what is your dream M44 variant?

[Maverick1701]

If you were given a blank check to either purchase or, if the truck no longer exists, build a replica of any variant of the M44 series of trucks, which variant would you pick?
Post pics of your choice.
At first I thought a Vietnam era gun-truck was tempting, but in the end I would pick an XM398 launcher variant...of course, with a replica MGM18 tactical ballistic missile mounted to the back (you know...for tailgaters).

 

[M35fan]

I guess just owning a deuce 1/2 period was my dream. Livin the dream

 

[cattlerepairman]

M342 w/w and M108 for me, please!

 

[waayfast]

About 4-5 years ago there was a fellow that had a missile for sale here locally. Looked very much like the one on here. Demilled of course, just the body and fins. Had it set up on a wheeled stand. I got outbid by a loooooonng way...……….
After seeing photos over the years of WWII Red Army Studebaker Katyusha Rocket launchers with the cabs and windshields all covered up with steel plate to protect from the rocket "exhaust", cracks me up to see the American "version" sporting a rag top.

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

I'd like to find an Anti-Aircraft Searchlight - either trailer mounted to tow behind the Deuce or adapt one to be mounted on the Deuce with it's genset in tow.

There's just something about lighting up the sky that would bring back memories for me.

When I was a kid growing up in New Jersey - just a few miles from NYC - there was a guy with a Search Light that hired out to businesses for promotions. Car dealerships were a big user of his services.

He'd fire up the gennie and bring an arc between the carbon rods in the big light to cast a beacon 3-5 miles into the sky (a slightly hazy evening really enhanced the beam's visibility), and then set her up to do 360-degree slow rotations at about a 45-degree angle upward. The rotating column of light brought curious spectators from miles around seeking the source of the light. And, as expected, right to the business that had hired this attention-getting oddity.

Dad would always caution us kids to NOT look into the Search Light's lens with its concave mirror reflecting inside it. It would be like looking at a HUGE welder's arc and most probably cause permanent eye damage.

I just happened to yoink these pics off Mr. Gore's internet a few days ago......













Ah.... to dream....

Maybe one day it will be fulfilled.




Carry on.

 

[hndrsonj]

XM398-Duh! M60, M47, M48, M59, M756 I could go on....

(I've had/have two of these)

 

[fuzzytoaster]

I'm kind of stretching it here but I'd rather have the final vision of what the M35E3 would have been. The 5.9 was a fine engine and with the various models they made for testing I bet they could have put all that data to good use to make a fine reinvention of the deuce and a half.