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1978 "White * Western Star" 4900
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BuckSkin View Drop Down
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Joined: 12 Sep 2019
Location: Poor Farm
Points: 577 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BuckSkin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: 1978 "White * Western Star" 4900
    Posted: 09 Mar 2025 at 3:49am
Tuesday_25-February-2025

1978 "White * Western Star" 4900

Poster for the International Trucking Show, San Francisco, California
May 10-12 1978

Thumb-tacked to the office wall at Jones Transport.

 - --- - 

I wish the photo didn't have such a glare on it but it is what it is.

I really like that truck and that paint scheme.
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Joined: 14 Sep 2009
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Points: 32684 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote DMiller Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Mar 2025 at 4:44am
Cab on the Star is called a Kelowna. Made for all white subsidiary companies for decades as Autocar and Western Star. Was based of Kelowna BC is where name came from. Strong cabs but steel and rusted to healland gone in a hurry.. have not been produced since early 2000s or the late 1990s. Were the first truly ‘Roomy’ truck cab. I liked these and the old A-cars a lot.
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Points: 2088 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Codger Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Mar 2025 at 8:25am
Never heard the term "Kelowna" myself. Was always called the "Driver's Cab" around here. 
Originally an Autocar design, it was used extensively with slight modifications after White Motor's acquisition on all other lines they had absorbed, and subsequently destroyed including themselves. Mack did the same to Brockway trucks using the basic "R" series cab. International-Harvester also followed suit with their "R" line cab to most everything they'd acquired.

Rebuilt a lot of those cabs over the years. Plenty of room but rust was problematic. Wiring could have been a lot better also. 

I was never a fan of "White". Seems everything they did was as cheap as possible and just good enough to get out of warranty of those days. Flush with cash at the conclusion of WWII they went on a buying binge. So much they purchased, (corporate greed) raping the profits to "shore up" their truck division in changing economies, wound up taking them down in the early 1980's. Far overextended at that time to which there was no recovery.

Always liked the original "Western Star" line of trucks when built in Canada mostly by hand.   
That's All Folks!
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Points: 577 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BuckSkin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Mar 2025 at 9:50am
Originally posted by DMiller DMiller wrote:

Cab on the Star is called a Kelowna. Made for all white subsidiary companies for decades as Autocar and Western Star. Was based of Kelowna BC is where name came from. Strong cabs but steel and rusted to healland gone in a hurry.. have not been produced since early 2000s or the late 1990s. Were the first truly ‘Roomy’ truck cab. I liked these and the old A-cars a lot.

Thanks.

This is the first two sentences of the "History" section of the wikipedia link I posted above: 

"In 1967 White Motor Company started the Western Star division as White Western Star with a new plant at Kelowna, British Columbia, sharing headquarters with White in Cleveland, Ohio. White Western Star trucks in that era typically used cabs from its sister company, Autocar."

I drove a tri-axle Western Star with that cab for several years and it was one of my favorite trucks that I ever drove.
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Points: 8211 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DougG Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Mar 2025 at 10:40am
White tried to take over Allis Chalmers too!
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Points: 7551 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Lars(wi) Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Mar 2025 at 11:41am
Worked for a family owned construction decades ago, the owner had some equipment stored away ‘off-site’ from the main yard. There was a ‘White Road Boss’ in the back corner. I asked why don’t we use that? He said it was completely worn out, but it was the very first road tractor he bought, and couldn’t bring himself to trade it in on anything.
I tried to follow the science, but it was not there. I then followed the money, and that’s where I found the science.
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Points: 577 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote BuckSkin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Mar 2025 at 12:07pm
Originally posted by Lars(wi) Lars(wi) wrote:

There was a ‘White Road Boss’ in the back corner..

Many years ago, I was given the task to bob-tail a SRA Road Boss for several miles, black in color; I can see it right now as plainly as the day I drove it.

I guess any SRA bob-tail would have been brutal to drive, but that one seemed particularly so; like Ol' Elvis, I was all shook up for certain...
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Points: 52931 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DiyDave Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Mar 2025 at 3:50pm
Did I hear a request?Wink
Source: Babylon Bee. Sponsored by BRAWNDO, its got what you need!
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