Wooden steering wheel.

[UK Jack]

Guys,

talking to Matt today and he was telling me about the wooden steering wheels etc etc.

Now I quite like my rubber one, but are the wooden one easy to find state side or have they all long since rotted?

Cheers.

Jack.

[Bill_Wolf]

Jack,

There has been some discussion on here http://www.cckw.org/steering_wheels.htm about wood steering wheels in the past. One of the message board members from Maine has been looking for one since the board started.

There is some reference stuff here on the CCKW 20" wheel. There are other size wood wheels but they are for other applications (DUKW, CMP). There are some of the smaller wheels around but I do not believe they are correct for a CCKW.

The last 20" wood wheel I saw on ebay went in a "buy it now" for $350. It was not NOS.

Bill

[Nick Bombini]

Jack, you will probably have more luck looking for a wodd steering wheel over there. My truck is a Norwegian return and has the original wheel. You can probably find one on a parts truck. There is a truck localy that has one but the wodd is shot so it would need to be redone. I don't think I can even get my hands on it if I wanted to.

[Ledog]

Just a question that comes to me.

Were the rubber steering wheel originally painted OD or left black (on CCKW)?

[UK Jack]

Just a question that comes to me.

Were the rubber steering wheel originally painted OD or left black (on CCKW)?

They is a good point, as mine is/was OD.

Thanks Nick, you could be right, I will have a look but Iam not that fussed really as in a strange way I like my GMC as it is.......it is made from all sorts of GMC's I like the 'work through' history element of it. It is a bit like an English village, it tells a story of its evolution through its different ages of it's housing.........there is no set standard, I like that.

Bill, $350......wow

[Ledog]

Other questions...

Is that true that the wood steering wheels are different in closed can than in open cab? Were there rubber wheels in open cabs?

[Matt]

There were two types of wooden wheel,the first type has the cast spokes without the center reinforcement and the overall finish is better,the second type has pressed steel spokes which are rivited to the center.I'm not sure when the change took place or if the first type were used in open cab trucks.the three spoke hard rubber wheels appear to have never been fitted to open cabs from the factory.

Matt.

[Ledog]

But did either first an second types of wood wheels should have been fitted in either closed or open cab? Or does the change of model coincide with the change form closed to open cab?

[Matt]

I have seen both types of wooden wheel in closed cab trucks but I have never seen an early wooden wheel in a open cab,that's not to say it didn't happen but I've never seen it either on a truck or in WW2 photos.

Matt.

[Karoshi]

Well it happened in my 352. Thats not to say it happened in 1942 though.

[Matt]

I see somthing new everyday looks good Colin.

I'm starting to find that with CCKW's there are no hard and fast rules over several things.

Matt.

[Bill_Wolf]

Colin, Yves,

Somewhere I saw a picture of German POW's working in an Allied truck rebuilding facility. It was full of CCKW's and other Large trucks.

The Engine compartment, Cab, and beds had been removed and three workers were overhauling the drive train.

In one corner of the picture there is a pile of steering wheels.

So I would guess that this would infer that what was on a ETO used truck to start with would probably not make it back on the truck once it was rebuilt.

I am still looking for the picture...I will modify my post if I find it.

Bill

[joel gopan]

Bil posted Pics of the wheels last May.

Closed Cabs came with Hard Rubber OD Colored Steeting Wheel until Sometime in 42( Yours if black has the finish worn off. There is a Pic of one of my NOS Rubber ones, it is OD and the scuffs show black
Wood wheels were Painted OD, and look nice if steelwooled down to natural wood color and rubbed with Raw linseed Oil. Raw penetrates better as the solvents are not yet boiled out.
There were Three types of Wooden Wheel, all had the same GM Part No, as the Army did not give a Damn about curious collectors. One was made by Inland, a Division of GM (they made M1 Carbines too), and I like to believe it is the one with stamped spokes and Separate Hub, it has round rivet heads on the Wood.
There were two other Wood Wheels for CCKW, one had 4 slender cast spokes with round headed Rivets on the wood, the other had 4 heavier spokes with a Diamond shaped head in the wood.
All Wooden wheels had the same Part Number, GM 2178393, no matter whether it had Cast or Stamped metal. Only the discovery of the actual GMC Drawing for the Wooden Wheel part number will clear up this topic. It will also show the date that the wheel was accepted.

