There was a peculiar looking 18-wheeler in the parking lot this afternoon. Peculiar in that it was hauling a high cube covered in what appeared to be small billboards, and painted above the small billboards were the words "Proud Sponsors of the Last Marmon."
That caught my eye. I hadn't seen a Marmon in decades. I wandered over to the rig with my camera in hand to see if it was indeed the last Marmon, and to get a pic if it was.
Marmon trucks were hand-made in Garland, Texas, and were considered the Rolls Royce of the Class-8 trucks. They didn't have the huge cabs/sleeper units with all the bells and whistles, but they were and are regarded as a great work rig and a true pleasure to drive.
I have never had the opportunity to drive a Marmon. My entire big rig driving experience was with White Freightliner COE's when I worked for Western Pacific Shows as a kid. I can remember being at a truck stop in Bakersfield and listening to a group of truckers in the cafe talking about a Marmon that was in the lot - all of them sounding as if they were discussing the most desirable woman they could imagine.
The last Marmon is owned by Ken and Carol Matuszak (had to have him spell that last name for me - it's of southern Polish ancestry, btw). Ken was in the truck just finishing up some business with the DOT on the phone. He was kind enough to hop out and talk about the truck when I asked him if I could get a pic.
Ken and his wife Carol acquired the last Marmon from the factory before it was actually finished. As Ken related the story, back in 1996 he had been driving a rig for two years that was just not up to his standards and decided it was finally time to get the exact truck he wanted and do away with the clunker.
He had owned a Marmon years before and had liked it, so he went to a few Marmon dealerships to see about acquiring a new one. Unfortunately, every dealership he visited told him that Marmon wasn't taking orders anymore.
As luck would have it, however, Ken drove a route that took him near the Marmon factory in Garland Texas, and one of the dealers suggested that it might be worth his while to stop by and see if he could place an order directly.
So Ken and Carol did just that. They stopped in at the factory and found that what the dealerships had said was true - Marmon was getting ready to close down. However, they also found that there were a last couple of trucks at the plant, and they were for sale.
Ken told me he looked at both of them, but they didn't met his criteria, and if he was going to spend a large amount of cash for a truck, he was going to get what he wanted.
He asked if there were any other trucks available and was told that the only other truck at the factory was the very last one due to come off the production line, but it wasn't quite done yet. Ken told me he and Carol asked to see it anyway, as a sort of last ditch attempt to get what he wanted, so the people at the factory arranged for him to look at the incomplete truck.
When he saw it, Ken was pleasantly surprised - it met all of his criteria except three small factors. It wasn't the emerald green he wanted, it was teal. It wasn't the 500 horse he wanted, it was a 470, and the tires were wrong.
Deciding he could live with the teal green and the 470 horse was easy, and so was switching out the tires.
He actually had to call a dealership to buy the vehicle as the factory couldn't sell it to him directly. The dealership he called had to be convinced the truck actually existed, but eventually the transaction was completed and Ken and Carol were able to get rid of the old (non-Marmon) clunker (which, at two years old, wasn't really old, but according to Ken it certainly was a clunker) and get into the truck of their dreams.
Ken and Carol had their truck - the very last Marmon off the line.
It was great listening to Ken - he's a gregarious man with boundless enthusiasm for his truck and the trucking life.
Work was calling me though, so I shook Ken's hand and thanked him for sharing his story for me and headed back.
Walking across the lot I thought of something to say to Ken but it was so cliched I had to say it under my breath.
Keep on trucking...
I owned an 84 and an 89 Marmon. Big Cam Cummins,13 trans,84" sleeper,double bed with closets and an invertor. Heavy haul was my game. When the stop making Marmons I stopped driving. Literlly. I still drool and cry when I see a Marmon. The Rolls Royce of the road.
ReplyDelete1989 January. I was driving for a tanker fleet out of Tuscaloosa Alabama. In Meridian Ms there was a small truck dealership and they had two conventional Marion trucks. One was white but what attracted me most was the air drive starter.
ReplyDeleteI had told my dad about it. He and my grandfather had owned a fleet of GMC cracker box trucks. He told me the Mormon was the best truck on the road at that time. That was the last time I saw it and always regretted not buying it.
I remember walking through the Marmon Truck "factory" in Garland Texas in 1980-81. I was a transportation supervisor for TI and one of the guys who was in the Safety Group was the brother of the plant manager (Xeros). He called his brother to see if I could get a tour of the facility, which was approved. I was amazed how short the production line was, and also how the truck was assembled. In a building about 1 block long, from start to finish, and it was such a classy truck and the safest on the road. It was expensive, as each person who bought one, placed their input directly with Xeros and then passed along to the assembly crew. I'm sorry to know they quit making them in 1996, but I still remember the awe I had at that place in Garland.
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