The seller describes this as a 1939, but GMC didn’t start building these until 1942. It’s a model AFKWX-35 2 1/2-Ton, 6×6. There were about 7,000 built. This one is listed on eBay in Pine River, Minnesota for $7,500. The sellers have listed it several times without success and have never correctly identified it. The earlier version had a more conventional looking rounded cab with steel doors and top. Later trucks had canvas tops and doors. This one looks like the later version but with the canvas replaced with steel doors and top.
It’s really basic inside the cab but it looks complete. Some manner of creature appears to have found a home in the glove box.
There’s little hope for the engine, but the seller is including a complete engine in the sale. I’m guessing by the tractor seat this was last used on a farm. There doesn’t appear to be any daylight showing through the floor.
After the war, cheap surplus military trucks like this were popular with farmers and ranchers. It would be interesting to know how this one was used and what the box mounted on the back of the cab was for. After their second life, the remaining trucks mostly sit abandoned. This model is somewhat rare, but there are likely still more of these trucks than there are collectors. It’s hard to imagine a use for this truck except for perhaps hauling your car to shows. It would be very unique. Perhaps the cab could be mounted on a more modern chassis.
Definitely could be an interesting car hauler, don’t know what else you might use it for.
I like it. It would make a bad ass toy hauler.
You guys that think this would be a good hauler have never driven anything like this. It would be a major chore just driving it on and off a trailer to take to a show. On the road over 35 mph you would be terrified of drifting into oncoming traffic for a head on. These were designed to move the speed of an army at the time….2 miles a day. A great survivor of history but highest and best use would be as a museum display.
When these guys say “Toy Hauler” they are not using it as a stock vehicle 6×6. $7500 seems high for something I’d just use the body on another frame for a toy hauler.
The only way that thing could get uglier is if some one restored it
That grille gives it an insect kinda look to it. Never seen one, BF always finds the rare and odd.
Something like this would definitely be bouncing you around in the cab; it wasn’t designed to be a road cruiser. If this were to come my way, I’d be searching for a complete cab or a usable round cab to graft onto the existing one. I would keep looking for something else if I was to contemplate putting the cab on another chassis; there isn’t enough of this to make it worth the effort.
This is likely powered by a 302 motor with the power put through either a compound 4+4 or a 5+3 transmission. Definitely not a speed demon but it would get you there. I really hope this goes to a military collector/restorer…
Were the 302’s made this early? They are a great engine that were highly sought after by hot rodders they were used in the early 50’s GMC military trucks in front of a hydromatic. Now I have to study it………
First 302’s were 1952…………….
Hi Dave. I’m not really sure exactly when the 302 motor came out but it seems to me that a couple of old local mechanics who had been in the army in Europe said that the GMC Deuce and a Half trucks had the 302 almost from the get-go. One stayed in the army through the Korean conflict and he mentioned that putting a hydromatic behind a 302 sucked everything out that the poor engine could deliver. Of course I won’t be able to verify anything now as both of them are long gone. GMC offered a massive 6 cyl gas engine in the later 30s and after the war but I don’t think that any of those motors went into the service. I might add that the engine in the photo sure looks like a 302 to me; that’s a big engine….
It seems they came with 270’s a fore runner of the 302.
Big? Yes, Ugly? No way. I agree, the ugly part would just be driving this beast. Apparently, this was strictly a “transport” truck, with a stake bed, for all terrain, obviously. Who knows what an enterprising farmer did with this after the war. I’m curious what was in that box behind the cab, anybody? Cool find, but not too practical, as is. Not sure what to do with it. Not sure even the grill guard would have prevented that kink.
http://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/a7/2d/db/a72ddb91388ef1d2f6eca6ff8f17aff9.jpg
This too, except a regular cab. Civilian duty?
http://scontent.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/s640x640/sh0.08/e35/c123.0.834.834/16230588_411459365855381_5971177866375725056_n.jpg?ig_cache_key=MTQzODY1ODMwMTMyMjc4ODE5Nw%3D%3D.2.c
This is an example of an earlier one with a closed cab before they went to the open cab like this one. If you like the looks but don’t have the room, there’s always this… http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hartsmith-Models-GMC-AFKWX-353-2-5-ton-6×6-Cargo-Truck-1-48/112214134033?autorefresh=true
That’s an Army Ordnance insignia on the door.
And that looks like european standard rolling stock. Probably used as a yard switcher in France.
It looks like a character in “Cars IV”!
Jeez… even the backside is in a bad mood.
I can imagine convoys of these driven by the “red ball express” supplying the troops from French beaches to the front lines in Europe. We didn’t have real seaports for resupply until late in the war so everything came over the beach. Many of the drivers were black troops, all did incredible jobs moving equipment and supplies hundreds of miles to the front through barely secured countryside. It is a great story that we should not forget.
Photo
See Dave, looking stuff up isn’t so bad. You are spot on, lest we shall forget. It’s a shame the blacks didn’t get the recognition they deserved until years after the war, and some never saw it.
So, you would know, is this setup the same as the GMC DUKW? (sans propeller drive, of course) If so, someone, possibly from the Wis. Dells, will snap this up. I heard parts for those are getting scarce.
Same engine and primary transmission……DUKW’s were little more than a water going GMC truck. I have never really had trouble finding parts for them unless you are looking for small stuff for an accurate original restoration like anchors, capstans or winches. This truck won’t help with those parts.
Seller has some great pieces for sale!
The only part of this that I would want are the cab and nose, which I’d restore and mount on a dodge chassie ( 3500 series ) with a cumins diesel and dodge overdrive automatic. I’d custom build a truck box that looked period correct with a fifth wheel hitch. Now you can haul anything from a holiday trailer to a flat deck car hauler. The ugliness is what makes this cool build the rig that I envision and you’d have a one of a kind hauler.
Nice cupholders between the seats!