Seeking at my Junkyard Uncover posts for 2020, I come across that I have been neglecting American vans for a great deal of this 12 months (I do not contemplate the PT Cruiser to be a genuine truck, irrespective of getting classified as 1 by the federal authorities). For that reason, I’ve made a decision to share this carefully utilized-up IHC Metro-Mite stepvan ahead of the yr ends.
It seems that the authentic proprietor of this van was the Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Organization, a Bell System tentacle otherwise recognised as The Telephone Firm. MST&T became Mountain Bell in 1969.
After that, this truck went into the fleet of an electrician in Estes Park, Colorado. That’s the area of the Stanley Lodge, inspiration for the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. Maybe this van was used to haul provides for electrical repairs in the most haunted rooms at the Stanley.
Now it resides in a self-assistance property in Denver, about 60 miles south of Estes Park.
The historic tires are rock-hard and forever flattened, and the inside of of the van has about six inches of dust buildup on the flooring, suggesting decades sitting down exterior in the severe Large Plains weather.
One motive that this van may have been retired back again in the 1970s lives just following to the driver: a 1.5-liter BMC B engine, rated at 51 horsepower in 1959. Some actually intriguing British cars and trucks utilised B energy, which include the MGA, MGB, and Nash Metropolitan… but this sort of a little and primitive motor proved unsuited for tough use in a supply van driven on American highways. Curiously, the prototypes of the IHC Scout were being closely influenced by the Metro-Mite’s layout and employed the B motor. IHC understood that few Us citizens would obtain a Jeep competitor with an overworked British motor, so the base Scout got a 2.5-liter 4-banger made from a single bank of the company’s 304-cube V8.
It’s rough placing a ground shifter on a handbook-transmission-geared up ahead-regulate van, so the Metro-Mite got a 3-on-the-tree guide rig.
I question a inventory Metro-Mite could get substantially over and above about 50 mph on level ground, primarily with the electric power-robbing slender air in Front Range Colorado, but most likely some daredevil Mountain Bell drivers acquired some really serious momentum heading on prolonged downhill grades.
Having said that, I feel that Dymo best-velocity label was there to allow the motorists know the scale of the speedometer at the time most of the numerals fell off, not as official Bell System plan.
The Metro-Mite was really modest, weighing just 2,800 pounds, and its forte was normally sluggish-velocity deliveries around town. You would not want to sit in this punitive driver’s seat for the haul in between Pueblo and Grand Junction, even if you could tolerate the 20 mph trudges up steep grades and the violent turbulence from 18-wheelers on open up highways.
Amazingly, the original owner’s guide remained with this truck until finally the close.
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