The most interesting trucks on auction in 2023

Every year, there are a lot of interesting trucks listed on Tractor Zoom I never get to write about. There are only so many hours in the day, you know? With more auctioneer and dealer partners than ever, it's happening more frequently because there's so much iron listed on the site. Honestly, it's a great problem to have!

If you've been following the blog, you know that while I love tractors, I love semis too. This year, there were a few that stuck out to me, and they deserve a mention. Let's look at the most interesting trucks of 2023 that ended up on the cutting room floor!

Rare breed: 1984 Marmon 110P

Marmon was kind of an interesting truck manufacturer. They did things a little differently than the big players in the game. While Peterbilt was knocking out a zillion trucks a year on an assembly line, Marmon stayed low-production and built every truck to order. They built some fleet trucks, but not many. Most of their trucks were bought by owner-operators, and they called the shots when it came to optioning them. You could order pretty much anything you wanted from Marmon.

There are a couple of things that really stand out about this truck. Some of them make sense, and some of them don't.

1. It's optioned like an owner-operator truck with a nice interior, double sleeper, A/C, and owner-operator style paint, too. (Fleet trucks were all one-color.)
2. It's got a healthy Big Cam Cummins set at about 400 hp, but harnessed through an Allison five-speed automatic transmission, and exhausted through a single stack.
3. The auctioneer noted that it was a government-owned truck, which makes sense. Marmon made quite a few trucks under contract for the U.S. government in the 1980s, but it's weird to see one so well-optioned. Usually, government contract trucks were kind of an anything-goes, parts-bin special.

At any rate, it's a very nice truck and somebody has taken very good care of it. Very little rust on the frame rails, clean original paint and sheet metal (aside from a ding or two), and pretty good chrome. It's a great example of why a lot of drivers called Marmon the "Rolls Royce of trucks!"

Hammer Price: $28,000

Auctioneer: North Texas Auctions

Date: March 25, 2023

By the way, Marmon stopped building cabovers in 1984, and this one has a build date of October 1983. It's one of the last of them!

Linnehan's toy: the mini-Peterbilt flatbed

If Mike Linnehan's name rings a bell, I'll bet you're probably a tractor pulling fan (or a student of no-till history). Mike was a long-time puller and a pioneer in no-till practices. He also had quite a reputation for being able to build just about anything he darn well pleased. Pulling tractors, self-propelled sprayers — heck, he once built a lime spreader out of an old school bus frame and a 6620 combine cab!

This little flatbed was another one of his creations. He built it using an old Winnebago motor home frame, a cab from a 1994 Pete, a big block Chevy, and an automatic transmission. It had an 11-foot flatbed on the back, and air ride. All in all, a pretty neat little piece, and of course, it was painted up to match the rest of the fleet.

Most of Mike's creations had a specific purpose in mind, and I'd assume this one did as well. Sadly, I never had the opportunity to meet Mike, as he passed away in August 2022. Someday, perhaps I'll have the chance to ask his wife, Ann.

Hammer Price: $31,500

Auctioneer: Wilkinson Auction & Realty

Date: June 21, 2023

This really is a neat creation. It's well-built and unique — you'll never find another one like it!

‘Tater trucking: 1976 Kenworth W900A

You know, there are old working trucks that you can tell have seen a thing or two, and then there are trucks like this A-model from the London Hills Farm in Cardwell, Montana. My goodness, what a beautiful Kenworth!

It's got all the goods, too: CAT 3406B, 13-speed Road Ranger, 22-foot Logan potato box on the back, and more. The motor was supposedly set at 400 hp, but I bet it made well more than that. After all, they sold several tractors that were dyno'd at well over 100 hp more than they came with out of the factory. When looking through the sale, I got the feeling that most everything was a little hotter than average. My kind of people!

What impressed me most about this truck (and everything else on the sale) was how clean and well-maintained it all was. All of the machinery — the fleet of potato trucks (there were four, I believe), or the tractors, and the potato planters — were clean as a whistle and in excellent working shape. That kind of meticulous maintenance shows, and it definitely makes a difference in price. The buyer got a great price on a piece of equipment that'll do everything they ask of it for decades.

