Tow truck with wide cab

[frippe123]

Hi,

Found a non running tow truck less than 250 miles from here. However, the cab looks strange. Does anyone know what kind of truck the cab is from?

[Tom Petroff]

Not a normal cab that I have seen.
However my best guess would be that it started out as a "Chassis Cowl"
From Dodge, like would be sent to a coach builder for some type of van body or bus.
Then someone cut and modified the body into a regular type cab.
More information,pictures would help.
Tom

[Gordon Maney]

If you have ever had occasion to see the French Dodge book you would observe that cabs of all kinds were fitted to Dodges after the war. Some of them appeared to be commercial cabs taken from trucks of international manufacturer, and some seem to be custom fabricated. You might look at that cab to see if there any signs of a manufacturer name to determine if it came from an existing brand of truck.

It looks like it was nicely done.

I say these things even though this chassis is a postwar assembly.

[frippe123]

I actually aquired (unseen) my first PW a few weeks ago. It is what I believe a rusted out "Chassis Cowl" truck. Haven't had it delivered yet, will probably see it in a week or so.

The design looks terrible, it's an old firetruck (army?) that looks like a hunchback. Cab is totally chopped up, they took something beautiful and then destroyed it. Hopefully the running gear should be ok.

How were the "Chassis Cowl" trucks equipped from the factory? Were they regular trucks without the bed or was the cab missing aswell?

[Gordon Maney]

I have some pictures here in a manual that I can't find. Imagine nothing to the rear of the instrument panel. Imagine front fenders and running boards.

[318cu.in.]

Dodge chassis cowl examples

Dodge Trucks 1929-1947 Photo Archive, page 33, 1933 half-ton commercial chassis;
Dodge Trucks 1948-1960 Photo Archive, page 46, about the middle of the page, on the left of the 1956 Model H two-ton chassis cab;
Dodge Trucks 1948-1960 Photo Archive, page 66, A standard D-800 or standard D-900 chassis (just a standard chassis).

[Matthew Ziegler]

cab

If your in sweeden, could this be an m601 that was locally modified? also kind of looks like a shortened bus body?

[frippe123]

It could quite possible be so. It seems almost impossible to find a Power Wagon with a regular cab in this country.