Posted by Brian in Oregon ntxt on Friday, April 13, 2001 at 5:20PM :
In Reply to: Re: It's a WWII WC-54. Also about location... posted by Harry on Friday, April 13, 2001 at 3:09PM :
Supposedly, it was not the Army's decision to stop buying M37's or whatever the next generation of Dodge would be. I've seen references by military vehicle authorities on the subject that Congress thought Dodge had a monopoly since 1940 on 3/4 ton 4x4's and made it clear the contract would go to another company. Chevy and Kaiser-Jeep entered their vehicles. The Chevy was advanced but the Army could buy 5 M715's for every 4 Chevys. The M715 and M725 Ambulance are tough trucks. But Kaiser-Jeep saddled the Army with the POS 230 engine (not the same as a Dodge 230) that they had discontinued for civilian orders because it was so unreliable.
M37's were made from 1950 to 1954, and 1958 to 1968, with very little in the way of changes.
Interesting about the M43 shortage in Nam, since towards the end of the Korean War the Army rushed M43's there, especially when the armistice was about to be signed, in anticipation of large numbers of bad condition GI POW's being released.
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