Wheel color question

Did a search hear and google.
What color should the m1009 wheels be? Olive, or black with camo paint? Mine came with correct wheels painted white. I am having new tires installed and what the correct color.

Thanks.

Not sure if there is a correct....most I’ve seen back in the day “on post” had black wheels even the 3 color trucks. When we started masking vehicles off and sending them for the change over to Tan CARC the wheels were Tan. That’s my story...

I'm going to answer with more information than you asked for, since this question may involve 3 different camo scheme "eras." In general, regardless of the era, wheel rims were painted as an extension of the largest color shade appearing on the body above it. This practice goes back to the first camo scheme appearing in late-1970's, called MERDC. It's a 4-color scheme with a proportion of 45% / 45% / 5% / 5% in color fill, which allowed the rims to be only one of the two dominant (largest percentage) color shades, whichever shade was directly on the body above. This rule applied to all sizes/types of tactical vehicles, wheeled and tracked. It was pretty much standard to see different-colored rims (and wheels on armor) on the same side of a vehicle in the MERDC era.

By the 1980's when CARC paint came out, the same practice was followed. This means that wheel rims painted black or any other shade of the non-dominant colors were not seen up to this point. However, later, when the 3-color camo scheme appeared, the rims took on the color above it, no matter the color. Such as black, brown, green, whatever. This practice was mostly seen on larger wheeled vehicles, some examples of such I own still wearing the different examples they left the DRMO in. I stand corrected it was not always the case for the m1008/9.

There were exceptions to this practice, such as seen when tires were swapped from a different location on a vehicle, or after a flat tire when what had been "the spare" did not match the color above it. I remember certain IG inspections in the late-70's to late-80's being anal about rims matching the color above. If they didn't match, we had to rotate tires until they did, which made for a long hot day in the motorpool.

A vehicle painted one solid color retained the same shade on its rims, as was practiced in the pre-camo days. I do stand corrected that this former practice did not always include the m1008/9.

TC5-200 was the first "TM" we got on camo when I was in. In early years we were given paintbrushes to camo a truck when work was slow. A bigger horror was when we were told to use paintbrushes to touch up damaged spots on the camo of otherwise professional-quality sprayed vehicles. But I will say brush-painted 4-color on M48A5 tanks looked rather tough and rough in a good way, like the shell of a painted turtle. A clean, perfectly-painted unscarred tank just didn't look right to me. Here's an interesting link about the "history" of CARC etc ; https://www.pcimag.com/articles/95385-modern-carcs-for-military-protection

and I think there's been plenty of posts about the patterns used on your vehicle

All CUCV's had Flat Black wheels when they were assembled at GM Truck in Flint. I was working at a Chevrolet dealer when the CUCV's were first delivered. A few local dealers also were involved in warranty and delivery of the vehicles. 1 in general was in Jonestown and they had a brand new M1009 and someone stole the wheels and tires off of it right on the lot. I know the owner well. He told me at the time it was difficult to get replacement wheels. Rally wheels no problem. But the M1009 had a wheel all itself. He used some codes about weight ratings and all that jargon. I never bothered to learn the technical data involved in a flat black steel wheel. They were all black from factory. I still like them flat black on everything. I have had M1009's with 686 tan and tan wheels. I painted the wheels flat black. Same goes with green wheels. Back to black was always my choice. I have hand sanded many of these wheels and painted them. My choice now is sand blast and get them epoxy primed. [FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]The color is your choice. Keep in mind preparing the wheels for paint and making sure they are ready to be painted is 99.9% of the finished job. Have a Great Day. Be Safe. [/FONT]

cucvrus said:

All CUCV's had Flat Black wheels when they were assembled at GM Truck in Flint.

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I can not and will not dispute the above quote, I do believe it.

However, my last unit did not receive new CUCV's thus I never saw them new. The mission was changing and Soviet threat waning at the time. My particular armored division was deactivated and the battalions reassigned to an infantry division. We were late to lose the M880's and late to receive CUCV's. I can only relay what was done/seen at my unit. We had chevys with rims of different colors. It is very possible this happened at their previous assigns, as our 2 battalions got many 2nd-hand trucks/tanks after the divisional reassignment. We witnessed MERDC green or drab M880 rims on the chevys, and stock GM-type black or green rims on the chevys as well. My personal M880 wore one black GM rim when purchased at the DRMO, and it's spare tire was on a green GM rim. The difference is, the M880 has 16.5" rims and the M1008/9 have 16" rims, same bolt pattern. They apparently sometimes got the rims mixed up. I was out by the time the unit went to tan for their Iraq deployment, so cannot comment on what color rims they had for that.

So I suppose LtDan's question should be clarified whether he's asking for the original as-delivered rim color when it was new, or, what color(s) could actually be found on these trucks in any given unit. There are no-doubt tons of photos showing different colored rims on the CUCV's and M1008's while they were still with their units. Nobody here is wrong, unless someone tries to say their Combat Scout Company had silver spoke rims on theirs !

msgjd said:

Nobody here is wrong, unless someone tries to say their Combat Scout Company had silver spoke rims on theirs !

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There are always exceptions! This one looks white though.

I think these may actually belong to Border Patrol.

The simple answers to the original question are -
Black wheels from the factory
Black according to the official 383 camo manual
Individual units - whatever they applied, as noted above in MSGJD's experience

Cheers

my daughters is carc cammo and the wheels on the passenger side are brown

I've had a couple of formerly black M1009 wheels fade to brown over the years.

Cheers

So after being a member for 13 years, I finally bought the m1009 I always wanted, and took everyone's advise. I painted them Flat black.
Thank you for the replies.

.

Nice!

Cheers

Great looking 1009. Right choice on wheel color.

msgjd said:

....called MERDC. It's a 4-color scheme with a proportion of 45% / 45% / 5% / 5% in color fill, which allowed the rims to be only one of the two dominant (largest percentage) color shades, whichever shade was directly on the body above. This rule applied to all sizes/types of tactical vehicles, wheeled and tracked. It was pretty much standard to see different-colored rims (and wheels on armor) on the same side of a vehicle in the MERDC era.

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For future people who stumble across this thread, here's a pic of a track of the era clearly showing wheel color matching what's above it as a virtual continuation of the pattern, as it's supposed to be per the Reg. I realize this is a CUCV category and have learned from all your posts that when it comes to subdued wheel color on a CUCV, almost anything goes! But in the mid-1970's-late 80's, the IG inspections I experienced that came down to us from Brigade level were anal about the colors. Mickey Mouse crap.

Nice looking track!

I need one of those. I really, really need one of those!