Civvy 5/4 ton look alike vehicles in CF service

[Robin Craig]

I am not sure if I have posted these before.

These two once hung around the Ottawa area before I knew anything about CF vehicles, I just snapped away with no care in the world.

Can anyone pass some informed comments on them?

[Ed Storey]

CFR 77828 is a Chevrolet CK20903 1 ton 4x4 Custom Delux ECC 143152. A total of 71 were purchased in 1986.

[rob love]

The white one is interesting. It is an early pattern van box (round wheel wells) on a commercial truck. I don't think it is an ambulance as it has the power access panel on the side, although again, since it's an early box, I can't say for certrain.

It may well be an OSCAR. I remember seeing them as M152s back in the day, so perhaps a commercial equivalent was made rather than using up a more expensive SMP 5/4 ton.

The truck itself is a little later than the 5/4 ton as evidenced by the horizontal marker lights on the fender. It also has a much lighter bumper than the 5/4 ton and no bush guard.

I have to wonder how they power the gas heater up on the box. They were typically in 24volt, although they were available commercially in 12 volt.

[rob love]

Re the second truck, it was quite common for the commercial fleet to have superstructures and tarps. They were nowhere near as good as the superstructures on the 5/4 ton gas. In fact, neither were the superstructures on the CUCV. There was an instruction that if the tarp and superstructure failed on a CUCV, all of the 5/4 ton gas superstructure and tarp components were to be ordered and installed.

[Frank v R]

do you have a paper copy of that, it would be great to add that msg into my CF CUCV files,

[John Genereux]

Hi Rob, those one tons in the above post you are talking about, did they come with a manual 4 speed? I remember on my drivers course back in 1985 that we had a small fleet (maybe 5) at my unit of this model. They were fun to drive, and had plenty, if not too much, power under your right foot.

[rob love]

I suspect you may be thinking of the 1980 (or were they 1981?) chevs that were purchased for the militia as a fleet. They were in flat olive green and had the superstructures and covers similar to the truck shown. I spent many hours welding those cages.....they were not very robust.

Any specialized trucks operated by the militia at that time (ie the CP cube vans, or line trucks) were the 1976 gas 5/4 ton.

I don't recall seeing anything but cargos for the militia chevy one tons, although some had the winch on them, and they were all standards. I seem to recall that the militia retained the 1976 Dodge ambulances for the most part, until the CUCV fleet came out, at which time there were CUCV SEVs.

Sorry Frank, I don't have that CFTO re the change in superstructure and tarpaulin. But if you were to look up the "CUCV troop carrier w heater" application code of 30211 on the CGCM, you will find that the components of the 5/4 ton tarp and superstructure are still listed against that EAC, although all the numbers are now obsolete.