From: Thomas M McHugh (tmmchugh@juno.com)
Date: Wed Mar 20 2002 - 04:33:49 PST
Nigel,
Thank for taking the time to share your knowledge. It certainly is
appreciated.
I do not own any armor & I am sure I never will. Your information is
why this list is so great. When we attend shows or displays, we now
can see more than the halftrack. We can see the evolution of armor
history.
I hope Travis will tell the list when he is able to gain more facts or
proof.
I hope everybody enjoys the upcoming OD season.
Tom McHugh, NJ
1952 M38A1
2 M416 Trailers
MVPA, MTA
On Wed, 20 Mar 2002 10:48:07 -0000 "Nigel" <Nigel@milweb.net> writes:
There is some confusion here - GUN MOTOR CARRIAGE M3 is a halftrack
with a 75mm gun mounted on it ( see p44 Standard ordnance catalogue) If
this is the case, sounds like you have a hybrid here. Thats a lot rarer
than
the standard M3 halftrack in its various versions..
I guess this has no rear door? personell carrying M3's were converted by
I
think a kit to turn them into M16A1's You are correct about the folding
armour not present on the converted M16A1- the Maxon turrets had an
extra raised mounting ring to allow them to be high enough to fire over
the M3 armour without risk of damage. I recall the M16a1 floor is
different.
Is there a fairly thick power lead from the rear under the turret to
the engine compartment? If so its likely that this is a post war
conversion - perhaps by the French .
Bear in mind that it could well have been totally re-bodied.There is
no difference in the chassis and drive train. As a clue -the factory
made M16 has a bulkhead with a radio box and no provison for a canvas
cover
even on the cab compartment.
I think that the clue to dating is if it has conventional or
de-mountable headlites - the latter being after 1943 I think.
more I think about it, you have a GUN MOTOR CARRIAGE M3 that has
been rebodied to turn it into a MULTIPLE GUN MOTOR CARRIAGE M16
Hope this is of interest, NIGE
----- Original Message -----
From: "Travis S." <tls2771@attbi.com>
To: <mvlist@yahoogroups.com>; <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 10:08 AM
Subject: [MVlist] Halftrack identification
I was just going to ask for help in determing the year of my White
halftrack but as I sit here studying the data plate I have more
questions. When I bought the track I was told it was an M16 and it
look's like
a straight M16, it has the folding armor and all the armor on it is
original ( non-repro at any rate). The mfgrs. data plate is steel and
badly
rusted but I can make out the serial # 297973 and the Ord # 1820, these
numbers are small but deeply struck, this serial number matches the
number on
the frame. Now the odd thing is that it's labeled GUN MOTOR CARRIAGE M3
and
then next to the 3 a 16 has been struck ( no A1 though) the 3 is hard to
see
and I thought maybe it was just the rust making a pattern and not really
a
3 at all, but now I think it is a 3 and the 16 was added.The thing that I
just noticed tonight is that there is also a second serial number stamped
over the top of the original one. These numbers are larger in size but
shallow and hard to see, the numbers ! are 282810 any idea's as to
what's
going on here?
I have a friend with an M16 parts track and the data plate clearly say's
M16 with no 3 and
one serial #. I thought that M16's came from the factory as M16's ( not
modified but purpose built) and that the M16A1's were made by modifying
M3's
because there weren't enough M16's to go around. My track is stamped with
a
16 not a 16A1 and besides, 16A1's didn't have folding armor. So is this
track
an M3 that was field modified into an M16, folding armor and all and then
given a new serial # ? If so I didn't know that it was done in this way.
On another note, is there anyway I can date this track? Anything
like difference's in suspension or running gear or armor that might tell
me if it's early or late war? I'm going to apply for a title and I need
to
give it a date, I'd hate to title it as a 44 or 45 and have someone tell
me
later that it's clearly early war or vice-versa. I hope that some of this
post made sense and thank's for any help.
Travis.
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