M62 wrecker

[rob love]

A new piece to the Shilo Museum, this vehicle was parked for the last 25 years behind the Regina Armouries. Knowing it was there, and having a soft spot in my heart for wreckers, it took almost 3 years to get it transferred to us.

Once parked, it seems like time stood still for it. Full tanks of fuel have turned into yellowish poo, the batteries are cracked, the right door was hanging by it's check rod, and the engine was stuck.

Niel Yeo was by the other day and with his youthful exuberance, managed to turn the fan and get the pistons moving again. They are now soaking in oil. Today I replaced both right door hinges (only had 3 screws break), so the door isn't going to fall on the next guy who opens it.

Come Monday, I'll dump the engine oil and replace with fresh, as well as try and pressurize the oil system. Then I need to clean the fuel pump and line to the carb, at which time I'll energize the system and see if she goes.

These were the first wreckers I ever drove back in the 80s. Canada purchased 117 of them, and the years of mfgr were 52,53,55,and 56. This one is dated 12-12-55 and the engine was rebuilt by Tecmotive in 1990. There was a further purchase of 5 tons, including wreckers, in the 1970s. At that time, the gassers were relegated to the militia and airforce bases, while the regular army got the diesels.

I sold the idea to the museum here because the Honest John missile system used one. They had an m62 wrecker which was solely dedicated to the assembly of the rockets onto the launchers.

In a couple of the photos you can see some examples of attempted first line body repairs that will require attention. Especially note the door hinge on the hood. It looks like initially someone tried to mount the door hinge next to the original hood hinge location. Note to whomever came up with this idea: hinges, when in pairs, must have the hinge pins in the same plane or else something (the hinge or the surrounding metal) has to give. I hope you were not proud of this work.



Overall though, it appears to be in good condition....you gotta love Saskatchewan/Manitoban vehicles.

[Wayne Hingley]

Nice addition to the museum fleet Rob. Does this mean it is moving to the front of your backlog of projects?

Are all the wrecker components in working condition?

[rob love]

No, it is not a priority vehicle. But since it shares a lot of cab and electrical components with the current MLVW, I want to scrounge what I can while they are still around They could well be gone in a year or less as the new trucks are starting to show up at bases. For now I want get the engine to run, and clean the fuel system somewhat to stop any further damage.



The hydraulic levers on the crane all move. As to whether the systems are still functional, I'll find that out once the engine is running. Twenty five years is a fair bit of time, so we'll see.

[Ed Storey]

Nice save, 55-60297 was disposed of out of CFB Moose Jaw in March 1993.

[rob love]

Never really disposed of Ed....it and one other from Saskatoon both just stayed in the Regina Armouries compound. I believe the NSN was changed over to an Artifact number, but it stayed on the Service Bn account, and eventually found it's resting space in one of the back compounds. There are still a number of old 3/4 ton trailers littering the compound....not sure what the story is on those. They never even stripped it of most of it's kit. The towbar attachments are still in one of the rear bins, tow cables in another, the light bar in another, and most of the snatchblocks are still in their bins.



Around 95, I was rounding up vehicles for the display in front of the MooseJaw Armouries and we managed to get one of the two wreckers over to that location. About 5 years back I was in MooseJaw helping to re-freshen up the vehicle display, and while painting the wrecker noted that the engine still turned. So once I was working full time with this museum,it was only natural to try and save the remaining wrecker.

[wayne warrenchuk]

I came back from Thunder Bay a couple weeks back and found one of those wreckers at a towing outfit in Ignace. Owner seemed motivated to sell including a spare crated engine