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WW1 Dennis truck find


Great War truck

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Why not make this lorry into a railway engine ?.An interesting image from Tramway and Railway World July 1918 of the Guildford factory with private railway siding and 'home made' locomotive. The availability of a railway connection must of been a great help to production during WW1.

Richard Peskett.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]33476[/ATTACH]

 

Richard,

Do you have any more photos like this?

It would seem appropriate to set up a new folder/file with such images of trucks converted for specialist use.

Doug

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Thanks Micha - but no thank you! I guess that that one would be good for somebody who is already doing one of those - but just for spares. There is an awful lot missing if you want to use that one to start off with!

 

We have been to a Show today with three trucks - and going again tomorrow - but in between, have started putting the final bits on the Dennis before we attempt to fire it up on Tuesday.

 

Water now in the system for the first time - a couple of small "weeps" which we have mainly corrected - loose hose clips and fittings not bolted down tightly - but there is a pin hole in the top tank of the radiator which we did not spot before and although we can ignore that for the moment, it will want fixing properly in due course.

 

Steve has been turning the engine over. just to see what the compression is like now that everything is on it - and it is "weighty" - so if it does not fire up quickly on Tuesday then there will be three "knackered" guys here at base! Will keep you informed!

 

Tony

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Thanks again for all your kind comments and wishes! At the moment, 2145 on Monday, we are all shattered after taking the three trucks to the Honiton Hill rally today. Problems with the FWD coming home where a woodruff key fell out of the magneto drive - and we could not find it! Quick improvisation - a temporary one cut out of a piece of mahogany with a a Stanley Knife and fitted - that did the trick and we were safely back to base at about 1930.

 

So although there is work to be done on the FWD, we shall not attempt that tomorrow but give full attention to the Dennis. We look forward to hearing it go - but must admit that we are just a little apprehensive that there will be a problem that we have not thought of! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

 

Tony

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It will run just fine... I'm sure. The shear quality of work you guys did on this build, it just is not possible it won't run. It's probably better than it ever was...

 

But anyhow, I wish you all the best!!

 

Can't wait to see the video :cool2:

 

Cheers,

Micha.

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Sorry to keep you waiting for the photographic evidence. It was a long drive home.

 

Anyway, we started off early this morning to get the Dennis ready. First objective was to fit the carb. However the manifold had a lip that we had not noticed before and without a spacer the carb would not fit.

 

IMG_3270.jpg

 

Steve quickly remedied this with a chunk of MDF and a lathe, and we had our spacer:

 

IMG_3273.jpg

 

Next step was all the leads to the plugs. This was fairly straightforward. As you will see they were correctly labelled. This will keep the rivet counter happy and in fact proved to be a great help later.

 

IMG_3276.jpg

 

IMG_3277.jpg

 

Next, oil in the gearbox (two gallons) and the engine (five gallons). we did this very carefully as we didnt want to make a mess (and oil is rather expensive):

 

IMG_3281.jpg

 

Then steve rigged up a temporary fuel tank:

 

IMG_3284.jpg

 

and we put out a couple of fire extinguishers.

 

Steve had a few goes turning it over, but found it very heavy going. We did manage to cause a couple of very loud back fires through the carb which gave us all a bit of a shock. we then put a rope on the starting handle which we both pulled on together which gave us enough speed to get it to fire up. Which you should be able to see here:

 

 

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