AA 120 1959,60,61

Hello mates downunder, from Canada! I am a friend of OLD IHC forum and have met some of you on that forum, but my interest in the AA-120 International trucks has led me to this forum in this, my first post. I have a 60 B-120 4x4 international, as well as a 59 B-120 parts truck. They are very similar to the Aussie AA trucks. I would like to meet AA owners from Australia. Here's a picture of mine:



Thanks, Manfred

Manfred Range

I have two on my books, have a look at truck.haddow.id.au/

Welcome aboard Manfred,
There were two versions of the AA series in Australia

and

before our AB series came along

Why two versions of the AA ?? The story I heard was that someone was ordering parts from the US and made a typo which resulted in a heap of the new B grilles arriving. IH here already had the AB model organised so ended up calling the second one the "revised AA " model

Holy smokes guys, I drooled over the thought of one picture, but I got a smorgasbord of pics! I'm delighted! We are starting to see some right hand drive vehicles on our roads as the Japanese Tiniest truck is becoming popular here, and it only comes right hand drive. My boss has one. I'm guessing it would be extremely rare to find an AA-120 here in North America as it would be for you to find an American B-120 in OZ. Thanks very, very much. Manfred

The bar grill on the AA looks like a hangover from the AS not the AB. If you lookthe AB grilll has more but thinner bars.

The AB was a whole new cab, built in Australia by Chrysler. Manfred's B series might have an American Black diamond six ( BD 264 or BD 282) but most of the Aussie trucks had the local "Diamond" ( ABD264 or AGD282 ) which did not have that hole through the block.

My truck and most of the trucks similar to it that International built were made with a 220, or a 240 , and some had a (260 something). all of these had the 'hole' naturally, as one had to get the linkage to the Aussie driver side, as that was where the carb was. Your 220's might even have that hole (sleeve) through the casting.(in an unused presence). There were v-8's, but mostly in the bigger trucks, and maybe on a special order. Tell me something: were all the trucks made custom ordered, with whatever option was desired, or was that different from the was it was in America? Manfred

Manfred - The Australian-built International trucks didn't have the luxury of very many options. This was because the total Australian truck market was pretty small, as compared to the U.S. & Canada.
We did export modest number of IH trucks to places such as New Zealand, South Africa and the nearby Pacific Islands, such as New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Bougainville, New Caledonia, etc, etc. .. but overall, Australian truck production was only a fraction of U.S. truck production numbers.

You could order an Australian-built International truck in the 1960's with only basic choices. A range of wheelbases .. but no engine choices in anything under about 7 tons load capacity.

The AGD-240 (Australian Gold Diamond) engine was fitted to the 110, 120, 130, and 148. The AGD-264 engine was fitted to the 150, 151, 160, 162, 164, and cab-over 172.
The cab-over, AACO 172 & 182, were able to be ordered in diesel, with the Perkins 6-354, after their introduction, in late 1961.

The AB-182 came with the AGD-282 petrol (gas) engine as standard .. and the AB-184 had the (imported) 345 V8. The ABD-184 was offered with a CF-160 Cummins.
The ABD-164 & ABD-182 models were also offered with a Perkins 6-354 around the same time as the AACO's were released.
Strangely enough, I have a 1964 IH catalogue which lists the 6-354 for the AACO models, but not the AB models. I believe separate brochures were produced for the Perkins-powered AB models.

The AB-110 and AB-120 came in 114 and 126 inch wheelbases .. and the 110's (2WD & 4WD) were fitted with 6.50 x 16 tyres .. while the 120's (2WD & 4WD) had 7.50 x 16 tyres.

The only other options, or accessories were ..

1. A 12

Inters had a major slice of the Aussie truck market but the average buyer just took what was available. IH would not make major changes, unless it was a large fleet order.
l don't think there was a bogie drive in the AB series Ron, the T indicated lazy axle and F was for bogie drive. If you wanted bogie drive they would sell you an ACF 174.
I think Manfred's engine would be an American Black diamond, if the engine number starts with BD220....?? The Aussie engines were all based on the "Silver Diamond", changed in 1956 to the tilt valve head which then became the Aussie Black ( or Blue ?? ) Diamond.

Atkipete - Yes, I find that you're correct (naturally), after more research on the tandem AB-line info.
I thought I had seen (in the metal, and in pictures), tandem drive AB-184's .. but I now realise that the AB tandems, were ABT-182's .. which are listed in my AB-line service manual.

These ABT-182's, were fitted with the "Tandem-Trac" option .. which was a lazy axle setup that incorporated a couple of coil springs that placed 60% of the weight on the drive, when empty, to assist with traction.
As anyone knows, who has driven a lazy axle rig, they are utterly useless for traction on anything but sealed surfaces, and fairly level ground .. and obviously IH engineers were wise to the problem, and did their best to improve the traction problem associated with lazy axles.

The AACCOT-182 cab-over was also fitted with this Tandem-Trac, lazy axle setup, upon the AACO introduction, in late 1961.

I was perusing the 1964 catalogue at length this morning .. and the IH sales blurb states, that "over 55,000 International trucks, in over 100 models, have been produced from the Australian factories since the commencement of Australian truck production in 1952".

It also mentions that Australian-built International trucks had been exported to more than 30 countries in that time.
Perhaps, in one of those far-off destinations, there's still a few old AB series trucks still doing sterling service!