Q on old m88* I had

[csramsey640]

I am not new to buying military vehicles, however I am just now realizing what I have/had.

I am currently with an 86 m1008, however my last truck was a MIL something. May be someone can help

It was a 1975 w200 crew cab short bed, 318 2 brrl, 4 speed truck, d44 front, 60 rear, full time 203 transfer case. It didnt have any extras such as beefy springs, radio kits, etc However it had all the data plates still in tact inside the cab, dash, etc. It had been painted by a local forestry dept, but the underside was still camo green. If I ever looked at the data plates, I didnt remember them. Can anyone help id what I used to have...lol (last year)

 

[Elwenil]

If it was a a military truck and 4 speed, it was swapped in. To my knowledge no M880 series truck had anything other than the 727 automatic. It is possible that it was a civilian version that was purchased by the military but most of the time those do not get data plates of any sort. If the truck you described were an automatic I would say it was probably a normal M880 cargo truck.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Probably a gov't purchase but not part of the M880 family. Many of these trucks were purchased and got the corresponding green paint There has been discussion about the M880 family having a crew cab. In the first edition of the standard catalog of mvs, the author shows one, or at least something that looks like one. I've spoken to David Doyle about this and he can find no information to substantiate this. The M880 family as only a 2 yr run from 76 to 77. I'd love to find a 77 W200 crew short bed to create an M880 version. I know the Navy added data plates to this type of truck and perhaps the air force too. DO you have any pics of it, I'd like to see it.

 

[N1265]

According to all of my research, The M880s series trucks never came in a crew cab, or a short bed, or a manual tyranny.....

If this truck was in fact used in our military, Then what you have is a civilian truck that was bought by the military usually to fill an immediate / specific need without a high volume government contract. This practice is common in all branches of the service. The data plate could of been added at the unit level.....

 

[csramsey640]

The tranny in no way looks swapped in. I have included some pics. I wish for the life of me I remember the data plate info on the dash. It very well could have came from the Af or Navy. I purchased it about a year ago from GSA

 

[MWMULES]

I had one like that also but don't remember what was on the data plate. Mine has been an Air Force SAC aircrew truck. I have a buddy that still has one and will get in touch to see what his plate says.

 

[Elwenil]

The crew cabs of various makes were popular with the Air Force and Navy but none were built as a specific military vehicle and none had a M-series number associated with them. They are, for all intents and purposes, just a civilian truck that the military owned and used for various jobs like many of the other civilian vehicles they use.

 

[LanceRobson]

We had some Dodge crew cabs as "shop trucks" for our maintenance units and kept them into the late 80s. Most were pretty rough by then.

They were plain vanilla commercial. AM radios, 318 with 2 barrel carb, gloss olive paint with white stars on the door and white "US ARMY", "FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY" etc. The all had 3 sp. ATs. Zero to sixty time was measured in minutes....

We had one blow an engine and were authorized to go "local purchase" for a replacement, so it got a 360 with a 4 barrel carb and due to the gearing was a pretty good highway truck. One of the mechanics kept track of it when we turned it in and bought it at auction.

I'm sure they didn't have data plates.

Lance

 

[Lifer]

The AF used scads of the Dodge crew cabs, which were referred to as "6-pax." The only "militarization" they received was the blue paint and yellow markings. I've driven '60s and '70s models with automatics, 3-speed column shifts, and 4-speed floor shifts installed. I think the new ones are all automatics, now, though. The reason being that most of the troops coming into the service now have never driven a vehicle with a manual transmission and they "don't have time" to teach them how to actually drive.