Mystery part on M37 brush truck

[Deucalion]

Been trying to figure out what the heck these things are on the truck. One on each side and the piping seems to run back through the firewall but I don't know to where exactly.

[powerwagontim]

I believe they are the inputs for the turbo encabulators. Definately not original to the truck but you can reach warp speed much quicker.
Tim

[Brett]

They look like some sort of spray nozzle. Judging by the size of them, maybe fire fighting foam. Maybe at one time there were valves mounted in the cab. It looks like your truck may have been one bad a$$ brush truck at some time. It seems most of them (mine included) were hack jobs at best. I wouldn't call you crazy if you wanted to restore it as a fire truck.

Brett

[SOTVEN]

SO, DID YOU GET THE TRUCK? I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THOSE THINGS ARE, BUT TAKEN FROM WHAT ALL THOSE PEOPLE IN THIS FORUM WHO HAD FIRE TRUCK M37, THERE WERE MANY ADDITIONS AND MODIFICATIONS DONE TO THEM IN TERMS OF AUXILLIARRY EQUIPMENT. I AM VERY POSSITIVE THAT THIS IS NOT M37 ISSUE STUFF.

[Deucalion]

Still working on getting it. Problem has been that I'm never in town so I've been going through a friend that works for the town to see about selling it to me since they have completely forgotten they put it in the barn. Waiting for the fire chief to OK the sale of it and I think he will since he is greedy. Would be handy if I had it today with the blizzard going on outside!

[SOTVEN]

HMMM... "GREEDY" PERSON IN CHARGE MIGHT NOT BE VERY GOOD NEWS. PLAN YOUR STRATEGY OF AQUIRING THIS RIG CAREFULLY. YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO SEEM EAGER ABOUT BUING IT, BECAUSE HIM BEING GREEDY MIGHT ASK FOR AN "ARM AND A LEG" AS A PRICE. AS FOR THE BLIZZARD, WE HAVE ABOUT A FOOT HERE ALREADY, AND IT IS STILL COMING DOWN HARD. NO WORK TODAY, AND I DO NOT FELL LIKE GOING OUT THERE AND SHOVELING EITHER. SEEMS LIKE A VIDEO GAME GALORE DAY LOL. CALL OF DUTY HERE I COME

[SOTVEN]

OH, AND IF EVERYTHING GOES WELL AND YOU GET THIS TRUCK, MAKE SURE THAT THEY GIVE YOU A TITLE FOR IT, AND THAT THE VIN NUMBERS MATCH!!! THE SERIAL NUMBER OF THE TRUCK IS STAMPED ON THE CHASSIS IN FRONT OF THE STEERING BOX (UNDER TONS OF PAINT USUALLY). YOU KNOW HOW THE Retard Moron Variety WORKS IN OUR STATE. MY FRIEND HERE IN WORCESTER OVERHAULED HER 72 JEEP AND PUT A FIBERGLASS BODY ON, THE RMV WOULD NOT REGISTER IT BECAUSE THE VIN LABEL WAS MISSING. DUH!!! OF COURSE, IF YOU TRANSFER THE LABEL FROM THE STEEL BODY TO THE FIBERGLASS THEN IT IS FRAUD. LOSE-LOSE SITUATION. GOOD LUCK

[Deucalion]

The RMV certainly is a pain in this state! I've had issues with their inspection rules before...I think I can get the truck relatively cheap since I don't think it will be up to him entirely to decide a sell price. This is also such a small town everyone knows everyone else and has been around for generations mostly. Also the fact that they seem to have forgotten about the truck works in my favor because getting rid of it means they'll have a nice big space open up to store more crap

[Av8r]

Not that this would come into play with your purchase of this truck, but just be careful about the legality of a direct purchase from the fire department. I'm sure many here know a lot more about this than I do but many military vehicles that are in the possession of fire departments, civil defense agencies, etc. were donated to these agencies as "excess" equipment. I may not have the term correct but depending on the nature of the donation to the agency they may not be able to sell it outright to an individual without it first being advertised for bids and making it available to other agencies first, even if it's a 50 year old vehicle. Now if the department owns it outright they can do whatever they want with it. I'm not expert on this by any means but I was involved in a couple of local government agencies several years ago that had a few MVs in their inventories that I was very interested in. A good friend was the head of one of the agencies and had been the one to acquire these vehicles from the government originally and this is how he explained it to me and he even showed me the paperwork on the vehicles to reflect that. Even if the vehicle is subject to this it doesn't mean that the greedy chief won't sell it to you.........just make sure you have legitimate paperwork in hand after the sale. In the case of the equipment I was interested they could also trade with me for something they needed of equal value without a bid process if I recall correctly, but that was 25 years ago. Hopefully they own it outright and you can simply buy it.

And when you do buy it (I state it as fact because I'm optimistic for you) I will second the notion of restoring it as a fire truck. While I generally like to see these vehicles restored original it is important to remember that while these trucks served their country with honor for many years, many of them served for an even greater number of years as fire trucks and performing other important jobs. These years of post-military duty are also an important part of their history and who knows how many lives they saved and how many homes were spared by them during this period of their working lives. I think some of them need to be restored to reflect this important part of their history.

[Brett]

My truck was a brush truck in the little community I lived, and I had toyed with the idea of doing a fire truck resto on it. I decided a while back not to go that route though. My truck had a plywood top that looked like it was cut with a chainsaw, and a pair of taillights off of a utility trailer facing forward, mounted to the roof, presumably wired to a flasher. I figured there was no returning it to its former glory, if there was no former glory.

Brett

[Deucalion]

I'm hoping that the truck is owned outright by the town and that a bidding process won't be required since that will be more of a hassle than I'd like to deal with to get the truck. As for my intentions for the truck they are to fix/upgrade it and bring it along when I move to a warmer climate for work.

[pryorfire48]

those are sprayers. they are typically mounted to spray just in front and to the side of the tires. They work great when fighting fast moving fires in short grass. there may have been flip switches in the cab to activate them or at least the more modern ones. Those look more of a homemade job but at least they used bands on the hoses instead of worn gear style clamps. (radiator hose clamps)

[Deucalion]

Thanks for the info Pyro. Going to remove them if I get the truck but still wanted to know what they were.

[pwrwagonfire]

Not that this would come into play with your purchase of this truck, but just be careful about the legality of a direct purchase from the fire department. I'm sure many here know a lot more about this than I do but many military vehicles that are in the possession of fire departments, civil defense agencies, etc. were donated to these agencies as "excess" equipment. I may not have the term correct but depending on the nature of the donation to the agency they may not be able to sell it outright to an individual without it first being advertised for bids and making it available to other agencies first, even if it's a 50 year old vehicle.

EXACTLY. Be very careful, if you purchase it and it IS "excess property" you will have issues getting a title. Unfortunately if it is FEPP (Federal Excess Property) The truck is legally supposted to be returned to the state, where it is declared surplus and auctioned off. There are many programs out there besides FEPP however, I am only familiar with FEPP.

If I may ask, which state are you located in? Perhaps calling the state forestry agency would be a good idea and inquiring about it. If the truck is from this specific program, it will have ID tags somewhere inside the cab or on the door with the #s on them.

[Deucalion]

I live in MA. Pretty sure that the town owns it outright just taking awhile to track down all the people connected to it because I'm never really around town.