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<What do you believe made the chassis (body crossmember) bend?>

They had a program on TV and a passing comment about steel in vehicles. They claimed that unpainted steel looses about 0.005" per year. So maybe 60 years x 0.005 = 0.300" which is more than the thickness of the original part. So the years of it being unpainted on the bottom with moist wood held on top of it may have weakened it. I really don't know.

The answer may lie in the abuse the trruck may have had in previous civilian life when the owner(s) may have tried to make it perform beyond its design limits. Not all metal corrodes at thae quoted rate. Thinl about it, nobody would have old trucks to drive.

It did have a rough life. Someone may have tried to "yard logs" with it. They had ripped the pintle mount (hung underneath the rear crossmember) right out of it. I had to have a new rear chassis cross member and pintle mount assy fabricated. It was a beech to get the old one out!


According to the manual, the M5 Bomb Trailer can be towed with the front caster wheels on the ground at highway speeds. If everything is not 100% perfect, it may shimmy at a particular speed. The pivot for the caster is designed with a damper that resembles 1/2 of a disc brake rotor. It has two "pucks" that squeeze it to provide friction dampening. Both my M5's have a loosness in the disc where it mounts to the shaft. If the caster shimmy's, it is absolutely violent leaving caster skidmarks on the road!! It will attempt to remove the pintle from the truck!

I still want an M-6 to go with my M-1 Bomb Lift. M-5 Trailers used to be everywhere in the 60s they have slowly disappeared over the years.

Found this phot of an early WW2 bomb truck on the Life magazine site thought you might like to see it , complete with bomb lift .

That is the M-1, 1-1/2 Ton 4X2 Bomb Service Truck made by Diamond T in 1941.
It was in competition with Ford and Chevrolet as the Military Standard 1-1/2 Ton Bomb Service requirement under SNL G-85. Note the M-1 Bomb Lift stowed under the hoist, and the manner the single rear wheels were installed on the rear. Tires were 7.50X16 commercial tread.
Nice Picture.

1951 Korea bomb dolly and P51 mustang
http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff35 ... reaP51.jpg

That Napalm is good stuff. (Korean War Pic)

Did the rear most bed cross member (sill in manual) get swaped with one of the others. The others are thin materail but the rear most sill is made from 1/4 steel on the bomb service truck. If I remember right the rest are 16 ga steel.

Jason

PS I want the M1 cart to go with the M6 truck and M5 trailer and bomb cradles.

All mine were 16ga steel including the rearmost one. That is why I changed it.

Re:The rear platform body for the M-6, there were 4 designs, each using slightly different board widths. The number of floorboards ranged from 12 to 14.

The toolbox on the drivers side running board is in a bad place. To get from the drivers seat to up to the crane winch, you either have to get down to the ground or walk on the top of the toolbox.

The Tool Box was necessary, one box contained the bomb handling tools, the other had the crank, tow chain, tire chains, Jack, wheel wrench grease gun, hand tools, tire iron, etc. With the M-1 Bomb Lift stowed on the platform, and the rear seat, (called the Side Seat) in the there was not all that much space on that small truck.

What a relief for the Korean War era USAF when the M-Series M-108 Wrecker/Crane Truck mounted on the 2-1/2 Ton 6X6 Chassis appeared in 1952. It allowed them to dispose of the M-6 and M-27 Bomb Service Trucks.

Time for a rerun.