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Posted by Jonas [156.74.250.7] on Sunday, December 27, 2009 at 13:56:30 :
In Reply to: Thanks Jonas! posted by Clint Dixon [74.206.62.94] on Sunday, December 27, 2009 at 10:04:13 :
I think that the swivel frame reached it's zenith around 1953. It had become quite popular in small off road trucking circles. But with Willock being in Canada, It would have been a customs nightmare to bring trucks up from the U.S. and have the swivel installed and shipped back. I'm sure Willock was looking at a huge market in the U.S. that they wanted to tap into. I think they approched or were approched by thier US dist. of thier other products, Truckstell, to take over the maufatcure and rights of the Swivel Frame. It was short lived though, as I have not seen or heard of a power Wagon swivel frame made after 1956 or 57. At that time the swivel was marketed exclusively for the Power Wagon by Truckstell I think.
Like I say, I have no solid documentation to back this up, it's just what I believe happened from things I've read and people I've talked to. I also think the Willock wanted to get out of the Swivel Frames because of litigation from inattentive drivers wrecking them. It does take special care to drive off road as the truck behaves a lot different than a straight frame truck in relation to center of gravity and rollover characteristics. You will not get a "seat of the pants" feel for where that roolover point is.
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