needing info on Kelly Springfield truck

[GasWorksGarage]

Hello,

we are trying to determine the year of the truck.

we have a truck number of 76086.

Can anyone ID this?

 

Thanks 

[keiser31]

Not without a photo or two.

[keiser31]

There is this....https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/local/the-heritage-center-the-kelly-springfield-motor-truck-company/eUQATxWBefPjvDzoYgLTII/

[GasWorksGarage]

the title says its a 16 the guy we got it from swears its a 16 everything I find says 24 or newer

[keiser31]

Looks to be a 1924-26.

Edited October 15, 2019 by keiser31 (see edit history)

[wayne sheldon]

Beautiful truck! But 1916? Not likely. The year given of trucks is quite often off by as much as ten years. In many states, they were not licensed or registered until the 1920s or even later. Many were used industrially, or on farms, and again not licensed. Most were abused, parked out behind the shed, and nobody kept the paperwork if there ever was any. A decade or two later, people looked at them, thinking about the styling of the cars they knew, and "dated" by "style". The problem was "style" on trucks lagged behind cars by decades in those days. Most cars had electric headlamps before 1915. However, many trucks still had acetylene (gas) headlamps even as late as 1925, a few even as late as 1929. Trucks often still had no windshield as late as the early 1930s (many did, many did not). Solid tires (non-pneumatic) were common on heavier trucks until about 1930. All these things often confused people into an absolute belief that a truck they had was much earlier than it really was.

I am not a truck expert. And I certainly am not an expert on Kelly Springfield trucks. But I have seen a lot of pictures of them, and I do a lot of research by studying era photographs. At a glance, I would guess that to be a mid-'20s. Besides, keiser31 is usually quite accurate.

[Bloo]

I agree. Someone slipped a digit somewhere. If they ever really knew, it was probably 1926, not 1916.

 

1913 was the last year for acetylene headlights on most cars, some had electric earlier, but trucks lagged. I have seen late teens and 20s trucks with acetylene lights. If you have a magneto and gas headlights, you don't really need a battery. Trucks carried on like that for a long time.

 

Drum-style electric headlights like those are mostly a 1920s thing, also the engine appears to have detachable heads. That would have been cutting edge in 1916 for anything other that a model T Ford.

 

[60FlatTop]

In New York State vehicle registrations were hand written up into the 1970's. I bought a 1956 Willys-Overland pickup with a registration showing 1950. Someone must have mistaken a 6 for a 0 and it didn't matter, just an old truck. The DMV found 6 other W-O's listed with no consistency in serial numbers.

 

A nice lady at the Motor Vehicle Department fixed it for me, but then, I wanted it fixed.

 

Bernie