1952 Deuce (AKA Leroy) and new source for Random TM's

[BFR]

I have been able to spend a few hours crawling around on the deuce, and have discovered a little bit more about the truck. Some of my discoveries have been good while the others have been “not so good”. First the bad, the cab has some pretty serious cancer at the forward edge of the door opening on the driver side (the door won’t open, but it will come off), and on the sill on the passenger side. It looks like a new cab or some interesting non-stock engineering will be necessary to have functional doors. The good came from talking to the guy who drove it to where it now sits. It has been sitting for around one year, not the five to ten I had thought. I checked the oil and it actually looked good (low but good, at least the part that shows up on the dipstick). The truck is an M44 (cab & chassis truck) that I originally thought had a genset mounted in the rear, but it turns out that it was an air compressor. After looking around near the truck I found the compressor it is a Le Roi 210. It uses a 499ci V8 with one bank firing, the other just compressing to put out 210 CFM @ 90PSI. I searched a little and found the army tm from 1954. I doubt I’ll be able to get the compressor, but the TM and its pics make the tool boxes much more logical.

The tm also shows the tools the truck was originally equipped with:
Paving Breaker (jackhammer)
Clay digger
Wood
Rock drill
Nail driver
Circular saw
Chain saw (two man)
Grease gun kit
Pneumatic tool accessories (wonder how fast you can fill a 9.00x20.00 tire at 210 cfm)

BTW found the TM at
http://www.tpub-manual.com/Automotive_and_Mechanics/

 

[rdixiemiller]

I may be able to help wth cab parts. I am picking up a cab and chassis from a shop van. The floors are rusted, but I think we could cut out some other parts.

 

[red devils dude]

hey thats cool the v-8 with one bank firing and the other as a compressor.

 

[73m819]

how about those combat rims, thats something you dont see on a deuce

 

[Recovry4x4]

On the compressor truck, I have a friend that has a restored one. If the owner is interested in selling any parts of it, let me know. There aren't but a couple of complete ones left in the world that we've found. Great find and remember, cab sheet metal is usually an easy find. Let me know about that compressor bed.
Kenny

 

[BFR]

Air compressor Bed

Recovery,
here are some pics of the data plates on the bed, they are hare to make out as there is no paint on them.