Australian Mil veh question

[Andrew Sice]

Hi all,

I have been a regular visitor to this site for the last couple of years but haven't contributed before, mainly because my interest is dukws.

There seem to be quite a few Australian members so hopefully someone might be able to answer a couple of questions.

A mate and I have a couple of dukws in Tasmania, one of which we are currently restoring. Inside the bonnet of this dukw the following has been handpainted (not stenciled);

2 ton GMC
DUKW
TCQL
63026

It is possible (but unlikely) there was another letter before the T and another number before the 6, as the side of the bonnet was rusted. Does anyone know what TCQL or the number stands for?

On the side of the hull we could make out a stenciled number which was 158603. I presume this was the last army number. Would 63026 have been a previous one? You'll have to pardon my ignorance on the subject. This dukw originally came from the mainland. Thanks in advance.

[Mike Kelly]

Andrew

158603 would be the ARN number . Contact the AWM in Canberra as they have the records that will tell you when it was disposed of etc.

Or you can email Mike Cecil who frequents this forum occasionally, he is the curator of technology at the AWM .
Do you have the ex Tom DWYER dukw ? It went from Victoria to Tasmania years ago .

I lived in Tasmania for some time , not many ex mil vehicles around , just a few blitzes .

Mike

[edited by moderator to hide the e-mail address - this minimises the chance of mis-use by spam robots]

[Andrew Sice]

G'day Mike,

thanks for the reply. The first dukw, which we are restoring at the moment, came from John Bellfield, it was VERY rusty and there wont be much original steel left by the time we're finished. When we started looking for a dukw a couple of years ago Tom didn't want to sell his.

About 12 months or so ago Tom decided to sell and this is the second one. Toms dukw is in silghtly better condition than the first but also needs a rehull.

There are a few CCKW's, Studebaker 6x6 and jeeps about and of course blitzs. I saw a butchered carrier on the side of the road for sale a few months ago. It had a landrowver type top and a 6cyl engine in the back. There were 2 or 3 dukws sold off in Tassie in the 1970's (I think). When we started looking around for dukw bits we spoke to one old fellow and got the "you should have been hear 5 years ago, I stripped a dukw, bulldozed the body and eventually took the parts to the tip". Did get a couple of new tyres and three diffs from him though.

I'll email Mike Cecil and see if he can help. Thanks again

[Ian Fawbert]

Hi andrew,
The stenciling you found could be similar to the stenciling seen under jeep bonnets detailing information(very briefly) about the vehicle. Eg: my ford and a spare bonnet i have both have painted underneath: Truck 1/4 ton 4x4 Model GPW


As i understand it it was painted on to the under bonmnet so people knew what they were buying while they were looking at the engine bay i presume! So this could be what is painted under your dukw's bonnet. Just a thought.

Curious though as to why it only says 2 ton? DUKWS are a 2 1/2 ton vehicle arent they?

Cheers,

Ian.

[Andrew Sice]

G'day Ian,

thanks for the input, yes you're right about the weight. This is one of the reasons I thought there may have been an additional letter & number. The inside edge of the bonnet has significant surface rust and it is possible that it says 2 1/2 and I can only see the last 2. The words are aligned as per my original post and I can see all of the D in Dukw and it is directly below the 2 so I assumed I could see all the letters/numbers but I'm not 100% certain.

[Mike Kelly]

Andrew

if you go, to the AWM data base web site www.awm.gov.au
type in the word INVERLOCH in the records search engine , you will see many pics of DUKW's training at Inverloch on the south coast of Victoria during WW2 .

Mike

[Tony Smith]

There was also 2 or three DUKW's for sale from the Ken Hughes collection at Kingaroy, QLD. I did'nt get to see all of them (made a beeline for the Fords ), but the one I did see was a major repair job for $4000. I thought it best to concentrate on the row of blitzes after hearing that.

[Tony Smith]

.... appears to be the number written on the bow, while the rear shows the remains of a tac sign showing "78".

[Andrew Sice]

I would have loved to have gotten up to Kingaroy and had a poke around. That dukw looks to be in a similar condition to the one we're restoring. Lots of steel and welding required! Interesting to see the non original wheels, 20 inch??

[Tony Smith]

The DUKW was sitting on 5 GMC 20in wheels and only 1 DUKW wheel remained on it