Embree Crown Coach Conversions

This story was an Email from Alvin Embree, the original owner of Embree Buses:

Bus #60 was a hand made piece of equipment and was used as a test bed for ideas before we (Embree's) gave the final O.K. for the balance of the group. 

To begin with, we demanded under floor baggage space, hence the engine had to go in the rear. Away with Hall Scott's and gas jobs #60 originally had a Cummins engine in it and for a short time a Caterpillar was involved, but I do not recall the series of Cat or Cummins. These engines were located in the rear and I drove the Cummins quite a bit trying to get some of the teething problems out of it. The problem with it was with vibration, which was intolerable, also it was a bit under powered for what we figured would be the final GVW. There were also some space problems that Ray worked out, but with considerable engineering. It just never seemed to "fit right." 

About this time, Detroit came out with the V6-53 series engine, so #60 was refitted with one hooked to the Allison transmission. The union of these two units seemed to fit nicely and stuck for the rest of the order. 

Early experience with the Allison, was this. It was five speed, going first to a converter, then to lockup, then shifted up to the next converter position etc. It was the first of a series that Allison produced. The 53 series Detroit was also a first at that time. Both these units were produced and used in the then latest US Army Personnel Carrier and consequently there were quite a number produced. Of course, both of these units became very standard for many uses after their first introduction, but we got some of the very first. As I recall, the original prototype 60 was to have the Detroit in it, but because of lack of availability of them (the Army had priority on the first ones) Ray Hartman tried the Cummins engine, for a short time a Cat, but the Detroit finally became available. 

Keep in mind that the prototype was around for over 6 months, with lots of fussing and trying this and that, to get the final product. 

One of the problems with the Allison was this. As we wanted a low range first gear for mountain work, there was a physical lockout detent on the transmission control, that would prevent the driver from an accidentally shift into the low range without going through a detent. Low range converter was about 6 MPH at top of tach and in lockup, not a bunch more than that. 

About 4 months experience into the total 60's series, one night one of the 60's was north bound on Rosemead Blvd. with an athletic team returning to Pasadena High School. At the Santa Fe RR underpass just north of Colorado Blvd. The driver said there was a loud bang, then all power quit. The engine stopped running and the driver could not get a restart. I got the call and got another bus out there right away, then had the non-functioning bus towed to the shop.

The following morning there was lots of consternation about why it could not get started, and lots of conjecture. The starter turned but things sounded funny to me. The conjecture was, pull the injectors and see if something is going on there. I said "Drop the Pan" but was over ruled by the greasy hands types. They kept fussing and trying different stuff and I said, "drop the pan and see what is going on" 

They finally did and found the pan completely filled with little pieces of metal, none larger than a walnut. 

Still conjecture as to what had happened with great debate going on. For some reason, I thought I had it figured out, and it finally turned out that I was right. 

For some reason, the Allison inadvertently shifted into the low range which overspend the engine something ferocious. This occurred at about 40 MPH road speed. I have no idea what the final Rpm's were before the thing finally destructed internally, physically breaking all the rods which pushed everything down into the crankshaft, which ground everything up, including some of the pistons. 

The engine was rebuilt with much finger pointing at the driver. Why would he ever pull the trans down into the low range, going past the detent, at 40 MPH? I was told to take corrective action against the driver, but I told Glenn that he was crazy, that the driver said he did not do that and I figured there was no earthly reason for him to do so, and anyway he was a very conscientious person. 

There was much unhappiness amongst the family toward me, but what the heck, that was nothing new, and machines do fail but nothing could be proven. Somewhat after this, there were other occasions where the Allison seemed to downshift without apparent reason, and sure enough, another engine ate itself. This time they did not argue with me when I said "Drop the pan." 

I was getting rather upset with this whole situation and demanding that someone get some answers from Allison. You guess it, total denial from them. They said the Detroit blew its self up, something like committing suicide. The symptoms continued on an infrequent basis, when Lo and Behold, one day the chief engineer form Allison came by with a newly designed internal control plumbing system for the transmission(s) for the entire 60 series, no charge to us. 

Hmmmm, sounds like maybe they found out that where were flukes in design which had to be corrected, but they never did accept responsibility for our two engines that ate themselves. 

No more transmission problems. 

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The body situation was somewhat standard for Embree equipment of that era, that is, it was on air-ride, had the extremely high volume under floor heater system, inside removable baggage racks, removable rear seat as well as right side rear side door at the rear seat. The first two rows of seats in the rear were also Embree design and quickly removable. The under floor baggage racks had more cubic space than on the then Greyhound Cruisers. Put all this baggage space together and with a full load of kiddies going to summer camp, I am sure that we were frequently well over the legal per axle limit, but no one ever checked. 

The philosophy of my Dad and continued on until we sold the business, was that no baggage was to go on the roof, which most of our competitors of that day were doing. 

With the air suspension, whatever the load factor was, the vehicle always rode at the same ground level. They did a lot of hissing when you off loaded them and sometimes the passengers would call this to the drivers attention, saying something like "what's that funny noise coming from the front tire?" The basic ride on this series was very cushy, but stable. 

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The bodies on the 60 series were standard Embree stuff for that era, that is, removable inside overhead baggage racks, right side rear door, removable rear seat with quick remove two pair of seats forward from the rear seat, Humongous fresh-air heating system with inside ducts running the length of the vehicle with air outlets along the wall side floor panels as well as up through the seat stanchions. (Shades of ACF Brill here) These stanchions were hollow aluminum and connected to the main duct running underfloor. These stanchions were nifty in that the floor was much easier swept as there were not a bunch of tubular legs holding the seat in position. The wall side of the seats were fastened to a rail running along the wall which eliminated the then standard tube leg fasteners. 

The heater core was much larger than a standard automobile radiator core and was ducted to the outside for fresh air, with a bypass diverter that allowed either outside air or inside air only. This whole setup was real nice for keeping the windows from fogging up on the inside on a cold wet day. 

All the 60's had curved windshields, which again were standard Embree features starting with our #47 and up. In fact all this body design, side radiator, fresh air heater, air suspension, curved windshield, inside removable baggage racks, right side rear door for baggage, etc., was standard Embree from #47 up, except for the variable pitch fan and side radiator configuration, which became standard on all our equipment from # 37 up. 

This side radiator with a variable pitch fan was an innovation of Embree's after we received #33 through 36 which were front end radiators. The front end radiators were marginal in the mountain summer camp work and barely adequate. When we found out about the variable pitch equipment, Dad told MM Brockway that he would not accept any more Crowns unless they had the side radiators. MM bitched and hollered but Dad insisted and prevailed. After we received #37-38-39, MM saw the handwriting on the wall they became standard on all Crowns from then on. They became a Crown selling point with their sales people saying that this was one of their innovations!! 

The variable-pitch fans were great and saved a lot of horsepower when the engine was cool and you did not need to move a lot of air, but unfortunately the manufacturer went out of production so Crown had to go to a fixed pitch fan using shutters for temperature control.