1/25 AMT Peterbilt Wrecker

[Casey]

Here's a brief preview of the forthcoming 1/25 AMT Peterbilt wrecker, kit #1133:

http://www.collectormodel.com/round2-models/4837-coming-off-the-shelf-its-gonna-be-a-big-rig-summer/?fbclid=IwAR3_9siETrkKBdq1pSzGPCeT4UzbtmB34h3ExptHvO6UsN7Uz6REkmDC4YY#sthash.Ixurapxs.zAcZVCZ4.dpbs

 

Round2 created all-new, pad printed Firestone 10.00-20 Transport 110 tires, which are included with this release, and I'm guessing will be what are included inside the "Big Rig Truck Tire Parts Pack", AMT PP-23?:

Edited July 8, 2019 by Casey

[Jim B]

Nice looking decal sheet.  I like the "double shout out" to Tim Ahlborn; very cool.  I don't see any Coca-Cola logos, though.

Do you know if the tires come with both steer & drive tires?

[Casey]

2 minutes ago, Jim B said:

Do you know if the tires come with both steer & drive tires?

I'm sure all ten are identical.

[Jim B]

That's what I figured.

[highway]

1 hour ago, Casey said:

Round2 created all-new, pad printed Firestone 10.00-20 Transport 110 tires, which are included with this release, and I'm guessing will be what are included inside the "Big Rig Truck Tire Parts Pack", AMT PP-23?:

Those are not "new" tires because I have some of them in my stash. The pad printing (which raised white letter tires are very rare to see on a semi anyway unless it is a show rig and even then the lettering is usually painted with white paint markers) might be "new" but without digging through my truck kits right now to be 100% certain, those tires look like Goodyear Custom Hi MIlers that are common in many AMT big rig kits so the tires themselves being "new" is a load of fertilizer large enough to fill a fleet of the reissued Autocar Dump trucks! 

[highway]

1 hour ago, Casey said:

Round2 created all-new, pad printed Firestone 10.00-20 Transport 110 tires, which are included with this release, and I'm guessing will be what are included inside the "Big Rig Truck Tire Parts Pack", AMT PP-23?:

 

7 minutes ago, highway said:

Those are not "new" tires because I have some of them in my stash. The pad printing (which raised white letter tires are very rare to see on a semi anyway unless it is a show rig and even then the lettering is usually painted with white paint markers) might be "new" but without digging through my truck kits right now to be 100% certain, those tires look like Goodyear Custom Hi MIlers that are common in many AMT big rig kits so the tires themselves being "new" is a load of fertilizer large enough to fill a fleet of the reissued Autocar Dump trucks! 

As I had thought, get the fleet of Autocars ready for a huge load of fertilizer!  These are the Goodyear Custom Hi Milers from my 1977 issue AMT T-511 Kenworth Alaskan Hauler and even as Stevie Wonder could see, these "new" "Firestone" tires are nothing but the Goodyears with the names removed and Firestone pad printing applied. 

Now my only question for AMT since they have added not only Firestone pad printed tires into car kits but Goodyear pad printed tires in the Goodyear Polyglas tire sets and kits as well, why not just make these pad printed Goodyears as the original tire is instead of making it a fictional Firestone tire? Obviously with the Polyglas tires, AMT has the licencing to use the Goodyear name and in my opinion, having the Goodyear and Custom Hi Miler in pad printed white lettering and leave the 10.00-20 Nylon 12 Ply Rating callouts just as is on these original tires would have looked much better for a show truck style white letter tire. 

[hpiguy]

Those pad printed  tires look awesome to me (something a guy real proud of his crazy expensive tow rig would have used his tire marker to make) and I couldn't care less about identifying 40 year old tread patterns on a model. 99.9% of buyers won't care or even come close to knowing about the tread pattern either. 

I'll be digging into mine soon for a full build.

[Goodwrench3]

I'll take 3 of those kits !   Credit card warmed up and ready!  LOL

 

[highway]

9 hours ago, hpiguy said:

Those pad printed  tires look awesome to me (something a guy real proud of his crazy expensive tow rig would have used his tire marker to make) and I couldn't care less about identifying 40 year old tread patterns on a model. 99.9% of buyers won't care or even come close to knowing about the tread pattern either. 

I'll be digging into mine soon for a full build.

I do have to agree the pad printing looks nice and as a former driver that had an 18 year career in the real things that has been ended  thanks to a stubborn fifth wheel release that resulted in two shoulder surgeries and now a barely useable right arm, it is just something my trained eye over those 18 years has learned to pay attention to. Also early on in that 18 year career, I learned just how hard it is for those like me that always took pride in their rides and wanted that little extra touch of white or colored lettered tires actually is, because when I attempted it on one of the rigs I drove, I spent hours painting letters and never did finish all 6 outer tires! This truck was one of many that I took pictures of while on a working vacation for the 2012 Iowa 80 Walcott Truckers Jamboree. 

