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Troop Jump Seat...

Okay I touched on this before and you guys shot me some answers and after looking at a lot of pictures my truck never appears to have been equipped with one... Is this unheard of for the M37 ?
It's a 1953 M37 with the bed mounted Spare and technically since its not a M37B1 it should be there but there are no holes for the mounting of it and the truck is as it came from the factory the truck has the same strata blue on the bed and the cab with the same OD green over coat so it does not suggest that the bed was replaced at anytime... The layers of paint match every where... It really bugs me that I am so obsessive about little details but I've been this way ever since I started working on vehicles...

Let the beating of the Dead Horse begin...

My original Air Force truck bed has the holes for the jump seat but no jump seat was there.

The replacement bed I bought does not have the holes but *does* have the spare tire bracket in the bed.

Your bed does have the spare tire bracket holes/nuts?

I did not notice if the '53 USMC truck I just bought has the jump seat holes or not. I will find out though.

I thought that the beds without a jump seat were B1 beds and do not have a spare tire bracket. Hmm.....interesting.

Yup and its driving me nuts... Bed spare bracket and all nuts and hardware just as an M37 should right from the factory... Is there anything else that would differentiate a M37 bed from a M37B1 bed besides that...

Let me try:

Perhaps the bed front was swapped?

Also, when I got my replacement bed (a B1) it had no mount holes for the bed spare, no jump seat mounts, and it had locking tabs for the cargo box doors while the old bed (not a B1) didn't have the cargo door tabs nor any sign that there ever were any. Could the B1 beds be identified by these locking tabs?
Gary

That could be possible... what do the locking tabs look like ?

Just two square tabs with a hole that the padlock goes through-one on the top of the door edge, and it matches up to another on the side panel to keep the curious out of the cargo boxes.
Gary

So locking tabs were a B1 bed feature? Just making sure I understand that....

I though it was a USMC feature, though mine doesn't have them.

Well... I don't have those then gary...

My M37 is an all original, unmodified 1954 and it doesn't have a jump seat nor does it have any mounting holes for a jump seat. The spare tire bracket and bracket mounting holes are there just no jump seat.

Kevin

Then it must have been a change they made sometime during the original production run. It will take some research to find out when this change was made.

I belive the B1 beds had a longer bench seat on that side, since the spare was not mounted there.

I just found out my USMC truck does have the holes but no seat. So there's some additional info.

Now I have to find a jump seat.....

I can't say either way; I just know that my '54 had no locking tabs, nor any sign of them, while my replacement bed had them, and I'm 99% sure my replacement bed is a B1.
Gary

It's all interesting info to ponder... I think I'll leave mine alone... I'll have a gun pedestal mount bolted up behind the tire anyway for my 1917A1 water cooled... and I know the bracket would interfere with that jump seat or at least I'm pretty sure it would...

Can anyone post a photo or drawing showing where the holes for the jump seat and bed mounted spare are located? I know where they're generally located but I'd like to be sure which ones are for the seat and spare. Mine has holes all over it and I still don't know what most of them are for. I have a '51 and so far everything that that I've checked indicates that this is a much later model truck! It only has five tie downs for the canvas top for the cab. It does have the locking tabs for the tool boxes, it does not have the E-brake adjusting hole under the RH seat. And it had a door mounted spare. It does not have the fuel filter mounted in front of the voltage regulator. And it is undercoated. ALL of these features are wrong for a 51! There are also some other odd features but I don't recall all of them now but by all accounts this thing is completely wrong!

Here's a pic of the jump seat holes...someone else has the dimensions I am sure. Otherwise I can get them later in the week.

I can get the spare bracket later too.