The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts 1959 Viking 60 military truck

Guys,
I finally decided to pull my old 59 from behind the barn and start working on it. Does anyone know where I could find what markings were on military trucks in 1959? The original color was od green, but I can't find any of the markings. It's been painted a couple times but where it faded or cracked you can still see the original color. I'm going to get the shop manual so I can figure out where everything is. another question, it has 20" tires on the back and 22-1/2" on the front. Was that original? I would think they would have been the same size? Thanks for any input.

20" tube type tires and 22.5" tubeless have the same overall height. If the tire shop guys in your neighborhood wear lace on their drawers like they do in a lot of urban areas, you probably won't find anyone man enough to work on the sectional rim a tube-type tire has to have. Find a few more 22.5's and get rid of the 20's unless you can find an oldtimer who's not afraid of sectional rims.
Jerry

About the markings ...

Does it have any stamped metal tags on the dash or map compartment/glove box door? If not, how do you know it was a military truck? If it was, it should have some sort of a tag on it to say so. And about the markings -- it would depend on which service had it and what unit it was assigned to. Military trucks from all eras have a plethora of markings all relative to branch and unit down to the individual motor pool. Not all civilian/commercially sourced vehicles would be marked like the true tactical vehicles (i.e., with the white star on the door for the Army and white letting on the hood sides, or just orangish gold letters on the hood sides for Marine Corps trucks of that era). If it was an Army truck, it might have had some white lettering on the doors with words like

U.S. Army
(number)
For Official Use Only

Kinda like this

Or it might not have had anything at all, maybe just some motor pool specific markings on the bumper. Really hard to tell without knowing what branch and unit it was last assigned to.

Find those tags and tell us what they say (or show us a picture). If no tags, it might be impossible to know.

Good project, though!

And Welcome to Stovebolt!

John

Mark, Welcome to the Stovebolt. To be more specific and to engage more Bolters its a good idea "break it down" and ask individual questions in the most appropriate forums......just something to think about as you navigate the site.
Also, watch for other bolters in your area. They are around here so keep watch. May have a bolter next door!

Welcome

I've owned two 1956 4400 1-1/2 ton Stake Bed Trucks that were Department of Navy trucks. They both had 4" x 6" brass engraved tags mounted down low on the rear drivers door post close to the step. They had manufacture name, build date, contract and serial number info and Navy ID numbers etc.

The sun visor was stenciled "DO NOT DRIVE THIS TRUCK WITH GLOVES ON"...

What type of body is on your truck?

Mike B

welcome to the site!My 58 had 22.5 on the front and one side in the rear and 20" on the other side in the rear. I am assuming the farmer just swapped the tired on the one side at some point and ran it that way.

Welcome to the Big Bolt site and good luck with your research on the beast. As said any ex military vehicles that I have seen
have had a usually brass ID tag attached some where to the cab.

The folk here have tremendous knowledge and a few like Jerry will keep you in stitches laughing so hard as he
passes down his vast experience.

Have fun.
Howie

Thank you all for the great info!
The truck has the metal tag on the glove box
Nomenclature
Truck, van with cab, 4x2
Make and model - Chevrolet 6403
Delivery date - 7/1959
Contract #
Da-20-113 ord 24761
It has U.S. property and a small eagle with 3 stars above its head. As well as weights and federal stock #.
Ill have to figure out how to put the picture link on the reply so everyone can see it.
I was told it was an Air Force truck. It had no box on the back when I picked it up. Maybe it just had a van cargo box on it as it states a truck van. Nothing great like a 6x6 but still a little history.

http://www.1954advance-design.com/chev-specs/1959-Chevrolet-Truck.pdf

It looks like 7x22.5, 8x22.5, 9x22.5, or 10x22.5 were used in various combinations on front/rear of big domestic trucks in 1959?

Cool to see another warbolt. Pictures, we like pictures...

Mark,
I found at least one other truck from that purchase contract:

Does your tag look like the one on this truck?

The Eagle with the stars is the DOD acceptance cartouche. The contract number doesn't conform to current contract nomenclature standards, but the DA means it was a Dept of the Army contract. Which makes sense even if it was an Air Force truck as the Army used to (and may still in most cases if I remember correctly -- I work with aircraft, not ground vehicles) act as the acquisition systems command for wheeled ground transportation (non-tactical, or in this case, and civilian sourced -- or what we call Commercial Off The Shelf Procurement today . My '88 G-20 van I bought surplus has the same tag (different contract, though). A multi-year contract (probably the same thing as what we call an "IDIQ" Contract today -- Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite quantity, for you contracting geeks out there) would provide different makes and models across several model years, so having a '59 and a '62 on the same contract is not surprising.

John,

Both of my Navy plates have the same DA-20-113-ORD-, but the last 5 digits are different at "20930". Would this still mean the DA stands for Department of Army?

Mike B

I'd add a picture of the tag to my Photobucket in the Gallery, but that doesn't seem to be working...

Mike B

Mike B -- Be advised, my limited contracting knowledge only covers the current FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulations). That contract number appears to conform to an earlier (obsolete/superceded) nomenclature. I'm digging through my documentation now to see if I have anything on earlier contract designators. Somewhere in my office I have a cheat sheet on contract numbers that I recall covered the older ones -- I'm searching.

In the meantime, at least for current contracts, it works like this: 13-character alphanumeric. position 1-6 is ID of issuing department/agency (DA would be Dept of Ag or Dept of the Army. Seeing as how the DOD cartouche is embossed as well, I'm going with Dept of the Army ); Position 7&8 are the last two digits of the fiscal year in which the contract number was assigned; position 9 is the type of instrument ("Firm, Fixed Price," "Cost plus Incentive Fee," "Cost Plus Fixed Fee," etc, etc -- there are many more types of instruments); and position 10-13 is the four digit serial number of the contract itself.

Now you know how to read a U.S. Government Contract number

I'm guessing that the earlier contracts are a little bit similar in that the first part tells us who issued the contract. It *used* to be that the Army was assigned the responsibility for procuring all ground vehicles for DOD and administered that duty through it's Tank and Automotive Command (Today known as TACOM) and part of the overall Ordnance Dept or something like that -- I'm not good with DA organization ...) Bureau of Ordnance, or something like that. Same thing/equivalent to as the Naval Air Systems Command, only for tanks, trucks, Jeeps, etc. And if you wanted more COTS 2-ton trucks (more useful for non-tactical CONUS applications like base/station logistics, maintenance, etc -- i.e., why use a Deuce and a half just to run around Pax River fixing potholes?), then you had to get your requirement ducks in a row (and some money) and then go to see the Army at TACOM and they would issue a contract for you. This is how we all ended up with those crappy M-880's back in the early '80's ... Thank YOU very little, Army!

So not surprising that your plate and his plate have similar numbers except for the end. It would be the same kind of contract, just a separate one (his for the Army itself, yours for the Navy, presumably) issued in a different year and maybe covering a different requirement. If yours had been covered by a same requirement, then, presumably, they would have just asked the Army to issue a contract modification to add, say 250 more of that same truck type to the existing contract rather than go through the hassle of doing a completely new contract. Of course, back then, maybe the FAR (with supplement) wasn't 6 inches thick, either ...).

Hope this helps

BTW, here's my data plate . This is on the underside of the hood of a 1988 3/4-ton Chevy passenger van procured under a General Services Administration ("GS") contract. It appears to conform to the earlier contract numbering system, as well.

Thanks John, that makes sense (the Army buying for everyone)...

Mike B