M38a1cdn

[rob love]

Originally Posted by Mike Baker

My understanding was that the axles were changed on quite a few of the CDN2s, but I will defer to your experience, especially given that I was still in elementary school when my CDN2 was retired from the service. It still has the 9" drums.

Another question for my own benefit - the VMO history for my truck indicates that it served in Wainwright and then Chilliwack, which is where is was retired. No units are listed, and the maintenance was all done by the bases. However, my canvas top had "BCR" stencilled on it in white paint. BCR would be the BC Regiment, but what are the odds that my truck was actually used by them? Did militia units do their own maintenance back then, or would it make sense that the vehicle sat in Chilliwack most of the time?

Thanks.

Mike

I have seen a reference to the brake upgrades in the Service Publication's pamphlet on the Jeeps. I never saw any evidence of that in Western Canada, and at one point in the early 80s I had my hands on just about every M38A1Cdn from Alberta to Northern On. I was a jeep nut then, and always kept my eye open for anomolies.

The swapping and outright theft of tarps between vehicles was quite common. When units brought all their vehicles to the summer camps like Dundurn, all the EIS would be turned in to transport on arrival. There was not a lot of call for the canvas during the summer. At the end of the summer, tarps would be handed back out to vehicles as they left, usually with no regard as to unit markings. This was much to the chagrin of those unit quartermasters who actually took the time to get the canvas repaired thru the winter. As a result of this, you could find canvas swapped around between pretty much any unit in Western Canada.

As well, vehicles waiting in parking lots like a base transport were prime candidates for a driver to upgrade or replace missing or damaged canvas. Even seats could move between vehicles, and there was even the occasional heater which would disappear. When I was in 2VP, we actually installed grommets with cables and locks around the rollbar on our Maint O's Iltis. Nothing was sacred out in a parking lot. Before a rail move, you pretty much had to lock up your D rings. Even batteries seemed to vaporize during the winter months, including on priority vehicles like ambulances.

Even on release and sale, tarps would go walking. At the crown assets auctions in Winnipeg, a jeep with full tarp would sell for significantly more than a bare unit. More than one owner would pay for his Jeep in the office, only to walk out and find his fully tarped Jeep was now bare. In some cases, guys seemed to bid almost $1,000 more for a complete unit.