The center part is unique in the white version, but can be substituted with the regular black pressed steel version from a normal GPMG M2 tripod. I have owned several of these things over the years, and never had the cast white heads on them, so I can't explain what the real situation was. Mine mostly came from the local scrapyard, so perhaps the removal of the head was some kind of de-milling. It is also possible the the white ones broke and would be substituted with the black ones, which were removed in the end to go back onto the normal tripods. I was combat arms in the militia, but a mechanic for my regular force career. As a mechanic, my time hauling toboggans was quite limited, and I never saw those gun mounts in use. I think they may have been more of a curiosity. I did get stuck onto a sov-op up to Repulse Bay back around 96, and got to experience the coldest that Canada has to offer during a very long and cold week on the tundra.
Other things that went into the toboggan were the snow saw kit, and there was an actual arctic axe back in the day. The axe had a white fiberglass handle with an orange tip on the end. Even with the orange tip, it was the kind of a thing that if you placed it on the ground, it would be lost. I found a few of them in the springtime over the years.
Optional equipment were the mountain stoves, which we would drag along for extra heat. Once you had the coleman two burner going, the lantern going, and the single burner mountain stove, you could get the tent right up to 21°C. You did have to watch out for pink eye of course.
Naptha could either be in their original cans or else the little one gallon green plastic jerry cans. That, of course, would be in the toboggan as well.
I remember kit lists back in the day for the toboggan. The source may have been the winter warfare series of manuals.
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