Marmon

The assembly of Marmon trucks began in 1964, but for the sake of completeness, it is worth telling about the events that caused the appearance of this brand of cars. By the early 1960s. Indianapolis-based Marmon-Herrington, once renowned for its off-road vehicles, assembled four-wheel drive conversions for Ford trucks and bus chassis, as well as a variety of industrial equipment. To expand production, the company made an attempt to enter the market of long-haul truck tractors. By June 1961, a prototype of a three-axle cabover tractor model HDT-1 with an aluminum cab was built. In the autumn of the same year, several more tractors of this type were built, which were sent for testing to large transport companies. In 1962, serial production of truck tractors began in the workshops of the Oneida bus department in Indianapolis, which began to be designated as the HDT model. Serial tractors, in contrast to the prototype, received a slightly different cabin and, at the request of buyers, could be equipped with either Detroit Diesel 218 hp diesel engines or 220 hp Caterpillar and Cummins diesels.

The excellent reputation of the Marmon trucks has attracted the attention of US government agencies. In the 1990s, a number of Model D and P armored cab trucks were purchased by the US Department of Energy to transport nuclear weapons. From the 1990s to 2005, the SB125R tractors were used by the US Air Force for towing five-axle semi-trailers with stages of the LGM-118A Peacekeeper ballistic missile, better known in our country as MX, on public roads.

In 1996, the owner of a shipping company from Australia, Peter Max, founded a small company in Melbourne, Max Marmon Handbuilt Trucks, which assembled the Marmon Model P tractors. The Australian-built trucks received the Max Marmon brand. The production volumes were insignificant.

In 1997, the management of TIC United Corporation, of which Marmon Motor was part, decided to discontinue the production of trucks. The last Marmon truck left the assembly shop on February 5, 1997. It was a 125DHR tractor with an extra bed height. On the vacated areas, Navistar International has arranged the assembly of International Paystar trucks.