G749 Picture and info thread

[jdmcm]

My tractor

[Wayne Hingley]

John; I think you need a loading ramp... moving all these trucks around is resulting in lot of crane work for you ($$).

[jdmcm]

Wayne my wife wants me to continue using the cranes, I suspect in hopes that eventually something will fall on me and she can call the scrappers...

[rob love]

Cunning......

[DanJahn]

John, does your wife have my phone number?

[jdmcm]

Don't worry Dan, you will be one of the first bereaved to be called I'm sure for the wake/auction

[Dennis Cardy]

Borden. Museum.. 23 July 2017.

A visit to Borden yielded these shots.
As per Rob Love's request... a few photo's were taken of the data plates on the Dental Van and the cargo version

The helpful lady on the front desk last weekend said you can take as many photo's as you want..you can open the door..but please do not enter the cab.

This made a clear photo of the data plate hard to take…as it was very dark in the cab.
Even with a wetted finger and looking closely..it was very hard to make out what the numbers were

As best as I can tell... it seems that 52-5000 is 113500110 with a delivery date of 2-4-52.

Does that make sense.?

Dental Van to follow.

[Ed Storey]

Great photos, thank you.

[rob love]

Yes, great photos. I would suggest that serial 110 was not the first Canadian produced M135, although it may have been the first assigned CAR number on the delivery lot.

[Ed Storey]

Rob makes a good point that I agree with, sadly the first vehicle most likely got overlooked as the CFR would not indicate its importance. I take it that very few other 'firsts' have been saved.

[rob love]

I have photos somewhere of that truck back in the early 80s. I don't recall the CFR numbers looking like they were done with masking tape, but I could be wrong. Perhaps it is a more recent paint job?

Clive Law had asked (and received) lists from the DND of all CFR numbers which included the serial numbers. Sadly, he did not post those on the ram tank site, and with the cleanup of the old EDR data, it may now be lost. Unless serial number 001 was part of the forces reduction in the 71/72 era, the truck should have appeared onto the post 1978 Loomis data.

[rob love]

I took my deuce and C1 howitzer out to the threshermans reunion this weekend. I drove them from Shilo for a distance of 74 kms, and the truck just wanted to go faster. I had to keep backing off the throttle as I wasn't happy with the vibration at 56mph. Ahhh, for the blissfull days where the vibration didn't bother me.

Anyway, each day there is a parade and we hook up all the guns with their towing trucks, and go once around the track. All the tractors and horse teams do the same. So yesterday, with someone else driving my deuce, it started crapping out right on from of the stands. Paul was able to get it started, it would rumble and backfire, maybe give a spurt of power, then die. He finally made it past the reviewing stand, and I pulled up beside him and told him just to pull over. The museum there has a big old tractor just for recovery.

Paul at first thought it was out of fuel.....I knew that wasn't the case, besides, when a deuce runs out of fuel, it just quits. I though maybe someone messed with the fuel, so today brought out 4 jerry cans of fresh premium along with some tools and spare parts.

First I pulled the fuel line to the carb and turned on the engine. Lots of fuel and nice and clean. I moved on to the distributor and though I might have seen a couple of minor cracks. I installed the new cap and cover quickly, and that was not the problem. So before I moved to the other fender to replace the carb, I decided to replace the resister, coil and condenser. Once they were out I decided to replace the condenser for the contact points as well. Put it all together, eyeballed the point gap, closed the distributor, and she ran like a top. Failing condenser...who would have thought? The engine was a fresh rebuild back in 1980.

She went through the parade today with no issues (in fact all 5 vehicles and guns did). Tomorrow they have to do it one more time, then tear down and on Monday we retrieve everything back to Shilo and I'll drive the deuce and gun home Monday night.

One thing with fuel on a deuce, it is easy to know how much you need and how much you have. Every time the odometer clicks another mile, you have used another liter.

Photos later.

[Dave D.]

Originally Posted by jdmcm

Wayne my wife wants me to continue using the cranes, I suspect in hopes that eventually something will fall on me and she can call the scrappers...

I wasn't going to post this up until the patent came through but this seems like a good time.

You can show this to the wife and see if she approves of the G749 coffin design!

