My new (to me) Deuce and a couple of deuce questions.

rob love · #1 24-11-12, 02:22

I recently brought home a 1956 M135 deuce, and drug another home for parts. The engine on the good deuce had been left with the valve cover off for the last 25 years or so, and had stuck valves even back in 1987. I pulled the head, cleaned everything up, did a quick valve job because of the pitted seats from the little bit of moisture that did occur. I just got it back together today, and after figuring out that I was 180° out on the distributor, she purred to life. Still lots to do, but it is starting to look promising. I hope to drive it out of the shop tomorrow.

I bought this to serve as the prime mover for my C1 howitzer project. I intend to re-do the semi gloss paint and markings to approximately the pre-1970s era.

In the future, I hope to add the winch kit, the heater kit, and maybe even a hiab crane. I also need to find a source for 12' long planks of oak to rebuild the troop seats and racks. I picked up one of the dual drive PTOs the other day, which provides power to the front and to the back of the truck.

Anyway, here is a photo or two of the new girl:

rob love · #2 24-11-12, 02:30

Anyway, in my search for parts, I visited a nearby yard of old deuces and ran into a couple of unique ones, which leads to a couple questions.

First, there is one of the line deuces in that yard. Was the Deuce line truck purely a Canadian thing, or were they patterned after a US truck? Dash shows it as a M135 which was kind of interesting: I thought they would have used a M133 (cab and chassis only) for these conversion. On the flip side, we have a deuce with winch here at the Shilo museum which has the data plate of M133, although it is completed as a M135.

Secondly, I found one cab had the data plate of the XM222 water truck. Serial number was somewhere around 0015, with a build date of 1952, and the crossed cannon ordnance corps inspectors mark stamped on the data plate. Obviously an early American made truck, but interestingly had a Canadian CFR number on the dash, with a 1954 model year. Did Canada build any of the M222 water trucks, or were they all from the US? Has anyone else noted US built GMCs in Canadian service?

Jon Skagfeld · #3 24-11-12, 14:17

This help in any way?

ECC 124107 Cable Layer, Truck Mounted, c/o

ECC 124102 Truck, Cargo, 2-1/2 ton, 6 x 6, w/winch, w/e
3895-21-109-3752 Cable Layer Adapter Kit,
Truck Mounting, EIS 7009

rob love · #4 24-11-12, 16:50

Well, the NSN is Canadian, but often we used Canadian NSNs even for US trucks, likely to cover for any changes or modifications we made.

I'll post the line truck question on the steel soldiers website, where membership is predominately US.

Ed Storey · #5 24-11-12, 17:17

The Canadian 2½ ton series of vehicles were based on US designs. In US service the M135 was pretty short-lived being replaced by the M35 Reo series. One distinguishing feature with the US M135s is that they were soft-top where as the M135CDN was a hard-top.

I believe some of the early trials vehicles used by Canada were of US manufacture and were used alongside the Canadian manufactured vehicles. I would be interested to know what the CFR was of the XM222.

I think the line vehicle you are talking about is the M207CDN Signal Line Maintenance Body and Equipment ECC 124902 of which only 18 were manufactured.

rob love · #6 24-11-12, 18:44

Interesting Ed, where do you get the source of 18 made?

The "Cdn Army Catalogue of Ordnance stores: Generic listing of vehicle and tracked equipments..." lists both M207 chassis (ecc 124902) and M133 chassis (ECC124901) being used for the (line) maintenance truck. It only shows a drawing of the M207 chassis version though. This body is mounted on a M135.

I suspect this truck was one of the early releases in the 70s, since it was not fitted with the west coast mirrors, although it does have a few peculiarities like green top clearance lights on the cab, and large yellow lenses on the SMP front signal lamp housings in the grill.

Ed Storey · #7 24-11-12, 19:38

The information came from a 1971 dated Data Summary for this vehicle.

The chassis was M207 from 1954 and 1955 and the specialist bodies were manufactured in 1957 and 1962. The vehicle had a special break kit in order to tow the 4 Ton Pole and Cable Reel Trailer ECC 150109.

ED

rob love · #8 24-11-12, 19:57

This body was built around 58 or 59 if I recall correctly. I'll have to get more photos of it all. It also has the electric brake rheostat on the steering column.

An interesting truck, but not of any interest to me, other than to rob it for parts. Unfortunately, I am starting to recognise my mortality, and have been dragging this stuff home faster than I can restore it. The justification of "last one" is starting to wear thin.

cletrac (RIP) · #9 24-11-12, 20:51

Rob, do you know that Hobean from Demaine, Sask? He had truck loads of rebuilt assemblies for those trucks. Trannies, rear ends, winches, etc)

rob love · #10 25-11-12, 01:23

I only dealt with John but I believe he passed away a decade or so ago. How much stuff is left.....I thought there was an auction of most of it after John died?

cletrac (RIP) · #11 25-11-12, 01:52

I think they call him Shorty.
They didn't auction off any of the parts and I think they're still there.

rob love · #12 25-11-12, 04:37

Shorty was John's son. I may well have to make a side trip there next spring when I am through Saskatchewan.

rob love · #13 25-11-12, 08:28

Well, the M135 drove out of the shop today, went once around the yard to get the motor to operating temp, and then back in for the head gasket retorque, re-adjustment of the valves, and setting up the timing. It is really starting to sound good. I am especially thankful the transmission works.

