Long Service Life

[Bob Carriere]

...sure looks like the Chrysler model from the early 70...... amphibious no less.

Is it still in Borden/Museum...?

Only seven were made....

One was destroyed at the Orleans testing grounds
One in Cantley, PQ
One at the Kars P&S museum
One on the West coast
One on the East coast
One in Borden.....

Were is the seventh one...?

Bob C

[David Dunlop]

Bob.

That rang a big bell! Yes, I believe it is one of the Chrysler prototypes. The interesting thing about it was from the front end, it bore some resemblances to the Cab 13 CMP.

Not sure if it is still alive and well at Borden. I do know they recovered a large amount of the armour sitting outside for many years and brought it indoors for repairs etc. The prototype was on indoor display back in 84, along with about another dozen vehicles.

While on the subject of prototypes, the Bobcat was on outdoor display in 84, but IIRC it had been gutted of all power train items for some reason, so was basically just a shell.

David

[Bob Carriere]

Why is it that most museum feel the need to gut the inside of historical vehicles..?

That is like saving all the shoe boxes of all the shoes I bought over the years but keep only the last pair of shoes I actually wear.

The Churchill bridge layer at the CWM suffered the same fate. They gutted all the inside, they only have the shell left. When I inquired about the power train, firing mechanism, etc. they denied they ever had them. I know better I was there when it was recovered in 1972 and crawled all over it and inside it..... it was a complete tank.

Hoping they never find out about the balloon inflatable tank decoys or they might want to replace them all with light weight copies.

I can just see a cartoon in the editorial section of the Ottawa Citizen showing a cleaning lady lifting a Sherman by the gun barrell while dust moping underneath.

The engine was a marvel by itself and worthy of its own display. They mated 2 Bedford 6 cyl. engine into a pancake 12 cyl. ....but it was not Canadian so off it went to become Honda bumpers.

Ha! for the good old days.

Bob C

[Bob Carriere]

Yes very boxy but even more cab forward...... you actually sat ahead and on top of the 318. It was very scary running up to the edge of a sand pit....tires stopped on the edge and you actually sitting past the edge.... has you went forward and dropped over your stomach just came up as in a circus ride.

It was nice inside and you could sit 4 on the front seat.... but we were smaller then.

To cross a fast moving stream not deep enought to float but to prevent the stream current to move you sideways .....you left the traps open underneath and allowed the hull to partly fill up with water... the 318 had full water proof iginition like the M37.

Once on the other side you lined the side of the truck with a new Toyota and turned on the bilge pump.... which would shoot water about 20 feet from the side.... including mud, leaves and any oily residue left in the hull...

Mind you... you had to crawl underneath to manually open and close the trap covers.

Tail gate was scooped down in the middle like a CMP tailgate.... but reinforced supposedly to allow the use of a long stalk outboard motor.
When we used it in deep water the 4 rotating tires would propell the truck quite well but with a scary nose down position. It took guts to drive it off a boat ramp at the Hull quay..... scared the begeezus out of a couple of old gents quietly fishing from the edge of the dock.

The all aluminium shell was easily dented and knowledge of working/repairing alum. bodies was rare. The model we played with had a special "one of" solid roof and incorporated the ventilation system duct for the sealed hull. Both front and rear axles had special 4 inch spacers between the sheet metal cover and the cast iron shell. These where cast as a water jacket cooling system connected to the engine cooling system. Working on the power train meant removing cover panels in the cargo bay and crawling inside... not very pleasant on a hot Summer day.

Circa late 70s.

Bob C