I fed the image into Google and it came back with it being a Coleman conversion.
Marmon Harrington was another company that did them and still do.
Kevin
much better answer than mine ... Faceplant kept coming up with a match (this 1957 Chevrolet Howe-Coleman 4x4 conversion, even has that on the hood) to the picture, but in order for me to get on FB, I gotta turn off my VPN (dunno why that is, but I am loathe to do it).
Anyway, you are right as usual .... it was a Howe-Coleman 4WD conversion.
However when I googled Howe-Coleman 4x4, a much better match came up than I identified. Two advertisements, and a "unicorn" turned up: a 3/4 ton in 1952 IH pickup with a Coleman conversion.
ASIDE: 4x4 trucks, so common today from every OEM maker on the planet, were once NOT so readily available in the 1950's. They had been invented for many years by then, were extensively used in WWII and before, but mostly in specialized HD markets (troop transports, dump trucks, logging, snow plows, etc.,) for
commercial/military usage.
Chrysler changed world forever for these 4x4 trucks for
civilian markets in 1946. The Power Wagon was first mass-produced civilian 4x4. Right vehicle, right time, and the rest they say is history.
The major, global OEM's gradually woke up in the 50's. Until then, these upfitters (Coleman, Marmon Harrington, NAPCO, etc,.) had good business in the niches.
The unicorn: about 30 mins of salvage job with some owner narration:
Below, the semi-finished product (in 2024), two years after he found it in Califormia (in 2022) and drove it home to TX. A labor of love, for what he believes is "one-of-one (a 3/4 ton, Coleman IH conversion)" ever made, let alone still around.
BTW, that front axle is straight, with NO knuckle, so how does this thing turn. Rather ingenious 70 years ago.