[Dave D.]

Originally Posted by rob love

I took my deuce and C1 howitzer out to the threshermans reunion this weekend.

Photos later.

Really looking forward to pictures. My truck hasn't been the same since I let a little lady Dragoon behind the wheel. We need to start telling folks to get their own trucks.

Your truck's sister, Gizmo the November M135, had similar symptoms in a June parade. Troubleshooting went just like yours from the tank to the ticker and we've kept it running but it isn't right. He dropped a new distributor in it today and still didn't win so......wish you were here.

What do you think about Dennis's find Rob? Were there 110 trucks built before 2-4-52? I wonder if 11350000 is still out there.

Thank you for doing that Dennis, ....I've been on my way down East for 6 years so you're just lucky to beat me to it.

[rob love]

Originally Posted by Dave D.

What do you think about Dennis's find Rob? Were there 110 trucks built before 2-4-52? I wonder if 11350000 is still out there.

Thank you for doing that Dennis, ....I've been on my way down East for 6 years so you're just lucky to beat me to it.

I'll try and research that a little further. It's a shame there is not a date on the photo of the first truck that you showed at the beginning of this thread. I can't understand why we would not have started at 01, unless the American trucks were somehow serialized in the same format and series. What serial format are on the US trucks?

Little wonder you can't make it "down East. One does not go "down East". One goes down South, Up North, Out West and over East. You must live in a city.

[Dennis Cardy]

Glad I could be of help.
Here's a few more photo's.

As per jdmcm's request....some interior shots of the dental van.
It no longer has the pexi. "door"….but for some reason there seems to be a display of Medieval torture instruments.

The ID plate was really hard to read, but seems to be 20 ? 02863 . Can't tell if the question mark is a space ...or maybe a "7"…
With a delivery date of 26-3-54.

As per my last post..I had to stand next to the cab and position the camera at what I hoped was the proper angle. The flash gives an unfortunate glare..but it was much too dark for a natural light shot.

Dennis.

[Dave D.]

That really helps Dennis, with my shop van being 3002 and a 30-4-54 delivery baby it appears they built 139 M207's between March 26 and April 30, 1954.

I'll bust into the database we have on SS for the U.S. trucks

The frame stamp, data-plate serial #'s for our trucks will be 1207XXXXX.

I'm also reading that we may never find a frame stamped with M216...and maybe not M221.....There is documentation that the M207's may have been used to create these trucks so much more digging to do!

[Ed Storey]

Generally the individual truck models were on a specific chassis

M135 Truck on chassis M133

M211 Truck on chassis M207

M220 Shop Van on chassis M207

M222 Water Tank Truck on chassis M207

M216 Dump on chassis M210

M217 Gasoline Tank on chassis M207

Not everything was well defined and some vehicles like the Fuel Servicing and Signal Line Maintenance were not provided with unique M-numbers so were therefore referred to by the chassis as M207.

[rob love]

Originally Posted by Dennis Cardy

The ID plate was really hard to read, but seems to be 20 ? 02863 . Can't tell if the question mark is a space ...or maybe a "7"…
With a delivery date of 26-3-54.

.

When I blow up the photo, it sure looks like a 7 which would make sense. The serial numbers will start with the model or chassis model, in this case M207.

Interesting to see the dental chair with the foot pedal. I picked one up for a collector in Alberta back at Easter. My favorite surplus dealer still has a few more in their boxes. Personally, I would not want my dentist to be drilling while he is pedaling.

[jdmcm]

Rob
if you could lay your hands on one more of the dental chairs or anything dental van specific I would be deeply appreciative!

Regards
John

[jdmcm]

And Dave....sadly the G749 coffin has been approved

John

[rob love]

Originally Posted by jdmcm

And Dave....sadly the G749 coffin has been approved

John

Would that be just the roof portion, the whole truck, or all the trucks for the burial?

There are 3 more of the chairs, although the first purchaser has his name on one more. There is also a wicker dental pannier and tool case (one of those trunks that opens up to reveal drawers). Dirk Derin was negotiating on one of them, but it was beyond his means. Shoot me a PM and I can give you an indication of prices, as well as secure what you want.

[jdmcm]

will do Rob