29. April 2025
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Museums & Exhibitions

America on Wheels Museum

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

America on Wheels

20 USD
America on Wheels
4.1

Rating

 4.1/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Interesting focus on road transport
  • Mack Trucks archives
  • Wide range of topics

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Many topics in a limited space

After having significant luggage trouble during my December 2024 trip to the United States, I had to significantly reduce my plans of visiting Allentown in Pennsylvania. At least, I was able to check out one of the city’s attractions on my list, America on Wheels. It is a museum concentrating on on-road transport. It comes with a total exhibition space of 2,100 square meters.

 

America on Wheels – Location & Admission

America on Wheels is located right East of the city center of Allentown, right next to Lehigh River. Just in line with the topic dealt in the museum, you more or less can only go there by car. There is a major car park right North of the museum.

The museum is opening all year. On Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, you can visit between 10:00 and 16:00. Thursday times are prolonged, 10:00 to 18:00. On Sundays, the museum is opening noon to 16:00. The museum announced to adjust their admission on 3rd May 2025. From there on, adult admission is 20 USD. Senior visitors over 65 years of age enter free every first Thursday of the month.

 

America on Wheels – The Visit

The museum spans over two levels. There is a total of some 75 cars, trucks, bicycles, motorcycles and similar vehicles in display. The exhibits are well documented, signs (in English) give quite some background about them. However, the 2008 established museum is not only showing wheeled vehicles, but also has some focus on logistic and infrastructural topics. For example, quite soon after entering America on Wheels, you learn about the Pennsylvania Turnpike system.

 

There is, obviously, a certain spotlight on historic vehicles, but the museum also offers an outlook about future mobility like electric cars and prototypes. One of the most interesting parts of the ground floor exhibition is a room solely dedicated to Mack Trucks. Even though the company is nowadays having its headquarters in North Carolina, their roots and manufacturing facilities are in the Lehigh Valley.

Upper Level

The upper level features space, which is used for temporary exhibition. The one I visited was really interesting and featured some really nice historic cars. However, one section I liked even more was about how the museum is restoring cars and making them fit for exhibition. Apart from a few photo opportunities and a truck cockpit mockup, you obviously cannot enter or sit on the vehicles in America on Wheels.

 

On exhibition on ground level, which was especially popular among younger visitors, was a LEGO(TM) city, which also helps to illustrate road-driven transportation. However, this model city also features rail and water transport elements.

 

America on Wheels – Services

There is a smaller cafe on the upper level, which I did not visit. The same floor also hosts a museum library. The souvenir store on ground level, located right behind the entrance is rather major and holds quite a nice range of items. America on Wheels also organizes some special events.

 

America on Wheels – My View

I would not necessarily take a major detour to visit America on Wheels, but it is actually a really nice museum. I like the wide focus it displays. However, this also leads to the situation that, due to the limited space, you cannot dig too deeply into the topics. Maybe the key reason to put this technical museum higher on your bucket list is the really interesting Mack Truck archive. You should at least allow for 60 to 90 minutes of visiting time.

 

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