Force

I have to order the longer tanks for my AITM RD kit, I've got the shorter ones as it was some time since I ordered my kit. I will probably order some more stuff when I'm at it.

The old ERTL kit is not the best starting point for a correct Rubber Duck truck as it's a Mack DM 600 with an offset cab, the sleeper is too small, the frame is too short, the rear tandem is too far appart, the wheels and lots of other things are wrong too, so you have to convert and change mostly everything to even come close to the appearence of the movie truck. As mentioned before, the duck hood ornament, the bull bar and the roof spoiler is about the only parts usable from the ERTL kit, put them on a AMT R600 together with a longer 700 hood and an Able Body 60 inch sleeper, some two hole wheels and you have a much better starting point. The AITM is a complete resin kit with Modeltruckin' decals wich is close out of the box, it's a curbside but you can put in an engine if you want to, some things has to be corrected to do it as the movie trucks was but it's not much...I just looked on the website and this kit is out of stock right now tho'. AITM also has the Peterbilt 351 hood conversion meant for the recent California Hauler kit.

I have saved everyting from the St Louis Dump Trucks website before they gave it up after they sold the truck (they used to own the Duel truck too) and I have every picture posted there saved in my planned projects files, the new owner of the Rubber Duck Truck has a Facebook site with lots of pictures. https://www.facebook.com/Rubberducktruck1970/

Well as with the Movin' On trucks there has been lots of information on the interweb regarding this truck, some are correct and some are not so correct, but that's not important. The engine is a Detroit Diesel in most places if you go by the sound track of the movie, but in some scenes in the movie you definately hear a four stroke diesel, the air horns sounds a little weird on the sound track too, the long horns used on the Rubber Duck doesn't have that high pitch sound. In most pictures I have seen the air cleaner is the dual hose so at least the main truck for most outside scenes must have had a Tip Turbine ENDT676 Maxidyne engine as they had that particular air cleaner. So look at pictures (there are lots of them on the internet) and decide what version of the truck you want to do.

Yes the old ERTL kit is worthless if you want to do a correct Rubber Duck truck, I bought one back in the day in the ealry 80's and gave it a go but I gave up pretty soon as it's totally wrong, as you say it's only the bull bar and the ducks that's usable. I also got the AITM kit for the same reason, it's not exactly true to the movie and correct in every aspect but it's a lot easier to do right than the old ERTL kit or the AMT R600, the Rubber Duck is a RS700L wich has a longer hood. I have also read that they used three trucks for the movie, two complete ones and one glider, and one of the movie trucks has survived to this day and is owned by Anthony Fox in Georgia according to Overdrive Magazine.

I emailed them and tried to get a new cab for the quite recent Revell US re-issued Kenworth K100 to replace the damaged one in my kit, but they couldn't help me even tho' the K100 Aerodyne wich was re-issued just last fall shares the same basic cab...but no, they said the kit was out of production and parts were not available. I tried to get a new cab from Revell US when I first bought the kit but never got one from them either. I got the re-issued K100 Aerodyne too and fortunately the cab in that one was good and undamaged, the cab in the earlier K100 kit may be repairable.

The Ford T5 was for the German market as the rights for the Mustang name was allready taken by another company, T5 was a Ford code for the Mustang project when it was developed.

I haven't seen any pictures of the engine, but one thing is clear, the engines in the movie trucks are not Detroit Diesels, it's just on the sound track. The remaining truck from the movie is still around and it's funny no one has taken any pictures of the engine.

Me and a couple of friends rode on the Route 66 from Topock via Oatman, Kingman, Hackberry to Seligman some years ago, interesting ride, after Seligman we took I 40 to Flagstaff.

Everyone are must have the privilege to as they please with their models. The info I gave is for doing as a correct replica as possible depending on wich season truck you want to build.

I totally agree.

There are two nozzles right behind the intake valves injecting the fuel directly into the cylinder when the intake valves are open, this is where most of the fuel goes, I don't remember the exact procentage of the total ammount but it's more than what goes in under the injector hat and under the blower. They have used this system on nitro engines since the 80's so it's not new.

