Hydrovac decals

[pfarber]

This is not a CCKW 'vac, although it IS a second series vac. The H32-16-65 would put it at Bendix PN 373330 (where as a CCKW second series vac is H35-25P-96)

I have gotten word of a fellow who says he has photos of CCKW vac decals.

This is out of the Bendix rebuild TM:

vacdecal.JPG (13.84 KiB) Viewed 18817 times

Note the two decals between the metal canister rods.

[retro-roco]

I think I have a NOS first series tandem in the crate. Are you just interested in the second series?

[pfarber]

If I can get all three that would make printing a sheet more 'doable'.. cover all three with one shot instead of having to do two/three runs.

Are they anything at all like the ones above? From what I can find that photo is of an M8 Grayhound.

[retro-roco]

No love on the hydro-vac decals. It is apparently a replacement unit, not an original. If it has decals, they are under the layer of OD paint that covers the whole thing. I saw no sign of them though.

[pfarber]

I've emailed a few Stag/Deerhound owners asking if they had decals on their vac's....

With any luck someone has something...

[Quasimodo]

There are three decals on the Series 1 and 2 Hydrovac I believe - 2 on the body and 1 on a pipe fitting warning against turning it.

Have seen two decals on the early power pedal type boosters.

[pfarber]

The photo of the white vac with the decals seems to be the one everyone is looking at. I've gotten a slew of interior shots from a fellow in the UK that owns an M8 (which that is the vac for) and its the exact same vac that is being referred to by a few folks.

As for a third decal I don't know. The Series 1 and 2 are completely different animals. The only pipe fittings (I'll assume you mean pipe PLUG?) off the top of my head are at the elbows that supply vacuum and air (around the center band) and at the very rear (for oiling). There are some fluid bleed ports. But they are bleed screws.

I'll go over my bendix books and look again.

[pfarber]

The only M8 I could remember that *might* be in original condition is in the Littlefield collection.. in CA. I'll look on Milweb at the adverts... those lucky guys have original everything in Europe.

[retro-roco]

Here's a pic of one with three decals:

[pfarber]

The two decals on the shell *appear* to have the same text as the white one, but in different color. I could only blow up the image so big before it pixellated on me, but the size of the black blobs of text seemed to be the same.

No idea what the one on the right says.

[pfarber]

I did manage to locate my Bendix Aviation Hydrovac rebuild books. Note that these are not Army TMs, but Bendix Aviation manuals. One is from 42, the other 44. They do show decals, but not that legible.

The manuals DO list model numbers for the CCW-352-353 and DUKW, but not CCKW. Other MVs are listed (halftracks, M8, T17 etc) as well as a couple of civilian trucks.

I'll scan them in and post some comparisons. But one question pops to mind immediately.

The white vac picture shows what looks like the decals in the Bendix manual. But its painted white. The Bendix manuals also show (and list) CCW/DUKW 'vac, but they are not white when installed on the trucks. Would bendix supply custom painted vac's? I doubt that Army was painting vac's then applying decals.

My INITIAL WAG (wild ass guess) is that early on the vac's were still very civilian, with decals. But as the Army supply system would have to deal with dozens of interchangeable models decals with part numbers would be confusing. My guess is that later 'vac's were DECAL-LESS and relied on the metal parts tag (like on the jeeps 529 carb and the vacuum check valve attached to the vacuum line running to the intake manifold). Its just a guess at this point... but every Army TM I have read so far specifically states to refer to the TAG for the model information.

[pfarber]

I am thinking that the 'vac decals were short lived, on early units. I have found several mentions, in multiple TMs on vac identification. They specifically state that the use of manufacturer and Ordnance tags should be used to identify the unit for repair and parts.

Both of these pages are from TM9-1827B. The version in the Technical manual online here is 1944. I have a later version of the same TM from 1956 and it says the same thing.... rely on the metal tags.

My guess, as already stated, is that the Series I and civvie version II/III vac's DID have decals.. as by most accounts they were right off the civilian version of the trucks.

[pfarber]

Here is a nice shot of the 'Bendix' decal. While this did come from a repacked carton dated 12/52 *think* (and I fully admit to knowing little about US-6's) this would appear to be a First Series, early 'vac, pre 1942 'standardization effort'. So while it does show decals, I am still leaning towards my 'early vac's had decals, late vac's did not and had metal tags' theory.

[pfarber]

Well, my theory is out the door. It seems that BOTH were applied, throughout production.

This is from a 1943 (Feb, 1943) Bendix pamphlet. Unlike the M8 decal the part number is NOT on the body. If you want to download the hi-res scan (300dpi TIFF image, 17Mb).

But I have cut out and circled the tags in the image below:

IF you have trouble downloading the full tiff image PM me. Since this is the first time I am adding a file as an attachment.

[pfarber]

If you look at the part numbers of the decals:

BK-10823
372001

The decal part numbers are used in all the exploded views. That seems very odd. The image above is a single piston vac PN 372774 Model H25-25P-53. The other exploded view in the the Bendix book I have uses the EXACT SAME PART NUMBERS: BK-10823 and 372001 yet the the diagram is for a dual piston vac PN 373390 Model H35-10P-83

So it would seem that these decals are 'generic' decals, not like the M8 one that specifically shows the part number.