What are the differences in the 5 ton and 10 ton trucks the wheels look a lot bigger. Could this be scratchbuilt. What I have in mind is a convoy dio were they a have come upon a mudslide and called the engineers in to clear the road. I wanted the transport truck in the dio as well. Could a 5 ton have been used to transort the dozer say a D7 Catipiller.

The M 123 was the ten ton tractor. It was powered by a 350 V8 gas engine and had a four speed transmission. with a High low range. with all wheel drive. The M 54/52 five tons had in line six cylinders diesel engines the A1 on were multi fuel. with the four speed transmissions and high low range. The M 35 series were 2 1/2 tons with in line six engine. They were gas at first then multi fuel and later straight diesel. The cabs on all three series was the same. the five ton and 10 ton had basically the same squared off nose. The ten ton had a beefed up chassis and very large tires. These trucks were dogs. They were always breaking down. It was a common practice to have at least two five ton recovery trucks on any convoy that had the 123's in them. We could always count on at least one of them breaking down. I have seen the M52 hauling the lowboy trailer with a D-6 Dozer on it. But it was not a common thing. The M 123 was the Army's heavy hauler in Nam.

By the way Gino scratch built the M 123 and won the Tamiya contest with it. Check out his gallery for the photos of it.

I forgot you can scratch the 123. It is a lot of work but it can be done.

Thanks Dave. I sure wish I knew what to do to approach scratchbuilding these trucks. Like materials scehmatics etc. I would love to scratchbuild some of these trucks. Is the trailer scratchbuilt also.

Animal, thanks for the mention on m M123A1C and M15A1 trailer combo. As Dave said, the M123 was a M54 5-ton on steroids. It was just all-around bigger and beefier. For mine, I used the old Revell 1/32 5-ton wrecker as a base. I also used parts from the Tamiya M25 Dragon Wagon, Italeri M925, 1/25 truck wheels and tires from the M25, and quite a bit of scratch-building, as well as modifying the M15 trailer from the DW kit. I got a great set of large line drawings (2' x 2' blue prints) from the Mack museum. They also sent a bunch of pics and some other tech data. I requested them by calling the # on the Mack Museum website and talking to the curator. I explained what I wanted to do and he was more than happy to send me whatever he had, a great guy to talk to. Here is their website.

Here is my truck/trailer combo:


More in my M123A1C album.

Here are some of the build threads as well so you can get an idea of what went into it. Pics are all moved to the above M123A1C album.
M123A1C 1

M123A1C 2

M123A1C 3

M123A1C 4

Good luck.

Here is a link to the Tank Work Shop. They have a full resin M 123A1.
http://www.tankworkshop.com/cgi_bin/agora.cgi?cart_id=898102.4787*AQ40r0&next=70&product=American

TWS has the M15A1 trailer in resin as well. Each goes for about $125, maybe a little less. Way too much for me, that is why I went ahead and scratched them up.

Thanks Dave and Gino. I hope you dont mind me bothering yall with question but I havent a clue were to start on scratchbuilding these trucks. I know I really like the projects yall have completed and I am really eager to start some conversions my self. Thanks again.