The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

US Army M37B1 3/4 ton 4x4 by Dodge 1961. This was used by the army to hold some gadget for identifying enemy aircraft before being shipped back stateside in 1977 as surplus. A Connecticut farmer bought it managed to break the winch internals, probably lack of lubrication as the seals are known to leak. He then took apart the distributor innards and couldn't put it back together again, he figured he would get to it later, later was over 32 years. He parked it in a barn with 2000 miles on it ( truck now has 6900 on it), then sold it to a retired aircraft mechanic who did a frame off rebuild of the truck ( in 2013). The hardtop was installed by the army, everything including the vacuum wipers works. I saw this truck at a small flea market just over the state line maybe five years back, they did a Memorial day show at the flea market every year until the organizers told them room was at a premium and no more show. Seeing this power wagon back then set me to keeping an eye out for one like it just for shits and giggles, I plowed snow with a 1948 regular PW for 20 years before the Old Man broke the transmission and we sold it. The owners wife told him he was too old to be running it far away, he hadn't taken it more than a mile in two years, it had to go, his kids didn't want it. I saw this pop up on Craigslist, not the first time I saw a cool old PW pop up there and the usual Craigslist nonsense ended these possible deals, several over the last couple of years. I have learned not to expect much dealing with Craigslist clowns, I saw this truck pop up about a week ago, then five days later the price dropped by a third. I called, we talked for a bit, I named a price and said if the truck showed up here at the shop in the condition he claimed I would pay him cash on the spot. Figuring this would just be another bullshit deal I wasn't going to waste time on it. I get a call last night, he will be here in the morning, and sure enough he was with PW on trailer. Now I figure too good to be true, truck is super fucked somehow. After examination everything he claimed turned out to be true. Frame off rebuild, papers for numerous parts, all the books, and spare parts, clean transferable registration, runs and drive perfect, wife right there with him telling me how glad she was to see it gone from next to her garden. Not sure what I will do with it, for now I will play with it of course, and it still needs the winch fixed, and I think the water pump is getting a bit shaky, some paint touchup on the wood. It has a heater, that should be nice in the winter when I use it to run to the shop in two feet of snow. After the guy mentioned the name of his town I figured out this was the same truck I saw and he confirmed he used to show it at that show.

Cool ride, they will be calling you Sgt. Dog when they see you coming.

Thats a jewel. I did not know they still made flatheads in '61. Those GI seats look soooo comfortable.

steelbuttplate wrote:Thats a jewel. I did not know they still made flatheads in '61. Those GI seats look soooo comfortable.

Actually the seats aren't bad, more comfortable than the regular civilian Dodge PW, Dodge didn't switch to the slant six until 1962, but they kept the 230 for the military contract until 1968. The 230 isn't a powerhouse, maybe 80 HP, PW's are all about gearing, these are real trucks meant for actual work. Power nothing.

The '52 Army surplus jeep I learned to drive in, had a little flathead 4, 3 in the floor,top speed about 50. On the dash was a handle you pull to "Ford". What did that affect on the motor to enable fording ? The seats in it felt like sitting on a bag of lime.

The ford handle on the Jeep was probably closing off something in the air intake, the M37 is set for fording rivers also. On mine you pull a plug out of the transmission bellhousing so water will drain, and tighten up the gastank filler cap, the rest is set to go. Fully sealed distributor with built in coil and vents that run to the intake manifold, sealed gas tank, sealed wires and generator. As is I can run it with water to the top of the fenders, with the snorkel tube attached I can run it entirely submerged. Or so the manual tells me, I wonder how long they expected the driver to remain ...optimal in such conditions? My seats have some spring to them, but this is a real truck, not some padded, perfumed, poofed up soccer mom special. Nancy boys need not apply, I toss iron around and turn wrenches for a living so the manual steering isn't an issue for me, or the manual brakes, and I learned how to operate a real gearbox and double clutch before I knew there was such a thing as " automatic" transmission. The M37 has a 4 speed gearbox, duel range transfer case, and the last owner added locking hubs so it's not running the front axle unless I want it to be. Helps a tiny bit with the gas mileage that at 5900 pounds and 5.80 something ratio it's getting maybe 8 MPG. The last owner put a shitload of hours into this build, retired aircraft mechanic so he knew his shit and did it right, so far I have not found one Bubba fix anyplace on this vehicle, and I looked. Closest I found was the plastic fuel filter under the hood, and that will be metal as soon as the new ones arrive. He asked me quietly if I planned to alter it for power steering, Fuck No! The whole point of searching out a truck like this is to limit the power options that can shit the bed and leave me stranded. The day I can't handle manual steering and brakes it's time for the pine box. I guess he was getting a lot of Craigslist callers lowballing the price and asking stupid shit questions making it obvious they just wanted something that looked like a real vintage military vehicle but drove like grandmas Cadillac. Like Gunny would say, twinkle toes commie cocksuckers need not apply.

Man is supposed to be stopping in sometime today with a good winch of the correct type ready to install. He converted his M37 to something else and lost his PTO while doing it so electric winch time for him. Another piece of shit to fry and leave you fucked someplace in the woods.

The seller was so happy I wasn't going to fuck up his truck like some Bubba he brought me over a real nice early WW2 GI M1 helmet with liner in excellent condition and gifted it to me.

Now that is a nice toy! A local guy has a nice 2 1/2 ton military truck, all dolled up, sitting in his pasture near a road for everyone's viewing pleasure. When I lived in Miami, there was a military surplus store that had a half-track with mounted quad 50s parked out front as an eye catcher. He claimed it ran fine, but it took him two years to get the AA mount to rotate properly.

