1962 W500 Barn Find

Real cool rig, I've never seen a Rockwell front axle like that before.

I just looked in my part book and I think are are right. It must be this massive truck making the box so little.

Care to elaborate on your experience or just looking to be debby downer?

While it might look similar the 500 should be different. That is a nice truck. Once up and running treat it gently. Parts are very hard to find. 500 series are kind of in a world of their own. 400 is lighter and 600 is heavier. A lot of 200 to 400 parts are the same and 600-800 a lot are the same. 500 just seems to be in the middle.

Good info thank you sir. I am going to need to look at the steering box because it is VERY loose. The brake and clutch pedals have no pressure but that should be pretty straight forward to repair.

The second owner that I bought it from picked this truck up from the ODOT sale in Portland in 1968. It was originally a plow truck with a dump box. When the boys go it back to Klamath Co. they installed a backhoe on the back to clean out the ditch. Talk about a hard life!

The good news is that the backhoe is on a 1972 W600 in the same barn! Hopefully the owner was serious when he said we would have first dibs.

Sorry for getting on a bit of a ramble there. Is there any source for medium sized truck parts like this? I assume the differentials and t-case would be used in other applications.

Thank you again!

New parts from the dealer network will be about zilch. Best to write down all tag information for reference. Parts are going to take some looking. Once you find a source don't forget where to find him. You have a very rare truck. Lots of people set them aside when a problem pops up due to the rarity of part sources.

I would check and fill every fluid level and grease every grease able part I could find.

Great find. Martin @ Arizonaparts has some nos for these trucks.

Thank you I will look him up. If the factory steering box rebuild doesn't pan out I'll have to go aftermarket. I'd hate to do that but this thing needs to do some work or it won't be practical for me to build.

Bud Thorpe did my steering box for my 100 so you may want to hit him up. Search his name on his site as i have posted his info before. He is named powerwagon54 on sweptline.org forum. He is in Washington state.

Vintage Power Wagons in Farifield, Iowa may have some part too.

Thanks for the info.

I found a '62 W500 dump truck today. It's a runner and also for sale.

This is getting out of hand! I'm going to need some help from you guys.

I would trust you with my life but NOT to say no to another badass truck!

I'll give you a call afternoonish sir.

Good answer! Those are the trucks you don't let anyone talk you out of

amazing truck. put a roll back on it and a bunch of chain saws and you could search and rescue about any forgotten car you can find. good luck and i hope she serves you well.

Cool truck ! I picked up the smaller W200 version yesterday. It was used by the City of Klamath Falls at one time and I believe the Forest Service. Anyway there's a City of Klamath Falls ID sticker in the cab.

Sweet W200!

That is a great truck nice score!

I am still working on the dump truck deal, stay tuned. It supposedly has air brakes. Do I need a CDL for air brakes?


My day job keeps getting in the way of project acquisition.

Depends on what your State tells you, check out your State DMV site for air brakes.

The W500 is why we don't have just one, when engaging in a project - we have 2 or 3!

Nice find...Gary, well, you know.