I have studied paused stills of all the number plates very closely when I watched the episodes and the number really is T829654 on all Oregon plates used in Season 1 (not T8298S4 as the 3 inches under plates above says) and the 6 and 5 is clearly readable but is silver in some later episodes, otherwise the numbers are red, and the plate itself is not yellow, it's light grey, the Oregon plate when it's used in the early episodes is medium blue with the same T829654 numbers in yellow. The model year doesn't matter much as you say, but in the case with the gold emblems it kind of does as it's a one year only, the TV-series Season 1 V.I.T trucks could have been built late 1973 and got gold emblems as Kenworth celebrated the 50th anniversary then even tho' they have 1974 titles, because the emblems are gold in most shots, in Season 2 the emblems are chrome and differently placed on the hood.

They also have a website http://www.movinontvshow.com with several pictures and I have saved every picture of the internet when I find them, so I have all truck related pictures from these sites. No I have not contacted them, I don't think I need to, here is what they say about the trucks on the biography page on the website: Kenworth W-925 Facts about “The Big Green Truck” are a little harder to come by than are those of the two human co-stars. Based on best available knowledge it is believed the tractor featured in the pilot episode, In Tandem, was a dark green 1973 Kenworth W-925, single stack, single breather, square bumper with painted steel rear wheels. It sported a full length arrow-stripe and a smaller arrow on the 36″ sleeper. For the series the production changed to a 1974 Kenworth W-925 with the VIT (Very Important Truck) package and walk-in bunk. This truck was the same dark green, but the arrow stripe did not continue on to the cab and doors. “S.Pruitt” was displayed near the top of both doors. The 1974 truck had large tanks, twin breathers, twin stacks, gull-wing bumper, polished wheels all around and was custom made by Kenworth. Two trucks were used each season, and according to Nick Gantman, former Production Assistant for D’Antoni/Weitz Television Productions, one truck was always “at the ready” for filming. Some think the truck was changed again for Season Two, to a 1975 model, but the shows Executive Producer, Barry Weitz, says not. Despite Mr. Weitz’s denial, many fans have examined photos from the second season and claim the trucks are definitely 75s. One thing is certain however: Movin’ On was filmed on locations all over the United States. Season One on the West Coast and Season Two on the East Coast. All the Kenworths, considered co-stars of the show along with Akins and Converse, did their share of hauling between locations. So even the producers and these websites are not reliable information sources. I know one thing for sure, there are several differences between the trucks used in Season 1 and Season 2 so they are indeed different, as I have just watched all 44 episodes about a week ago and I have started the second round so I have it pretty fresh in my mind. Here is the only license plates I have found so far, I don't know who did them as I found them on ebay quite some time ago. The Oregon plate is not right as both the color of the plate and numbers are right color but are wrong (it should read T829654), the others are usable for the Season 1 truck.

I thought so. I have began a second viewing of the series now and I notice small things all the time when I see the trucks both inside and out, so far it's two episodes where the truck has only the Utah license plate, it's the "The Time Of His Life" episode and "The Trick To Stay Alive" episode, and I saw one more blue Nevada plate last night in the "Cowhands" episode with a different number than those I listed earlier in this thread, this Nevada Plate has number FZ 9825 and I have only seen this plate in this episode so far, the episode after called "The Good Life" the Nevada plate was the yellow one I mentioned earler. The at least one of the season 1 trucks also has a pintle hook at the rear cross member painted the same Ivy Bronze color as the rest of the truck. I think I have read almost all that is written about the Movin' On trucks on the interweb during my research on the subject, both on the IMDB data base, on the ATHS forum and on some other sites, and there are lots of conflicting information regarding the TV-Series trucks out there, and some things I have read does not correspond with what I see myself when I watch the episodes. So I try to be objective and don't give out faulty information or pass on hearsay, I just report what I see with my own eyes in this case.

I hope you meant Alcoa tube tires and split rims Ben, because the TV series season 1 and season 2 trucks did not have tubeless wheels and tires and it looks to be 22 inch wheels, the front axle doesn't seem to have any brakes either after what I could see when I watched the series last week. Auslowe has a correct Cummins VT903 with turbo and it's easier to find than the old ERTL IH 4200 kit wich has been out of production for a long time, and the ERTL kit engine is a V903 without turbo. One more thing regarding the Pilot show truck, it's supposed to be a 1973 model so the AMT cab is a bit wrong as it's a 1968-72 cab with reguar door handles instead of the low mounted "paddle" latch handles on the later cab, the vent vindows are also slightly smaller on the later 1973-83 cab...but it's not that hard to fix.

