I just found this site and since I'm now the proud owner of an aircraft tug, I thought I should join the group. A little background history on myself. My name is Tim and I retired from the Air Force in 2005 after 21+ years.  I currently work as a QA inspector for a company that operates air tankers for fighting wildland fires. I'm into collecting and restoring military vehicles so when I seen this come up for auction I had to outbid the scrapper to save it. I'm hoping that some of the folks on here can point me in the right direction to source manuals so I can work on it. I will be posting questions as I get around to working on it. So far I have cleaned it up and removed the homemade pusher bar and tire from the front. I'll need to find some cab parts and a layout of the dash to see what is original and what has been altered. Anyone with input I'd be happy to hear from you. Thanks

Sweet! Is that Detroit Diesel powered?

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Buncha junk.

No, its an Allis Chalmer 4 cylinder turbo diesel

cobra5 (10/22/2015)

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 I just found this site and since I'm now the proud owner of an aircraft tug, I thought I should join the group. A little background history on myself. My name is Tim and I retired from the Air Force in 2005 after 21+ years.  I currently work as a QA inspector for a company that operates air tankers for fighting wildland fires. I'm into collecting and restoring military vehicles so when I seen this come up for auction I had to outbid the scrapper to save it. I'm hoping that some of the folks on here can point me in the right direction to source manuals so I can work on it. I will be posting questions as I get around to working on it. So far I have cleaned it up and removed the homemade pusher bar and tire from the front. I'll need to find some cab parts and a layout of the dash to see what is original and what has been altered. Anyone with input I'd be happy to hear from you. Thanks


Great looking G-40 (MB-4).  You might want to join in on the actual "Coleman Trucks" thread on this site to link up with other Coleman collectors and enthusiasts.  You may even want to repost this on that thread. 

Keep Calm and Coleman On,
Craig

Craig H. Trout
ATHS Life Member

Researching Holmes / Plains / Coleman / American Coleman Trucks
and selected production partners, such as Columbian Steel Tank, Quick Way Truck Shovel, Howe-Coleman, International Harvester, Marmon-Herrington, and SnowBlast

American ColemanColeman

Hey Tim, 

When you find time, we would love to see a photo of the American Coleman data plate.  It should be on the right side of the dashboard.

I am thinking you may have an example G-40 from one of the very last American Coleman MB-4 contracts.  The unit had been in production through (8) variants since 1954.   Variants A-F had a much more "boxy" cab, and then variants G-H like yours had the simplified, one-piece "tilt forward" hood/fender combination for easy servicing. As you indicated, variants G-H had an Allis-Chalmers 4331 engine, while the previous variants had a Chrysler Industrial-30 engine.  Your unit should weigh in at 11,000 lbs (without ballast) and have a drawbar pull of 10,000 lbs. 

Thanks again for sharing!
Craig  

Craig H. Trout
ATHS Life Member

Researching Holmes / Plains / Coleman / American Coleman Trucks
and selected production partners, such as Columbian Steel Tank, Quick Way Truck Shovel, Howe-Coleman, International Harvester, Marmon-Herrington, and SnowBlast

American ColemanG-40MB-4

Craig,

The data plate is missing but I have all the original paperwork from the time it was with the military so I have all the info the data plate would have on it. I took your advice and reposted on the Coleman truck thread. I did discover that this tug was ordered from the factory with the compressor, air tanks and trailer connections. This tug was used to tow bomb trailers from the dump to the flightline. I now wonder how many of these were made this way.

Tim