Ok I have a stupid question. Did the 5 ton wreckers originally come with some type of bed cover? The beds on all of them are basically the same and all have stake holes. I have seen some that have tie downs as well. I have not found any mention of this any any TM I have looked at nor on a search of this site.
Some of the specialized trucks have the pockets to put a bows and canvas on to camouflage the truck in a convoy and such. Make it look like a regular cargo truck and it is less likely to attract more than its share of fire. I know you can put bows and canvas on the tankers and the shop vans. The vans are tall so the canvas does not fit just right but it still makes it look less like a maint van.
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Chuck Graham
1969 Kaiser-Jeep M35A2
I've heard that same thing that IDA34 said. My question: why would the enemy want to target a shop van or a wrecker over a cargo truck that might be carrying troops? Is it because they are specialized vehicles?
I have been in the Army, national guard and Army reserve since 1972 and I have never seen a wrecker with bows and canvas as Basic Issue Items nor have I ever seen one with them on.
The boom sticking out of the back of the canvas would be a dead givaway. Plus you would have to take the time to remove them if you needed to use the boom.
The wreckers and maint vehicles usually brought up the rear anyway to pick up broke vehicles.
Just my worth.
i was thinking about putting a tarp on during the winter to keep the ice off of the things I have stored in the bed
That sould be easy enough to fab. I would use the standard metal arch pieces on each side and you could cut the wood for the sides and top any lenght you needed. A standard deuce or 5 ton canvas would probably work if you didn't make it too high.
The tarp needs to lap over the sides a few inches to keep rain/snow out of the bed. You would also need an end curtain for the front like the cargo trucks.
The rear could be open or you could make a custom end curtain to fit around the boom. There is a canvas place in NJ (I think) that advertises in MV magazine that could probably fab anything you wanted if you couldn't do it yourself.
I'm pretty sure a wrecker isn't shown - but in my Standard Catalog of US Military Vehicles there is a photo of a M109 with canvas. When considering such things, its important to remember the mindset of the time when they were designed. The foundation of the M-series vehicles was laid even as WWII raged. Many of the specifications for our vehicles were written in the 1940s. The threat at that time was primarily from the air, and the detection system used was the human eye (traveling several hundred miles an hour). A string of canvas-draped trucks all looked alike at speed and from altitude.
Combat troops of that age typically walked where they were going, and even if riding in a truck, would be but a tiny amount of the cargo. An army takes with it thousands of tons of supplies - shoes, food, medical supplies, office supplies, ammo, parts, fuel, water, etc. EVERYTHING that could be used - there was/is no running to the corner market for anything - it all came with the GIs. The vast majority of these goods are not explosive, and not directly used in combat. Anything unusual - a fuel tanker truck, a water tanker, a machine shop, a wrecker - is an expensive vehicle to begin with, and a critical vehicle to the forward movement of the troops - hence a high-value target. So, efforts were made to make it possible for everything to look like "just" a cargo truck from the air.
In today's world, in part due to Hollywood, and in part due to advances in technology (often brought into our living rooms via TV), we expect to be able to tell what kind of sandwich a truck driver in the opposing army is eating - and often can - but it wasn't always that way.
Again, dunno about wreckers, but I've seen photos of tanker and shop van trucks disguised as cargo trucks.
I have the bows from Dmans bed here and they fit my M108 perfectly. I few of the bed pockets are banged up so they will have to be replaced but I hope to get an old deuce bed cover just to toss up to see how it fits. I know the last 18" of the boom will be sticking out but worth trying.
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Arm yourself with the sword of knowledge, read the TMs.
Thanks for all the info. I wouldn't mind getting a cover for my M62 since I don't have the money to build a bigger shop to keep it in right now. It would be nice to keep most of the weather off of it.
5 Ton wrecker bed question
worth.