There is photographic evidence of Rubber Steering Wheel on Open Cab CCKWs made in 1945, one example I have, is Army pub PM-7393 that shows a 1945 CCKW USA-4915915 with the 3 spoke Rubber Wheel.

All steering CCKW Steering Wheels are now rare, there ain't many warehouses that have not been scoured for Steering wheels. I paid $20-$25 each for the NOS Rubber ones I bought from Willinskys in the 80s. Wood ones were same price and I sold them off at $50 each to serious collectors that would not hesitate to pay todays price of $400+ or whatever it takes- try driving without a steering wheel and you will soon be willing to pay the $$$$$$$$$.

No sense dwelling on this, as it is lost in time. I will bet there are more crappy steering wheels on collectors CCKWs than nice clean ones.
NOTE:
There are some nice tri-lingual books on CCKW from Europe, but do not take their photos as gospel, as some ore obviously from POVs, and only the experts can tell the difference. You will see pictures of CCKWs with small Steering wheel, but a study of the photo will alert you that it is not authentic. A lot of stuff we adorn our trucks with was not widely practised.

"Prestone 44" and Water Buckets are two fads that have really caught on.
I remember some fads that were practiced in the 50s on civilian cars, two that stand out are the hood ornaments (horse or goose), and the foxtail on the radio antenna, they sort of went the way of the "ducks ass" hair style. Oh, and the knob on the steering wheel.

[UK Jack]

So, when did GMC start replacing the wooden wheels with rubber and why?

[Degsy]

Hi Jack
It's the other way round, they started to use wood to save rubber which was in short supply.

[UK Jack]

arh, Right, that makes more sense Degsy.......so they were rubber, then wood, then rubber???!

[Matt]

Hi Jack,

No rubber then wood,but many rebuilt trucks which would have had a wooden wheel from the factory have been fitted with a rubber wheel,somtimes a US made original and somtimes a post war euro copy.

Matt.

[joel gopan]

Best way is to refer to the GM part number for the CCKW Steering Wheels and then retrieve the Drawing. I can almost guarantee that it will give dates it was drawn, any modifications, incorporations relating to Chaccis numbers, etc. I can just about guarantee that it will not be found, unless it is in the drawings TACOM gave the MVPA. The fact that 562,000 CCKWs were produced, gives a lot of room for changes and substitutions in order to meet production demands. Other than finding the drawings, this will be batted around for many more years.
We all have our favorite style steering wheel, I removed the rubber ine from my 41 CCKW and installed a Wooden one that was one of several I had saved for 25 years as it just looked nice to me. 60+ years of time leaves a huge gap in the history of a collectors truck. What happened in between is lost in time unless the DA Form 478 followed the truck thru all its owners. Some may claim to have the pedigree of their vehicle, but the time lines expressed usually do not match the Chassis numbers, nor the USA number. CCKW forensics is fun, it is like hearing the "Jeep in the Crate" story. Very few MVs can be traced, except for those that the Army declared historical artifacts and put aside at the end of WWII for future display in Museums. Best we can do now is to get a celebrity to sit in our vehicle and snap a photo. I have a feeling that the majority of the trucks collectors own had stateside WWII duty or were not beat up in the front lines and were issued to support units that were easy on them. We will never know, will we?

[UK Jack]

Some good points Joel.

So does anyone know where I can get the spokes of a wooden wheel?

Cheers.

Jack.

[Ledog]

Maybe this one would interest you. It was a Chevy M6 bomb truck turned into a wrecker. You can see the remaining spokes of the steering wheel.