America's First Light Truck Diesel

1963-68 IH C1100-1300 Diesels

- Jim Allen

Scattered around the country are a small number of ’63-68 model year IH light trucks with factory installed IH D301 diesels. Collectors of these rare trucks would be rich if they had a dollar for every time someone uttered, “They never built those!” With their help, and the vast records of the Wisconsin Historical Society’s McCormick Archives, we can clear this up, set the record a little more straight and highlight the first American light trucks with factory-installed diesels.

The IH C-Line light trucks were introduced in November of 1960 as ’61 models with a lot of updates over the B-Line trucks they replaced. The C-Line is when the Travelall became the first SUV to offer four doors and IH really upped the ante to make their new trucks more people friendly. As they were finalizing the designs and features in 1959, they looked at adding a wild card to the options list: diesel power.

In the mid-1950s, the IH Motor Truck Sales Department had noted increasing market interest in diesels for medium-duty trucks. It just so happened that in 1956 the Construction Equipment Division of IH, located in Melrose Park, Illinois, began working on a new series of lightweight, low-cost diesels and potentially these engines could be used in all the divisions of International Harvester. By the end of 1958, some versions those engines were going into production.