Front lug nuts

[joel gopan]

Chris T., when you get those nice wheels, I will be willing to have you pick some nice ones and ship eight or ten on a pallet to Maine. I get 65% discount on freight, I may be willing to pay extra for select ones. I was involved years ago in a NTSB research on Truck Wheel Failures, and I am very serious about the quality of the wheels I use on CCKW and Chevrolet 4X4.
Joel

[Brent Delaney]

Hi Guy's,

Here in New Zealand we had hundreds and hundreds of gmc trucks at the end of ww2, as the war effort increased the demand for vehicles went up,
so much so that they started to set up a reconditioning park here in seaview (about 10 miles from my home). But before any were rebuilt the war came to an end and of course everyone just wanted to go home!

The gmc's (and jeeps) were left to the NZ government, which were used to boost up our military stocks, later (1950's) they were all sold off as surplus, a local business man bought most of them up his name being G.T. Gilles. He then set about making a living from these trucks which suited our hilly terrian perfectly.

Form my memory there was over 100 acres of trucks parked bumper to bumper, and my father use to make regular weekend push bike trips just to look at them through the fence, ironically dad and I were to help dismantle the last few remaining trucks during the 1980's, it was a crying shame to watch as we had to stand by and watch the very last truck towed away to scrap A little history about this cckw 352 closed cab w/w was that we had decided to purchase it because it had very low miles on the speedometer, we agreed on a price but as we were towing it out the gate we were stopped by the owners grandson who order us to leave it behind at the time there was little we could do and the truck was cut up for scrap

We were to have the last laugh and as fate would have it the remaining parts which were in two large buildings were to be emptied out and disposed of, we were one of four partys to receive (for free) the nos surplus the scap man was one other, and the owner saved a 40 foot container only which was mostly full with rims and tires.

It was at this time we learned of another gmc that was available to buy, this was a cckw 353 h1 which I paid $1750 for and drove home from the south island, I have now owned this truck for over 22 years

It is very hard to find good useable rims in this country as most have rust heave between the two halfs were the rivits join them (mine no exception) so when good rims come along we try and snap them up (as you do).

Any way probably boring you all, so I will better leave it at that for now

Cheers,

Brent Delaney.

[joel gopan]

Brent, that was neat, I have similar memories of surplus WWII Trucks, and senseless waste, but the memories are almost as good as actually owning the vehicles. The memories are sort of a reward for being older and having been around a long time.
Joel

[bobc]

I finally did what I should have done right away and bought a TM-9-801,it's a April 44 version and as I read through it I'm learning alot of neat stuff,one thing which surprised me was the front lug nut question I asked long ago,according to this manual they used inner lug nuts on the front wheels unless the truck had bolt togather rims,it says this is so you can dual out the front axel for extra flotation. All the pictures in this manual are of open cab trucks which gives me alot of good references.

[bobc]

I finally did what I should have done right away and bought a TM-9-801,it's a April 44 version and as I read through it I'm learning alot of neat stuff,one thing which surprised me was the front lug nut question I asked long ago,according to this manual they used inner lug nuts on the front wheels unless the truck had bolt togather rims,it says this is so you can dual out the front axel for extra flotation. All the pictures in this manual are of open cab trucks which gives me alot of good references.

[bobc]

I finally did what I should have done right away and bought a TM-9-801,it's a April 44 version and as I read through it I'm learning alot of neat stuff,one thing which surprised me was the front lug nut question I asked long ago,according to this manual they used inner lug nuts on the front wheels unless the truck had bolt togather rims,it says this is so you can dual out the front axel for extra flotation. All the pictures in this manual are of open cab trucks which gives me alot of good references.

[joel gopan]

And you liked the TM so well you read it over, and over, and over. I have mine almost memorized, and it is still good reading.
Joel