Re: WM tailgates

[n9ads@domain.elided (Howard R Pletcher)]

On Tue, 11 Aug 1998 19:40:07 -0400 (EDT) Chris & Ranae Procyk
<procyk19@domain.elided> writes:

>>Sigh.  I sometimes get the impression that ALL the WM's were basically 
>prototypes! <g>
>
That's probably closer to the truth than you know.

The Wagonmaster really did get into production through the back door. 
I'm not quite sure how it all came about, but the concept came from a
project by a group of Springfield Plant employees who took a Travelall
and built the first one in someone's garage.  I think it was done with
official blessing--employee involvement and all that.  There was also a
prototype Club Cab done in the same way (see P 464 of Crismon's book). 
As I understand it, the company decided to put one of these into
production and someone (probably that product planner we got from Ford
right after the Edsel appeared!) evidentally decided the 5th wheel tow
vehicle had a better future than the club cab.  The engineering
documentation and manuals really came along after the truck was in
production.

Howard Pletcher
Howteron Products Scout Parts

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