1944 C-15A-Wire-5 Restoration

[David Dunlop]

Hi Bruce.

To the best of my knowledge, the intent of the original Generator compartment in the 2K1 WIRE 5 was the lower chorehorse was a permanent mount to one side of the y-pipe in the floor, with all solid pipe. The pipe exited through the floor with a 90 degree elbow and a long, sausage shaped muffler about a foot long pointed straight to the right rear corner of the body.

The Generator box was designed and insulated like a fridge. The edges were all screwed to the walls and floor and sealed with pitch/tar. The door had dual fridge latches and heavy rubber gaskets. The lower chorehorse was the go/to unit for operation in the vehicle. I ran a chorehorse in mine out of curiosity and it was actually quite quiet.

If an Onan was installed in the truck, due to the presence of a 19 HP in the truck, it became the fixed lower unit. It was always my understanding that the actual model Onan used in the WIRE 5 was fully dual 110 and 12 volt dc capable for the purposes of running the two different sections of the 19 HP.

The chorehorse on the upper shelf in all 2K1’s was the portable unit. It was intended for humping into the field with the flex exhaust. The one I had came with the mushroom muffler fitted to the chorehorse and a flex pipe with a second muffler fitted was part of the supplied kit. It was also possible to semi permanently mount the upper chorehorse to the Generator exhaust plumbing via the flex pipe. My guess is, the nitty gritty details of installation/use were left to the individual truck crews,

David