The year was 1948. America was years away from what we now know as the interstate system.

Route 66 was the closest thing the nation had to a superhighway, and two-lane routes ruled the land. Some towns were served by so-called highways that were little more than dirt paths with a sign on them.

Trucking was a far different industry as well. In an article he wrote for Land Line Magazine in 2003, OOIDA board member Frank Owen described what it was like:

“I think I remember Dad getting up to 50 mph; maybe a couple of times a day. The seat was like an orange crate, wrapped in leather on both sides. You could feel every bump, rock or gravel you hit.

“No music on the FM or AM. In fact, all you could hear was the engine and transmission noise. We got to West Virginia and the roads really got good – a one-lane road over and around mountains.”

It’s an experience many old timers wish younger drivers had – a piece of knowledge they think needs to be preserved, and that they enjoy talking about.

And in that sense, Frank Owen isn’t alone. There are still plenty of truckers around who remember those days. And one of those is Jim Dobbas.

A 60-year veteran of the road, Dobbas runs his own carrier – a pretty diverse operation for a small outfit, with 10 trucks ranging from cattle haulers, low-beds, flatbeds to various dumps, and some water trucks.

Dobbas remembers what it was like in what some people so easily call “the good old days.”

“When I started uh hauling lumber, we used to go to Los Angeles, and the speed limit was 40 miles an hour down in the Sacramento valley,” he said. “That was a long ways to LA at 40 miles per hour.”

Dobbas lives near Sattley in northern California – a small town in Sierra County, which itself only claims a little more than 3,400 human souls.

It’s a scant 40 miles from a landmark many truckers know well - Donner Pass, the infamous route through the Sierra Madre that claimed the lives of so many in the wagon train for which it’s named.

Lots of truckers have said they’re glad those old, twisty roads in Donner Pass were replaced by I-80. But Dobbas remembers what hauling through that pass was like in the old days – and while he says it’s quicker, he’s not so sure it’s better.

“At one time I drove a LJ Mack with a 200 Cummins in it; it would take us six 6 hours from a line plant in Auburn, CA, to Reno, NV,” he said. “Now, our trucks will go up there with a D8 Cat in two and a half hours.”

As far as the roads – Dobbas says they were actually better.

“They were just narrow, and actually, probably smoother than some of them today,” he said. “Eighty’s almost impassable right now for the chuckholes.”

Like many truckers who started in that era, Jim Dobbas learned from the truckers who were already out on the road – a kind of unofficial apprenticeship. He particularly remembers how he learned to drive from several lumber haulers.

“One of them had a ’48 International, a West Coaster,” he said. “I was fortunate enough he let me drive it once in a while when it was empty. And so I kind of got into it there.”

The first truck he ever drove for hire was a 1949 LJ Mack.

“It was brand new when I got on it,” Dobbas said. “I was pretty lucky. I didn’t wreck it, I didn’t have any trouble.”

The truck had a “five-speed transmission, three-speed auxiliaries, and it was a single drive; I had pulled a set of doubles with it.”

A lot of truckers have memories like that – memories of old trucks, and old runs, freight hauled and friends made. But for Jim Dobbas, simply remembering wasn’t enough.

Years ago, Dobbas decided to do more. He began to purchase, collect and restore historic and antique trucks … a painstaking process that you have to love to do. And while it was a tough job, it actually wasn’t that hard for him to get himself to do it.

“I was always interested in the older trucks,” he said. “The first one we got was a ’46 Peterbilt.

“I was lucky to find one; I knew the truck when it was working in Sacramento, and I was able to buy it when they traded it in.

Since then, Dobbas says he’s restore somewhere around 20 antique trucks. But he hasn’t kept all of them.

“Oh, we got several right now, and I’ve sold quite a few. At the Fontana show, we got rid of seven of them there at the auction,” he said. “There just isn’t time to restore them, and it gets pretty costly.”

He may not sound very enthused, but don’t let that fool you. Despite the cost, Jim Dobbas takes pride in the trucks he restores, and shows them off proudly to anyone who asks about them.

At an antique truck show in Hutchinson, KS, earlier this year, he had one that he was particularly proud of.

“This is a 1932 Pierce-Arrow and we found it in Fresno, CA, about oh, 30 years ago,” he said, showing off the rig. “It had been an old tank truck, hauled petroleum products.”

When he first came into possession of the truck, he says it was “an absolute pile of junk.”

“It had been out under the blackberries and trees for years,” he added.

Twenty years later, Dobbas has plenty of reason to puff out his chest a little over his prize possession. The vehicle – called a PX model – is a point of pride, a rare jewel he likes to show off.  

To the untrained eye, the truck looks a little like a giant Model A with a fifth wheel on the back. It’s now fully restored and sports the official color of Jim’s company – a kind of heavy yellow.

“It’s kind of a unique truck, because it’s the largest truck that Pierce-Arrow built,” he said.  “I don’t know how many of them there are left in the country, or how many they made. But it’s been a unique truck; we’ve had a lot of interest in it.”

He not only restored the truck – he knows something about this particular vehicle’s personal history.

“It had originally a Waukesha gas engine – I don’t know the cubic inches or the horsepower,” he said. “It was repowered around 1935 with a HA Cummins, which is 125 horse. Got old Ford transmissions in it, and a Tempkin rear end, and a Utility tag axle.

“Unfortunately, we can’t find any pictures anywhere of this truck when it was in service.”

Jim says that when he first acquired the Pierce-Arrow, the engine was frozen solid. He had to completely dismantle it and reassemble it. The engine alone cost him between 7 and 8,000 dollars.

An old friend of Jim’s worked for two years on just the cab. He meticulously hand cut every piece of wood in the interior. Before that process started, there was little left – the cab was nothing more than a rusted pile of jumbled metal sitting atop the vehicle.

But boy, does it run now. With a puff of black smoke, the old beauty cranked into action – just for a moment – to the delight of everyone nearby.

“I don’t the state of California would allow this on the road,” Dobbas said with a sly grin, glancing up to the exhaust pipe.

Jim Dobbas is back now in his home state of California, and back to the routine of running a trucking business. His antique Pierce-Arrow is back too, on its way to the Hays Truck Museum in Woodland, where it will be put on display.

Of course, being back at work doesn’t mean Jim’s not enjoying his hobby – this very weekend, he’s headed to a tractor show. And he already has another restoration project – a 1941 Ford 3-axle chain-drive truck – a find he says is very rare indeed.

It’s a truck that would probably be lost to future generations if it weren’t for people like Jim Dobbas. And it’s a truck that’s found its way into the right hands.

--By Mark H. Reddig, host, Land Line Now
mark_reddig@landlinemag.com