TAILGATE? SPLIT? (From Russ)

Post by **HellBelly** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 11:13 pm

Russ sent this over to me, thought it was kind of neat. Never knew they existed!

Russ - hope you didn't mind that i posted it.

Jeffc · Post by **Jeffc** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 1:16 am

unless it can be proven otherwise, I would say that was custom
made or aftermarket and not standard stock. From looking
at the photo it looks like other things have be customized
on this truck, if it were stock you should not be able to
see the bottem of the stearing wheel though the rear window
and looks like the back of the cab and front of the bed was cutaway.
All the trucks in those years used chains on the tailgate and
there are none.

Post by **POWWAG** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 5:24 pm

Hey Russ! Give us the whole story on this truck.

Thanks.....Don

RussRoth · Post by **RussRoth** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 10:14 pm

No story from me on this. It is in the latest issue (Dec, 04) of Vintage Truck. They had no story either, just wrote a 2 page piece on Sweptlines. They only mention the picture as being taken on State Street in St. Ignace, Michigan during the 1999 Antiques on the Bay show.

I tend to agree with Jeff about the tailgate Almost has to be custom and I also noticed how you could see inside the cab. I think it looks made from the later style tailgate since the latches and gate itself look like the later ones. I have been around these rigs in my family almost from the beginning and I have never seen anything like this. I will send Scott a front pic of this rig tomorrow night. Have to hit the rack now. Getting up @ 3:45 AM for work.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 12:47 am

Back of the cab looks like it was cut out to provide a walk-through (crawl-through?) to the camper area. It may of originally had a different top with a door on one side of the rear necessitating a swing open section of the tailgate?

Post by **Goldie** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 7:06 am

If stock don't you think it would have to be for a camper application? and as such would have maybe a stepup type bumper? Neat truck though.........Goldie

scoutski · Post by **scoutski** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 8:26 am

The bed of the truck has no seperation from the cab. the only gap that you see is for the door. this leads me to believe that this is a military ambulance truck that has been converted to a camper. The reason I say this is that the 68 W200 that I have has a cut out cab that was used as a walkthru when it had the ambulance box on it.
This may have been a total custom job that someone did. Whatever, it is a fine truck. Sure would be nice to know more about it.
Bill