This week Bob is on the move to Danville, Virginia, featuring the largest collection of International Tank and Cavalry artifacts in the world. AAF has over 120 Tanks and Artillery pieces, 150 Machine Guns and even a working Flame Thrower! We’ll even show you a mini radio controlled tank battlefield! If you are a collector or just love this stuff, this is a show you have to see.
The AAF Tank Museum is a living memorial dedicated to the Tank and Cavalry soldiers of the world. Before 1981 some of the artifacts that make up the AAF Tank Museum was a private collection belonging to Mr. William Gasser. Mr. Gasser felt that his collection would be beneficial in educating present and future generations to the sacrifices made and the technologies gained during war. Therefore, in 1981 the AAF Tank Museum was established as a non-profit charitable organization, and Mr. Gasser’s donated his private collection to the Tank Museum. Mr. Gasser is still active as Volunteer Director and Curator of the Tank Museum and his knowledge of military history has been a great asset to the museum.
Bob has found some of the country’s ultimate collectors and fliers of vintage WWII fighter and trainer aircraft. Three southern gentlemen from South Carolina collect and fly some of the world’s most sought after collectible aircraft..the Corsair, P-51 Mustang. They will be featuring their amazing collection for the first time on TV, and Military Collectors was there to get it done!
This week Bob is traveling to one of the largest Air Shows in the Southeastern United States: Warbirds Over Monroe. The show is hosted by the city of Monroe, North Carolina which also owns and maintains the only flyable T-46 Troop Transport Aircraft remaining in the world. “Tinker Belle”. For all of you military aviation collectors -Bob has a special treat in store as we feature the War Birds and a special segment on Tinker Belle.
Join Bob this week as he travels to Cairo, Georgia and meets up with a life long collector and military vehicle restoration expert, Russell Deese. Russell has a very unique story to tell during his past 40 plus years of collecting and restoring military vehicles.
Russell has built and provided and built vehicles for movies like Fast & Furious, The Hunger Games and X-Men First Class. Russell will also show us the things to look for when buying a military collector vehicle. Don’t miss this episode!
I have been in love with the Jeep since I was just a little boy, but not just any jeep. I wanted a real Army Jeep since I could remember. My dad had a salvage yard since the early 40’s. There were always Jeeps around the junk yard. I was born in 1962 so most of the Jeeps that my dad had at the time were starting to look pretty rough by the time I began to get interested in the little trucks. I think I really began the love affair when I was around 6 years old (1968). My dad would buy me a little toy of the little Jeep. He told me before he passed away in 1997 that he would watch me carry the toy Jeep everywhere I went, church, dinner table, to bed, well you get the picture. It became my security blanket. I still have my little Jeep. It is very old and it has all the wheels gone and pretty weathered as well. I believe it was made by DINKY. It is a cast metal Jeep of a Willys MA or FORD GP but not sure. Anyway to make this a shorter story and I think I could go on for quite some time, I will shorten it. I use to help my dad fixing cars up and pulling engines. I was 12 when I pulled my first engine. It was a Chevy 350 out of a 1969 Chevy pickup. My dad turned me loose to take it out. The only thing I think he did wrong was to give me the key to the 4400 Ford forklift tractor as help to get it out. Well I got it out, but not a pretty sight. I think I only took off the 2 motor mount bolts and transmission mount bolts. Everything else I figured would just disconnect itself, ha-ha. It did and what a mess I made. I was so proud of myself, and when I hauled the engine up to show my dad, transmission still attached with all the wires and fuel lines etc., hanging off, well you can imagined what the look on his face looked like. The neat thing is he wasn’t upset with me at all. He just looked at me and said “now if you can get the good motor I have over in the shop and put it back in the truck and make it run again I am going to give you any vehicle in the junk yard you want, yes anyone of them”. Well that settled it. I had always wanted the 1942 Ford GPW in the back under the big Oak tree. I use to go and pretend I was in the Army fighting our battles for the US Army from Live Oak, Fl. right there from the seat of that little GPW Army Jeep. Anyway that was the vehicle I chose for my dad to give me. And I knew the only way I was going to be able to get it was to fix that old Chevy truck again. After about 4 days of reading manuals and trying to make things fit with crying, mashed fingers, and plenty of electrical tape, ha ha, I did it! It ran and and actually pulled off on its own power! Well I got my first Jeep but not just any Jeep. It was my USA 1942 Ford GPW serial number 66292 original Army JEEP. WOW! It was all mine. It sat for years after that as my interest changed a little, but in 1978 I got my drivers license, and it was time to DRIVE and I knew which truck I wanted to drive. My Jeep. So I began to fix my little GPW, and many many hours later, and after many reading hours I had brought the little thing back to life again. Can you imagine the feeling of driving this Jeep for the first time for real? Not pretending anymore, but really driving and feeling all the bumps and the wind in my face? Wow I did it. I could go on and on, but to make a long story short, I now own “Russell’s Military Vehicles” and I restore Jeeps for a living, and business is good. I have restored vehicles for the D-Day Museum in New Orleans, and for the Mayor of Orlando, Fl., as well as Camp Blanding, Fl. military base museum. I have also done one for Fantasy of Flight in Florida too. Love affair? No, it’s more than that. It’s my life now. My website is www.generationjeep.net
This week Bob is traveling to Philadelphia, PA to meet up with George Baxter, the CEO of one of the largest suppliers of US Military Jeep repair and replacement parts in the country!
