M425 and 426 Tractor Truck

Tractor trucks with the designation M425 and M426 were used from 1944 on by the US Army. They were manufactured by International (IHC) as models H-542-9 and H542-11 and by Kenworth and Marmon-Herrington as H542-11. The official tractor truck model number is 542, to which are added a prefix letter designating the manufacturer of the engine and a suffix number relating to the tire size. The 5-Ton 4 x 2 gasoline motor tractor truck Models H542-9 and H542-11 are general service load carriers, designed to haul load over roads, so they didn't have to be 4 x 4.

The trailer for the H542-9 is 16 ft in length and the trailer for the Model H542-11 is 25 ft in length. The engine in these vehicles is a 6-cylinder, valve-in-head unit with a piston displacement of 451 cuin. The transmission has 5 forward speeds and one reverse speed. The fifth speed is direct.

Except for the difference in the size of the tires (11.00x20 for the H542-11 and 9.00x20 for the H542-9) and some minor differences both types are identical. The trucks are famous for the use on the Red Ball Express from Normandy to the front, but also for their use overall in Europe after the war like in the Berlin Crisis and in the Korean War.

The engine is an International (Harvester) RED-450-D. The clutch was made by W.C. Lips, Model Z-32-S, the transmission IHC Model F-54-D.