How I got started - that's an easy one

[Tricegw]

Nearly 20 years ago I decided that life would be better if I had a one ton flatbed. I mentioned this to my brother and reminded him he still owed me $200.00. That's when he told me about a friend of his that had an old military truck in his back lot. He wasn't sure it ran but it looked like most of it was there and the tires held air. My brother also mentioned the truck owner was looking for jon boat and he knew where one was.

That's all it took. My brother put the truck owner in touch with the jon boat owner and the transaction was completed with me ending up with an M-37 that didn't cost anymore than not getting the $200.00 my brother owed me.

This M-37 hadn't been run in years but all it took was adding gas, a few hammer taps on the carb and a new battery. It smoked and ran poorly but it made the thirty mile trip without stopping and that was with the long side axle shaft broken in two. Since the front axles were okay, I just drove it home in four wheel drive.

I still have the M-37 but never did get a one ton flatbed.

[bosco]

Welcome to the forum Tricegw. It would be great if you would post some pics of the M37 and some of the things you've done to the old truck.

Say, I see that you are from Sparta, IL. Well, believe it or not, I use to work at the Sparta Printing company (comic book factory as we called it) back in the early 70's. I was a forktruck operator there. It's been many years since I was in the area and not sure if that company still exist. I also worked putting up hay for some dude that had a huge hay farm just outside of town, but I can't recall the name. He had several thousand acres and a fleet of about 10 trucks. And as I recollect, he only had Chevys and Fords in the fleet (no PW's).

[Tricegw]

I'll post pictures soon. My M-37 was originally a Navy truck painted dark blue that had been transfered to a small California town. The original bed had been removed by a city maintenance shop and replaced with a "welding" bed that was built from the inside out and included a built in fuel tank. Yes, the bed was a nighmare to remove since there wasn't any way to remove the fuel tank and it caught on fire several times but never exploded. I ended up cutting the bed off in quarters leaving the section with the fuel tank for last. The bed was actually welded to the frame so there wasn't anything easy like removing "U" bolts to make this happen.

Since I didn't have the original pick-up bed, I built a stake side flatbed as a replacement. It may not have been the one ton flatbed that I wanted but it was close enough.