Question for owners of ex USAF trucks

russcal · Post by **russcal** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 11:54 pm

Hiya, all!

As some of you may know, I'm trying to figure out some of the history / geneology of my XM152. Originally USAF, than transferred / given to North American Aviation / Rocketdyne Division for use at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. At the time, SSFL was a joint USAF / NAA research site looking at advanced rocketry and nuclear power.

When NAA / RD used the truck, they removed all USAF markings and replaced them with their own markings. Fortunately, they left everything inside the cab and under the hood untouched, so I still have the original ID plate and some other plates to work with.

Now down to the nitty gritty ... I have two extra non-typical plates on my truck. I'm 99.988% sure that both plates were added by the Air Force. The first is a diamond shaped (canted square) plate, 2" on a side, mounted far right side of dash, between the glove box and the door frame. It says:
PROPERTY OF U. S. AIR FORCE
568927
DO NOT REMOVE THIS TAG
Its a professionally made plate, nice raised letters, decorative edging and lines, attached with two rivets, top and bottom.

Second tag is at the extreme right side of the cowl, under the hood. Its a capsule shaped (rectangle with round ends) tag, real thin and soft metal (aluminum). It is 7/8" high by 2 3/4" wide. Its a machine made tag (punched), nice smooth edges, two symetrical mounting holes. Makes me think of something like a property / accountabilty tag that the motor pool or supply would attach to various assets. It's very crudely marked, hand stamped, kind of unevenly. It says:
49109 5689
The numbers have the space in them as shown. First group of numbers starts right next to mounting hole, space, second group ends right at mounting hole. This plate was attached with two small sheet metal screws. I have since learned this is a "cowl tag".

Both contain the number 5689... don't know is that's significant.

Now on to the actual question: does any one else have plates like these? And, if you have them, do these numbers correspond to anything else. Hood / door numbers, or bumper codes?

Thanx for reading!

Russ
Proud son of Rose and Wes

XM152

Lifer · Post by **Lifer** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 7:43 am

I operated many USAF-owned military vehicles during my career, but I don't recall ever seeing either of the tags you describe. Every major command, however, has its own supplements to a wide variety of regulations, so it's possible that they were a MAJCOM directed addition.

k8icu · Post by **k8icu** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 6:19 pm

Have you checked or looked for the frame sieral number? Maybe the 5689 is part of the frame number?

m15256 · Post by **m15256** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 6:34 pm

I don't have those plates on a 54 M56 USAF. It does have the ID Number still visible on the tailgate,passenger door, and painted on the seat belts of all places. Drivers door was dented and sanded down to metal at some point.

russcal · Post by **russcal** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:50 pm

Heya, y'all!

I have mentioned in other pots, but didn't make it clear in this one, that I do have the original dash serial number plate. Serial number on plate does match the serial number stamped into the frame rail. That leads to part of the mystery... the numbers on the diamond shaped plate and the small ID tag are totally different than the actual serial number, much less any of the other numbers.

Thanx for the replies guys. I kinda figured it was going to be a crap shoot to find this out, but, hey, I'm an optimist!

Russ
Proud son of Rose and Wes

neverfinished · Post by **neverfinished** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 12:36 pm

The 49109 # looks like it could be the cowl #, although mine all began with 49102, but don't know what year you have and if that makes a difference. Looked in registery but found very few cowl #'s listed. They are usually on a rectangular tag on the passenger side of the firewall, above the drip channel. Could be what you have?
Ted

russcal · Post by **russcal** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 5:59 pm

Heya, Ted!

You're right! I had a brain fart and confused one tag with another. The capsule shaped tag did come off of the cowl, extreme right side, directly in front of where the diamond shaped plate is inside the cab.

My truck has a delivery date of August 3, 1953, under contract #12107.

Does your cowl tag correspond with any other number on your truck?

Thanx for setting me straight.

Russ
Proud son of Rose and Wes

neverfinished · Post by **neverfinished** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 11:04 am

Russ,
I don't see any relation between the cowl #s and any other #s. Your question got me wondering what that # does represent though. I wonder if the cab tubs were from a source outside of Dodge or something like that ? Anyone out there know?
Ted

neverfinished · Post by **neverfinished** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 3:05 pm

Curiousity got me doing some looking. In TM9-8030 on page 15, fig. 9. it shows a picture of the cowl # plate and on p.17 describes it as the "cab or body serial number plate". Now I'm really curious as to whether Dodge built the cabs or someone else- or another company owned by Dodge built them. Seems like the more we look into these rigs, the more questions we come up with-even if they aren't really important ones.
Ted

russcal · Post by **russcal** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 7:51 pm

Heya, Ted and all!

Got me doing some digging too... found out that the cowl tag is technically the "PLATE, body number", CC-1395099 (CC-1279908 for M37, M42, and V41). So it was attached on the production line, by the manufacturer. I had been thinking the other way around, but the nice Air Force added plate refers back to the manufacturers plate.

Here is a pic of the Air Force plate inside my truck:

Thanx again, guys!

Russ
Proud son of Rose and Wes