Tire Chains – WW2 Jeeps

Contributions Tire Chains tirechain_toolkit

Jim Gilmore gave me this picture in support of a discussion on the color of tirepumps, however, I also find of interest the tool bags shown.

Tire Chain Bag Close Up tirechain_bag

The above close up shows the name of the tire chain company as “American Chain Division”. The part number appears to be GPW 18136. The bag looks like it is very flimsy and not nearly as sturdy as those sold today by some dealers. Where heavy duty bags ever produced for these chains? Tire Chain Bags tirechain_bag2

Jeffrey A. Bajczyk was nice enough to send a picture of the chain bags he got from Brian French so many years ago. He goes on to state, “The date is stamped on the inside. The printing is on both sides of the bags, the stamp on the inside states “Keystone Canvas Co. 1942″. One bag either shrunk or tolerances were very loose as one bag can literally fit into the other. I think this picture was posted on the Gee once before, possibly even by you. As always, I have no proof that these are NOS bags other than what Brian told me when he sold them to me. He mentioned that they were being used as shop rags when he found & bought them. They seem to be pretty white for 60 year old shop rags, even if they were stored nicely.” Tire Chain Bag Detail from INSIDE the bag tirechain_bag2sm_detail

The above close up shows the name of the canvas company that made the bags for the chain company. Great pictures, thanks Jeff. We learned from Jim Gilmore an important update on the above bags…”Part number GPW-18136-B was added when the chains were changed to conform with ORD Spec. TAC-ES-422-G and did not come into effect until after June of 1943. The bags could not have been printed with “GPW-18136-B” on them in 1942 as the part did not exist then.” Tire Chain Bag owned by Chuck Lutz tirechain_bag2

Chuck Lutz was kind enough to share these pictures of his tire chain bags. He doesn’t believe them to be real but they do look interesting. INCO_Bag_CU_ChuckLutz

Here is a detail photo of the print that is on the chain bag Canvas Makers’ Mark INCO_Bag_Mfgr_ChuckLutz

Above we have the canvas manufacturers date stamp. While these are thought to be reproductions at least these have a “time stamp” that is more correct then the first set of pictures based on the instructions of the -B version of chains. If you have any factory photos of tire chains (or bags) or field pictures of tire chains in use, I would like a copy to post here (please only submit your own and not copyright protected images). Thanks. Photo source: Jeffrey A. Bajczyk Chuck Lutz Jim Gilmore