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Armor/AFV: Vietnam
All things Vietnam
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Question - "The Bounty Hunter" M54A1, 8GP 27T
Thomas_
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Aargau, Switzerland
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Posted: Thursday, November 07, 2019 - 08:21 AM UTC
Hi folks

I'm looking for information about the configuration of this truck.

James Lyles wrote in his book 'the hard ride part two': "The entire trailer could be lifted or winched into the bed of a cargo truck and the trailer's wheels removed or folded up... In some cases the Maxson unit was removed from the trailer before it was installed into the bed of a host vehicle"

I could not find a picture to identify the configuration exactely.

does enyone know if this was with or without trailer mounted into the bed?

thanks Tom
HeavyArty
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Posted: Thursday, November 07, 2019 - 08:30 AM UTC
In the below pic, it looks like the whole M55 trailer is in the bed, with wheels removed, and surrounded by ammo cans or C-Rat boxes (most likely filled w/sand).

Thomas_
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Posted: Thursday, November 07, 2019 - 08:34 AM UTC
thank you Gino
this is was i',m looking for!
trickymissfit
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Posted: Friday, November 08, 2019 - 09:05 AM UTC

Quoted Text

In the below pic, it looks like the whole M55 trailer is in the bed, with wheels removed, and surrounded by ammo cans or C-Rat boxes (most likely filled w/sand).



I never saw a quad fifty on a trailer, but they had to move them of course. The platform is bigger than most would think. We had a factory built quad fifty gun truck for 36 hours, and it was a little different from the picture. Had no generator, but used the 24 volt power from the truck itself.
Never saw a bed extended like that! I can see why, but still new to me. The real issue with virtually all quad fifties wasn't barrel elevation, but negative elevation. The platforms were often jacked up on one side to fix this problem. The truck was done that way. Maybe four inches on the driver's side.
Gary
165thspc
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Posted: Friday, November 08, 2019 - 09:27 AM UTC
Have seen two M45 quads mounted on different trailers - one large M18 4-wheel trailer (see photos) and one embarrassingly small M20 2-wheel trailer.


M18 Trailer with Quad 50 turret
Victory Museum - Auburn, IN.





MVPA Convention - Dayton


Smaller M20 Trailer shown here.
highpoint
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Posted: Friday, November 08, 2019 - 10:09 AM UTC
Thomas,
If you don't have David Doyle's book on Guntrucks, its a must. From what I remember, on some just the wheels were removed and some on the mounts had the axle and towbar cut off. A frame was made to bolt to the bottom of a custom box that could be taken out of one truck and slid into the bed of another if there was damage to the truck. AFV Clubs M35 (?) is wrong on a round pedestal.
Jeff

Although looking back at photo, this one may have had mount bolted directly to bed without the removable box.
TAFFY3
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Posted: Friday, November 08, 2019 - 11:06 AM UTC
Found these two images:





The first shows the M-55 trailer, minus the wheels. The second appears to show the pedestal mount, the one used in the M-16 GMC half-track. It looks like the trailer mount was more common in Vietnam, but there might have been a few of the original mounts used. Al
Frenchy
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Posted: Friday, November 08, 2019 - 11:44 AM UTC
Talking about the Vietnam-era quad mount, it has some detail differences when compared to the WW2 one. Here's a Vietnam era Quad 50 :



(from David Doyle's Gun Trucks book review on IPMS USA website - good book BTW !)

You'll notice the generator engine is different, among other differences. The one included in AFV Club's kit is the WW2 model, like the one below...



H.P.
trickymissfit
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Posted: Sunday, November 10, 2019 - 05:55 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Talking about the Vietnam-era quad mount, it has some detail differences when compared to the WW2 one. Here's a Vietnam era Quad 50 :



(from David Doyle's Gun Trucks book review on rIPMS USA website - good book BTW !)

You'll notice the generator engine is different, among other differences. The one included in AFV Club's kit is the WW2 model, like the one below...



H.P.


The quads I was around, used a remote generator with cables going to the gun carriage. Also the basic platform was larger, and maybe octagon shaped. The one we had in the truck was more like what we see in the picture, but no generator. Reason I remember this is when we recovered the quad off the truck; we had to come up with a power source.
Gary
Thomas_
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Posted: Friday, November 15, 2019 - 05:07 AM UTC
hi all

thank you all for the comments...

are all quads modified to the new generator setting?

as the only quad gun with trailer in styrene was the Dragon 6421, no longer available on the merket, also not on ebay, Amazon...
does anyeone have drawings from the trailer?
Kirin 25026 is also hard to find (WWII setting).
Also HobbyFan 061 have a different setup and hard to buy...

cheers
Tom
Removed by original poster on 11/15/19 - 17:21:05 (GMT).
Frenchy
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Posted: Friday, November 15, 2019 - 09:22 PM UTC

Quoted Text

does anyeone have drawings from the trailer?


Here's a start :



On a side note, there appears to be two different versions of the trailer :





This one seems to be much rarer (earlier type ? Prototype ?)...



Here's a Vietnam period picture showing the late generator engine :



Full size|


H.P.
Thomas_
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Posted: Monday, November 18, 2019 - 05:08 AM UTC
merci beaucoup
Thomas_
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Posted: Saturday, November 23, 2019 - 10:45 AM UTC
hi all

it seams that there are a few different generator engines available...

if you compare the enginge "towed" from David and the version on the last picture from Frenchy.
they are different...

which enginge was on the quad for this truck?

the second thing is, the shaft.
on the picture from HeavyArty, I can not see it.
was it removed?

btw, I found more information about the trailer...
the trailer himselve called M20... could find a few information...

thanks Tom
Frenchy
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Posted: Saturday, November 23, 2019 - 11:23 AM UTC

Quoted Text

if you compare the enginge "towed" from David and the version on the last picture from Frenchy.
they are different...


ONe of the visible difference is the 20mm ammo box-looking box fitted above the generator engine in the Vietnam picture. It's not an ammo box of course, but I don't know what's inside

Here's another period picture showing it :



In fact it's often seen in Vietnam pics...

Sometimes it's fitted longitudinally :



I guess the "offset" part of the trailer drawbar is removable.



from this walkarond on svsm.org

H.P.
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