M43 towing question

[Recovry4x4]

"73m819 you are clear for 27L. Watch that dip off to the right"!

 

[73m819]

you need to rethink this, the 819 DOES NOT have wings, but did fly

That is precisely my point. The M43 doesn't have a plug but it will pull a trailer! hehe!

You sill need to rethink on this, since the 819 has USAF makings, It may have SECRET capabilitys such as airborn recovery operations right next to the airborn refueling operations, cargo transport operations, troop transport operations, ect., all part of the airborn motorpool

Do have to work on the landings a bit, a walk away is always good, being able to refly would be better.

 

[papabear]

I just HAD to go check. My M43 does not have a pintle hitch...nor does the M725. Looks like there never was one on either vehicle. No trailer plug either.

I just betcha whoever cut the nasty windows in the box added the hitch as well.

 

[Oldfart]

There is a radiator shroud - I did not show it as it was tucked away with some engine parts when it was first dropped off.

The shroud is a full stamped unit and is roughly 4 inches deep. It is shinny green now along with the transmission cover - front radiator brace top - shifter lever boot plate - fuel filler neck.

I had to giggle a little re looking at the Canadian unit - I am so sick of looking at windows in one of these and the time spent to re-fill them back in so it did not look like a mangled piece of shrapnel on the side and inside.

We picked up a parts M43 and M37 a while back and the M43 has the seat/step the same as Ghostdriver's M43. There is a cross brace that would interfere with a pintle. Yours and the Canadian M43 uses a plate brace that has a scoop cut out to miss the pintle. Many years ago I converted my M37 to a 265 Industrial Chrylser engine. This is the same block size as the Canadian 251 engine and looks essentially the same as the Dodge 230 except it is about 2 inches longer. To acomodate the longer engine, the sheet metal around the fan shroud and radiator is different. The front motor mount plate also differs slightly. I managed by removing the fan spacer and welding some tabs on the motor mount plate so I could move the plate forward and still bolt to the frame at the stock location. (Making the 230 military distributor work was another matter.)

 

[CGarbee]

I met a guy at the Southern Power Wagon Gathering in Thomson, GA, back in the mid-ninties who had a really nice US Spec. M43 that had a pintle hitch on it. He had installed it himself.
His comment was that it worked really well, but that he had to rotate it to get the step to clear when he lowered the step. He had obtained a trailer socket (with pigtails) that he had spliced into his wiring harness using y-taps (very military/professional) and mounted to a bracket bolted to the crossmember.

He towed a M101 behind his M43 to and from events. He had the M43 very nicely restored, so the trailer carried his camping gear.

I have photos of the vehicle in my collection, but at the time I was shooting "real film" and not digital, so I'd have to find the album and scan them in if anybody wanted to see them...

 

[zout]

Has a scoop cut out to miss the pintle - OleFart - that is an intake air scoop so I can fly with the big boys above

I sure would like to see a picture of that trailer on behind hid - I also bet his fuel mileage dropped to 3 miles per gallon with something in tow.

 

[CGarbee]

I sure would like to see a picture of that trailer on behind hid - I also bet his fuel mileage dropped to 3 miles per gallon with something in tow.

Even with gas at a buck a gallon, he was still seriously talking about having me install a Cummins 4BT in it... But he never did.

Sadly, he sold it a year or two later when he had to move out west for his job. I had no place to put it at the time or I would have added it to my collection...

 

[cranetruck]

FWIW, my neighbor's "junk" '53 m43.

 

[FrankUSMC]

The WWII ambulance, WC54 had the pintle hook, but no trailer plug.
While I was in the Marines, our fire trucks had pintle hooks also, but we were told to never tow any thing with them The pintle hook was there to aid in recovery of the firetruck. My WWII firetrucks also had pintle hooks on them.
One of the few, Frank USMC RET

 

[Oldfart]

FWIW, my neighbor's "junk" '53 m43.

Cranetruck, did you notice if he had the fold out seat/ step in the back? Both of the M43's we have to work with have the seats with the step bar that rests on the two supports on either side of the pintle. The bar hits the pintle (unless the support is the plate like thing pictured on Zouts unit. If he has the step, I wonder what kind. I wondered for a while if later production M43's might have come with the step that fit around a pintle, Ghostdriver's is a 1958 and our other parts unit is ???? unlabeled.

 

[m37brat]

i DON'T BELIEVE THE m43 CAME WITH THE PINTLE OR THE PLUG.

 

[PhilM]

M43s never had pintles installed as original equipment. THose that do were field revisions. My M43 has been modified for a pintle so it doesn't interfere with the step. Rear frame was modified to mount the pintle. See attached pix.

 

[zout]

just what it looks like and also no electrical plug as mentioned.