Oh. And winches...

[JD Baillie]

Was the Braden LU4 the only winch purchased for and mounted on the M37? Are they common?

JD

[Robert Dabkowski]

JD, the LU4 was the official Cdn. army winch for the M37 family of vehicles, we bought approx. 3500 trucks but only 700 came from the factory with this winch. I'm sure that the forces added more in later years (but not to ambulances) but they are still rareish north of the border. Easy to find in the US but much harder to find are undamaged split winch bumpers and frame extensions/brackets used to mount them. A.B.Linn in the US has most of the bits needed but will NOT ship out of the US due to a run in with US export controls a few years ago. Expect to pay about US$1100 to US$1200 plus heavy shipping for a complete set-up in good condition. Much better to buy a Cdn. parts truck with one and rebuild it because then you will have a Cdn. pto which IS different from the US one but looks similar. Be very careful on this subject as it IS possible to bolt a US pto to a Cdn. transmission BUT you will strip a lot of gear teeth the first time that you try to engage the winch.
Of course many other winch types do end up on M37s, including the MU-2 from the slightly earlier "weapons carrier" family of Dodges. Just requires some welding/cutting skills and a Cdn. pto instead of a straight bolt-on.
Very handy to have one on the heavy M152. Good luck, Robert

[JD Baillie]

Robert,
Thanks for the history. Am looking for a winch but not in a hurry. There is a M152 here in town with one mounted. Look OK and he loves it. Not a stock truck but looks good from the outside.

Cheers
JD

[JD Baillie]

Robert,
If both transmissions are t98s, then what is the difference that you refer to where a U.S. PTO will not fit in a Cdn trans?

JD

[Robert Dabkowski]

JD, you have hit apon the most sinister part of the design. As is so typical of Canada, we wanted some Canadian content (and jobs) so ACME of Toronto used t98 CASES (only) to build Cdn. transmissions with internals different to the US Warners (some syncros & different shift pattern also).

The "GREAT EVIL" is that you CAN indeed bolt a US pto to a Cdn. transmission and everything will work just fine UNTIL you try to engage the winch. At that point the US pto gear teeth, which are cut at the reverse angle to the Cdn. gear teeth will self destruct and fill the transmission case with many little bits of hard metal which usually jam and break the remainder of the driving gears in the case also. Very depressing & expensive.

To add icing to the cake, the Cdn. service manual for the M37 was basically just copied from the US manual and shows a good photo of the US pto gear NOT the Cdn. pto gear. If you compare a US pto to the photo in the Cdn manual you think that you have the correct beast, install it and then try to find a new transmission (and pto also). Be AFRAID, be very AFRAID !!

Robert in Toronto

[JD Baillie]

Robert,

Aaaaaaccccckkkkkk!!! (That was a Bill the Cat sound).
How absolutely awfull. I think I've found a CDN PTO that's available (no winch though). Perhaps I'll start negotiations with the owner.

And thanks for the info. I hope others have read this.

Cheers
JD

[Robert Dabkowski]

that a fairly thick gasket (somewhere between 1/16" and 1/8" is used between the pto and the transmission case so that the pto gears don't "bottom out" in their grooves when engaging. Some friends of mine had trouble when they tried to use only a "liquid gasket" type silicone which didn't give the proper spacing.

Happy to help out.

Robert in Toronto