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Joe, here are the pictures you asked for. I had some time to kill this morning so I hopped on the Harley and rode to the two tanks you asked about. This is 1778A, USA# 09A22370. I found it was built by Chrysler Corp in 1978. It sits on display at the corner of Barstow Road and 3rd St. here on post. Here is some info I found when researching these tanks;
- roughly 15,000 M60 tanks were built between 1961 and 1983.
- 5,400 older models being converted to A3 standard between 1983 and 1990.
- last used by U.S. Forces by the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force which fielded 210 M-60's to support the Saudi-Marine efforet into Kuwait City
- 105mm M68 gun, is modeled after the British L7 105mm rifled gun with thermal sleeve and fume extractor.
- could carry 63 rds of 105mm ammo
- Army Master Data File Acquisition Price; $1,291,865
- Normal peacetime life expectancy was 20 years.

Howdy Jeff, everyone,
Thanks a million, I didn’t expect you to get these for me so quick, but I guess any excuse will do to ride in the sunny California weather . It’s currently raining and 33 degrees here in Wisconsin. It sucks.



About old 1778A, I’m curious where you got the manufacture date . She’s a “Four side tie down eye� model (Yellow). They started producing them with serial number 5026 for M60A1 and 4426 for M60A2’s. Some time around 1974/75 when the Army was desperate to increase production to replace all the M60’s sent to Israel they deleted two of the eyes. Those were the ones located between the second and third support roller. The stamped number 5944 on the deck would be appropriate for an M60A1 made before then. That’s if it was the original A1 deck before being rebuilt to A3 standards. Detroit started making new M60A3’s February 1978. They didn’t start producing A3 rebuilds until July 1981 at Anniston and early 1982 at Mainz. Here are M60A3 production numbers for the US Army. They do not include the new ones built at Detroit for Foreign Military Sales.

748 M60A3 Passives produced new at Detroit (All converted to TTS by 1984)
1052 M60A3 TTS produced new at Detroit
3142 M60A3 TTS rebuilds at Anniston Army Depot
458 M60A3 TTS rebuilds at Mainz Army Depot
5400 Total

I got these numbers from Army Fiscal Year reports and records. They may not correspond with the more accepted numbers that have been put out in various books. I’m still trying to track down the total produced new for export, since they actually raise the number way above 5400. I know that from 83 to 84 Detroit made 479 new for export. Export production continued at Detroit up to 1987. One of these days I may actually get a handle on this .

Joe D

Did you see the pictures of 1780A? I have created a file on each vehicle I have done any research into. However those files are already packed away for this move to Ft Hood, so I can't really recall how I got the manufacture date. I do have an M60A3 (original A3) serial number 1363, USA number JJ05UF, that was built 11/80 by Chrysler at their Detroit Tank Plant. It belonged to B. Co., 2nd Battalion, 185th Armor, of the 40th Infantry Division, CA. National Guard, located in National City. It is currently sitting in the museums storage yard. This M60 was the one Doug climbed into and that I posted many interior shots of.
Is the 5944 number, the original serial number before its re-build? As for an excuse to ride my Harley, the sunny day was a factor, but with gas going for $3.40 a gallon on post, and over $3.60 in town, the bike is getting more use than ever! Once I get situated at Ft Hood, make sure you make your requests for M60's on display there, and I'll hook you up! I can't wait to be around those two museums there!