Late war bed

Does any one have pics of late war all steel beds in service or production? I have a 8/45 but it is a steel/wood bed. Also I need more info on rope tie down hooks here are pics of ones I have on my beds from 41-45. What years used what hooks?

the hooks in picture #3 are WWII for sure I think pic two is later war or a replacement do to the fact it is bolted on not riveted and pic 4 is post war. I was under the impression that late war beds were mostly wood and the early beds were all metal. I know were there is a all wood bed CCKW ill have to see what hooks it has on it.

Does any one have pics of late war all steel beds in service or production?

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There are sometimes things that make it into the manuals that never make it to production. Case in point is the M3A2 halftrack.

Maybe the late war all steel bed was never really produced, or maybe just in such small numbers that none or very few survive.

The late war all steel beds were not as numerous as the composite bed, but like the all wooden beds they simply wore out. A composite bed would simply have the planks replaced. A wooden bed would simply be replaced (post war, during war there were carpenters to repair them.

The tie downs are all WWII. The wire ones are still in use, as are the stamped. My 1966 M35a2 has a few items on it that I will document on my web site... but some long held thoughts of M-series vs WWII production cargo bed thoughts are gonna be trashed pretty good.

Right now the only solid evidence I can find of what Sunderlin calls the 'steel composite' (as opposed to the 'true composite' wooden floored steel bed) is in the 9th article. He make several conflicting statements about them.. and he didn't cite any references to back up his claim.

So, you would need to find some dated signal corps photos that show the bed and the hood registration number.... that sounds easy enough

Found another reference for the all steel bed. The Becker/Dentzer book has an all english addendum. In it they list the bed type and time frames. They make the claim that the steel composite (bolt together steel floor) bed starts in 'Early 1945'.

The last TM9-801 came out in 4/1944 and the last SNL to come out was July 1945... neither of those manuals make note of the all steel composite bed.

All these hooks are WW2 I know this I am looking for info on dates used. All the beds in the first post are mine. picture #1 date is 1/41 from a CCKWX, picture #3 date is ?/42 from a closed cab CCKW, picture #4 date is 8/45 it is a wood/steel composite bed. Here is a picture from Tomlins of a all steel and a wood bed both with the stamped hooks and here is a composite bed wood / steel I have with a date of 7/45 and I have two more I will be picking up soon both are composite wood/steel bed with late 45 dates. I think they made them too the end of the war.

sorry here is the pics

Correct, the composite bed were made up till the end.

Problem with using pictures is that there is no way to validate that the bed is original to the frame. The Tomlin CCKWs have many authenticity issues that would bring anything gleaned from them suspect.

I would stick to dated photos of non-restored/modified beds.. if it didn't come from a TM or a dated Signal Corps photo I would not base any concrete information from it.

It makes doing research that much harder.. but you will be able to cite the source and validate the research.

I have not seen photos of wooden beds with anything other than the stamped tie downs.

I have not seen photo of composite beds with anything other than the forged wire tire downs.

The early 'donkey ****' tie downs were from the early all steel welded beds.

Pictures 1,3,5 all look like the same.. just that 1 and 5 are damaged and 3 is not.

The early ones were cast pre donkey Not Damaged, also look at M1 and M1A1 search light trailers they had the same ones.

The bed I'm restoring for my CCW 5 tonner is an early all steel and has the early style tie-downs, there was another Compsite bed that came with it that was suitable for reclaimation of useable parts, it was a very late war unit, most likely never mounted as it came from a source that worked at White Motors in their R and D section, (there was even an experimental mid-body engine truck till the guys nephew tried to move it with a front end loader and chain, the nephew was ordered off the farm till the guy passed away)
The late war composite had the mixed tiedowns even the early type. Need some PM me, they're in a box in the barn. Still have the hold down straps for the planks too. But never saw a late war steel bed in all my searching. Maybe the "frogs" got them as they're ordnance dept. rebuilt an awful lot of CCKW's after the war with parts we sent them.

The final contract of CCKWs was 120,000 (IIRC) units that was ordered late 44... I can only find generic references to it (the Tankograd book). I did reread the 45 Army Motors article about stuck cargo bows and it mentions 'all steel beds', wooden, and composite steel. No mention of early/late steel or welded/bolted ones.

The article also shows the construction of the bolted steel bed (the exact same one used in the Sunderlin article... but better quality).

I think the problem is that the last TM9-801 was the mid 44 edition, and it would have been printed way before the all steel late war bed. The SNL-G-508 is a July 45 edition, but only mentions dump, water and fuel bodies.

I have a ORD-8 from 1948 and the allowable supplies for the cargo body was limited to some U bolts, the tailgate hinge rod and some bolts. So even 2 years after the War there is no spares info about the all steel bed.

This is an image of an all steel bed from an ad placed on G503.com Note the bolt holes down the side.

I am trying to find a 9 foot cckw wood bed. Good or bad. thanks

68t said:

I am trying to find a 9 foot cckw wood bed. Good or bad. thanks

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Thats one tall order.

I don't think I have seen a 352 with a wooden bed restored.

This guy:
The GMC CCKW • View topic - CCKW 352 SN 313255B1 AIRBORNE AIRPORTABLE

Might have given up on restoration.... can't hurt to ask if its for sale.