I also discovered tonight while helping a friend that does live model auctions on his Facebook group that while these tires may be incorrect to my eye, there happens to be a logical explanation to the Firestone pad printing regardless of being on the wrong tire carcass. He just so happened to have in his garage full of kits an original issue of the Pete wrecker that I dug out a tire from, a what was staring me back in the face but the same Firestone tire as the pad printing represents! Of course, the carcass of that tire was different from the pad printed ones in the new reissue, but at least in the pad printed markings it represents the same type of Firestone that was in the original issue. I'm not sure if other reissues of the kit had the same tires also, because this is one kit that holds absolutely 0 interest for me regardless of the fact that not only did I drive for 18 years, but part of my career was also spent behind the wheel of heavy duty wreckers. I just personally do not care for the Big Stick boom on this wrecker, so this is one wrecker that will never find its way to my shelves. Now if it had the Holmes 750 as the 1/43rd scale AMT Pete wrecker does, you better believe I would live with the incorrect in my eyes tires and would have a few for my heavy duty wrecker fleet! 

As for the speculation if these may be the tires for the Big Rig tires parts pack, if they are the Friestones, the goof up in carcasses probably won't stop me from at least adding one set to my stash to dress up my custom rigs, though just as the look of the tire in the pic, I think they would look even better if they would be the Goodyears with the Goodyear name and Custom Hi Miler being done in the pad printing 

 

[bandit1]

I heard from Tim that there is no sleeper and no deckplate/5th wheel in the kit as well so you couldnt build the tractor as a tractor unless you have some parts out of the parts box

[Force]

No big surprize, to my knowledge there wasn't in any of the earlier issues either.

[highway]

I got the chance to get some pics of the tires I mentioned previously from the original issue kit that my friend had in his inventory of kits, and found not only did that issue have the tires that are being pad printed in this reissue (albeit on the wrong carcass) but there was also a two piece plastic version on the sprue with the bed sides on it. 

[maxwell48098]

Rather than provide an extra vinyl tire and plastic rim for the spare, AMT included the plastic tire that included the rim.

 

A.J.

[Force]

5 hours ago, highway said:

I got the chance to get some pics of the tires I mentioned previously from the original issue kit that my friend had in his inventory of kits, and found not only did that issue have the tires that are being pad printed in this reissue (albeit on the wrong carcass) but there was also a two piece plastic version on the sprue with the bed sides on it. 

The tires in mine are Good Year's with a very faint line of diamonds around the circumference, but the two piece plastic tire is Friestone allright...I had to cut the bag open to have a look.
I think I have seen Firestone's somewhere else too but I can't remember in what kit....ohh, wait a minute...I remember now, it's in the recent California Hauler re-issue...it has Firestone tires without the Good Year diamonds...one can wonder why they didn't use them instead of printing the Firestone name on a Good Year carcass.

Edited July 13, 2019 by Force

[leafsprings]

I prefer the look of the Goodyear tread over the Firestone tread, but the 10-20 tire is just too small. The 11-22  fills up the large Pete fender nicer.

[Force]

Yeah, I wish there were more 11-22 and 11-24½ wheels around, a popular choice back in the day.

[Mr mopar]

If anybody know will this have the twin doughnut air bags like the old kit or the single big air bags ?

[bandit1]

2 hours ago, Mr mopar said:

If anybody know will this have the twin doughnut air bags like the old kit or the single big air bags ?

If its the 1100 series kit, then it will have those big bags...

[Force]

Yes as far as I know it's a straight re-issue of the later 1100 cab version of the wrecker so it will have the Cummins NTC 6 cylinder and the later Air Trac suspension with the bigger air bags, so it's not the same as the recent re-issue of the California Hauler or the first version of the wrecker wich was based on the California Hauler.
The "twin doghnut" air bag suspension was called Stabilaire originally made by Western Unit Suspension and was offered by Peterbilt from the factory from 1964, this suspension was in the original small window Unilite cab 359 and the 352 kits, but Peterbilt stopped using it after some years and went over to the Air Trac wich appearently gave a smoother ride than the Stabilaire did.
After Peterbilt stopped using the Stabilaire Freightliner started to use it and called it Air Liner, and this suspension is in most of the Italeri US truck kits except for the Peterbilts.

Edited July 31, 2019 by Force

[Mr mopar]

Ok thx Guy's good to here that it's the big one's .

[larman]

I am not a big truck builder, but I had one that I ruined as a kid. I might get one for nostalgia.

[PettyKW43]

Glad that this truck was reissued, although I am not so sure of the tires , would rather have seen them left as Goodyear with the tire size and lettering moulded on . But they do look good and I have many boxes full of original tires to work with.

[PierreR89]

Quick question.
Does it have the same wheelbase as the california hauler Peterbilt or it is longer?
I saw on a review on youtube that is has the 6 cylinder cummins.
I was thinking that maybe i can use the wreckerbody on the california hauler so i get a wrecker with a v8 instead of a 6 cylinder.
Or just switch the engines if this has a longer wheelbase.


 

[Force]

The wheelbase should be the same, the "Big Stick" wrecker body is the same for both the T-522 Unilite small window cab based wrecker from 1972 with the Detroit 8V-71 and the later T-533 1100 Series cab based wrecker with the Cummins NTC from 1977 forward.
The original T-522 wrecker kit has never been re-issued as far as I know but the later T-533 kit has been out four times before and five with this one.

Edited August 5, 2019 by Force

[Fat Brian]

The Cummins straight six will not fit in the new reissue of the California Hauler with the little window cab. I had to recess the firewall a quarter inch and modify the interior tub to get one in there. Much easier to switch the bodies like Hakan suggests.