188. The Pile Up: Brain Buster 28Car Krush · Jun 12, 2026
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20:51
Car
Peterbilt 281
Peterbilt 281 is a classic big truck model from the U.S. In this episode, they’re talking about which specific truck was used for movie scenes and how backup trucks were swapped in.
Car
Peterbilt 351
Peterbilt 351 is a classic big truck model. In this segment, it’s the truck they used when the original truck wasn’t available, and later they reused footage from it in other TV episodes.
The Plymouth Valiant is a car made by Plymouth. People bring it up because it was sold in the 1960s and 1970s, and some owners remember having one in a specific year like 1974. It’s basically a regular passenger car from that period.
Four-wheel drive means the car can drive all four wheels, usually with extra gearing for rough terrain. It’s often meant for off-road or very slippery situations.
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Rose BB28: That's what I'm, that's what I imagine. No, we have the coolest listeners. They're all, they're all... The radio d- the radio dial is cranked up. It's, it's tuned in. They're on. They're like, "This is my spot."
Rose BB28: in my un-diving this, the, uh, one and only Joe Risma wrote in and said that he was disappointed to say that when he delivered his correct answer of soybean for last week's Henry Ford related question, he was, uh, disappointed to not be introduced as fellow vegan and soybean aficionado Rose BB28: Damn right. Well, yeah, I mean, hey, if about weird cars or being vegan, he's there
Uh, I, I'm gonna feign ignorance on this because I got an answer, but it's been a while since I researched this one. If you're sitting in the dark and you're saying, "Rose, I don't remember what your question last week was," okay? And you're talking about it in the vaguest terms possible, and here I am still hundreds of words later and haven't revealed what the question was.
Rose BB28: Right? Am I, am I wrong even about that simple fact? I believe it's a Peterbilt. Let me get into my notes here, uh, just to be, just to be sure. Yeah, okay. Uh, I'm referring to Matt's answer. Uh, Matt Kiefer came in with, with what I was looking for. However, a number of people had it, and Let me, let me go with Matt's first, and then I'll tell you why. I'm sorry everybody, I'm just not, I'm just not running on all eight here. I'm just, I'm a little choppy today. A little,
This is debatable though, as some claim the '60 is actually a fan-built replica. After it aired on TV, they filmed some additional scenes to make it a feature length film, but by this point, the original '57 281 had already been destroyed, so they acquired a '62 Peterbilt 351 to film the extra scenes. Now, Jesse said 1955 Peterbilt 281 and a '60 and a '61 were used for backup stunts.
Rose BB28: Yeah, we've got like 55, 57 Uh, let's, let me just... Let me look up the details again, a- and then I'll tell you why I really don't care. Uh, because I mostly just-- There was a twist to it And everybody, for the most part, got the twist And that was what was critical about this 'Cause I
Rose BB28: Yeah, he's got the Dwight Schrute. I hope 1983 has a time machine 'cause it's an '82. Uh, let's get down to the truck. All right. So on, on, uh... I might have looked this up on Wikipedia, right? And it's, um, it's a Valiant, which I later, I had a '74. Um- It says it had Plymouth spelled out across the hood, though the brand name was covered with aluminum foil for the movie. That's funny. Um, Spielberg didn't care about the car as long as it was red. That was all he wanted. Um, he selected the '57 Peterbilt 281 over the contemporary flat-nosed cab over style trucks.
It's a pair- Mm-hmm ... um, which I really love. And, uh, it was a single axle, uh, and then a tag-along behind it. It could go 61, 67 miles an hour. The backup truck is a 60. On the last day of filming, the backup truck was taken off of the film production
This truck was a 62 Peterbilt 351. And in 1978, stock footage of both vehicles, along with some new footage of a '64 Peterbilt 351, was used in Never Give a Trucker an Even Break, the seventh episode of the Universal television series, The Incredible Hulk. This displeased Spielberg, but Universal owned the dual footage and could use it as it saw fit. It's kinda messed up. Okay. So I think Matt pretty much nailed it. I don't... The years are sorta whatever. I think Nat- Matt got all that right, and everybody pretty much got it right except Ryan. I was hoping people would pick up on the twist that there's a '57 and there's a '60. Uh, in my mind, I think I had told myself it was a '61.
I just wanted to check that. Um, but this, there is the '62. There's three trucks. So that's where the twist is, is it, you know, it's like, oh, there's only two. One gets destroyed. The one gets destroyed in the movie. It really gets destroyed. Yeah. That's for real. That's the f- the f- '57. Um, yeah, somebody owns the '60, and people love it, and I've seen it featured in a truck magazine.
Like again, not being that worried about... Like the elements of the license plates changing, ah, that's brilliant. You
Um, be careful when you open it. It is packed in there pretty tight, and it does need to be kept fresh, so get it right back into the fridge. And then people will know. They'll know that you know. That's the most important part.
Emily BB28: Yeah, except for that it didn't come out until... It was a week
But see, Rose knew that it was to slow, slow the cars down, but in my mind, when I w- was hearing about that law, I was thinking that the cars would just go how fast they could go, and the people would be running with the flags. Just trying to not
Rose BB28: horse shit in the streets. And, uh, you know, it costs money to feed a horse. You can just feed your car gas
Rose BB28: Well, I have a great one, and I think, uh, I do think it's interesting each week w- it sort of goes back and forth where people will answer one of ours, but we don't get a lot of answers for both. Mm-hmm. Uh, which means that please tell your friends about our show. And if you don't mind, rate our show on iTunes or whatever, if you would.
Emily BB28: My question is, what's the difference between all-wheel drive and four-wheel drive? That's it. Pretty, pretty low-hanging fruit there. I think I'll get a lot of answers on that one One sucks, one doesn't suck. No, I'm just kidding
About this episode
The hosts dig into movie-truck trivia, including which vintage Peterbilt was used as a backup for extra scenes after an original truck was destroyed. They also touch on how later stock footage was reused in a Universal TV episode of The Incredible Hulk. The conversation then pivots to a listener question on drivetrains, comparing all-wheel drive and four-wheel drive and what separates them in practice.
