Marine truck #

does anybody know for sure if the six didget numbers painted on the M880 came from the serial number on the data plate ?

N1265 said:

does anybody know for sure if the six didget numbers painted on the M880 came from the serial number on the data plate ?

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They sound like UIC Marine numbers.......can you tell us what they are...??

seya,

C'dub

Generally the hood number matches the data plate number, Marine trucks get 6 digit id #s.
If the truck was not an original USMC contract (we got quite a few used trucks from the Army) the numbers will be different, and then I'm not sure how the hood number would be determined. If anyone does know, please share.

I am re - painting the truck and wanted to add the numbers.... I thought the six didgit number came from the data plate but was not sure :

The Manufactures serial # is : W24be7s168192

The Registration # is : NGOW7R

I have never seen a Marine truck numbered with letters so I was going to use the 168192... However the NGOW7R was painted on the inside of the doors when I got the truck. The truck last seen service with the NCARNG. I doubt if it was an orginal Marine truck, Can anybody tell ?.....

Which would be the More correct number to put on the bumber/tailgate ?

The NG07WR is definitely the Army registration, not a Marine number.

Marine vehicles also have a unit id # that will be an M followed by 5 numerals (eg, on my truck M21640). This is usually stenciled on the outside of the doors (or, lacking doors, on the side) and somewhere near the center on the back. There is a magic potion for determining/reading these numbers, but other than the first numeral being the MarDiv the vehicle was attached to, I don't know what it is.
Jason/Halftrack can read numbers for you if you have one, but hasn't (so far) determined how they are come up with.

Some more info was covered on a post about M880s a while back, you might check the forum archive.

Here are a couple of M813 examples, but the markings are reasonably consistent for other vehicle types. The bumper USMC is almost always on the drivers side, front and rear, the vehicle id on the passenger side. The rear M numbers, which seem to be unit applied, wanders all over the back if its there at all.

By the way, the hood number on this truck is 579417, the 1 is a bit hard to see since it was stenciled black on black!

I was in 79 thru 83 mostly at Camp LeJuenne
Almost all M880's I ever seen were gloss forest green w /yellow ID #'s
I think I remember a few luterless ones
I do not recall ever seeing a camo job on a Marine pickup.

Frank??????????????

On Camp Pendleton during that same time period all of our 880 series (and our M715/725s that were still running around!) had MERDEC camo on them.

Are you going to make it USMC....say it aint so......

Keep it Army!

I will try to mark it with Marine markings, Many Thanks to all who have posted.

Never saw a M880 while I was in 97-01 but all of our CUCV's were the standard Marine Corps green.

M813RC : When were these pictures taken ?

M813RC / AJMBLAZER : Do you remember Or have any pictures on how the CUCVs were lettered ? are they putting the "M" number on the side of the doors like the picture above or was this just for the bigger trucks ? Does anybody know when they started to use the "M" numbers ?

All the pictures I have of M880s are from the early 1980s and have the lettering in Yellow On both the plain green and camo trucks. Also in these pictures there is only lettering on the doors and what appears to be a 1stMARDIV sticker on the front bumber just below the drivers side head light.... I cant see anything else on the front or rear of the trucks Or anything on the hood, and from what I can see it is a straight six didgit number on the doors with no "M"

They look to be lettered like this ( but Iam not sure ) :

U.S. MARINE CORPS
******


I only have one picture of a CUCV ( Also from the 80s ) It is in 3 color camo but I can not see any lettering on it but Maybe it was in black like the picture above

I have the truck now in lusterless forest green and I am considering keeping it that way.... Having the truck lettered would really set it off and the reason I am asking so many questions about this is because I am considering going with personlised Ohio historical plates that would allow me to paint the numbers on the truck instead of displaying the actual lisc plate. But I dont want to do it unless I can make it historicaly right.

I have also tried to get in touch of the Marine Corps museum but they said they do not have any pictures of any M880s and were of no help.....

Many Thanks,

Sorry man, can't really remember the individual markings. Never really paid attentio to them. I'm fairly sure they were all in black though. Green trucks with black markings. Only the HMMWV's, larger trucks, and some of the HE equipment was NATO camo'd.

First of all, I am not professing to be an expert, I have an interest in vehicle markings and I am just sharing what I have gathered.
The information I give is based on notes and memory from when I was active in the Marines from the late ‘70s to the late ‘80s, and looking at as many photos (and that’s a lot!) and actual vehicles as I can since then. Try as I might, I can find no TMs or other “official” marking source for Marine vehicles. This may be a problem for active Marines as well, as the markings are sometimes inconsistently applied.
Note- I am not refuting anything anyone else has said, this is purely what I saw or have found.

So, with the late ‘70s to the present in mind-
There are basically two types of Marine vehicles, tactical and non-tactical. The tactical vehicles are primarily for use in the field, non-tactical are used everywhere else.
Non-tactical vehicles tend to be painted overall Marine green with yellow or black markings on the door. The Dodge vans I used to drive around were overall glossy green and had on both front doors and the left back door in yellow stick-on letters:
U.S. Marines
(6 numbers)
For official use only

I remember two-wheel drive Dodge pickups, overall green with similar markings on the doors, but not on the back, sometimes in yellow sometimes black (that has a nice rhyme to it…) and often without the “Official use..” bit.
We had lots of M880s series 4x4s, M151A2s, and some M715/725s; they were almost all painted Merdec camo (like Bob H and N1265 avatars) and had:
USMC (6 numbers)
painted in black (on the front fenders of the 880s, side of the hood of the M715/M151). I never saw yellow markings on camo trucks. I don’t remember there being M numbers on these vehicles, but there may have been.
Around 1982, I helped re-mark some M60 tanks that had been received second hand from the Army, they were painted Merdec and had the above markings stenciled onto the sides.

In the early to mid 80s we got Humvees and the Chevrolet CUCVs to replace all the above vehicles, they arrived in the 383 green/brown/black camo and everything else began to change to that scheme. Vehicles in that scheme pretty much all had the M number on the side and/or back, everything from trailers to trucks of all sizes, to LAVs and whatever. The markings are the same on most 686 tan vehicles.

The side view of the M813 is from the mid-90s, the rear of the bed is from last year. I just used those because I have a LOT of M813 pics and they illustrated what I was trying to say. My truck was last painted by the Marines in 1993 and the markings follow the same pattern.

I’ll shut up now……

Many Thanks for your help Guys..... I really appreciate it.

Got a Marine Reserves unit near you? If they have a Motor T section you might give them a call. Try for mid week and hope to get the active duty Marine or an Active Reservist. They MIGHT know or have access to the painting diagrams.

Just a thought.

My recollections of the time (early 80's), I really didn't pay much attention to the trucks back then.
I only recall my unit, 4/10 having dueces & M151's along with the self propelled artillery. (there could have been others, I just don't recall.)
My time was in battalion HQ & base offices, could be why I seen mostly shiney green M880's

Yep, when I was in the air wing we didn't have much in the way of tactical vehicles, lots of shiny green ones though. Seems the Chevy CUCVs were all camo though when they came on board. I imagine it depends a lot on where you were too, different bases do different stuff. My early days I was infantry, so the vehicles we encountered were mostly the tactical types.

And nothing is absolute. I do remember some old Mules that were still OD with yellow markings on them. I have also been told, "No, all the M715s (M725/M726) were gone by the late 70s". Well, we were still driving some around into the 80s, so were the SeaBees. I've got a couple of photos somewhere of them in Norway during Teamwork 80. I REALLY wish I had taken more photos when I was younger, I have very few.