Aussie DeSoto Ute

[Mike K]

Dave

The seating arrangement in these army utes is rather unusual, the passenger or drivers mate seat base is arranged so that the guy can stand up and observe and if he is brave enough , he could use the LAA Bren gallows mount .

The ute rear springs are 'beefed up' compared to the springs on the Plymouth sedans .

I put an article together for the USA Chrysler club magazine and the editor was amazed , he had never heard of a 1941 Plymouth sedan based utility .

There was a short window of opportunity for me to own all three variants of the military 12 cwt utes - the 1941 Ford , Chevrolet and the Plymouth plus I did have the Pontiac for a while but it was just all too much , where to store them and the cost of it all.

The engine blocks fitted in these utes are longer when compared to the contemporary T214 and other Chrysler vehicles with smaller bores i.e. up to 3 and 1/4" . So be careful when buying a head gasket. These long block engines also can have different stroke lengths - I think the common post-war 250ci engine has a bore of 3 and 7/16" . There was also a larger Chrysler s.v. 6 engine used in a particular brand of agricultural harvester . Was it 261 ci ? This might help you or maybe confuse you ! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_flathead_engine

Oh there are some of these utes listed in the ARN books so you can have a look for your engine nr. and maybe find its ARN and where it was disposed to.