The ‘Husky Pup’ lives!

The late Donald N. Chew was a Board Member at-Large for the American Truck Historical Society (www.aths.org). Chew collected trucks, restored trucks for other collectors and accumulated reams of historical materials about Marmon-Herrington four-wheel-drive Ford conversions. Along the way he replicated a really rare 1937 Marmon-Herrington Ford.

Chew’s interest in Coleman trucks brought us to his home, but it was the M-H Ford that caught our eye. It was one of a very few fully restored units in Chew’s massive truck collection. It didn’t take him long to tell us why — it was a clone of the only one like it.

Marmon-Herrington carried out many four-wheel-drive conversions on World War II military trucks. The company survives today and its website explains that the original company bearing the Marmon name was formed in 1851 as the Nordyke & Marmon Machine Co. It then specialized in the manufacture of flour mill machinery. As a top engineering house, the company entered the emerging auto industry around 1900.

The company first made cars. For three decades, Marmon produced some of the world’s finest luxury cars. A Marmon Wasp won the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911 and also introduced the rearview mirror. A Marmon 16 was the height of luxury in touring sedans. The Great Depression hurt the luxury car market and to survive, Marmon joined forces with Colonel Arthur Herrington, an ex-military engineer, to design all-wheel drive vehicles.

Renamed Marmon-Herrington, the firm won contracts for manufacturing military aircraft refueling trucks, 4x4 chassis for towing light weaponry and some of the largest trucks ever built at the time. In addition to large commercial and military vehicles, Marmon-Herrington recognized a growing market for moderately priced all-wheel drive vehicles. This demand gave birth to the Marmon-Herrington Ford. The conversion of commercial truck chassis to all-wheel drive remains the primary focus of the company to this day.

In 1937, Marmon-Herrington headquarters were located in Indianapolis, Ind. An advertisement from that year pictured the type of truck that Don Chew cloned, calling it the “amazing but true new track-laying tractor.” The ad said, “It whizzes down the road at 30 m.p.h.-- goes right through three feet of water--and pulls like three elephants!” The ad copywriters went on to boast about the “amazing facts” associated with this truck.

It was powered by the famous Ford “85” V-8 and was said to develop “almost unbelievable speed and power, but with the fuel economy of 4-5 miles per gallon gas.” The ad men also bragged that it could “climb steeper grades with ease and turn on a dime with a finger’s touch.” The newly designed Track-with-Track suspension combined greater tractive power with quieter operation. The ad also mentioned “the cushioning effect of rubber combined with the strength and durability of steel.”

A second page of the ad listed all of the 1937 Marmon-Herrington Four-Wheel-Drive Ford V-8 models, calling them “a great truck made even greater.” There were four four-wheel models with a maximum gross capacity of 13,200 lbs. and two six-wheel models with a maximum gross capacity of 22,000 lbs. Models and prices looked like this:

The truck owned by Chew is a C5A outfitted as a Weapons Carrier for the United States Army circa 1937. The Army knew that World War II was a genuine possibility for North America and put out bids to truck manufacturers for a Weapons Carrier design. Marmon-Herrington decided to use its 1 1/2-ton 4x4 chassis to fill the bill. It had the same 112-inch (Chew always said 113) wheelbase as a 1937 1/2-ton pickup.

For six months, the Army tested the vehicle and raved about its performance. Reports said that it outperformed all the competitors. “It excelled in all its tasks and tests,” said one tester. Besides carrying a load of ammunition, the Marmon-Herrington even pulled the gun that the ammo was going in. At this point, the test truck was returned to the factory. On the report it was noted that, if the truck was disabled on the road, two men could not get it out of the way. And that put the kibosh on it getting full approval.

Of course, this was a rather strange criticism, because there was no truck of the type that two men could get out of the way. Army “bean counters” did not like the cost of the C5A, and apparently looked for excuses to can it. The truck was sent to Belgium and Holland and both countries wanted to order some if production ever commenced. Unfortunately, the German Army captured the test truck. No civilian orders were ever placed, either, because of both the Great Depression and the coming of World War II.

During the 1980s, Chew found two photographs of the original C5A Weapons Carrier. Later, he found another photo of it. In 1982, Chew spent two weekends with Bob Wallace, who had been a Chief Engineer with the U.S. Army. He showed Wallace the photos and learned more about what he called “a marvelous workhorse of a truck.”

In 2002, Chew started collecting the parts and pieces he needed to reproduce the truck. It took him 10 years to build the exact copy you see in the accompanying photos. He called it “Doreen’s Husky Pup.” Chew never explained the name to us, but we’re pretty sure that someone named Doreen must have been pretty proud of the truck that bears her name.