Fleet Of 'Jeep FC-170's To Erect Portable Micro Wave Towers Throughout Country
A fleet of four new Forward Control 'Jeep' FC-170 Trucks were recently purchased from Fenner Motors, Washington, D.C., by the Fredrick Research Corporation of Wheaton, Maryland. The vehicles will be used to transport and erect 150 foot portable towers to be used in connection with the installation of the highly classified micro wave system of the United States Air Force. Mr. Ted Cromwell, Fleet Sales Representative, who reported the story, said that the FC-170's would be traveling over all of the forty-nine states setting up towers as temporary testing stations. The vehicles are equipped with front-mount winches, and selective drive hubs. They also have power take-off operated generators mounted in the cargo bed. The units dismantle as well as erect the towers as they move from one test site to another. Mr. L. Flenor, engineer for the company, who has been out in the field with one of the teams, says that the 'Jeep' Trucks are doing a job that the company thought was impossible. They are covering all sorts of terrain and getting through in off-the-road situations where most trucks would certainly have failed, and their performance on hard surface roads and on long distance runs has been excellent, he says.