Hello,

I've just been looking through my Tankograd book on "Armored Gun Trucks of the US Army in Iraq" and in particular the M923 gun trucks. I noticed that there are e number of pictures of trucks belonging to 630th Transportation Company which is part of 7th Transportation Battalion. Their M923 trucks had additional ARMOX armour added to their vehicles. What I am trying to work out is the following;

1. How are the plates along the flanks of the truck bed attached? On the inside there are square tubes that sit on the top of the metal side, but how are they prevented from falling off?

2. Does anyone have better pictures of the armoured windscreen with ballistic glass?

3. I am guessing the plates are about 12mm thick. Without compromising OPSEC would that be about right?

4. The only other point I can't work out is how the roof armour over the cab gits in with the ring mount. There are two pics of an M923 guntruck belonging to 724th Transportation Company, but the pic from the rear shows the rear of the cab in shadow!! Can anyone help.

Any assistance greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Toby

IMHO the visible square tubes (welded to the armor panels) are just fit into the matching square holes in the side panels that are used with the cargo bed stakes when these are fitted (these square holes are visible in the bottom picture on page 55).

HTH

Frenchy

Frenchy,

That's perfect. I did wonder how they managed to keep the armour panels on!
Now just points 2, 3 and 4 to find he answers to.

Thanks again

Toby

Maybe this picture should help you with point #4 (from Irocarmy88 Webshots photo album ) even if the truck is not the same (it a M35A3) :



HTH

Frenchy

Havent been to the forums for some time, so I figure my first post in a LONG time should be helpful...

In answer to question 1, what it amounts to in all cases I've had/seen/experienced, the box in the back is merely measuerd out and welded together. The box is then welded to the bed of the truck. Square tube steel could be welded on either the inside or the outside, or not at all. It just depends on who was doing the welding.

In answer to question 2, I have pics, but they would violate opsec. Maybe someday. Sorry.

Question 3, again, opsec.

The truck pictured below is in fact a 923. Most likely an A1. Probably an early field modification from the looks of it. NOBODY has rolled like that with a soft cab for years. I had an A3, with the retrofit armored cab. The turret ring was built into the cab, which was more or less built separately and lowerd onto the old cab, and welded/bolted in place.

I TC'd one without a roller and one with, both were pieces of [auto-censored], relative to the new guntrucks we have. Good thing we are giving them all to the Iraqi Army. Let those idiots finish the destrction of whats left of those vehicles. Good riddance.

The pic below is if my old old old old old old truck. Sort of shows you how often we go through vehicles! Haha.


Let me knwo if you have any other questions and I'll try to answer them, as long as it doesnt violate opsec of course

we had some of the first cabs installed ( around may 2005) the first batch they put on our trucks where horrible, the AC was crap and the door handles all broke on the inside. we had to use screwdrivers to open the doors.

Not sure if it helps, but Prime Portal has a walkaround of a factorymade M939 series gun truck.
http://www.primeportal.net/trucks/brent_sauer/m923a2_oif_5-ton_guntruck/index.php?Page=1
As for the plate thickness, I think I read somewhere that the plates are only 10 mm.

Just a side note, if you will go for accuracy, some major surgery is need on the base kit. I have materials from the manufaturer (the truck of course) that show that the cargobay is to short and to narrow and the front fenders are also too narrow.

10 mm indeed

https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htarm/articles/20040823.aspx

H.P.