If you have a military vehicle from WWII thru Vietnam, you’ll want to check out George’s toy store for every military jeep collector worldwide.
This week Bob is down in Florida featuring one of the largest military collectors swap meets in the country… The Florida chapter of the Military Vehicle Preservation Association is hosting this national spring kickoff event. Bob will be featuring some very unusual collectors and their personal best examples of military vehicles.
Renninger’s Mt. Dora is a 117-acre conglomerate of flea and antique markets perched atop a hill along U.S. Highway 441 in Mount Dora. It is not only big it is arguably the largest of its kind in the Southeast. Renninger’s has made a commitment to the success of this show with attractive vendor participation, space available to rival any location nationally and to become the premier biannual military vehicle show in the nation.
Our Club covers the entire State of Florida. It is divided into 7 Regions, each with a coordinator. We currently have over 200 active members with nearly as many vehicles. Some members own more than one Military Vehicle. Our calendar lists over 100 events for our members to participate in each year. Click on the Calendar Link to see our current Event Calendar. The highlight for the club is our Annual The Charles Craven Winter Rally and Swap Meet held each year in February at the Renninger’s Flea Market in Mount Dora Florida. We recently completed our 2015 Rally and it was a huge success! We had over 100 Vehicles, 40+ vendors and thousands of spectators. The 2016 Rally will be in February and promises to be even bigger. Click on the 2016 Rally link to the left for more information.
We invite everyone to join our group. You do not have to own a Military Vehicle to be a member, just an interest in them and a willingness to be part of a dedicated group of Men, Women and Families who enjoy Military Vehicles, making Friends and enjoying life in Florida. Click on the Membership Link for more information. You can also see an issue of our club newsletter, THE SOUTHERN OUTPOST there. Each issue is packed with stories and photos of events, members vehicles, For Sale and Wanted, Event Calendar and much more. After you join, you will begin receiving the Newsletter by mail. An electronic copy is also posted in the MEMBERS ONLY section located in the Membership link.
If you know anything about military equipment, especially the M151 series jeep then you have to know that most if not all of them have rusted out at some point in their life. This week Bob is in Upstate New York at one of the premier M151 body panel manufacturing facilities in the world: Cameron Manufacturing.
Cameron Manufacturing is the home and founder of the replacement panels for the popular M151 MUTT. The parts that they manufacture are as close as possible to the originals. Cameron uses the correct sheet metal gauge, match the bend radii and have purchased custom tooling for stiffener ribs and drains. Parts are manufactured from American-made materials on modern CNC Lasers and Press Brakes ensuring accurate and consistent part quality.
We’ll talk to Guy Loomis the creator and engineer behind these reproduction jeep panels will take Bob through the manufacturing process.
M151 Truck, Utility, 1/4-Ton, 4×4 vehicle, better known as “the Mutt,” was a light tactical vehicle that helped Uncle Sam big time. It was the next generation of the Jeep and was put to tasks unique to that generation. Like other vehicles in the U.S. military from the 60s to the 80s, the M151 MUTT was deployed for use in Vietnam and Grenada.
The M151 Truck resembles a hybrid between an M38 Jeep, the kind used in World War II, and the modern Humvee. That’s because this vehicle is the missing link that was manufactured in the years between the uses of the Jeep and development of the Humvee.
The M151 Truck, Utility, 1/4-Ton, 4×4 is exceptionally long for an upgrade from the M38 Jeep. It boasts a length of just over 11 feet, a width of 5 feet 4 inches, and an 85-inch wheel base. The vehicle is just under 6 feet tall and weighs in at 2,400 pounds. The M151 is powered by an Ordnance Continental 4 cylinder engine with 71 horsepower.
Earlier variants of the Jeep originally began as two separate structures, with a steel tub having to be welded to a steel frame. The M151 was upgraded at the drawing board to have an integrated sheet-steel frame and thus a sturdier build that could take more punishment. The sturdy build and the horsepower enabled the vehicle to haul up to a quarter ton of cargo, making the MUTT Uncle Sam’s go-to ride.
