M37 v FFPW's Musings


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Posted by Donald F. Blair on Wednesday, May 07, 2003 at 6:49AM :

In Reply to: Re: Too clean for the dirt road posted by Willy-N on Wednesday, May 07, 2003 at 1:40AM :

I'm a writer, so you'll have to forgive or enjoy the content. Growing up in Mountain View, California (born 1953, my father had founded a tree service in 1922. I still have his 1920 Oldsmobile truck and 1922 International Speed Truck in safe, dry, covered storage. The trucks I grew up working with were a 1941 Dodge civilian 2 ton, a 1946 Chevy Cabover and a 1947 GMC cabover. I'll tell about those trucks in another post someday.

Around 1972 an associate tree service in Belmont owned a pretty cherry brownish/copper 1958 W300M with a McCabe Powers utility body and winch. Other than a 318 V-8, it was pretty much stock as I remember.

I always thought the truck looked great, but everytime I drove it I thought that:
A. It had the worst turning radius of any truck I'd ever driven.

B. It sat real low in the cab.

I resolved therefore that no matter how much I liked the looks of the truck I would resist buying one.

In 1998 I had a chance to buy a real clean
1953 M37 at a low enough price to compensate for the fact that the engine was blown.

Once I got that truck on the road I was impressed at how relatively nimble it was not only on it's own merits but when compared to my decades-old recollections of what a beast the W300M was. I figured I must have been too young and too spoiled by power steering and my 1971 Datsun pickup to have
judged the W300M so harshly. So, with several years of enjoying the "easy driving"
M37 behind me, I didn't think twice about buying a 1958 Dodge W300M with utility body;
yessir!, the identical truck, year and body style from my salad days as an arborist.

When I met up with Jonas and the truck, it didn't take 5 minutes behind the whell for me to gasp, "OHMIGOD!, this truck drives just exactly as horrible as I remember".

So, once I got over the shock and satisfaction that parts of my mind haven't failed over the years, I've resigned myself to the character of the beast and I drive it and accept it for what it is.

The consensus around the Blair household is that the W300M is the winner on looks. The M37 is the hands-down winner on driveablity.
Although they both weigh about the same, the shorter wheelbase and narrower track sure make a difference.

My 10 year old and 12 year old boys can't decide on which one they'd keep if they had to choose, but they lean towards the W300M on investment value (I've raided them well).

All things being the way they are, the M37 is the first one I'll grab for a job and the 1958 is the one that goes to the shows, but I'll never make the undercarriage so pretty that I can't feel good about making him earn his keep in the woods or in the fields.

M37 versus the civilans...
Any other opinions out there?

Thanks for reading.

Don



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