john1950

Unfortunately many people are in the same boat as you. All one can do is play the cards the way they are dealt. Some people get a smooth ride and others live in the grip of a perpetual hurricane and storm. Good luck with your project.

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There is a high front Vigor and a Vikon at the Sandstone Museum in South Africa. They were retrieved from the bush in Zimbarbwe.

A couple of photos from my collection.

Thank you, of course the holy grail is to find any Shervic's the VR180'S immediate predecessor. I think the most likely place now is in the jungle of what used to be Tanganyika, the area of the ill fated Ground nut scheme of the late 1940's and early 1950;s. Next to that Another Vicon. Or a Tetrarch that the VR180'S suspension is supposed to be based on. A photo of Shervic's in the Elswick works of Vickers Armstrong, ready for dispatch. I purchased it many years ago. As you can see the middle tractor is slightly different. There were two tractors built that were larger than the Vigor. It was powered by a C8SFL engine. It was still of the round front design, Built to compete with the Caterpillar D9. They were tested at the Cramlington Open Cast Coal Site, operated by Dowsett. This site was reopened in later years as the Shotton OCCS. SAM_2032.MP4

There is a preserved example of a Vigor high front at the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham Kent, there is also a round front at the Honey Farm near Berwick upon Tweed. It spent its working life on the Otterburn Ranges. So they both have an MOD connection. An ex Mod high front was sold in the South West of England last year. There are several examples in Austrailia and New Zealand, including the Vikon. Canada and the USA also have examples of Vigor's.

1st picture my father at work with a VR180. 2nd picture a Vigor going to work. 3rd picture going into the slewing clutch on a Vigor. 4th picture a High front Vigor being pulled of a low loader to get a new main clutch. SAM_2029.MP4 SAM_2030.MP4 SAM_2031.MP4

VRI80 and VIGOR. early tractors had a penny washer in the outer end of the mushroom shaft which was partly hollow that is missing in the 3rd photo. Some tractors had a front mounted winch for the blade, doing away with the A frame. An early problem if you were reversing uphill or in heavy ground was the front two rollers used to turn over and put the track adjuster on the bottom. This was cured by the addition of two stops on the frame either side. Main frames were made in two halves split at the front of the gearbox held together with a row of bolts. Very early machines had 6 bolt track plates in a crescent shape later ones had 4 bolt fixing. Tracks were early sealed and lubricated with two aln screws accessed through the track plates which had to be removed and a long grease nipple screwed in to be topped up with oil or grease. Later Vigors had a different nose section instead of being rounded it was square and it pulled the cooling air through the front instead of in through the top. There is I think a video of the Tasmanian Vikon on Utube.

That is a later VR180 as it has an upright exhaust, early ones the silencer ran along under the foot plate and came out at the rear. They were prone to breaking mushroom shafts and stretching the retaining bolts letting the drive sprocket move around. Another problem that Vickers did not eradicate was the transfer gear in the final drives used to collapse the bearings locking the final drive, even though they increased the bearing size on the later models. Torque converter models came later using the diesel from the tank which heated the fuel but meaning you had to keep it topped up regularly. They went from manual steering clutch and braking to servo assisted fairly quickly. A Vickers Vikon used to reside in Walker Brothers yard at Newburn many years ago I will hunt a photo out. There is a well looked after running example in Tasmania. They were powered by the Rolls Royce C4SFL engine as opposed to the C6SFL in the larger VR180/VIGOR.

Unless restoration started in the last few weeks this would be a different vehicle. Sorry I did not get a photo as I did not have permission and it was on private property.

I am sure I have seen one of these recently on the back of a step frame trailer.

There was a massive vehicle collection and repair depot near St Mair Egliese around the old air ship sheds.

A friend with a Foden Recovery is a friend indeed. I think there is also a Ward La France waiting in the wings. I was told once they had to change the name Foden to Poden in Spain,

What a great restoration. Also joining the really useful brigade.

A couple more bits a trailer connector and two heavy duty track clamps.

That looks like N.O.S. what a job.

Looks like a bomb disposal class.

What a great offer for someone.

Interesting statistics.

I think Withams have a few in Lincolnshire

I would think an addition of this sort would be of help to any vehicle with vacuum brakes and relying on butterfly and manifold to supply its power. Anyone with wipers going uphill? I remember the addition of a vacuum tank had to have the addition of a gauge on a J type Bedford.

I think because so many of this type of truck were produced, quantity large item component supply would be a problem. Production of the same model of truck could have either the Chevrolet banjo axles or the Timken split type axle.

There are some emotional stories attached to this thread.

I think one anomaly in tyre sizes is British tyre manufactures stated imperial sizes but they were in fact metric. US and Canadian manufactures produced tyres that were marked and were and are imperial sizes. Markings after the tyre size are usually load and speed ratings. I think the ten year rule applies to all steer tyres.