An interesting (to me at least) bit of WWII vehicle trivia; I am reading General Truscott's book, Command Missions, A personal Story
The General keeps referring to a "Bantam" when talking about transportation. I inferred he was speaking about "Jeeps", but had to look it up. I had never heard the term Bantam used in a reference toward a military GPV.

I guess tha Willys won advertising war over the GPV. Over 50 years of reading WWII history and I either missed or forgot the term. I have since looked at several sites devoted to "Bantams" and have decided I am just 80 years late to the dance. I am curious if you guys knew the term?

American Bantam Motors Co, they invented the Jeep, and would have had the contract except Henry Ford lobbied for it and got it instead. Ford wasn't the only maker of the Jeep, but Bantam has been all but forgotten except for some of us who watched way too many WW2 era newsreel compilations. I may yet end up with a Duce and a half one day, all the local municipalities bought them surplus from the government and aren't doing anything with them. Even now I am seeing them pop up on eBay and Craigslist for 7-13 grand.

I watched a history of the Jeep, and they said the first jeeps built by Bantam, were called Bantam Blitz Buggies. The Gov. decided Bantam couldn't fill the order and gave the contract to Willys. Bantam built the little trailers for them.

Is there room to drop an all mechanical 12 valve Cummins 5.9 engine in her? Man i would love to have that truck.

Jim, are you going to use that to tow your classic cars to shows? Run down to the grocery store? Somehow, I can see you, elbow out the window with an illegal Cuban Cigar in your jaw grinning and intimidating little old ladies in their Hondas.... What fun!

Junk Yard Dog wrote:American Bantam Motors Co, they invented the Jeep, and would have had the contract except Henry Ford lobbied for it and got it instead. Ford wasn't the only maker of the Jeep, but Bantam has been all but forgotten except for some of us who watched way too many WW2 era newsreel compilations. I may yet end up with a Duce and a half one day, all the local municipalities bought them surplus from the government and aren't doing anything with them. Even now I am seeing them pop up on eBay and Craigslist for 7-13 grand.

There was a smaller version of the jeep, I sat in a couple at an Army Surp. place in the 60's. It had a 4 in the floor that shifted ass backwards from every other 4 speed. I think it said Ford on the dash somewhere.

SA1911a1 wrote:Jim, are you going to use that to tow your classic cars to shows? Run down to the grocery store? Somehow, I can see you, elbow out the window with an illegal Cuban Cigar in your jaw grinning and intimidating little old ladies in their Hondas.... What fun!

It will haul wood for me in the winter, and be a general purpose bugout vehicle as it is EMP proof, and will go off road. The M37 isn't that intimidating, it's a 3/4 ton pickup, and smaller ( but much stronger) than most modern pickups used by the soccer moms. You are thinking duce and a half, or a five ton. The M37's mission was to get into back country places were there were no roads and the ground would hang up a jeep. It was used for everything from hauling troops, general cargo, ambulance, command , radio, ammo hauling, weapons platform for cool shit like quad fifty or I think even 20 mike mike , or secret shit like whatever the device they had in mine for seeking out and identifying enemy aircraft.

M39 Shooter wrote:Is there room to drop an all mechanical 12 valve Cummins 5.9 engine in her? Man i would love to have that truck.

Diesel swaps are done with these, but I don't think the Cummins 5.9 would fit. Plus the guy who restored it would shoot me in the head, he lives nearby, and has already been by to visit. I got a very sweet deal on this specifically because I made it crystal clear that there would be no Bubba shit done to it, no beating the shit out of it mud bogging. The only time this vehicle will be mud bogging is shortly after the Big Bad Thing happens, I see the huge cloud rising into the sky and bug the fuck out for backwoods places .

steelbuttplate wrote:

Junk Yard Dog wrote:American Bantam Motors Co, they invented the Jeep, and would have had the contract except Henry Ford lobbied for it and got it instead. Ford wasn't the only maker of the Jeep, but Bantam has been all but forgotten except for some of us who watched way too many WW2 era newsreel compilations. I may yet end up with a Duce and a half one day, all the local municipalities bought them surplus from the government and aren't doing anything with them. Even now I am seeing them pop up on eBay and Craigslist for 7-13 grand.

There was a smaller version of the jeep, I sat in a couple at an Army Surp. place in the 60's. It had a 4 in the floor that shifted ass backwards from every other 4 speed. I think it said Ford on the dash somewhere.

Ford built the Jeep also, too bad you didn't buy both Jeeps, wrap them in plastic, stash them in your closet. Today they would bring good money.

Right on that would make a great hunting rig.

Sonny wrote:Right on that would make a great hunting rig.

I just passed on a '99 Buick Lesabre that would have been the ultimate road hunting car. The 3.8 V6. 45,000 miles. Needed camo paint is all. New tires. $2000.

steelbuttplate wrote:

Sonny wrote:Right on that would make a great hunting rig.

I just passed on a '99 Buick Lesabre that would have been the ultimate road hunting car. The 3.8 V6. 45,000 miles. Needed camo paint is all. New tires. $2000.

You need to barter a bit. I'm sure you could get it for 500 wampum and a 24 of beer.

What device was supposed to fill the open round hole on the dash?

SA1911a1 wrote:What device was supposed to fill the open round hole on the dash?

That's the heat manifold for windshield defroster, it bolted on there and piped heat to the glass from a fender mounted gasoline furnace. This truck was used in northern Europe, such would have been a necessity in winter, it had been removed by the time the truck came back over here. The last owner installed a normal heater box fed off of the engine coolant, and it will cook you out of the cab. These trucks did not have any insulation in the floors or firewall, heat from the engine compartment is noticeable.