Diamond T 968 - 968A - 968B - what are the differences ?

[Eduard Sorokin]

Dear friends !

I should like to know, what exact differences were between Diamond T 968, 968A, and 968B versions of trucks.
I know, there were hard top and soft top cabins. But I am strongly sure, that there were more differences between those variants.
I shall pleased to get any detailed information on this subject.

[DanJahn]

This answer may be a lot simpler than what your looking for.

968 base model

968A USA issue

968B lend lease

[McDell Bros]

Hi, as far as I know the 968 had a civilian dash and gauges etc whereas the 968A had military gauges and dash layout. The 968B was for UK and Canada but unsure what differences there were? The change to soft top cab and wooden deck had no relevance to these designations as far as I'm aware. Early on in the production the Diamond T emblem cast into the radiator top tank disappeared and the fuel tank filler cap/neck was changed. Anyone else have any more information? I am interested myself.

[DanJahn]

I forgot about the guages on the early models being civilian style. I wonder if Russia got any Diamond Ts on lend lease?

[Bill Murray]

Hi Dan:

I found no reference to the 968 model, but they did get a supply of the 980/981 as seen below.

Bill

http://www.o5m6.de/diamond.html

[Eduard Sorokin]

Originally Posted by DanJahn

I wonder if Russia got any Diamond Ts on lend lease?

Yes, here in Russia we used T980/981 trucks in amount of 295 examples (according to other data, in 471 examples), received under Lend Lease. Some of them were used after the War for civil purposes until the Sixties, and often those truck were locally modified to improve their characteristics and serviceableness in cold climate regions.

Here is image from 1950 - the T980 in Atka settlement in Soviet Far East. It carries the narrow-gauge steam locomotive "series GR" (the Russian designation for German-made steam locomotive (1947 - 1956), based on pre-War German locomotive "Typ 157") and its tender. Such locomotives were built in Germany on reparations for the USSR: