Chrysler Forward control amphibious

[Bob Carriere]

Looking forward to seeign your photos.....

I need to search boxes of actual 35mm colour pictures which I intended to scan years ago..... maybe this Winter.

Let me know when I can pick it up for you...... could drive it half way to your place if you find me a good cab 11..... will switch loads and each go back home smilling.

Cheers

PS seen the pictures now....

[rob love]

Bob
Note that it throws your theory of where the 7 went, since the Borden truck is a whole different model. Or does your figure include the non amphibious later models?

Bart Vanderveen's book mentions under the entry for the Ram that six (of seven ordered) were built...perhaps there never was a seventh?

Does anyone have an idea of how many of the XW350s were built? I recall seeing a MV book that had photos of the civilian one in it, painted a different colour and perhaps a little more refined than the military prototypes, but it has been a long time since I saw that book.

I have started digging for my photos of the Borden truck, but no luck. Man, I have a lot of photos. I will scan and post the photos from the book that I do have.

[rob love]

Found a shot of the Borden truck on the net. The photo credit goes to photographer Andre Blanchard.

The truck does in fact appear to be one of the Amphibious trucks, but with smaller 11.00x20 or perhaps 9.00x20 tires instead of the 14.00x20s.

[Bob Carriere]

....and second hand information.

Yes the trucks had 11x20 for most road travel.

In the 70s we were deep in M37 as a lot had been liquidated after tje FLQ crisis.

My best "recollection" was that seven prototype were provided to DND for testing. All of them were slightly different as they were hand built prototype. Things like doors and particualrly tops all had slight difference in size....parts would not necessarily interchange having been hand fitted.

The story was, and it was much easier to get good information back then, thatone had been destroyed on purpose during testing. At the saem time they were testing 4 and 6 wheel drive Volvos and Land Rovers. They use to road test them by driving to Montreal and back on a daily basis somethimes using the back farm roads between Hwy 17 and the 401 corridor..... 417 did not exist then.
Some were driven on ski hills at Camp Fortune. It was not unusual to see them cannonballing in Eastern Ontario back roads.

For a brief period there was one at the old street car barn in Deschene PQ but we were told that it had been sold to someone out West and alwasy assumed that it was the one that surfaced on Ebay....location BC somewhere.

As far as I know they were all very similar and were all amphibious.

The civilian model, as far as I am concerned, was never submitted to Lette but came as a byproduct of the prototype and had a regular open bottom never intended for amphibious operation. Call is a cheapened version.

One would have to find the actual contract with Chrysler/DND to get the real number.

But if there was only six then it is even rarer and worth more...hahaha

Cheers

[chris vickery]

Smaller tires, Rob, looks like a base mechanic's / museum mechanic's interpretation of whats right...

[David Dunlop]

Rob Love's Bordon photo poked an active brain cell and I did a little rummaging in my photos from Bill Gregg's CMP Conference day trip to Bordon in the early 1980's.

Sorry it is tucked in the background, but is this the same vehicle? I recall we were told it was the latest addition to the museum and as noted, it was sitting quietly with a full set of top bows and canvas cover on the cargo box. IIRC it still had a full set of tools and all the to be expected fiddly bits.

Perhaps someone else who attended took better photos.

David

[rob love]

I had another look at Vanderveen's entry on the amphibious ram, and the photo there also shows the more reasonably sized tires...likely 11.00-20 or even 9.00-20. The tires on the one on kijiji are huge. I know I said it before in this thread about the size of those tires, but I can't imagine driving down a highway with the large ones on.

Perhaps Clive Law needs to have a pamphlet published on these interesting vehicles. He could easily sell a dozen or more copies.

I saw a Dodge US military prototype from about the same era on ebay back in the spring. Seems to me it went for around $3,000. I was quite surprised.

[rob love]

Originally Posted by chris vickery

Smaller tires, Rob, looks like a base mechanic's / museum mechanic's interpretation of whats right...

Quite often the museum's would use whatever tires are easily available. When you have to start importing tires out of the USA for a vehicle, the costs really start to soar. Other times, the original tires are just not available. When you start talking 5 vehicles, the costs add up. When you hit 50 vehicles, it really starts to get prohibitive. Sometimes one must live within their budgets. I have not had to cross that road yet, although I will admit to installing bar treads where chevrons should be. I have not installed michelin radials where the earlier tires should be, with the exception of one pair on a M114 155mm towed about 15 years back. End of the day a clean set of tires is a lot more palatable to the public than an old weathercracked or blown out, unsafe set of early tires. We try not to display vehicles on bare rims.

However, in this case, between Vanderveen's listings and Bob's recollections, it looks like the tires on the Base Borden vehicle may well be correct.

[chris vickery]

Understandable Rob, I was just teasing..
On an interesting note, you make mention of value once again.
I suppose it comes back to the "rare" versus "valuable" arguement.
In this case, 6 or 7 oddball prototype vehicles would definately fit into the category of "special". Only the most devouted and true purist would take on such a beast, with it's unique design and questionable parts availability.
As they were custom one-offs, surely many of the components would be hand made (body, frame etc)
A fellow such as yourself would fit the bill of course, with capable hands to make things work or jury rig to suit as the situation may entail...
Back to the question of tires, I assume that these prototypes came with manuals and spec sheets, surely correct tire designation should be easy to find?