Donald A. Smith of Greensboro, North Carolina owns more than a dozen antique trucks, but his Corbitt Tall Boys have to be the most unusual of the lot. He owns two of them – the one shown here and another one that is eighteen inches taller. Both trucks were designed by Guy M. Turner, who had nine or ten of them specially built by Corbitt. The extra wide cab was constructed to hold four or five people – a full rigging crew in one truck – which made it a true “crew cab” (if you ever wondered where that term came from). The 1951 Corbitt 600 Series Tall Boy pictured here has a cut-down cab and is powered by a Cummins engine with a Mack transmission. It also has a direct accelerator and an air clutch. Don’s other Tall Boy is still its original height and has an 8-cylinder Gardner diesel engine from England. Each cylinder has its own cut-off valve so the driver can shut off some of the cylinders in order to use less fuel. Don enjoys his antique truck collection and has fun taking them to shows. Needless to say, the Tall Boys always draw a lot of attention. Don always leaves the door open and sets a stepladder out so that people can climb up on it to look inside the extra tall cab. Many people think these trucks are ugly, but we have always liked them, and we love seeing them at the shows.
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John & Shirley Sponholtz
John & Shirley Sponholtz have been involved with old trucks for over 20 years. Shirley was editor at Wheels of Time for 12 years before going out on her own and starting Old Time Trucks magazine in 2004. John is an avid photographer who enjoys taking pictures of odd and/or rare trucks (he provides most of the pictures for this article and their magazine). John & Shirley, who are from Richmond, Indiana, have been regular contributors to 10-4 Magazine since 2006.
