FAMILY FARM TRUCK

JEREMY SCHMIDT’S 1948 CUMMINS-POWERED CHEVROLET LOADMASTER

- CHRIS TOBIN

Andrew Anthony Schmidt Jr. purchased this 1948 Chevrolet Loadmaster to use on the family farm along with his two sons in 1950. He had the doors lettered and put the machine to work. Around 15-years later his oldest son Andrew III “Buddy” died in a drowning accident leading Andrew Jr. to scrape his name off the truck door while he was grieving the tragic loss. The truck in its original form was used until around 1980 then put into storage in the family Quonset building with around 65,000 miles on the odometer.

Flash forward around 30-years: family members were cleaning up the property and came across the nearly forgotten family farm truck stashed away in the storage building. Realizing that the truck was in pretty darn good shape Jeremy Schmidt decides that his grandfather’s truck should be pulled out of storage and put back on the road once again. But rather than mess with the WWII era chassis, driveline and performance Schmidt wanted to put a “modern” 12-valve diesel under the vintage cab.

THE WORK BEGINS