M35 - Wooden Steering Wheel?

[rumplecat]

Does anyone know if any of the early Deuces had wooden steering wheels? A guy I work with knows where there is a 1953 Army Truck(I assume a deuce), he is pretty sure it is a gasser and it runs. it also has a wooden steering wheel? The price is right so I guess I will drive the hour into the hinderlands to see it.
James G.

 

[FrankUSMC]

The WWII CCKW had a wooden steering wheel, during the war. After the war, some were replaced with plastic ones during the post war rebuilds. There was no reason to use a wooden steering wheel after 1945.
Could the truck your friend is looking at be a WWII CCKW that has the rebuild date on the title (seen this lots if times).
One of the few, Frank USMC RET.

 

[Barrman]

My 1952 and 1953 M35 Gassers have really old plastic or whatever non wood composite it actually is.

 

[nattieleather]

Bake a lite...not sure how its spelled but you get the idea. That was the plastic of the 40s and early 50s

Sounds like a CCKW to me also.

 

[rosco]

I sorta thought the stuff steering wheels was made of was a hard rubber compound. If you had some grease or other petroleum product on your hands, it would cause the wheel to make your hands black, and kept making them black.

Lee in Alaska