Posted by Gordon on Friday, July 12, 2002 at 2:41AM :
In Reply to: Re: Yes, Dodge made WWII military cabovers. posted by Nollie Neill Jr on Thursday, July 11, 2002 at 11:21AM :
The British ones were Thornton bogied 6 x 4s 3 tons, and not much use off road. Right hand drive of course, British pattern wheels They were an alternate chassis for a workshop truck based on an Austin 6x4 that was all the UK could buy in 1940-41. Pete Ashby in Oxford found one recently and there is another in Europe somewhere. VPW has a cab for Pete's (original is junk) and it's fairly easy to make a repro body as a number were made for the Austin equivalent.
As I see it sub-contractors like Montpellier and Bradford (Brantford?)Coach made COEs up to 1939, then Dodge realised there was a market for them and produced their own.
The Dodge own-brand COE cab is unmistakeably a conversion of the standard '39 cab, whereas the Montpelier is a full coachbuilt cab and looks quite different - which is probably why this COE VC ambulance thing can be attributed to Montpelier.
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