Unfortunately it was designed with a 60 inch turret ring, adequate for the six pounder gun but which would have made adding larger guns more difficult. The Sherman had a sixty nine inch turret ring which allowed the fitting of more powerful guns (unto and including the 17 pounder and as an M36 a 90mm gun). Theoretically the Ram could have been fitted with the ROF 75mm gun (based on a bored out six pounder) but the Sherman were going to be available in bulk.
The Canadians built a large number of them before Shermans became available and they were used extensively for training. They were also used as observation posts, which meant that they had their main gun removed and replaced with a dummy to allow more room,
After the successful conversion of M7 Priest self propelled guns into armoured personnel carries, eyes were turned upon the Ram tanks sitting in Britain.
The turrets were removed and the space used to carry a troop section.
There are two types of Ram hull, one, like the one below, was fitted with a hull sub turret fitted with a machine gun. The second had a more conventional ball mount. The British units were issued with the ones with the hull turret, the Canadians the one with the ball mount.
