Great War truck

Had the very rusty and dirty transmission Brake Shaft and its attachments sand blasted today so that we could more easily see what is there. prior to it being dismantled.

Dad has been down to the foundry to collect some bits

I think Bobs FWD is a Kissel. Same model B FWD.

Well, they built 997 FWD Model B under licence by the wars end. I believe that they also provided some ambulances to Russia and Serbia but in fairly small numbers.

I had known about this one for a long time, but was always under the impression that it was in France. US does seem more likely though. It makes you wonder what else is still out there waiting to be rediscovered.

The second Brake Drum has been cleaned up but the rim on this one is already very much thinner than the other one. Only a minimum skim was possible but obviously it was like that in service so should survive.

First Brake Drum cleaned up as far as possible. Hopefully the remaining roughness on it will not tear up the Brake Linings. The second drum almost completed as well but there is less metal in that one with no real provision other than to take off a gentle skim. End result should leave it no worse than this first one.

Never come across this name before. Some piece of agricultural equipment i suppose?

The tipping system looks similar to a US Heil tipper. The Berliet even with a second for spares looks like it will be a lot of work.

That looks quite nice. Not sure about the cab though.

With the Rear Wheel Brakes and linings now completed as far as we can go - short of hanging them, we now turn to the Transmission Brakes. These two Brake Drums are heavily corroded, pitted and grooved and we had those sand blasted some time ago. They need to be skimmed but there is not a lot of metal there and it looks unlikelythat we shall be able to turn off all the corroded parts. We may just settle for removing the roughest bits so that they do not tear the linings and leave them at that.The Drums are 14" in diameter and 4" wide - they will just go into the gap on the Colchester Student but it will be very tight - the gap is also just 4"!The first one has been set up on the face plate and a first cut taken.

Rear Wheel Brakeshoes and linings now completed and ready to hang.

A nice looking thing. In searching for a chassis, how have you looked so far. I would like to think that there must be a survivor in the USA, but our hunt for Peerless trucks over there drew a blank.

Guy, a forum member put me on to a recent auction in case there was anything there that caught my eye. Something most certainly did, four Peerless front wheels. I put in an on line bid and was delighted to see that i had won. I drove up yesterday to collect them and take them down to Devon. A round trip of about eleven hours but we are very pleased with them. Two wheels are in outstanding condition, while the other two are ok. Quite amazing that this stuff still turns up.

The first of the four rear brake shoes completed - the other three are not far behind.

Trial fitted one of the Brake Linings to a Shoe today. The Csk screws are to be well let into the lining still but looks OK. The ends of the screws to be cross drilled for split pins.

Dad was back on the Peerless today. The four Rear Hub Brake Linings have been riveted to their corresponding Brake Liners and these four sub assemblies are now ready to be attached to the Brake Shoes. They are to be attached with 5/16" csk screws which go right through the lining and liner and are nutted on the inner face of the shoe with slot nuts.

I quite like that. I wonder what speed he can get up to?

Yes, thats right. The original radiator would have been brass but was replaced at sometime with something else - not sure what it was. Simons Dad made a new one from brass. There seems to have been five different radiator types and you can approximately date it from the rad design. What do you have for your Riker? Is there any chassis at all? Gearbox. Axles? Wheels? Starting of with just an engine is probably no worse than what we did with the Thornycroft. It can all be done if you wait long enough and are very lucky.

If you click on this link it should take you to some more photos of it, including another one of it as a house: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=XK+548&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiQsYSP3sPqAhUJUhoKHbTGA-sQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=XK+548&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQDDoECAAQGDoCCABQ7u4HWKb9B2CgnAhoAXAAeACAAX6IAe8CkgEDMi4ymAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWc&sclient=img&ei=6-sIX9CPOomkabSNj9gO&bih=741&biw=1600 I think it sold in 1975 and it was restored by Simons father. I am not sure how long it took but he is obviously a very capable engineer and it comes out to events quite regularly.

Thanks. It was a remarkable journey. The MVPA recreated it with modern and a WW1 Dodge which i understand completed the trip without ay problems.

I know some of the history. Here is a good image of it in its previous incarnation.

The tyres on the one dismounted wooden wheel are shot so Steve cut it back to the metal band and then used an angle grinder to cut through that. The tyre just pings off and we parked that for disposal and the wheel for the next step of restoration.

Dad is always looking for things to do so Steve and I pulled the California rad out from the shed and looked it over. We knew it had been patched before so we had a look at that and the damage seemed worse than we remembered. We are undecided as to the best course of action so may swap over the top tank with the WD marked one that we have. The gills had taken a few knocks so we need to sort those out. We gave the rad a pressure wash and then parked that up for later on.

We need to get the rear wheels sorted and the pair we want to use are on the other Peerless so we had to swap them over with the metal wheels we have in stock. First task was to move all the stuff which was stored on and around the Peerless and tow it out into the open to make room. These wheels are very heavy and we used the engine hoist to secure them. The first one came off really easily which surprised us all and the metal wheel went on without any problem. The other side was a different story and after most of the day gone we had to give up and put the Peerless away again and Steve will come back with his hydraulic press and see if he can adapt that with a Jim Crow and see if that will make any difference.