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As the title says, I learned how to drive on my dad's 1953 M37. We lived on a farm and I was about 14 or 15 at the time. The truck was prett solid as I recall. Dad had it re-painted by a guy down the road who restored old tractors. He happened to have some extra Allis Chalmers orange and was pretty good at pin stripping and lettering, which is how we ended up with a truck called "The General" (a reference to The Dukes of Hazzard).
Other than the paint job, the General was bone stock, including the non-directional tires, yet I don't recall ever seeing it get stuck. In fact there were a couple of times we had to use the General to recover our tractor from some pretty deep mud.
There was also that time when a heavy rain turned mom's newly tilled garden (at least 1/2 acre) into the perfect mud hole. Of course I couldn't resist blasting through it.
The General was a hard working truck. Dad built a feed bunker to fit in the bed and I would haul feed to our hog lots. After we quit raising hogs, we began raising produce. I can remember puting the General in low range first gear and hopping out of the cab, as it crawled through the field, to pick musk melons and put them in the back.
Dad lost the truck when he lost his farm, but I never lost my interest in old Dodge trucks. Now I'm getting to the point in my life when I can take on a project like restoring an old M37. In a little over two years I'll retire from the Army and I would like to take on this project with my son, who will also be getting out of the Army. I look forward to learning from the members on this forum.
Best regards,
Andrew
Other than the paint job, the General was bone stock, including the non-directional tires, yet I don't recall ever seeing it get stuck. In fact there were a couple of times we had to use the General to recover our tractor from some pretty deep mud.
There was also that time when a heavy rain turned mom's newly tilled garden (at least 1/2 acre) into the perfect mud hole. Of course I couldn't resist blasting through it.
The General was a hard working truck. Dad built a feed bunker to fit in the bed and I would haul feed to our hog lots. After we quit raising hogs, we began raising produce. I can remember puting the General in low range first gear and hopping out of the cab, as it crawled through the field, to pick musk melons and put them in the back.
Dad lost the truck when he lost his farm, but I never lost my interest in old Dodge trucks. Now I'm getting to the point in my life when I can take on a project like restoring an old M37. In a little over two years I'll retire from the Army and I would like to take on this project with my son, who will also be getting out of the Army. I look forward to learning from the members on this forum.
Best regards,
Andrew
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