The Hays Antique Truck Museum contains one of the largest collections of antique
trucks in the United States. Find out more about our trucks, browse our
collection, or enjoy a slide show.
Hays Antique Truck Museum ©1997. All Rights Reserved.
The
Hays antique truck collection
The Hays collection includes over 100 different
makes of old trucks, representing 94 different manufacturers such as Fageol, Freightliner,
Mack, Sterling, Oshkosh, Peterbilt, Chevrolet, Dodge, and the one and only 1916
Breeding Steam Truck. Also
on display are trailers, industrial powerplants, tools, equipment, and trucking
memorabilia. Most of the trucks have been beautifully restored and many
are in running condition.
Trucks from the Hays collection have been on
display in a variety of settings. Visitors to the annual International
Truck Show can see several trucks from the Hays collection on display.
The Hays collection was featured on the television show, Bay Area Backroads and the recurring TNN series, The World of Collector Cars.
Hays trucks have also appeared in several
feature length motion pictures. Both the 1921 Relay truck and the 1942
MACK fire truck appeared in the movie James
and the Giant Peach. Three of our trucks were on location for several
months at Alcatraz Island for the movie, Murder
in the First, starring Kevin Bacon. Monsters, a Universal Studios picture, also used 6 trucks
from the collection.
Our trucks are available for lease for use
in movie and television productions, advertisements, conferences, and special
events. Please call (530)666-1044 or use our Guestbook for more information on leasing trucks from the Collection.
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Our
Feature Truck
1944 Sterling
by Ed
Roberts
The Hays Antique Truck Museum is currently displaying the Diamantine Bros.
Sterling HWS1 60H 6-wheel flatbed. This truck was built by the Sterling Motor
Truck Co. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
in 1944 and sold to the Square Oil Co. of Los Angeles. The original title
certificate and engine test sheet are still with the truck and copies are on
display at the museum.
Diamantine Bros. Transportation, Inc. of Hayward, California acquired the Sterling and restored it to look just like the other trucks
in their early fleet, with beautiful deep maroon paint set off by cream-colored
wheels and front bumper, and with no modern embellishments. The truck retains
its original Spicer 7741 4-speed main transmission and Fuller auxiliary, along
with a Tirnken 26450W worm-drive tandem rear axle. The engine, originally a 672
cubic inch, 150-hp, Cummins HB 600, retains its three inside, manifold-hung,
air cleaners and single-disc fuel injection pump, but it was rebuilt to HRB-600
(or HR-i 65) specifications, with 743 cubic inches and 165 hp.
Diamantine Bros., established in 1933,
hauled lumber, cement, and other heavy products for Permanente Cement, Standard
Oil, and Pacific Gas & Electric throughout California and Nevada. Their
fleet included Peterbilt, Kenworth, and Sterling trucks.
The Sterling HWS16OH was a heavy-duty
highway model rated at 8-12 tons capacity, or 42,000 lb. GVW. In 1944, Sterling also built several heavier models, up to the 15-20
ton, 70,000 lb. G\/W, HCS297. In 1951 Sterling built the even larger 45 ton SF7506D off-highway
dump truck, which used an unusual Buda 1,125 cubic inch straight-eight diesel.
The Sterling roots go back to 1907 when the Sternberg Motor Truck
Co. was established in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Sternberg quickly developed a good reputation for
building high-quality heavy-duty trucks. Anti-German reaction during World War
I prompted the company to change its name to Sterling Motor Truck Co. in 1916.
White Motor Co. purchased Sterling
in 1951. Production was transferred to the White factory in Cleveland, Ohio in 1953, and Sterling-Whites continued to be built
there fora short while. Crane carrier chassis were built until 1957, and then
the Sterling-White brand was discontinued. Sterling Custom Built Trucks, Inc.,
of Kansas City revived the Sterling name from 1973-82 for crane carrier chassis and similar vehicles. The
Freightliner division of Daimler-Benz (now DaimlerChrysler) revived the name
again in 1997 for the heavy-duty Ford truck operation it had just purchased.
About a half-dozen other companies also used the Sterling name on motor vehicles in the early 1 900s.
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