Now see what cha got me into George! Just kiddin’ buddy. Woo, believe me I’m not the expert you may think I am. All of that came right from the parts books at TOCMP, there for anyone to see. This thing gets to be like a bag of worms when you get into it and as disorganized as I am, I’m not the one to sort it out.
All I’ve been able to sort out is mostly for the 1950, 3604. From what I glean from the parts books it appears that GM standardized the straps as much as possible on both the sliders and the diagonal carriers. There are a bunch of different cross members, hangers and brackets listed. I found that the early pickup sliders used the same strap for the ½ , ¾ ton pickups and it looks like the panel also. The track rail itself was the same but the difference in the tracks was in the way they mounted at the front and back. The front track bracket mounts on top of the cross member on the 3100 and on the rear of the cross member on the 3600. The rear bracket on the 3100 track is tall and the 3600 is short. Since I couldn’t find a 3600 track for my truck I took a 3100 track, removed the brackets and using the measurements from a borrowed 3604 track, made up the new brackets for a 3600 track. I think this thread was about a carrier for a panel I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to mention that the 3658433 track was listed for the 3604 pickup and the panel also. The 3104 stands alone. The wheel carrier centering plate is also different for the 3100 and the 3600 due to the different size tires.
And as I noted from what I found in the parts books, the replacement diagonal strap appears to have been standardized by the time the 1929-57 parts book was printed. That makes sense because all they needed to do was change the hangers and draw bolt to accommodate the different models. This new design which carries thru to this day in one form or another was much simpler to make and use and created a universal design. I do happen to have a 1946-72 parts book and it only lists one cross strap, pn 3820375 for all from 1951-72 so again they standardized the replacement part for a couple of decades. Well that sure simplifies the under bed carrier situation for the ’51 and later trucks of all models
Gotta go for a fresh cup of hot steaming delicious coffee, and then feed the livestock,
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
