1939 D15 Heater

I was going through my newly acquired D15 tonight looking at everything to see what might be missing. When looking inside I noticed that there was no heater and no signs of one ever being there. I have looked at KB trucks before and all of them had heaters. This truck came out of Northern Montana and I would think that would be a place to have one. It was used as a wheat truck so maybe they only used it in warmer weather. I noticed there wasnt any duct vents on the dash either for a defroster. Did these old trucks have defrosters and heaters?

None of the early trucks had a heater as standard equipment. As you noticed since yours was a harvest truck there would have been no need to pay for an optional heater. There were a lot of generic heaters made for trucks in those days so you can probably find one that will work. If your wanting the factory heater some one with knowledge of the D's will have to answer that. Welcome aboard! MM

Wow, not standard equipment, but I can understand now since times were tough back then. I dont know if I want to add one or not since it didnt have one. How did they defrost their windshield when they needed that? Wiped it off with a rag? Maybe they cranked out the windshield a bit to get the air flowing. The dash doesnt have any ducts in it to run hoses up to it from a heater. If they chose to get the heater, did it come with a different dash? I wouldnt think so but who knows. Just trying to get my head around how things were pre WWII.

Heaters were optional right up until the late 60's or 70's I have picture of a Dart car without a heater. Most by that time did have them ordered with one ( R&H on the order (radio and heater)). You are correct, without a heater no defrost either. It wasn't so much that times were tough (although they were) but that heaters were not considered part of the vehicle, and were added if needed, like tow hitchs are today.

Even when you had a heater they usually wouldn't defrost the windshield very well. You opened the wing vent on the door. It created a draft across the windshield to clear it. I remember my first Scout, a 1961 Scout 80 I had back in 67. Temp would be below zero and I hated to open the wing vent, but the defroster just wouldn't cut it so I had to. Just went back and looked at some D photos and see they didn't have the wing vents so your most likely correct to crank the windshield open a tad, but I would try just cracking the side window. Would be less draft in your face. MM

Where my D30 sits there is a D15 cab that is going on a rat rod. It has an IH "hot water heater in it", I might be able to get it this fall. Some of the D series trucks were optioned with defrost... this cab has it. I'm going to nab the ducts for the D30.

Interesting- Can you get pics of that setup? I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to see it!

Dean