Posted by John Eickhof on Tuesday, October 19, 2004 at 0:51AM :
In Reply to: PW Offset rear alxe posted by Steve K. Calif. on Monday, October 18, 2004 at 3:13PM :
In examining the WW2 WC-62 & WC-63 6x6 trucks, it appears they designed the severely offset axle to place on the 6x6 as the forward rear axle. (1943-1945) Thus, they added a pillow block on this housing to connect the drive shaft to the rearmost axle which for sake of fast engineering time and the governments request for maximum parts interchangability with the 3/4 tons..was the identical axle to the other 3/4 ton WC series trucks. It would appear that after the war Dodge had many spares left over and in design of the civvy PW they decided to use up stock on the offset axle (most likely because there were less of these trucks in use and way more 3/4 tons to use up the post war spares) As well as the possiblity that the rear PTO was also considered and they needed a little room to get the shafting past the rear axle, but I don't think that holds very true as the rear pto shafts are high enoough in clearance to avoid any type housing. Anyway..just my theory..if anyone has more info to substantiate it..please let me know..
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