What is attached to the front of this M37?

[Dalton]

I am lucky enough to have a photo of my late father-in-law standing alongside an M37 when he was in the Navy during the late 1950’s. He told me numerous times how he enjoyed driving it around the desert at White Sands, MN. He saw huge areas of the desert that had been turned to glass by the nuclear explosions.

A question I have is what is the attachment on the front? I’m thinking that it might be a small crane. Basically a tripod with a pulley at the end, so the winch could be used to lift something and move it around, lower a guy down into a hole (like you see with utility workers), remove a heavy cement or metal cover from hole, or whatever. Imagine lifting a cover off of an underground compartment and then backing away to get access to the compartment. This is just speculation of course.

 

[porkysplace]

black type sucks it is very hard to read .

 

[ke6rwj]

looks like a lift rig, there is a picture of one in some of the manuals to use in raising something else... like a small crane...

 

[Dalton]

Black type fixed.

Does anyone happen to know which manual I might find this in?

 

[ke6rwj]

Black type fixed.

Does anyone happen to know which manual I might find this in?

the picture in the operators manual is actually one to raise the front end up for changing the tire.. so its not a stretch... to be honest this type of farmers crane is quite common here in bama.. we had one on a hummer when i was in the army...

 

[AGE|kshaufl]

It is a winch crane. Basically a V shape with a block pully at the top. The winch wire runs through the block pully and lifts whatever with the winch. Typically there are weights added to the back of the lifting vehicle.

You can find this set up for most military vehicles. Now I tried to find a good picture of one with no luck. I will look through my stuff at home.

 

[KsM715]

The winch crane setup is called an "A" frame. But the legs from the front bumper do not look stout enough to be military issue. Its probably something they just rigged up to do the task at hand.


Look at post #10 in this thread, http://www.steelsoldiers.com/m37/61360-m37-frame-winch.html

 

[M-37Bruce]

My - .98 Cents

Gin Pole.
BTW, Nice pic of your Father In-Law & truck!

 

[KsM715]

Ah I forgot they were called gin poles also. Good call bruce

 

[txdodge43man]

Well my is what ever the mount is it does not look thick enough to handle a lot of weight maybe its bracing for a flag poll or some kind of mast.

 

[Dodge man]

Oh for crying out loud! It's NOT a gin-pole! A gin-pole uses a single pole. This is an A-frame. See TM 5-725 'Rigging' for a description of these and other lifting devices. See E-bay item number 130486077013 for a copy of the manual for the A-frame of the M-37. They also make one for the Deuce and there's several threads on this forum about using one on the Deuce. It's also covered in one of the Deuce manuals. These were more common on the Canadian M-37s that the US ones. This site, CFR, has a number of pictures of the Canadian M-37s and several pictures of the A-frames. Truck number 40501 has excellent pictures of a mounted A-frame.[FONT=&quot][/FONT]

The A-frame in the picture in this thread appears to have an extra third leg that's anchored somewhere on the RH side of the truck so it's probably a non-issue, scratch built unit. Actually since it has a third leg it could more properly be called a Tripod and not an A-frame but I'm going to call it an A-frame anyway since it appears that they're using the third leg to carry the tension load and not as a support member. (In a tripod the legs are all the same length and the lift point is centered between the legs.) In a standard A-frame they use a cable anchored to the pintle hitch to carry the tension as shown the Canadian pictures.

 

[KsM715]

Geeze no need to get upset.

However the poles of the A frame are called gin poles. This is from the Deuce -10 TM

Its hard to read but if you see line 12 it clearly says the ginpoles are positioned to make the a frame

 

[M-37Bruce]

The third leg is attached to another vehicle, park next to the 37, take it easy, don't bust a vein!

 

[sparky78]

I saw some pictures on a Dodge power wagon web site . Some were light duty and telephone repair trucks based on power wagon had large heavy duty units .

 

[Juskatla]

CDN Front Mount Derrick Kit



[URL="http://www.g741.org/photogallery/main.php?g2_itemId=6511&g2_imageViewsIndex=1"]

This is the same truck shown on the Ram Tanks CFR link posted earlier.

Jess

Edit I tried to post the pictures but I'm not sure what I did wrong. Sorry but links will get you there...

 

[Oldfart]

Now Y'all have me looking through my old photos for the lift rig I built for my M37 way back in the late 60's. I made it out of 1" box tubing and trussed two tubes together and joined the two pairs at the top with a loop to hang my snatch block. It set on the front bumper lift brackets and was held there by the lift shackles. I ran a couple of 1/4 inch cables back to a rod slid through the tailgate hinges to support the weight of the boom and what I was lifting. It held pretty fair weight (about 1/2 ton). I had a spreader bar to push the cables outside the cab so they did not rub on anything. I mostly used it to pick up logs and drop them in my M101 to haul home for firewood. ~~~ The photo shows the "A" frame as attached somewhere outside the frame and at an angle that would end about the axle. I agree it looks pretty light duty.

 

[Oldfart]

I finally asked my brother-in-law (Moosetracks) for some of his photos of the boom on the front of his M37. Since I built the boom I moved to the farm and now have ready access to tractors and skid steers that I can lift with. Moosetracks uses the boom to move logs to cut for firewood as I did (see photos of his son and grandson in action) as well as moving snowmobiles etc. around his property.

 

[A/C Cages]

I used an A-Frame and winch to change out an engine in the field once. Wow it was easy too.
We had one with a bad engine and stole the engine out of a truck who had its butt litterly blown off.

 

[emr]

The thing in the PIC IS NOT an A FRAME AT ALL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it is something added at unit level for something they needed, it is wayyyy to light to use with the winch for sure !!! and an A frame is attached at the lifting shackles, Not an A frame, it is going to just one side of the truck i can see and with the support only on one side when used as an A frame it would just twist off.... this thing would fold like an envelope, it has a use maybe a windsock of type but thats about all that would hold.... I had an official Mil A frame for an M 37 and that aint it at alll not even close by a long shot too....

 

[1954m37]

You guy's have helped me out a lot, I have been building an A frame for lifting things around the house. I never knew that the military had made some. thank you for your help.