CCKW Walkaround Squadron Pub. CRAP

[pfarber]

A new book as come out from Squadron Signal Publications CCKW Walkaround.

IT IS PURE GARBAGE.

The trucks are all post war European service and are in poor shape. Painted over rust, rust holes, missing parts, wrong paint, wrong parts... no CCKW EVER came off the assembly line looking like the rust buckets in this book.

None of the trucks is fully ID'd (there may have been a frame number mentioned, but I didn't see it) and are a mix mash of parts. One still had the square European mirrors.. on both sides!!!! CRAP GARBAGE JUNK.

One had a gray engine (???) the other was an early closed cab with all kinds of wrong parts under the hood. None of the wooden steering wheels were painted, post war grill mods for the drain cock, one had a big ass cotter pin where the spare tire lock should go. One had a plastic in line fuel filter just in front of the carb. CRAP PURE JUNK. Autozone plastic fuel filters should not be within 100 miles of any respectable CCKW.

I pity the fool that uses this book for anything other than to level a wobbly table.

GARBAGE. SAVE YOUR MONEY.

[pfarber]

Where to begin....

1. Engine color
2. Plastic inline fuel filter
3. Red wire hanging from regulator
4. Large plastic looking thing to the right of the carb
5. Horn
6. Radiator cap
7. Oil filter is black, not white.
8. If the engine has a oil breather filter, it should also have a remote hydrovac filter on firewall (I am 70% sure one came before the other... will look it up later)
9. Pioneer tools are not OD

That's whats wrong with ONE picture.

Now, the caption does not state the year/SN or body type, but other than #8 I am gonna bet a warm diet soda that this picture is FUBAR.

[pfarber]

Is it me or is the starter switch mounted the firewall????? The ONLY cable that thick on that side of the engine is the battery to starter (the starter has the contacts on it, which are actuated by a foot lever) and the starter /engine grounds.

Enjoy that fuel filter, the horn.

Also, the 28AV11 was phased out long before the the late war regulator was installed. While technically correct to see this mix, its not gonna happen on a production truck. Note no radio filters, the unpainted pioneer tools, that marvelous gray engine. Its almost like a ford guy 'restored' this truck.

[pfarber]

I got an e-mail saying that the engine could be the correct 'wet olive' but the photographer may have just not lit the engine to bring it out.

OK, I MIGHT give that one point... but there are 3 or so pics and I am saying gray. But it might be 'wet olive' becuase, to be honest, 'I've never seen a color pic of the correct engine color'.

So there is a 'maybe'.

BUT COME ON.. THE PLASTIC FUEL FILTER IS THE BEST!!!!

[pfarber]

I did a review of this 'book' on Steelsoldiers.com and little did I know that the author of the book was a member there. Typical remarks about how there are no 'perfect trucks' and that I need to stop criticizing unless I have a pristine truck.

I point blank asked Mr. Doyle how he could look past a GRAY engine and a plastic fuel filter and still call his book 'informative'.

THEY DELETED MY THREAD!!!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I would *love* to have gotten a copy of the email sent to the mods.... 'There's a mean man pointing out how crappy my book is WAAAA!!!!! WAAA!!!!!'

Some people said they enjoyed the book... they evidently have never seen a CCKW, or just like picture books with few words.

I stand by everything I say.. this book is a TRAVESTY to ANY CCKW owner. My copy is available for sale.. $5 plus shipping ($10 total) lower 48 states only... of if you want it that bad I will mail it anywhere for cost of shipping.

[pfarber]

If you look at the fuel line between the plastic filter and carb.. it appears to be BRASS or COPPER. Yeag, its easy to bend, but can work harden and crack. bad bad bad bad.

I think I will do a special thread '30 days of mistakes' where I post ONE glaring error form that POS book a day for the whole month of April.

I have 15 right now, PLUS another 5 that hit me while I was on the crapper contemplating if I should wipe my ARSE with the book.

[pfarber]

One of the 'restored/preserved' CCKWs (it has a full page front quarter shot) HAS THE WRONG RIMS!!!!!!!

Very early CCKW rims had 8 hand holds.

The production trucks have 6 hand holds(they are the half circles in the rim).

One CCKW in this craptastic book has rims with only FOUR hand holds. How can you miss the wrong rims? I don't care if the tire tread is post war or civvy, but damn, the RIMS are even wrong.

Where is the editing? Was *ANY* research done? Read the inside cover... it says this book is about IN SERVICE, PRESERVED or RESTORED vehicles... none of them ever saw WWII service in the conditions they are in.

This book is a joke and a bad one at that.

[pfarber]

I lurked in on the g503 site and read what the cckw 'experts' are saying about this book.

All of them said it was good, and that they learned *something*. I learned that this book has nothing to do with US Army CCKWs.

I have yet to see a post of what they learned. Fact is, there is not ONE CCKW restored to any sort of US Army configuration in the book.. be in factory or motorpool class. They all have issues, added items, wrong paint, wrong parts.

Doyle has another, bigger CCKW book coming out. WHY? This one fails miserably.

Unless the title of his next book is appropriately named "Post war European service CCKWs with the wrong parts" his publisher should sue him for not knowing enough about CCKWs to publish a book about them.

I'll wait till I see one use on Amazon... no way I pay full price for anther craptastic book by 'CCKW Expert' Mr. Doyle.

[pfarber]

Mr Doyle, the author of the book sent me an envelope. It contained a USPS money order for $25 and a postage paid return label (no, there was no mysterious white powder )

Since my thread on steelsoldiers.com has been deleted, I can only find one reference to selling the book.. and that is this thread, and for only $10 ($5 plus $5 ship).

Since Mr. Doyle neglected to include any correspondence, I did what any gentleman would do. I put the money order and postage label in an return envelope (using my postage) and wrote Mr. Doyle a letter. I will not post it as it basically said:

I don't recall offering my book for sale for $25
If I did sell my copy I would have no right to criticize it anymore (because I would not own it)
He should keep the $25 and use it to improve his research on CCKW history.

I really don't have any issues with Mr. Doyle personally. He published a book, a horribly bad book and I called him on it. If that is what passes as a personal issue these days then oh well.... don't publish a book that sucks and we will all get along.

[odgmc]

Thanks for the review of this book. I had been looking at purchasing it online and you saved me a few bucks.

[pfarber]

It appears that this book had been released with several different covers. The first edition had a CCKW painting on it, other 'editions' have CCKW pictured on them.

If the front cover is any indication of the trucks in the book that should be your first warning... The COVER PHOTO is not even a US Army CCKW from 1941-1945.

Sad part is that I've read about museums buying these Norwegian trucks painted OD and putting them on display without even correcting the NATO/Dutch modifications. How can you honor the Greatest Generation when you don't lift a finger to get the mirrors right?

[47lincsled]

I have the half-track version of this book, and it always bothers me that they can't take the time to find out actual details about a vehicle before the publish it, but when you are using restored vehicles as your main source that's what happens, I really believe the people that write these book have no military vehicle back ground at all, they know that if you put it out there some people will buy it, but I really believe these books are more for modeler then restorers of actual vehicles.