Curious old M49 fuel truck

[Paweł]

@gringeltaube , @msgjd - you guys are amazing! It's priceless to have you onboard when building a model! Thanks so much for pointing me in the right direction. It's not going to be easy to build, but now I have the feeling I know what I'm doing, so I think I can make it! Thanks again and have a nice day

Paweł

 

[msgjd]

There must be a reason they put the extra wide 10-ton mirrors on those tankers (?)

yes, the operator(s) wanted it to look cool !! ... and better visibility in tight spots for sure , although the small rectangular mirrors on the early deuce A1's & A2's were better than round lollipops , but yes we operators definitely preferred the west-coasters (except when the trees or overhead truss bridges got really tight! .. slapped mirrors with other trucks more than once )

 

[msgjd]

Thanks again for your great help and have a nice day
Paweł

you have done an incredible job on this model !

where did you find pictures of the dash of a M44-series deuce gasser as reference?
i don't recall any of them having a tachometer or that many tags, but i suppose it's possible
it happened at some point in their life .. although 5T and 10T gassers certainly have a tach

one thing i learned about 6x6 trucks in my 50 years of hands-on, slight variations within each
type no longer surprise me .. My M49A2C (former gasser) has a tachometer with gauge holes punched in a pattern i have never seen .. again, this was converted into a multifuel and lost its original speedo-only dash , but did it really? Has anyone else out there seen this layout? I have not seen any gauge located between the speedo and tach , let alone a row of four at the bottom



... as compared to the typical M44-series gas gauges below , note no tachometer

 

[Jbulach]

Wrong mirrors. Wrong gauges. Might as well start over, and send that one to me to play with?

But seriously Pawel, your model looks amazing!

I wouldn’t be concerned about leaving the motor-pool mods in place, especially if you have pictures to support them.

 

[msgjd]

But seriously Pawel, your model looks amazing!

it sure does ! .. now that he has patterns and pratice and patience, he should make more of them and sell to us here !

 

[Paweł]

Hello everybody!
@msgjd - you overestimate my knowledge on these babies! I've found a youtube video showing the dashboard with the necessary data placards, but I didn't pay close enough attention to the dials - I didn't know I have to watch the tachometer closely. So you say the operators of the gassers didn't need to watch the RPMs too closely?
@Jbulach - well I'd do that if I wasn't afraid that they are going to wreck it in transit! But, more seriously, those funky mods are actually what I'm after! I'll also write that I treasure every time one of my friends here points out the mistakes - especially in time to be fixed! - because this way I get to know things otherwise very hard to find out.
It took me so long to reply, because I was fighting with the mirrors. You see I bought this kit on discount, precisely because it was missing mirrors. So first I made this, patterned on the mirrors from the M54 kit:

But then I took a look at my reference photo and you pointed me in the right direction of M123 10 ton mirrors! So I took my soldering iron again and I cranked out another set. These were harder to do and if you look at them you’ll see I was struggling, partly because my Chinese soldering iron turned out to be sh!tty… Here’s what I got:


Fortunately after painting them, they don’t look so bad I hope:

So let’s see how fitting them is going to go…
Thanks again for your great help and have a nice day!
Paweł

 

[msgjd]

So you say the operators of the gassers didn't need to watch the RPMs too closely?

The only M-series 6x6 gassers with a tach were the 5-tons and 10-tons ..

I have never come across a M44-series 2-1/2T 6x6 gasser with a tachometer . None of the 1950's gas GMC's (M135, M211 etc) had a tach either .

These gas deuces were built during an era where drivers were expected to have an ear for RPM's and there is a tag on every M-series gas deuce dash telling a driver the maximum speed in any given gear , no tach needed . Some even have a tag that reads "Do Not Overspeed" , the driver is expected to monitor the speedometer and honor the max speed tag . The engines have governors as well

Tachs are handy on the larger trucks for operating special mounted equipment or monitoring the best shift points while doing the much-heavier work typical of the 5T's and 10T's.. The shift point RPM situation is especially true for the slow-falling RPM LeRoi V8 in the 10T's..

The Continental R6602 in the 5T's was a proven heavy commercial truck engine prior being used in the M-series and apparently is more sensitive to over-rev than the Reo OA331 and GMC 302 that's in the M-series gas deuces.. It's possibly another reason why they have a tach in addition to being able to monitor shift points when heavily loaded.. The R6602 engine decelerates a little slow, but is not as slow as the LeRoi engine

I wouldn't be shocked if somebody out there has a gas deuce with a tach or had seen one although i don't recall seeing a connection port for a tach cable on either gas deuce 331 or 302 engines

amazing work on your model !!