1950 International L110

Pete, the L110 owners manual I have shows a US cab. Ill have a bit more of a look when back in the office to check out the engine etc.

Relic, Does the Truck in Question have a single curved windsceen? or flat/split.

AL truck model production commenced in a "prototype" fashion in late 1949, as far as I can gather from reports of the day. This is because a number were required for testing purposes.
The AL truck testing was done on public roads in the Dandenongs and South Gippsland, in the first half of 1950. This was because IHCA never had a proving ground at that point in time.

Advertising points to new AL model trucks being produced for public sale, from the first week in August, 1950.
Agents and IH managers, stated that 3 and 5 ton models were rolling off the "temporary" assembly line, at a plant at City Rd., South Melbourne, at the rate of 10 trucks a day .. and when full production was moved to the new factory at Dandenong, "in approximately 15 months", the lineup of models would increase, and production would be in excess of 20 trucks a day.

Interestingly, the "new Australian-built International truck" was initially described as an "L" model in advertising. Whether this was because the "A" was being ignored in the model name, or whether it was a while before AL badges were produced, would be interesting to know.

In addition, at this same time, a "utility range" was being touted as amongst the increased models .. and it was stated that 10cwt, 15 cwt., and 20 cwt., utilities were being planned to be produced.
It appears that between planning and production, the 10cwt model was eliminated.

Here is a full page ad, for the "new Australian-built International trucks", that first appeared in the Melbourne "Argus" on 4th August, 1950.
The same ad appeared shortly after, in metro and rural papers in all states.

Note how the ad says "L" line Internationals .. and even the trucks have "L-160 & L-162" clearly outlined on the number plates.

These ads, and others with identical wording and pictures identifying "L" model trucks, ran until Dandenong commenced production in mid-April, 1952.

At that point (April 1952), the ads changed, and "AL" is clearly outlined on the trucks number plates.
Accordingly, it appears that 18 mths of Australian truck production, from the City Rd, South Melbourne, temporary-assembly factory, was designated model "L".

This may have been because the content wasn't high enough from the temporary factory, to qualify as fully Australian built.
Even when the Dandenong factory was officially opened in late June, the Managing Director of IHCA stated then, that Australian content was currently 80%, and he hoped that would increase.

Notice also, that these "Australian-built" trucks still have the split windscreen.

Dunno ifn thiz iz off topic
But @ the Sandown Truckshow 2008 the owner of this green Inter told me it twaz rare n me thinks he did mention th@ may B it twaz the rear 1/4 windows or sumthig like th@
So iz this a common inter of the day Y/N



Cya
[ch9787]

Swishy - That looks like a common garden-variety 110 series ute to me. The rear quarter windows were standard on the Inters .. unlike the Dodges of the same era, that had no rear quarter windows on their "standard" model .. but had quarter windows on their "deluxe" model.

I dont know that the South Melbourne assembled vehicles had enough Aussie content to qualify for the A prefix. maybe the Geelong built engines were not available in sufficient numbers. There is a website that records decisions by the "International Harvester Paint Committee" which decided on naming of new equipment and paint colours but strangely enough no mention of the A prefix there. see www.wisconsinhistory.org/libraryarchives...nts=Trucks&B1=Submit

I don't think that IHCA's right hand, knew what it's left hand was doing, by mid-1952.

This ad dated May 31, 1952 (at which time, the Dandenong factory had been in full production for 6 weeks), shows pictures of new Inter trucks wearing AL-160 and AL-162 on the "number plates" ..

However .. all the text in the ad reads, the "L-160" and "L-162" models! ..

Great info Ron. The owners manual I picked up is for the L110 & shows everything as a US truck. (LHD)The line ticket that came with the book reads L110, 10/1/1951, Wellington St Perth. A seperate card has a warning on gummy fuel, printed in English, spanish & French. The wiring card for the Voltage Regulator says printed in USA (export). If the truck was built here, they were importing the manuals.

Coupeute - Does it state on the line card, the factory where the ute was produced? One has to be careful when stating dates in numbers .. because if it was a U.S. factory production line card .. 10/1/51 is Sept 1, 1951 in U.S.-style dating format .. but Australian dating on the card, of 10/1/51 would mean 10th January, 1951.

It wasn't uncommon for many manuals to be printed in the U.S. and the U.K. for Australian export vehicles.

International also had assembly plants in every state, from before WW2, if I recall correctly (have to do further research on this).
The IH assembly plant in Perth was in the suburb of Bassendean, and there are ads from the late 1940's by IHCA, who were looking for truck assembly workers for the Bassendean factory.
I am not sure how the IH truck components got to Bassendean .. whether they were shipped in directly via Fremantle, or railed from Geelong.
I would expect the former was the case, as rail shipping of components from Geelong, would normally have been costlier, than shipping in directly from the U.S.
However, Fremantle wasn't on many regular shipping schedules (and still isn't!), so perhaps rail was the movement method.

No factory Ron, just 789-795 Wellington St Perth. A head office i'd say.I thought about the US dating myself. This was an ebay puchase so don't know much more.