Hammer Price: $47,000

Auctioneer: Rivers West Auction

Date: June 9, 2023

Single-stack Mack: 1984 R-Model

There's plenty of R-Model Macks around (especially if you live in the eastern half of the country), but when you find them, they've usually been ridden hard and put away wet. There are a few good ones left, but it's not easy to find them.

Well, I'm here to tell you that last week, one of those R-Model needles fell out of the Mack haystack. This 1984 Mack R686ST is a one-owner truck with 49,000 original miles on it. It's not perfect, but it's about as close as you'll ever get.

I honestly felt horrible when I saw this one, because a buddy of mine is currently looking for one and he'd have jumped all over this. Alas, I saw it a little too late. I guess his hunt continues...

Hammer Price: $23,000

Auctioneer: J.M. Wood Auction Co., Inc.

Date: Dec. 6, 2023

Murphy's Law: 1984 Peterbilt 359 EXHD

To me, the 359 and 379 will always be the conventional truck, and I think it's probably that way for a lot of people. When they think long-haul trucking, they might picture something like this. I never got the full story on this million-miler from Oklahoma, but I can tell you a few things about it.

1. I believe that most of the paint is original. I doubt the fenders are, but I think the rest of it is.
2. It's got a tried-and-true B-model CAT, and I imagine it's set to somewhere around 425 hp (or it probably was when it was new).
3. The interior is absurdly clean for a 40-year-old semi. It's impressive. Plus it's got a Corvette dash, which is the best-looking dash Peterbilt ever made.

However, as Murphy's Law would have it, this old 359 had a very bad day — on the worst possible day. It blew a driver's side steer tire on the way to the auction yard. The tire shredded and took part of the fender with it. Talk about bad luck.

Still, the bidders saw what this truck was, and it brought big money — torn-up fender and all. There's only been one 359 that brought more at auction this year, and it was fully restored and customized a little. Clean, original trucks like this are becoming more and more valuable by the day. If you've got one, take care of it!

Hammer Price: $61,250

Auctioneer: North Texas Auctions

Date: Jan. 28, 2023

Sinful in cinnamon: 1986 Kenworth K100

I've never asked, but I'm about certain that the guys at Wilkinson Auction & Realty have cool-truck radar. Over the past few years, they've sold a handful of really nicely done trucks that still work for a living. They tend to get solid money out of them, too, and this one was no exception.

Such was the case with this 1986 K100. It's not factory stock anymore, but somehow, even the upgrades and customizations still manage to look "right" and not completely over the top (to me, at any rate). The heartbeat is all standard stuff, with an 855 delivering power to a 13-speed Road Ranger. On the inside, it's not perfect, but it's likely a comfortable place to work. I'm sure the stretched frame rides nice when it's got a load on it! I even like the color — and I'm not typically a red truck guy.

Show trucks are cool and all, don't get me wrong. But for me, there comes a point where they're just too nice to work (even though I know a lot of those trucks log miles every day). That's why I really like trucks like this. They look and run well, but they're not so nice that you feel like you need to run it through the Blue Beacon every night. They can still serve a useful purpose: getting stuff from point A to point B.

Hammer Price: $61,600

Auctioneer: Wilkinson Auction & Realty

Date: June 29, 2023

There you have it: a half-dozen old trucks I thought were pretty cool, but never had the opportunity to write about for Interesting Iron. Hope you're doing well, and that you're able to enjoy the upcoming holidays with the ones you love! I'm going to take the next one off so I can enjoy the holidays with my friends and loved ones, but we'll pick up where we left off in 2024! I know there are a few tractors I never got to write about, so maybe that'll be the subject for early January.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us at Tractor Zoom!

Find some old trucks of your own here!

Hi! I'm Ryan, and I love tractors. It doesn't matter if it's a showpiece, an oddball, or seen its share of life — if it's unique and listed by one of our auctioneer partners at Tractor Zoom, I'm going to show it off a little bit! This equipment is all up for auction RIGHT NOW so you can bid on it. I think it's cool, and I hope you will too! This is Interesting Iron!