With its mid-engine White Horse, White Motor Company sought to separate its products from the rest of the delivery-van herd.
Of course, when we describe the 1939-42 White Horse as “high-tech,” it’s with some tongue in cheek. In the big picture, air cooling and mid-engine layouts are hardly exotic, especially in recent times. But for the truck industry of the ’30s, the White Horse was a notable departure from standard engineering practice, and it was part of a trend among commercial vehicle makers to bring some innovation to their products. (A few others that come to mind include the Stutz Pak-Age-Car, the White Merchandor, and the Divco. See our Divco feature here.)
Apart from the outliers, light delivery trucks of the period were pretty much all the same. With the White Horse, the White Motor Company (1900-1980) of Cleveland, one of the USA’s most established truck makers and then headed by Robert F. Black, was hoping to separate its product from the herd and give fleet operators a sound reason to buy it. White Motor declared, “The White Horse is years ahead of its field!” .
With its electically welded, all-steel van body, the White Horse was fairly conventional in its exterior appearance—if you can overlook the lack of a traditional radiator opening in the front. None was required because the engine was air-cooled, and it was also mounted at mid-point in the unitized chassis, just ahead of the rear axle. (White Motor called it “rear-engine,” while today we would describe the layout as mid-engined.)
Inside the sheet-metal cooling shroud was an aviation engine: a variant of the Franklin 0-150, a four-cylinder opposed powerplant used in the Piper Cub J-3, Taylorcraft, and a number of other small aircraft. With square bore and stroke dimensions of 3.625 inches, it boasted a displacement of 150 cubic inches and produced 40 hp at 1875 rpm. Coupled directly to the engine were a clutch, remote-shifted three-speed transmission, and live rear axle, forming a modular unit. This assembly was supported at the front on rubberized bushings, allowing it to pivot so a pair of long coil springs could provide the rear suspension. A 6.50:1 rear axle ratio and an engine govenor limited the top speed to 33 mph, though one White Horse ad asserted that “up to 45 mph” was achievable.
Ease of repair was a prime selling point of the White Horse, as the entire powertrain unit could be quickly dropped out onto the shop floor for service. For minor maintenance, hinged rear quarter panels could be lifted up to provide access. At least two wheelbase options were offered, 99 and 117 inches, and stand-and-drive or sit-down driving controls were available. The stand-up version used an integrated one-pedal, one-lever control linkage. When civilian vehicle manufacuring was halted by World War II in early 1942, the assembly line shut down as the White Motor plant in Cleveland concentrated on military work. When civilian production resumed in late 1945, the White Horse did not return. One source (Coachbuilt.com) reports that around 2,000 were built, and a handful still remain.
Actually mid-engine air cooled vehicles are pretty exotic today. I can only think of one other that ever entered production, the short-lived Porsche 914. And probably 95% of drivers have never driven any mid engine vehicle. The layout on this milk truck is very common in motor scooters though, air cooled mid engine with the whole powertrain/suspension pivoting on the engine. It seems like not a very space efficient layout for a delivery van though.
Shh, milkman, don’t rattle the bottles,or why the 2 kids don’t look alike,,so many “milkman” jokes. Some folks today, younger ones mostly, can’t imagine buying dairy products any other place than a milk cooler. The idea of someone, visiting peoples homes at 4:30 in the morning, just doesn’t seem plausible, but that’s how most of us got our dairy items. Just about every home had a 2 way compartment in the main door, or in my case, my old man made a “milk chute”, a small compartment in the wall, that me and my brother used to climb out of at night, but that’s a different story. We, and most of America, had Divcos. These Whites, and other makes, were more regional. Divco was more universal, it seemed. Most are gone today because they had no refrigeration, and relied on ice, that rotted them out. You know, we’ve come full circle on a great many things, I wouldn’t be surprised if home milk delivery, like everything else, makes a comeback.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if home milk delivery, like everything else, makes a comeback.”
In some ways I’d say it has already made a comeback, given that deliveries of online grocery orders approaches 50% of all purchases in some markets.
And you’re right in stating that things have come full circle: I used to see people having groceries delivered in old TV sitcoms and think it was a quaint throwback to the past, never realizing that one day I’d have a handheld computer that I could use to do the same thing (and has more computing power than an Apollo module that landed on the moon!).
But I also miss the days when the Chevrolet step vans from Kleinpeter Farms Dairy would magically deliver milk and other dairy products – and even eggs and detergent – to our back door on Tuesdays and Fridays, well into the ‘80s.
I’ve had my milk, butter & eggs home delivered for the past 25 years. The prices are the same as the grocery store and sometimes less. Plus the milk is better, the eggs are fresher & and the butter tastier. This is a shameless plug for Royal Crest Dairy in Colorado.
I don’t get up early enough to know what kind of van they use.
In Milwaukee in the 60s, we had Sealtest, but there was Golden Gurnsey, and Borden( remember “Elsie the cow”?) and a host of others, names that escape me, but all local stuff. Milk and milk products didn’t have a very long shelf life, like today, I’m sure many of us remember “lumpy” milk. Ice cream still had to be bought at the supermarket, but I have memories of those Divcos coming down the alley, I’d look out the window just in time to see the guy standing up, jumping out, sometimes with the truck still rolling, hop back in, almost like it was choreographed. I doubt home delivery will ever be like it was, you simply can’t beat “Sam” for instant gratification today. We must remember, while package delivery seems to be all the rage, someone, a real person, has to physically deliver said package, and they, like most places, are always short on help.
I remember the milk trucks when I was very young, back in the 50s. I think You’d leave a note for the milkman specifying what you wanted the next time? I would be sad when my mom would sometimes forget to order my chocolate milk. And of course the empty bottles would be returned to be reused. An interesting topic might be the “self-driving” milk trucks that were used in some areas. Not self-driving like a Tesla, of course, but the driver could program a big complicated electro-mechanical device to drive the truck down the street at a preset speed while the driver ran back and forth between the houses. I don’t know whether that didn’t work out because the unions demanded 2 man crews or maybe some driver got fed up and walked off the job while his truck was cruising through the neighborhood?
If you lived in Los Angeles you may remember the Twin- Coach Helms bakery trucks making their rounds in neighbborhoods until the the late fifties when they started to be replaced by Chevy panel trucks.