lisa_barbi said:
What is the differance between the Canadian MLVW and the U.S.A.'s M35 truck? I am looking at building a MLVW but have only found the American truck. I do not care about the back end so much because I plan on putting on the old office back from the 1950s 2 1/2 truck, and unless one day I get the chance to rebuild the real thing, the engine and drive train should not matter either, but the cab doe matter. Can anyone help? Also still trying to find out what the wheel size and tires that was used on the old 5/4 ton trucks where back in the early 1980s.
16.5" wheels on the the old 1976 Five-Quads, where the CUCV family trucks use 16" wheels. Most of the Five-Quads I've driven/seen/used had bias ply mud'n'snow tires fitted, but other than the rim size the rest of it escapes me. I can go have a look tomorrow at a couple if you want to know exact dimensions.
American M35A2 trucks have manual steering, five-speed manual transmissions, a manual two speed transfer case and depending on the mods performed either a sprag-type automatic all-wheel drive engagement or a manual type engagement via an air switch on the dash below the instrument cluster. Engine is a M.A.N. designed, Hercules (or White) built LD-465 multifuel engine which can be either turbo or naturally aspirated (most you'll come across are turbos) which generally make the things drive like sporty pickup trucks. Brakes are air-hydraulic (hydraulic under your foot which runs an air-boosted pack which sends fluid to the hydraulic-type wheel cylinders.) The vast majority of the U.S. M35 series trucks have a 10 wheel arrangement (i.e. duals on back) which are all 9.00 x 20s NDT type tires.
Canadian MLs have the Detroit Diesel 'fuel pincher' engine (8.3L) I think , an automatic transmission and power steering. I don't know if the axles themselves are different. We have the 'dropsides' cargo type box of the US M35A2C , and our trucks are a 6-whl configuration (like the M135s they replaced ) vs the U.S. 10-wheel configuration.
Sheet metal on our MLs seems a *lot* skinnier than the U.S. M35 trucks. Sheet metal *should* be the same for the most part (but I've not really done a side-by-side comparison), as should overall LxWxH. U.S. trucks can run the cargo tarps in either High or Low positions but I'm pretty sure all the MLs are rigged to run High. There's no US equivalent to the ML gun trucks used as prime movers in Artyland here in Canada, so those vehicles are unique.
A word on the 'multifuel' US engines. The Detroit Fuel Pincher isn't a bad motor, but the U.S. multifueler might be a better one. Originally they had a compensator in the fuel supply chain which compensated for the different densities of fuel you could use (gas, diesel, kero, JP-4 - it could run on them all), but generally in the later days of the vehicles' use, the compensator was bypassed at major rebuild and the trucks were labelled as "DIESEL ONLY."
Electrical is 24V standard on both trucks, though the U.S. trucks almost always have the old-school two-pin slave cable receptacle - if they're fitted at all. The vast, vast majority of U.S. trucks do not have heaters, and generally the ones that don't also don't have the slave receptacle for reasons unknowable.
The U.S. truck is a very, very solid truck. I know. I've driven many, many of them. Put any fleet of anyone's military vehicles on the front lawn and ask me to pick the one I'd want to start in an emergency and the US M35A2 will win every time. ;D
