As the French Army ordered the monster batch of 5,000 machines - all sidecar equipped, IMC faced another problem! The Wigwam had initially a contract with two suppliers: Firestone and Goodyear. As the CAV - batch also came with a spare wheel on the carrier each, IMC had to supply a minimum of 20,000 (= 5,000 sidecar rigs x 4 wheels each).
Also another problem: France went for the 4.00 - 18 size as their choice! Indian supplied their machine for 1940 standard with 4.50 - 18 tires!
So the two house - suppliers were not able to produce so many tires in the chosen size (4.00 - 18) so IMC also opted to equip some machines with a "civil" tread by Firestone (their S-3 DELUXE CHAMPION) and to buy another "civil" tread at US ROYAL MASTER.
So - 3 different suppliers and 4 different treads for the French batch! On original pictures (see my book: "An American in Paris") some combinations were rigged with at least THREE different treads.... for a better grip, I guess....