History of the M151 MUTT
The M151 is the product of research and development that began at the end of World War II. The M38 Jeep was the next model after the World War II variant and it saw some service in the Korean War. However, the Jeep still had trouble hauling both men and cargo over Korea’s mountainous terrain and bad roads that were often made worse by extreme weather. The Korean War had not been over by Christmas as MacArthur promised, so the Army decided to just make an all-new vehicle that didn’t have the same problems as the Jeep.
In 1951, Ford was awarded the contract for building a new line of 4×4 off-roading vehicles. When research and testing proved the vehicle to be fit for service, the vehicle hit the Ford assembly line. The first 10,000 that were used by the U.S. military were manufactured in 1960 and it became the most used Jeep in the armed forces during the Vietnam era.
The M151 ¼ Ton 4×4 in service
Like other military vehicles, the M151 MUTT was easily convertible with a removable canopy top (which included optional doors), but unique in its removable windshield. The MUTT was built with a driver’s seat in the center left of the vehicle and a passenger seat in the center-right. The biggest improvements it boasted from the earlier Jeep model were the ¼ Ton loadbearing ability and independent suspension.
The M151 was a step up from the Jeep in that it could haul more cargo than the M38, and it could do so while off-roading. The magic was in the MUTT’s independent suspension paired with the wheels being at the extreme four corners of the vehicle, making it able to hug and climb more terrain. The independent suspension provided much more dexterity than the axle suspension on the M38, also allowing the vehicle to take more punishment while sustaining less damaging wear and tear.
The major downside to the wheel placement is that the rear wheels slid easily. The result was that the M151 earned a reputation for being prone to vehicle rollovers, especially when soldiers were trying to get somewhere in a hurry. Rollovers became a recurring problem in testing the civilian model, so Ford scrapped it and the M151 Truck, Utility, 1/4-Ton, 4×4 vehicle remained exclusively a military vehicle. The suspension was revised for the M151A1, which debuted in 1964, and once again for safer high-speed turns with 1970’s M151A2.
Inline 4-cyl., 141.5 cu in (2.319 L) 71 hp (53 kW) at 4,000 rpm / 128 ft·lbf (174 N·m) at 1,800 rpm
Transmission: 4-speed + reverse manual transmission, single-speed, part-time transfer case
Number built > 100,000
Battle Tested: The M151 MUTT in Vietnam
The M151 entered mass production in 1960 and was designated as Uncle Sam’s new Jeep, so the MUTT was bound to end up in Vietnam. The size, sturdiness, and off-roading build made this arguable the most used vehicle of the Vietnam War, with over 100,000 M151 MUTT ¼ Ton 4×4 vehicles manufactured for the U.S. military by the 1970s. The M151 Military Utility Transport Truck was adapted into several highly effective variations that changed ground warfare. With greater off-roading capabilities, the M151 could take more men and more cargo to more places where they were badly needed. These variants include:
The M151A1C – The A1C model was mounted with high power 106 mm recoilless rifles and a cruising range of 275 miles before refueling. The M151A1C was effective for taking out big targets at long distances.
The M718 – The M718 and M718A1 were frontline ambulances. Most of the time they had no canopy mounted, allowing room to quickly load multiple litters with wounded men into the vehicle from any angle. Thousands of wounded troops were evacuated to aid stations and M.A.S.H units on the M718, and the MUTT helped save thousands of American lives.
The M1051 – The M1051 was a small firefighting vehicle used exclusively by the Marines
The M151A2 FAV – The M151A2 Fat Assault Vehicle was built with a heavy weapons mount and could be mounted with M2 Browning .50 caliber heavy machine guns, M60 light machine guns, a Mark 19 Automatic Grenade Launcher, and a TOW anti-tank system. Best of all, it could be dropped right onto the battlefield by a Chinook.
The M151 Retires
The M151 entered mass production in 1960 and was designated as Uncle Sam’s new Jeep, so the MUTT was bound to end up in Vietnam. The size, sturdiness, and off-roading build made this arguable the most used vehicle of the Vietnam War, with over 100,000 M151 MUTT ¼ Ton 4×4 vehicles manufactured for the U.S. military by the 1970s. The M151 Military Utility Transport Truck was adapted into several highly effective variations that changed ground warfare. With greater off-roading capabilities, the M151 could take more men and more cargo to more places where they were badly needed.
Bob is on the road this week visiting the GovPlanet staff!
Have you ever wanted to own a piece of modern Military history? Join us as we take a look to see how GovPlanet prepares all of their Dept of Defense Surplus equipment for auctions to the general public.
That’s right, THE GENERAL PUBLIC! GovPlanet is the place to vist and bid for anyone that wants to purchase surplus military equipment and vehicles.
