spare tire rack for CCKW fuel tanker

[flakgunner]

hello,just joined up,searching for a answer for my 15 year old boy,he enjoys building WWII era vehicles in 1/35 scale,he's already built quite afew 2 1/2 ton CCKW's ,and is currently building another,by Tamiya,this time he's leaving the cargo bed off ,and has picked up a conversion kit,by CMK,this kit will be adding the 750 gal.fuel tank.,the problem is the instructions saying nothing about the placement of the spare tire,instruction diagram drawing shows the tank inches away from the cab,and no tire rack,ive got one book showing a photo,also with no tire rack behind the cab,yet in the modeling world,everyone is telling us,there HAS! to be a spare tire rack behind the cab,and the company CMK ,omitting this feature is a serious flaw,for thier conversion kit.we're hoping someone can clear this matter up for him.was the fuel tanker built both ways?with and without the tire rack (if they all came with this tire rack,would it have been for a single spare tire or duel spares?) .we do know that they where all built on the LWB 353,and no winch was added.as far as the book photo.could this possibly been the proto-type?
thank you for your time and help.
Joe

[Degsy]

The only photos I have of gas tankers in US service do not show a spare wheel. There does not appear to be any space between the cab and body for a mounting, however pictures of trucks in French and Israeli service post war show a spare wheel mounted in a vertical position at the rear of the tank. The Israeli version utilises what appears to be a cut down vrsion of the 352 twin mount but the French version appears to be bolted to what must be a simple vertical bracket. Hope this is some help to you.

[Bill_Wolf]

I concur with Degsy.

The only pictures I have seen of Non Airfield CCKW fuel tankers have had the tire mounted on the back. There is no indication that that was not a post war modification.

The only official indication I have seen of a spare tire mounted elsewhere on a fuel truck is the Military line drawing of the CCKW tanker with Columbian manufactured 750 gal gas tank. This has the 352 style dual tire carrier (behind cab) cut down to hold 1 tire.

Bill

[42cckw]

Bill
If you have a scanner and a TM9-801 tech manual there is a very good picture of all three types on page 409 see if you can post them

JIM 42CCKW

[flakgunner]

hello,
and thanks for reading our request,,just to clear up what my son is building,it's the WWII fuel tanker that supplied the troops,-convoys,armor,depots,etc; and not the tankers you would find on a airbase.instead of the cargo bed ,a platform was placed on the chassis ,and two 375 gal tanks where then placed on this paltform,thier are racks on both sides for 5 gal. fuel cans.with a fair amount of WWII vehicle referance books,on hand ,ive got one photo of a closed cab CCKW,and thier is no spare tire rack behind the cab,and thier isnt room for any ethier,we belong to a web site modeling club and afew fellow modelers have come up with some vintage photo's and afew restored tankers in europe (france) and they all show,a single spare tire in a verticle rack just behind the cab,they've also mentioned about a dual spare tire setup the same way,but no photo's have showen up,it seams confusing,we had always thought that 353's had spare under the chassis,and 352 had the rack behind the cab,but it seams the rack was used on 353 fuel tankers.where just hoping someone will be able to give us info on the tankers being built with no vert.rack behind the cab,so that would place the tank just inches behind the cab,and maybe the spare was placed under the chassis?
when my son finishes this project,his next CCKW ,will be a recovery/wrecker vehicle ,for this project ,we'll have to build the booms from scratch.thier are no conversion kits available.thiers is a company that makes the tipper conversion for the CCKW,but it's quite pricey
Joe

[Degsy]

You are correct in saying that there is no room for a spare wheel behind the cab, the photos I mentioned are of the type you describe not the USAAF tanker. Your fellow modellers may be getting confused with the 700 gallon water tanker which did have a spare wheel mounted behind the cab.
In the only photo I can find of the drivers side of the fuel tanker there is no spare fitted but it would be possible to fit the spare in the usual 353 position.