Lend Lease Studebaker US6s

[gordon]

You need to consider secondhand trucks.

It looks like early, non-standardised Dodges like the VC 3 pickup pictured at the Holden plant may have been first used in the north west US and on the Alcan and Canol projects, then given a production line rebuild at the mount Rainier Ordnance Depot in Washington State before being shipped as war aid to Australia in the middle of the war.

There were a lot of Studebakers on the Alcan and Canol projects too, so it might be that the trucks that ended up in Australia were ex-Alcan vehicles rebuilt and shipped to Australia as war aid, since the US wanted to keep the standardised GMCs and move on the early and limited standard trucks?

Evidence is sketchy though. When did the first of them arrive there? did any of them have any evidence of winterisation kits, or suspicious 4" holes in the engine cover for those fuel-burning engine heaters so commonly seen on the Alcan project?

Gordon