Now is the time, so if you want to start a military collection or add to the one you have, this is a show you have to see!
The Dodge M37 – Three-Quarter Ton Four Wheel Drive Truck
The Dodge M37 three-quarter ton truck is a rugged military vehicle that did its part and made a big difference for Uncle Sam. It was put into service during the Korean War and became indispensable thanks to its multipurpose usability. Despite its slower speeds, every branch of the military adopted this tactical utility vehicle.
This vehicle should look highly familiar, since people have seen it in military movies and television shows. The truck has the large head, large 9 x 16 black rubber tires, and is painted olive drab with the mandatory white star centered on both door panels. It’s a large pick-up truck with the open-air bed often covered by a tarp canopy.
The Dodge M37 made its debut on the assembly line in 1951. There were over 115,000 units of the M37 made over the next eighteen years. The M37 three-quarter ton truck was part of a line of tactical vehicles based on the G502 WC series of Dodge vehicles used in World War II. The old WC line was easily adapted to produce the M37 three-quarter ton truck. Because the same assembly line and many of the same parts were used, the manufacturing cost for the M37 was lower.
Better yet, the vehicle reflected lessons learned the hard way in World War II. Many of the kinks and drawbacks from the old Dodge WC line were corrected when the M37 was being designed. Major improvements include a waterproof ignition system, better weather protection, and the ¾ ton truck was built to be able to ford high waters for crossing streams and rivers. The M37 was in every way a sign of improvement in manufacturing made possible by American wartime industrial ingenuity.
The basic frame of the truck was taken from Dodge’s Model T245. The truck has an L-head with a 6-cylinder engine with 58.2 kilowatts of power at a maximum rate of 3,200 rpm. The oil capacity is 6 quarts, with a 25 quarts capacity for the radiator. The fuel system accommodates 24 gallons and the transmission is a 4-peed synchro-shift.
The M37 truck weighs nearly 5,700 pounds without the optional winch. With the winch, it’s nearly an even 6,000 pounds. Its cruising speed is 45 mph with a maximum speed of 55. The 24 gallon fuel tank burns at a fuel efficiency averaging 6 miles to the gallon, with a maximum range of 150 miles before refueling is required.
The Dodge M37 ¾ ton truck quickly replaced other military vehicles based on the Kaiser M715 and Dodge M880 series, which were originally civilian commercial vehicles. The M37 came along as the alternative that had four-wheel drive, was much sturdier and tougher, and could withstand the extensive wear and tear demanded of vehicles by combat zones like Korea. Its strong yet narrow frame made it the ideal vehicle for scaling rocky slopes, passing over streams and rivers, and squeezing through narrow passageways. Keep in mind that the Korean peninsula is a very mountainous place with many cliffs, valleys, and waterways.
Military Collector Ranking
Collectability: ★★★☆☆
Rarity: ★★☆☆☆
Est Value: $25,000 – $50,000
Vehicle Specifications
Weight: 5,917 lb (2,684 kg)
Produced: 1951-1968
Engine: Dodge T-245 78 hp (58 kW)
Speed: 55 mph (89 km/h)
Number built: 115,838
Battle Tested: M37 Variations
The M43 ambulance – The M43B1 was an ambulance specially fitted to be able to carry four patient litters, or six to eight passengers sitting upright. The four litter bunks could be folded up and latched to the wall to accommodate upright passengers on bench-style seating. Thousands of these were used to transport wounded soldiers to field hospitals and aid stations between 1951 and the ceasefire in 1953.
The M201 telephone maintenance vehicle – Also known as the V41 Telephone Installation Light Maintenance and Cable Splicing Truck, this vehicle was mounted with a winch and spotlight for repairing cables, telephone poles, and other communications infrastructure.
The XM132 bomb service truck – This variation of the Dodge M37 was outfitted with an open air back and an arch-shaped metal cage for transporting bombs and other live ordnance.
The M42 command truck – The back was outfitted to make this vehicle a mobile office, including curtains, windows, interior lights, and a folding desk table.
The M56 tool truck – The M56 Chassis was mounted with an industrial winch and heavier suspension. This was a heavy duty maintenance vehicle and was used to build crash trucks for Navy and Air Force research.
The R2 airfield fire engine – This fire truck was often mounted with a winch, water tank, and fire hose. Not surprisingly, it was painted bright red.
The V126 radar truck – The large satellite dish on the back makes this variation hard to ignore or mistake
The MB2 fire and rescue truck – The MB2 was similar to the R2, though this vehicle was used for “forcible entry” rescues requiring the vehicle to crash through walls.
The M152 utility truck – The M152 was extensively used by the Canadian military to haul tools and special equipment.
