roll call of EXISTING Vietnam gun trucks

[maddawg308]

Interested in getting a roll call of all the reproduction and tribute gun trucks that have been built in the USA by military vehicle enthusiasts. This would include all the ones patterned after real gun trucks that served in Vietnam, as well as ones that are original creations by their builders.

Please include all those built and under construction, from 1/4-ton to 5-ton.

I'll start the list, from the ones I have seen:

vehicle, repro or tribute, name, owner, location
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
M151 repro, Wolfman
M37 repro, Malfunction, New Jersey
M37 repro, Raider's Light Work, Mike Davidsen, Virginia
M35 tribute, Aces and Eights, John Tennis, New York
M35 tribute, Business As Usual, Kansas
M35 repro, Gamblers
M35 tribute, Grim Reaper
M35 tribute, Have Gun Will Travel, Texas
M35 tribute, I Dream of Charlie, England
M35 tribute, Iron Butterfly, Max Levell, England
M35 repro, Psychotic Reaction, Illinois
M35 tribute, Squatter Swatter, Florida?
M35 repro, The Gamblers, Michigan
M35 repro, The Widow Maker, Texas
M54 repro, Ace of Spades, Tennessee
M54 repro, Black Widow, Florida
M54 repro, Proud American, Larry Board, Georgia
M54 repro, Red Baron, Wayne Dobos, England
M54 repro, Satan's Lil' Angel, New Jersey
M54 repro, Uncle Meat, Michigan
M54 repro, The Untouchable, William Parker, New Jersey
M54 repro, Wild Thing, Indiana
M54 original, Eve of Destruction, US Army Transportation Museum, Virginia
M813 tribute, Proud American, Larry Board, Georgia


..

 

[maddawg308]

Updated it several times with ones I found here and elsewhere. Any others I miss?

 

[Recht71]

WILDTING is an M-54 its in northern Indiana

 

[TexAndy]

There's a guy in Austin with one.

His truck is named "Have Gun Will Travel"

 

[fuzzytoaster]

There's a guy in Austin with one.

His truck is named "Have Gun Will Travel"

M35 that is. :up:

 

[maddawg308]

WILD THING is an M-54 its in northern Indiana

Corrected it, partially, I listed it as an M54 tribute truck. The original Wild Thing gun truck was a M35-based truck. This was patterned after that truck in paint job on the armor box only. Still a very nice truck, from what I've seen - I won't say the current truck should have been a M35, because that would be wrong. However, the original SHOULD HAVE been a 5-ton.

Just a note: the above list will not include V-100 Commando vehicles since they are not, technically, gun trucks. They are wheeled armor, and they did support the convoys on the highways of Vietnam, but the vehicle is different than they field-built units.

 

[Recht71]

To get this right the WildThing was first built in 1969 in Pleiku Vietnam it was on a M-35. In late 1970 at Dillard site about 40 miles south of DA LAT on QL 20, the box was mounted on a M-54 and soon after Jan .1971 the box was extended .The minie gun was added ,the twin sixty's and a fifty in the cab. The WILDTHING truck we have is an excat replica!! of the truck 1970 thru 1972 . I worked on the truck in 1971 and covoyed with it. Today we have 5 of us that served with the truck back together . And thats the facts . Can't wait till Aug.
Randall Recht

 

[maddawg308]

MANY THANKS Randall, for straightening me out. The only pics I have of the in-country Wild Thing are of a M35 based truck, and the "Hard Ride" books I have confirm that, so that's all I had to go on. With your info and experience on the actual rig, I'll update the list to reflect that.

Thanks for your service on these awesome trucks!

 

[papabear]

For those that haven't seen The WildThing....trust me...She's a beautiful GT, and the crew I met at PF are top notch fellers.

 

[maddawg308]

Found another one in a casual search online - the M35 Squatter Swatter. The more I look, the more gun trucks are out there.....

 

[Driver523]

That Swatter truck is in a museum in WI, but be carefull---they were advertising it as a gun truck that returned from Nam, James Lyles and I both tried to change their minds and advertisments but I don't know if they did or not, it was built ( I think ) by a guy by the name of Black in Florida, he has since passed--as far as passing some of these trucks off as the real thing I feel is way wrong and hope everyone will try to keep history correct as far as tribute trucks and replicas------We will have the Ace of Spades in Gray TN. the 4th 5th & 6th of June---stop by and see us-----------Driver

 

[Recht71]

Mike Thought i'd send a couple pictures.All of the Hood and bumper #'s are the same has the orginal trucks. The 3/4 will have a sixty mounted in the bed .I was a gunner on what was the first seargent truck.A 151A1 will be done soon .which was the CO's jeep and he hangs out with us. Thanks for the post the keep it up. Heading out for a Parade Randall Recht

 

[maddawg308]

Just did an update - saw a nice M151 gun truck at the Gathering. First one I've ever seen....

 

[jatonka]

Good seeing you and Cindy there Mad Dog. It sure was a trip. JT

 

[Capt Pat]

Have not really started on the truck yet, have the truck, collecting the material for the conversion, but we'll be doing an M-37 reproduction of "Godzilla" shortly (we hope)

 

[1958 M274]

The M35 tribute truck "Squatter Swatter" was built by Eddie Black and his son in Palmetto, Georgia. Unfortunately Eddie was killed in a car wreck a few years ago.

He also built another M35 tribute truck called "Thunder Road". It had armor on the sides similar in shape to some of the trucks that carried quad .50s. Eddie had a mortar in the back of that one. I don't know where either of these trucks are now.

There is a M37 gun truck in FL, I think it's a replica of either Mr. Nice or Otto. I'm thinking Mr. Nice, but I don't remember for sure. The man that built it bought a demilled M60 and some dummy M16A1s from me a couple years ago for it.

Good luck with your M37 gun truck project!
Joe

 

[DaveP]

The GAMBLERS

I met the man that owns this truck a few years ago at the event where this photo was taken.

 

[Iyaayas184]

"Business as Usual"

"Business As Usual" is a tribute truck built by "The Last Patrol" a Vietnam living history group both are based at the Kansas Museum of Military History in Augusta, Kansas.

 

[maddawg308]

"Business As Usual" is a tribute truck built by "The Last Patrol" a Vietnam living history group both are based at the Kansas Museum of Military History in Augusta, Kansas.

Got any pics? If not, is it a deuce or a 5-ton?

 

[jollyroger]

My Dad and I have been kicking around the thought of building a 5 ton gun truck but did not want to step on any toes with regard to real vs. replica. I guess there are several replica type trucks out there so hopefully it would not ruffle any feathers. Especially since we were not going to claim it as a real vintage gun truck. Just something cool to do for people to see that don't know what they are and what they did.

I named my M-37 "Godzilla" 12 years ago and did not know there was an M-37 gun truck that had that name. Wow. That's pretty cool.

The mechanic that I apprenticed under after I got out of high school talked about being in the motor pool in Vietnam and building himself an M-37 gun truck. He said he ordered a 426 Hemi 2 bbl industrial motor and welded that bad boy to the NP-420 bell housing. Then they mounted a twin .050 cal setup in the bed. After the bed sheet metal ripped apart they had to make a 1/4 inch plate mount for the twin MA-2's. He said that a "special forces" guy wanted the truck in the worst way and finaly offered him a UH-1 in exchange. I have not seen him in about 10 years.......I will try and get ahold of him and see if he has any pics of the truck. Not sure if I can find him but I'll give it a whirl.