The Kansas Museum of Military HistoryThat I serve on the board of directors at welcomed a new arrival today, a Chevy G506 that was donated by a local family and had been driven until about 5 years ago and stored in their barn. What perplexed me about the truck is that the spare tire rack was located under the rear of the frame rails between the rear center of the frame not on the left side like all the others I have senn. Could this possibly have not been a cargo version but another variant such as a tractor or other variety. There are also three additional levers on the floor in addition to the gear shift, one has a sqeeze grip handle for locking the lever in a position and the other two have regular plastic knobs on them. I am not at all familiar eith most WWII stuff and was wondering if someone could help me out with some information on our new baby. It currently has a civilian fabricated flat bed on it that extends 18 to 24 inces beyone the original end of the frame.
I was able to clean up the data plate today and found that that our G506 was built in Kansas City, Kansas (fitting that it is at the Kansas Museum of Military History), came off the production line in December of 1941 and was configured as a cargo version witout winch.
Does anyone have a good picture of the spare tire rack on the cargo version like we have?
The spare tire carrier is located on the left side behind the cab outside the frame rails. It is a large L shaped bracket. It swings the spare tire up and locks it against the cargo bed. The squeez lever is the hand brake lever, the next one is the transfer case and then the front axel engagement lever.
As I have said our truck was built in December of 1942 and is a Z body, but all engine pictures of G506's of any type or year show the oil filter housing on the right side of the engine mounted to the firewall. Ours is the same type, but mounted on the left side of the engine on what appears to be a factory bracket. I will be taking some pictures tonight and posting them, but was wondering if anyone else had ever come across one set up like that.