Despite knowing that I had already purchased a Unimog, Gary was still happy for me to pop round and look at some of his trucks. So I fired down first thing for a look around. The Dodge M37 was the one we had talked about, it’s a great looking military pickup from 1953 designed as the next step up from the Willy’s. this particular truck was used by the US Airforce for tugging planes around airfields, it then became a wrecker and then later a pickup.
Gary isn’t your usual type of military vehicle enthusiast and much prefers to use them as they were intended, just before I left he mentioned he had been all the way to Poole the previous day in it to get some steel supports for an engine winch, but it gets used off road all the time as well. It also has some cool non original parts such as the snorkel, still to be connected, the Willans tailored seat belts with Falcon Bomber release clips and a dash cluster from a piece of mortar firing equipment. The old petrol engine has been replaced with a diesel Ford transit engine and the front has a disc brake conversion, the reason for the engine is simple, they are £200 a pop. We went out for a quick run and its quite an experience, its quite loud as you would expect and you are open to the elements, although it does have side windows and a home engineered heater in the passenger foot well. It rattles along on the road as people gawp at it and down the lanes its fantastic bopping along on its leaf springs. One of those vehicles that offers and adventure every time you jump in it.
Although the current truck is much loved, Gary has plans for the M37 chassis in the pics as well, it came complete but has been stripped back to make room for a Cummins turbo engine made for shifting a 7.5T truck rather than a 2.6T truck. This has plans to be a utility vehicle with onboard air compressor and tanks to allow for air tools and things like pumping its own tyres up.
The little Jeep next to the complete M37 is an import that was used as an off-roader. Gary and the family use it and the trailer to go on camping trips. A few other things caught my eye as we were wandering around such as the little Ford 1100 tractor, the plane float, I can’t remember the technical term but he had plans to make an old two stoke racer from it at some point. I also loved the artillery gun, its Russian and from as far back as 1908, it was used in the Russian civil war and then in the First World War with and against the allies.
All in all a mega morning out so big thanks to Gary. He’s actually considering another vehicle that has come up in which case either the running truck or the Cummins project could be available for anyone looking for some off-road fun.
