Back in the old days, CC had a run of Truck Saturdays. After the Mack pumper, this piece from Dave Saunders will fit right into that theme. So, for at least for one day, let’s have an old time CC Truck Saturday! JPC
I recently popped into the Montana border town of Sweetgrass. Amazingly about half the town seems to consist of a storage yard for old, retired military vehicles. Below is a small sample. How many can you identify?
Any ideas on the yellow paint? Really stands out of in a sea of green.
There were even a few classic cars in there but you can’t get close without trespassing. I suspect it is not the best idea to trespass on the land of a guy who collect military trucks …
You can always tell a Jeep.
I believe this one is an aircraft de-icer.
Deterring a Canadian invasion?
That’s what popped into my head too.
“In a show of Military Might U.S. Leaders ordered all decommissioned heavy equipment to be positioned near Canadian border towns”.
I grew up about two blocks from the Illinois National Guard maintenance depot, these bring back a lot of memories.
The kids in the neighborhood would all gather to watch the convoys leaving for training exercises. The Jeeps were all retired by that time, replaced by CUCV Blazers but the old AM General rigs were still pulling their weight. There were still some Ducks at that point too! It was pretty cool.
This guy sells parts and whole vehicle on line. i have considered buying from him and am currently needing a 6.2 or 6.5 GM diesel and TH400 HD to retrofit into my 4×4 van. He has them but I am still needing to get pricing from him. That place is orgasmic in it’s scope of awesomeness!
All sorts of non-tactical trucks were painted colors other than Olive Drab. There were calibration vans, for equipment, that were white. Most fire trucks were red. The yellow truck probably was used at an airport, yellow for greater visibility. Some of the airport trucks were painted large red & white checkerboard.
Explosive Ordinance Disposal trucks were usually the OD, but with red fenders.
Of course, non-tactical Navy & Air Force trucks were Navy gray or AF blue. Closer to the action, they were OD.
Some people have really cool junk.
The truck with the yellow hood behind the Jeep in #2 looks like an M35 6 x 6 set up for firefighting duty. Had one in our department. Nice rig, 750 gallon tank, but would feed from a hydrant. Similar rigs are used for ‘urban interface’ fires, where a hydrant might be hard to get and the roads might be iffy. FYI, our rig was yellow. (M35s with 1000 gallon drop-in tanks are fairly popular for rural fire departments. They don’t cost too much to run, and with some care, can be maintained fairly easily.)
The open compartment would likely house a booster reel (1″ line with a easy to use nozzle, used either for small fires or to defend the rig itself).
Enjoy them while you can. Closer to the December 21 of this year they will all be gone, bought out by survivalist.
Saw a Jeep the same as in the 6th photo yesterday as part of a military vehicle club’s display at a car show (together with Land Rovers, WWII Jeep and a Moke – yes, ex-military)