That's an odd piece, they did only two of these and none was ever started and run under it's own power.

Yes the AMT kit is not that wrong for the In Tandem Pilot show truck, leave off the exhaust stack and air cleaner on the drivers side as the truck in the pilot show had singles, change the rear wheels to white five hole split wheels, change to a torsion bar suspension if your kit doesn't have one, and some decals and you are pretty much done...the Modeltruckin' Movin' On set has decals for both the Pilot show and the TV-series trucks. If you want to do one of the TV-series trucks you are better off starting with the Revell AG W-900 kit than the AMT kit, the Revell AG kit is allready a V.I.T. with the right 60 inch sleeper and fairly right battery boxes, but you need to change to a short hood from the AMT kit or the Revell snap kit as the Revell AG kit has an extended hood, get a Cummins VT903 or a NTC 350 to replace the Cat 3408, the engine choice depends on if you want to do the truck from season 1 or season 2, change the rear suspension from the AG 100 to torsion bar, get decals from Modeltruckin' and you are almost there...ohh, and you need a set of 22 inch split rims and tires.

You do get them right KJ...it's sooo nice and realistic.

Jerry didn't get the license plate right... there were no California plates on the trucks in season 1, the plate with number ZZF 541 is a blue Nevada plate in some early episodes of season 1, it was changed to a yellow Nevada plate with number 3N486X in later episodes.

The paint scheme on the Movin' On trucks was available from the Kenworth factory at the time, the only difference for the Movin' On trucks are the S Pruitt name on the door and that the arrow from the hood doesn't continue to the door. Here is a picture from the V.I.T. broschure with the same paint scheme, Ivy Bronze with Lime Green and White Arrows and stripes. Several issues has the Movin' On decals, the AMT #T-560, the AMT/Matchbox #PK-6120 and the AMT/ERTL #6643, but the most recent kit AMT #1021 doesn't, it has the same decals as the first issue of the W-925 #T-519 from 1971. If you want to do a Movin' On truck you can get the decals from modeltruckin.com

Will drove a K-123 COE in the Pilot show, that's a W-925 conventional. This is Will's truck http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_42183-Kenworth-K-100.html

Yup.

Cool, hopefully he will find a set of polished 22 inch split rims and tires for it as all the Pruitt trucks had and it will look perfect. I noticed some things regarding the license plates for the trucks used in season 1, in episode 1 on the DVD "The Time Of His Life" the truck had only one license plate, it was the white Utah plate with number VL 9863 in black hanging under the bumper on the passenger side, the only plate on the bumper was the "Bingo Stamp" plate in the middle under the grille. In episode 2 there are more plates added to the front bumper, a white Idaho plate with number 2 9H5 in green, a green Montana plate with number 2-38C5 with state outline in white on each side of the "Bingo" plate, a blue Nevada plate with number ZZF 541 in white and a blue Oregon plate with number T829654 in yellow under the others, and the Utah plate is still there. In later episodes the Montana plate is changed to a plate without the state outline but same number, the Nevada plate is changed to a yellow plate with number 3N486X in black and the Oregon plate is changed to a off white plate with red T829654 number together with the same VL 9863 Utah plate under the bumper. Further into the season 1 episodes the truck has a white Washington plate with number H 34828 in green under the bumper where the Utah plate was and the Oregon plate has changed a bit as the numbers 6 and 5 of the T829654 plate number are silver instead of red. The trucks in season 2 looks to have the same license plate setup in all episodes, a yellow Illinois plate with black 9371 MR number, a "Bingo" plate, a yellow N.Y. Commercial plate with black 9825-IQ number, a white Georgia plate with red OK 8015 number, a white Texas plate with black IA-3798 number under them and under the bumper on the passenger side hangs a blue California plate with yellow 99 702 Z number.

The later Italeri tires aren't bad as they are one piece rubber, the old plastic two piece ones isn't that desireable.