Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 7:48 pm Post subject: American Bantam M100 Trailers
I have come across a listing for 24 American Bantam M100 trailers from a 1958 Spot Bid DOD Surplus Sale. I did not know American Bantam made M100 trailers. They are all marked as being M100's with a 1952 date on them. There are also Dundar Kapple M100s listed, so I would think the bean counters were writing down what they were seeing on the data plates. However, I have found some mistakes in these sales announcements.
My question--Does any know or have seen where American Bantam made M100 trailers In 1952 or later? _________________ Harold W.
MVPA #6833
1945 GPW
1950 CJV-35/U
1951 M38 1952 M38
1962 USMC Contract M38A1
1953 Strick M100 1967 Johnson M416
1968 CJ5 4-Speed 1969 CJ5 V6
Joined: Oct 02, 2014 Posts: 2005 Location: South Carolina, Dorchester County
Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 10:23 pm Post subject:
Hi Harold,
I'm too young to have known or seen , but I'm fortunate to have an autographed copy of the definitive book Warbaby, The True Story of the Original Jeep, by William Spear. Besides the controversy over the Jeep, it's a pretty fine history of the American Bantam Car Company.
Although I'm still studying the book, on page 312 (Chapter 28, Epilogues) it says (if I can quote it without getting phone calls from lawyers) that post WW2, "Bantam went on to make over 100,000 trailers for the jeeps they had created, many of which are still in active private service today."
Unfortunately, no direct reference to M100 that I can find so far, but still reading. There is mention that Bantam was given a contract for a one-ton jeep trailer, but nothing further. Interesting, one-ton trailer behind a quarter-ton jeep. _________________ Ron D.
1951 M38 Unknown Serial Number
1951 M100 Dunbar Kapple 01169903 dod 5-51
“The only good sports car that America ever made was the Jeep."
--- Enzo Ferrari
Harold, I reviewed my M100 trailer data base and saw no Bantams. Just Dunbar-Kappel, Strick & Jacques Power Saw. Perhaps they have several Bantam T3C's or military Bantam T3's they are confusing with the M100. _________________ Wes K
45 MB, 51 M38, 54 M37, 66 M101A1, 60 CJ5, 76 DJ5D, 47Bantam T3-C & 5? M100
I was thinking the same thing, however, the few WWII Bantam trailers I have in the database have 7 digit registration numbers, the "1952" Bantam trailers have 8 digits.
Thinking that they may be Dunbar trailers, I checked the serial number and the Bantam trailers have 5 digits serial numbers and the Dunbar trailers have 6 digits serial numbers. Also, the registration numbers for the Dunbar trailers listed are 8 digits and in the same format, but are much lower than the Bantam trailers.
Something isn't adding up!! I also looked at the Strick trailers and it doesn't fit there either. The Jacques Power Saw trailers I have are all 1951s and the registration numbers are well before the Bantams.
I have good data on these trailers, however, I'm not so sure what they are! _________________ Harold W.
MVPA #6833
1945 GPW
1950 CJV-35/U
1951 M38 1952 M38
1962 USMC Contract M38A1
1953 Strick M100 1967 Johnson M416
1968 CJ5 4-Speed 1969 CJ5 V6
Harold, I would suspect you are looking at a batch of rebuilt (at a military depot) trailers that have had their data plates switched around at the depot. Perhaps the depot only had new Bantam plates on their spares shelf the day those went out the door. _________________ Wes K
45 MB, 51 M38, 54 M37, 66 M101A1, 60 CJ5, 76 DJ5D, 47Bantam T3-C & 5? M100
Wes,
I believe you are correct or some form of correct. I went back and linked the Bantam serial numbers with the Dunbar serial numbers and it filled in a gap within the Dunbar serial numbers. What was throwing me off, Dunbar used at least 6 different ways to serial number their trailers. These fell about in the middle and was within the 1952 year. The military registration number was in line with the couple others that were in the database. All the other manufactures were either much later or the registration number was not within the same sequence.
I'm going to keep these under the Dunbar Kapple database with a note they were listed as American Bantam. I included the bid date along with the bid invitation number with each trailer where I can go back and look at the "hard copy" if needed.
If anybody comes up with other supporting data--Please share!! _________________ Harold W.
MVPA #6833
1945 GPW
1950 CJV-35/U
1951 M38 1952 M38
1962 USMC Contract M38A1
1953 Strick M100 1967 Johnson M416
1968 CJ5 4-Speed 1969 CJ5 V6
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, but I'm fortunate to have an autographed copy of the definitive book Warbaby, The True Story of the Original Jeep, by William Spear. Besides the controversy over the Jeep, it's a pretty fine history of the American Bantam Car Company.
