Canadian Dodge CMP prototype photo

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Moved over from Scenes from Italy:

Originally Posted by Bob Carriere

Who, from all the MLU expert, can tell me more about the Dodge in the second string of pictures......??

It has a closed cab Dodge cab..... year?? right hand drive... with a CMP cargo box..(2C1 ?) and a CMP tool box and possibly CMP fuel tanks.....and a CMP 2 wheel drive front axle??? or was the axle proprietory to Dodge??

Bob,

Our resident Dodge expert from Scotland will no doubt chime in shortly, but the Dodge in the picture is a regular Dodge D15 15-cwt 4x truck. It is typical of the Modified Conventional Pattern (MCP) vehicles: civilian chassis/cab, with military cargo box, lighting, wheels/tyres, etc. There was no such thing as a CMP 2 wheel drive front axle, only a Chevrolet, Ford, and in this case a Dodge axle.

HTH,
Hanno

[Bob Carriere]

A few more details.....

All three major players had their own front Beam axle.... Dodge.....Chev.... and Ford..... yet all had the same CPM bolt pattern. Did they use special adapters on the civilian beam axle similar to the C* to accept CMP bolt patterns.......

As pictured in Mike's posting..... that D15 represents what model year for Dodge....... 1940--41 or earlier.

...and while I have you attention Hanno...... did you ever send me the lenght measurements for those 3 brake lines..?

Bob

[gordon]

It's a regular T222 engineering code D15, the production conventional configuration rather than the cab forward configuration shown in the image that Colin M-S found, shown here;



They will have used a regular Dodge front axle and put special hubs on it to suit the wheel pattern. In fact this truck and the cab forward version would be near enough mechanically identical except for steering and control linkages I think?

Gordon

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by gordon

They will have used a regular Dodge front axle and put special hubs on it to suit the wheel pattern. In fact this truck and the cab forward version would be near enough mechanically identical except for steering and control linkages I think?

Gordon and I are speculating about this again over on HMVF. It dawned on me the wheelbase of the T222 D15 is 128.5" compared to the 101" wb of the CMP 15-cwt chassis. So, the Dodge 15-cwt CMP prototype was not simply a T222 D15 with a Ford CMP Cab 13 stuck on.

Could it be a Ford (note the cab) 15-cwt with a Dodge badge stuck on it, possibly a Dodge engine stuck in as well?

What are your thoughts on this?

Hanno

PS: apart from any possible engineering and manufacturing challenges, I think one of the reasons this truck was not taken in production is because orders for 4x2 trucks must have been declining by the time the Cab 13 was taken in production.

[gordon]

Well, if we take that prototype, and subtract the rear body, toolbox, and wheels as ordinary CMP stuff.

The front axle, rear axle, engine, transmission, suspension and drivetrain could all be standard off-the-shelf T222 series from the ordinary D-15, the most would need to do would be to make a specific length of driveshaft from the transmission to back axle.

That lot aside, you are left with the steering column, chassis, cab, and drivers controls. I suspect the chassis was made specially, and the steering colum and controls would be modified civilian stuff.

The image shows a square roof hatch - anyone tell me if the cab features are identifiably early, late, Ford, Chev ?

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by gordon

The image shows a square roof hatch - anyone tell me if the cab features are identifiably early, late, Ford, Chev ?

Yes, that's why I said "Could it be a Ford (note the cab) 15-cwt with a Dodge badge stuck on it".
Colin's picture is too grainy, but I cannot see the "FORD" or "FORD CANADA" stamped under the headlights, typical for later Ford cabs.

H.