Tailgate Reinforcement Field Modification

[52 M-42]

So, if anybody wants to add this MWO to their truck, then they better do really horrible job of welding it on so that it looks "stock"?

I always remember these trucks in the military as being pretty utilitarian vehicles. Sort of like old farm tractors.

That quality of welding would be about right. I would expect that particular welding job may have been his first.

52 M-42

[w30bob]

My tailgate looks like the current description and I think the maintenance mechanic was blind or they trained a monkey to weld. Pretty pathetic,especially since I'm a welder and I almost can't bear to look at it, want to fix it but, it's what it is.

I feel the same way about the work done on mine, looks like scrap steel was used and the trained monkey did the welding. I am leaving it as is since it is an example of "quality army ordnance repair work" that must have passed inspection....somehow.

You guys are tellin' me this stuff was inspected????

[Carter]

Yes Bob, MWO work does get inspected, once upon a time I was a SSGT with a 63H30 MOS and a BN Ordinance repair shop QC inspector and had the final say if a vehicle was safe to be returned to the using unit or dead lined needing further work before I would release it.

[w30bob]

Carter....that's interesting. So I assume as long as the welding was sound no one cared about how it looked. Would you have passed the welds you're seeing here in this thread??

regards,
bob

[RMS]

some pics so you can see a good example of why the reinforcements were added to the tail gate. And why a simple but weld fix is not up to the demands of a truck that can travel just as fast along gravel roads as it can a paved road. however the brown factor does play a bigger role on gravel




And yes, because of the pounding my tailgate has taken (as you can see in the pics) the elongated holes cause the hooks to bounce out easily. A couple of times i have reached the top of a long ruff hill to find the contents of the box littering the mountain side

i know,........ i know,..... im running the wrong reflector housings. i dont like the new reflectors with their diamond patterns and i was afraid of wrecking the reflector in swapping them into the correct housings.

[Carter]

Carter....that's interesting. So I assume as long as the welding was sound no one cared about how it looked. Would you have passed the welds you're seeing here in this thread??

regards,
bob

The Maint. Bn. I worked for had full time, you might call them professional expert welders who would never turn out a job like the one I have pictured on my tailgate which was most likely done by a company level maintenance shop and not a direct or general support shop like the one I was a part of. Short answer is as you stated "as long as the welding was sound" I most likely would have but would have told the welder next time he turned out a job like that he would be re-welding it.
Even I can weld better than that.

[Cal_Gary]

Well Carter I'll be doggone-I was a 63H myself back in the day-also had the H8 ASI for Tank Recovery. Sure is a small world!
Gary

[Carter]

Merry Christmas Gary, a small world indeed, I held that MOS for several years and enjoyed it until the powers that were decided I should become the new first shirt and after that playing army was no fun and I hated that job although it is nice to look back on those times.

[jim0311]

I have 61 B1 and my tailgates got the Mod, some pretty pi## poor welding to. Come spring I'm redoing mine.
jim

[06boblee]

DSC01598 (Small).JPG (125.64 KiB) Viewed 970 times

No field mods on mine, just a lot of field abuse!

[j mccormick]

My 51 has the flat steel reinforcement like Carter's first picture with a little longer tab on the top and bottom. Joe