I have a few last minute things to do tomorrow to it (I need to get the in-tank fuel pump working), then another quick drive around the yard and she goes into the lineup until the spring. It's too big to fit into my shop, so the brake job will wait for warmer weather.

It is going to be a nice truck once the sandblaster and spray guns get at her.

Kirk Armitage · #14 25-11-12, 13:28

Nice pics Rob,I am admiring your hood and roof.Any airborne 135's out of PET that we have the hoods and roofs are in bad shape, too many tapdancing contests !
Kirk Armitage

rob love · #15 25-11-12, 16:03

The overall body condition was one of the reasons why I picked this truck. The hood has one minor dent in the center where it met with the roofline at one time. Most hoods I see have an actual hole worn in the center from hitting the roof as well as being constantly walked on.

My roof is a different story. It has been walked on. Good news is I picked up an almost perfect roof assembly off an early release cab that was sitting at the farmyard. I may install a roof rack once the new roof is installed to protect it down the road.

My last 7 years in the service were spent at 1 RCHA, where every time the truck was parked for more than 10 minutes, you had to cam it up. That meant walking on the hood, the roof, even the tarp over the cargo area. And all the while that you were crawling between the net and the truck, you wore webbing and gas bag just to add to the frustration. After you would climb up on the roof to install a spreader pole, the net would snag on the useless hood/windshield catches, or on some other trivial protrusion. Add to that it was either very cold out, or very hot. There was never a happy medium. Frustration wasn't the word for it. At the time you really did not care if you were bending the hood, or stepping on something semi-fragile. You also learned after a while to remove or tape over every useless item that would potentially snag the nets while back in garrison.

I picked up another deuce for a parts truck. It was the kitchen truck with the RCHA, and has all the attributes of a truck that served 30 years. Multi multi layers of paint, bent hood, bent roof, brush painted cab interior...I am glad I am not trying to restore that truck.

Dano McLaren · #16 30-11-12, 01:45

Here is a scan of a field kitchen from 1 Sigs Regiment early 70s.

Phil Waterman · #17 30-11-12, 21:33

Hi Rob

I remember that there were a number of trucks like this and similar to this at a MV meet in the Hamilton area back in the late `80s probably 1988. I remember taking a bunch of photos, which I'm looking for.

Looking at them and talking with their owners back then about using them as campers was the genesis of my getting a C60S in 1990 and then looking for an appropriate box body.

So Rob I hope you have as much fun with your BIG camper as we have had with ours. Great fun to pull up at a stop light next big knurly pickup truck with a camper and look down at them and say "what a cute little camper".

rob love · #18 30-11-12, 21:49

Here are a couple of photos of the line-up of trucks that remain at the local surplus yard. The bulk are M135 with a couple of the vans at the end of the line. There is also a M211 in another yard that we were not able to tow over because the back wheels were locked up. As well, there are another half dozen or so parts trucks in the yards.

These were purchased by the dealer back in the mid 80s, and have remained in the yards since. Mine was chosen out of the bunch, primarily due to the nicer body and paint on it. But after 25+ years sitting in the open. all of them need some serious TLC.

maple_leaf_eh · #19 02-12-12, 04:28

You asked about the differences between the US and Canadian lines. My fuzzy memory says the Canadian ones had the floor mounted semi-automatic shifter with the starter handle on the side. The US ones also had automatic transmissions, but the interior was somehow different.

The first shot of the complete truck made me smile. That vehicle has had a quiet life after disposal. No one spray painted it yellow and stripped off the little parts we are all looking for to put back on.

Just be ready to empty you wallet every time you fuel up. I don't think those trucks were ever considered "fuel efficient".

rob love · #20 02-12-12, 06:19

The truck has been robbed of at least one part: the convoy lamp is missing underneath. But that's OK, because I was one of those guys who always removed those things, and have a hoard of them somewhere. It happened occasionaly where we would be working on something under the truck just to find that the lamp was still there, and glowing away happily whilst draining the battery.

As far as I know, there are very few differences between the Cdn deuces and the US M135/M211.

We seem to have been more into the M135 model, where the US preferred the dual wheel version with flat deck (M211). We installed the hardtop during production, where the US was primarily soft top, with the hardtop as an option.

We had the hi/low superstructure and tarp, where the staves were adjustable to two different heights and the tarp had a folding extension. The US model did not do this. There would seem to be some minor variation to the cargo box design as well. And, of course, the Canadian trucks had the convoy lamp installation. I'll have to have a better look in the spring to determine if the convoy lights were a factory installation or a unit installation. The giveaway is usually in the wiring.

The only other Cdn option I can think of is the early style heaters which were installed on the inside of the cab on the firewall. The US kit was under the hood. We used the US kit as well, although generally heaters were not in many of the deuces. It will be in mine though, I can guarantee that.