Iltis and M101. Ready for Coe Hill

[rob love]

As I recall, the black "stitching" was an early recall to prevent premature rusting, from the water collecting under the re-enforcing panels. It well could have been in the instructions then to touch up the pain, which by that time would have been the single colour. The 28 that I bought were hardly used and none of them showed any signs of cam. They were in the serial ranges of between 250 or so up to about 750. I'll recheck mine for any signs of cam underneath the green, but I don't believe there was any color but green on them.

The LSVW came out at the same time as these trailers, and were in green only. The HLVW was built around 89/90 if I recall, and they were camo'd. Could be that the 101Cdn2 fell right on the border of the implementation, and the paint scheme was changed during production.

[rob love]

Yes, but my thought is that it may have been the paint scheme at the beginning of production, and dropped during production. I still have not gone to mine to see if there is any other colours under the green.

Thanks for the pics...unusual to see them cammed in this end of the country.

[Scott Bentley]

Not sure if the point came up here at all, but what I find more entertaining than wether the trailer was mono 383 Green or Nato Temperate 3 Colour Cam (I've also seen both), was that it was never painted to match the Vehicle that it was designed to be towed by....

[rob love]

By the late late 80s we were going to the NATO cam as opposed to the Cdn 3 colour cam. The M101Cdn2 was produced at the tail end of the NATO cam era while the Iltis was in the tail end of the 3 colour Cdn era. By the mid 90s, both would have been correct in the solid green. Not sure I ever saw an Iltis in solid green though.

[rob love]

The chrome rims and oversize tires are cool too. That one owuld have had a hub change I would assume.

I modified one over to a tailgate and painted it red for a customer. It was, when cutting out the tailgate, that I realized just how heavy these things were built. It took a lot longer than I thought it would to cut through the metal.

[Ed Storey]

Here is a photograph from 1996 of a green Iltis Light Cable Layer. I have another image of this vehicle taken a few years earlier when it was still in its factory applied camouflage.

[Scott Bentley]

Originally Posted by Ed Storey

Here is a photograph from 1996 of a green Iltis Light Cable Layer. I have another image of this vehicle taken a few years earlier when it was still in its factory applied camouflage.

No doubt, there were more than a few Iltis out there that were mono 383 Green, but you have confirmed my memory Ed that most were either SEV's (TOW Iltis comes to mind) or had returned from a Roto Overseas, rather than a fleet wide mid-life painting scheme. My comment above was based on seat of the pants feel rather than historic fact

Scotty

[rob love]

The Iltis all went through re-life in the early 90s,and most got fresh paint at that point in the cam pattern. By the end of that decade, the only paint available was the CARC, which could only be applied at second line. As a result, paint jobs were no longer being done (theoretically) by first line units. Very few vehicles made it to second line for cosmetic paintjobs (exceptions were for vehicles like the c/s 9), which is why it would usually be limited to vehicles coming back from overseas or on VMOs. It is also the reason why many of the cammed vehicles were touched up with any green that could be found in a spray bomb, or have the black extended to cover areas that needed touch up.