, tricked out a vintage Bobtail International Truck, a 1964 International Harvester Scout 80 Cabtop (very much like the one my Pop, my Dad’s Dad, had): the guy added Mopar semifloater, Dodge engine (a 318 with a Torqueflite 727), and Dana 44, tweaked the axles, added 35-inch tires, and takes it out to the mud tracks. (There’s a blurb and photo at Off-Road Adventures, by the way.)

The most often seen line of International trucks is the heavy truck and mid-line diesel engine size line, though anyone not interested or not an aficionado of trucks in general or the International truck in particular will not care or will miss the fact that the highways are lined with them. But for those who do care, International Truck has a new model of big rig: the 310 horse-powered ProStar. The think is massive, fast, and, in a strange way, a beauty.

You would have thought that 1972 International truck was a big rig…on the day my brother was dying of heat and begged me to drive him to the lake. I had never driven a stick, was 15, was a chick, and was, of course, forbidden to do something like steal a parent’s vehicle to satisfy personal wishes. I ground the gears all the way up the steep, two-mile long hilly climb to the lake…and all the way back. The sounds the truck made scared me. But I made the trip and made my entry into the world of trucks. I can’t get them out of my system even now, some thirty years later.

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Entry Filed under: Automotive, Autos, Auto Parts, Car Owners, Auto Articles, Automobile, Blogging, Information, Advice, Truck Tags: International truck, 1972, diesel engine, 310, horse-powered, ProStar, vintage enthusiasts, car vintage, truck manufacturers, farm truck