Smith's LT11 all terrain crane

[rich205]

Hello,

I have a Smith's 10ton LT11 all terrain crane, picked up from eBay during the summer as a working tool but it's really not in bad condition so was hoping to gain any information about it I can please. If you know anything about  it please can you let me know.

So far I know it's ex UK military, built by crane travellers / Jones cranes late 70's. It has a Bedford 500 diesel engine, never been road registered and weighs around 20 tons, not much to be going on. I can't find a operators manual or service book or anything even from a similar model.

My plan is to get it road legal during the next few weeks, then start fixing the cab up to stop the water ingress. It's not too bad but it has got a bit of time worm, unfortunately I didn't get the crane in time to save the cab interior but I can stop it getting any worse until the warmer weather lets me strip the old paint off to see what's left of the cab roof.

Only other small issue is the air system, it works fine running from a compressor attached to the recovery points but will not pressurise from the twin cylinder Clayton dewandre air compressor. Shouldn't take much to find the root of the fault on air system but fixing it might be another game.

Here's some pictures anyway, it would be wonderful to have this back in a road legal working condition.

Thank you,

Rich

Edited December 21, 2018 by rich205

[Richard Farrant]

Hi Rich,

I think that crane is possibly ex-RAF. I used to load test and calibrate cranes when working for the army's REME workshops and occasionally we would get RAF vehicles in and I recollect having to do one of these. Don't ask me questions on it though, as it was a one-off job and probably over 25 years ago.

regards, Richard

[Zero-Five-Two]

I was about to say the Royal Engineers had them too, but looking at my photo, the Engineers version is much bigger.  Seen here with a Hydra Husky, Coles 315 and a cherry picker

Cab might be the same, but crane half is a different story.  I couldn't tell you anything about them, never worked on them.

I would think the Clayton air brake system, would likely be similar to the Militant, and should be fairly easily repaired

[rich205]

Thank you both for your responses, I'll have a research in that direction next.

 

As for the air system, I had the Clayton pump off.

 

Before removing I split the airline at the pump and there wasn't really any air pumping that I could feel so off came the pump head.

I found the inlet disk had coked up and held itself open, but being a pressed casting I couldn't really see a good way to dismantle it so I guess the head would have been swapped in the past when these inlets failed. With nothing to loose my dad and me steam cleaned and lubricated the inlet disks until it started to operate normally again. It might only be a temporary fix but the result was a positive air pressure being emitted by the pump when refitted.

Still no air going into the tanks from the pump though, so on the next dry day I'll check the copper pipes and the unloader valve once I can find it, I might need to pull the checker plate floor up to get to it.

 

Cheers,

Rich

[Baz48]

Cab from the floorpan up looks very like that used on the Seddon lorries of the late sixties early seventies

 

[Richard Farrant]

5 minutes ago, Baz48 said:

Cab from the floorpan up looks very like that used on the Seddon lorries of the late sixties early seventies

 

A Motor Panels cab, pressings on it are similar to the Scammell Crusader, some ERF models and I think Shelvoke also used it.

[Richard Farrant]

58 minutes ago, rich205 said:

Thank you both for your responses, I'll have a research in that direction next.

 

As for the air system, I had the Clayton pump off.

 

Before removing I split the airline at the pump and there wasn't really any air pumping that I could feel so off came the pump head.

I found the inlet disk had coked up and held itself open, but being a pressed casting I couldn't really see a good way to dismantle it so I guess the head would have been swapped in the past when these inlets failed. With nothing to loose my dad and me steam cleaned and lubricated the inlet disks until it started to operate normally again. It might only be a temporary fix but the result was a positive air pressure being emitted by the pump when refitted.

Still no air going into the tanks from the pump though, so on the next dry day I'll check the copper pipes and the unloader valve once I can find it, I might need to pull the checker plate floor up to get to it.

 

Cheers,

Rich

Rich,

I believe you said it was a Bedford engine, not sure if it is a 330 diesel or a 500, but I do know that the Clayton compressor on a 330 had an unloader in the compressor head, a small plastic pipe fed maximum pressure from the tank to the head pushing a plunger down to release the inlet valve.

[MatchFuzee]

Zero-Five-Two's second post on 28th October is about the compressor, don't know if is the same as yours but hopefully it will be useful to you:-

http://hmvf.co.uk/topic/33363-mk1-militant-tanker/?page=12&tab=comments#comment-441164

 

[radiomike7]

3 hours ago, Richard Farrant said:

A Motor Panels cab, pressings on it are similar to the Scammell Crusader, some ERF models and I think Shelvoke also used it.

Also Guy Big J.

[Phil Cook]

Hi, I’ve just stumbled across this 3 years later. Don’t know if you still have the crane or if you’ve already found more info about them. I was a driver in the RAF in the late 70’s/early 80’s and was a crane operator. These were operated by the RAF. From my memory I believe there were a total of 55 of them came into service, being hydraulic and state of the art at the time, they were a huge step forward compared to the previous cranes in service especially with a weigh-load meter so you could see what weight you were lifting. The truck part was manufactured by Jones Crane Travellers and the crane fitted was a Smiths. I don’t know a lot about the mechanics of them being an operator rather than a mechanic but the Bedford 500 does ring a bell with me and not the 10% load safety bell. I also remember the heater in the crane cab was a diesel fed heater, which if it went out and is wasn’t allowed to fully cool down before reigniting, it had the potential to go bang, and being essentially sat just above and in front of it wasn’t the most enticing thing to do, the line between bravery and stupidity became very thin when you went to press that igniter button! If you see this I hope my memories have been of some use. Phil Cook.

[Lewis T]

On 5/1/2021 at 12:57 PM, Phil Cook said:

Hi, I’ve just stumbled across this 3 years later. Don’t know if you still have the crane or if you’ve already found more info about them. I was a driver in the RAF in the late 70’s/early 80’s and was a crane operator. These were operated by the RAF. From my memory I believe there were a total of 55 of them came into service, being hydraulic and state of the art at the time, they were a huge step forward compared to the previous cranes in service especially with a weigh-load meter so you could see what weight you were lifting. The truck part was manufactured by Jones Crane Travellers and the crane fitted was a Smiths. I don’t know a lot about the mechanics of them being an operator rather than a mechanic but the Bedford 500 does ring a bell with me and not the 10% load safety bell. I also remember the heater in the crane cab was a diesel fed heater, which if it went out and is wasn’t allowed to fully cool down before reigniting, it had the potential to go bang, and being essentially sat just above and in front of it wasn’t the most enticing thing to do, the line between bravery and stupidity became very thin when you went to press that igniter button! If you see this I hope my memories have been of some use. Phil Cook.

Hi Phil was there exactly 55 of them built for the raf as we have the exact crane in army green with Royal Air Force on the door still in weekly use 

[ploughman]

Looks very similar to some cranes that were used in BR Works like BREL York or Derby.