The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk location of chassis numbers

Hi Guys, hope you can help me here, i have just pulled a 1955 task force series truck from a garage here in england, the truck does not have any paperwork (title) with it and the vin number is missing from the 'A' pillar i have found a number that looks something like this H255 AO53804 On the top of the drivers side front frame rail (just in front of the steering box), now someone has told me that the chassis number was also stamped on top of the frame rail underneath the cab. do any of you guys know if this is true, before i lift the cab off the frame. hope you can help
limey dan

The # that you found is the VIN, the same # is also stamped under the cab, too. From what I can tell from the # you've got, it's a 3100 from tha Atlanta plant.

thanks longbox55 for the info,looks like the cab will come off just to verify the number. the truck does have a georgia windshield sticker, so you could be correct.
thanks for the help
limey dan

pulling the cab just to verify a number you already have stamped in steel??
don't count on finding a number under the cab - 55 was when they started stamping the vin on the frame and it was inconsistant until 57 or later, some 55's didn't get stamped, some had one, same with 56 and 57, varied at different plants .... and not a matter of "could be" correct, plug the number in the vin buster

Bill

thanks for your help bill, the truck is apart already and the cab is held to the frame with ziplocks, the number i got off the front frame rail seems to be correct but two of the last five digits are unclear, i just wanted to prove beyond all doubt that the vin# is correct. here in europe vehicles manufactured before 1973 do not need to pay for a road fund license (you guys call it 'license tags') a truck like the one i have with an engine size greater than 3 litres could pay $700.00 to be on the road in tax, and that's the reason to be exact with the vin# to prove it's year of manufactue, and to avoid the extortionate tax.
thanks for your help
Limey Dan

Historically, we too have had problems with your government's taxation;-) but now we have problems with ours. At least your government now taxes on displacement rather than on bore alone, as they did for decades.

the last 6 digits have nothing to do with year of manuf, they're the sequence number, the first part tells the year:
H = 1/2T
2 = 2nd series
55 = 1955
A = Atlanta plant
0[not o]53804 = 52,803rd truck made there
[all 55 2nd ser no's started at 001001 at each plant]
.... and I'd think a picture would suffice to prove it's pre-73!!!

Bill

Not to be too persnickety, Bill, but the 1001 number was assigned to a truck, so it would be the 52,804th assembled there. You subtract 1000, not 1001.

yer right, not persnickety

Bill