C60L tanker truck

[Hanno Spoelstra]

This picture is captioned as “Chevrolet C60L 3-ton 4x4 800 gallon petrol tank truck.”

Is it? Or is it a water tank?

Has anyone seen a survivor? I think the French Navy had some of these in long term storage.

This one was pictured in 1955 when in use with the Netherlands Army.

416E145A-8458-47D8-B59C-D616DF05BA40.jpg
Source: https://nimh-beeldbank.defensie.nl/f...c-d0170b7786f1

[Grant Bowker]

Although this isn't a 100% guaranteed answer, I believe this can reasonably be taken as a 800 gallon petrol tanker with 5K1 body.
Your photo looks similar to that of the 3 ton Gasoline Tank found in the Observer's Fighting Vehicle Directory, World War 2 (1969 edition). It also looks like the 3 ton Bulk Petrol Lorry pictured in Canada's Fighting Vehicles Vol 1. (2nd ed.)
The statement of 5K1 body is based on the SBMA maintenance and parts manual (SB-11) for 800 gallon petrol tankers which shows all except the 5K1 body having a plain tank, without the pump and hose compartment at the rear that the 5K1 has. As a result, the tank on later models is placed further back on the frame. The tool boxes on the left side of the pictured 5K1 body in SB-11 are arranged a little differently but appear to be the same boxes.


The sources listed above didn't give any detail on a water tanker but the AEDB Design Record (vol. 6) does list 200, 350 and 450 gal water tankers (in addition to the 180 gal trailer). It makes sense that the water tanks should be smaller due to the greater specific gravity of water (1.0) compared to petrol (approx 0.75) to avoid overloading the chassis.

[Ilian Filipov]

To me it is petrol tanker with 5K1 body, as said above. Well visible on the picture are the two manholes and locker at the rear.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Thanks guys, I haven’t checked my references. It doesn’t have the exhaust routed to the front and a fire screen behind the cab as petrol tankers usually have. I wanted other people’s input as it seems the jury is still out on this one.

Here are some more pictures from the Netherlands institute for military history NIMH which are labeled as petrol tankers. They show the same C60L with registration number 38850:

DBDE8035-1207-4A4D-A1ED-F0F0876A9190.jpg CE6804F7-4752-4CD3-BBDF-CB65987977F0.jpg

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Here are two more tankers, both labelled as C60L Water Tank Trucks.
Photos from the NIMH database.

98145619-0762-4EBB-A908-7657FEAC082E.jpg

121BDD3F-F1DA-4A9B-B161-22D4EB5191B2.jpg

[Ilian Filipov]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

Here are two more tankers, both labelled as C60L Water Tank Trucks.
Photos from the NIMH database.

Hanno, IMHO on the second picture is a petrol tanker. Who needs to split a water tank to two compartments? Also it looks on it the exhaust is re-routed (compare with the well visible exhaust pipe of the water tanker on the piture above it) and the tank looks bigger, 800 gal I guess.
Cheers!

[Grant Bowker]

Thank you Ivan, I hadn't thought to count the manholes. I see one on the water tanker, two on the gas tanker.

Although the angles the photos were taken from weren't meant to provide this comparison, the gas tanks seem to be taller - close to the height of the cab while the water tanks were lower (fits with the smaller capacity of the water tanks though both are built to use a long chassis). As far as I can tell, only the 5K1 tank (and none of the water tanks) had the permanently mounted hand rails on the tank (also serving to hold a tarp for camouflaging the extra value of the fuel cargo). The later petrol and the water tankers had tarp superstructure mounted to the catwalks which would give a wider shape, closer to a GS body (with the superstructure in the low position).
Hanno, the photos aren't large or clear enough to either prove or 100% disprove a front mounted or side mounted exhaust with certainty though if the exhaust were mounted to the underside of the bumper I think it would have shown in at least some of them based on what can be seen.
On balance, I think the original caption writer is correct - 800 gal gas/petrol tanker.