Great War truck

I can do that Jack. But i dont need your loving. Just a pint would be fine. Tim (too)

Just finished reading two "Charleys war" books that i got for Christmas. For those not in the know, Charleys War was a comic strip in Battle comic and was my introduction to the real horrors of WW1. The drawings of Joe Coloquon really are staggeringly real and i think that this had a great deal to do with my interest in this war. I also received the weighty tome "Organization and insignia of the American Expeditionary Force 1917 to 1923". A fantastic book which i cant wait to get stuck into. At £60 it is a bit expensive but full of photos and information. Did anybody else get this one or am i the only one who would find this interesting? Tim (too)

There was an identical bus to that at the Long Hanborough bus museum. The people restoring it ost interest and they were looking to move it on. I wonder if it is the same one? Tim (too)

That looks to be a most interesting book. I see that it is only 80 pages which is a shame as i just cant get enough of this stuff. I must comment on how good these French books are. Perhaps a different view point that a British author. Tim (too)

Too much time on their hands. Tim (too)

Thanks for that. I had heard them called escort wagons before and was wondering if these weer the same things. Interesting stuff Tim (too)

What! You know him!

Wonderful. Do you have any WW1 period Saurers?

Quite right. It took my relatives 40 years hard work and a £250,000 investment in booze and cigarettes to make their house smell like a pub. It really was quite an adventure when we went to visit them. I still occasionally smell that particular smell. it takes me straight back. Tim (too)

Quite amazing. I find it odd that it is within Poland, probably the nation that suffered the worst under the Nazis that you find this sort of stuff and planty of SS re-enactors too. The world is strange and nasty. Tim (too)

I saw one for sale on E bay in the USA a while back. I wonder if it was one of the same ones. Tim (too)

My four year old last night. "Daddy, why do you smell like a pub"? Tim (too)

It all looks quite good (although a little worn), however the worm is a little rusty at the ends. It does not seem to be on the part that runs on the wheel though so i think we can get away with it if we just tidy it up. With all these old trucks, they will never again carry the three ton load that they were designed for so we can probably get away with more than what they were designed for. Anyway, here are the final set of photos for this Christmas:

That would do it! A bit more work to go yet. I must say that having three of us work on the Dennis keeps us motivated, however, the comments and enthusiasm from everyone on HMVF who reads this is a fantastic motivator, so many thanks everyone. Tim (too)

You are quite right. It all seems to depend on how much oil was left in the part when it was finally abandoned. It was luck that this axle had turned and all the oil had gone to the top to cover the worm. It was also very lucky that the diff survived the lorrys dismantling to be used as the foundation for a chalet (but that might have been because the scrap man could not get it out). Very lucky that the guy demolishing the chalet thought that the chassis was worth saving and that the guy he told about it was interested enough and had no work on that day and had a truck big enough for it to fit on could collect it all on the same day that the site had to be cleared. We really only just managed to get this. All down to luck and the good grace of strangers. Luck sometimes is not always good. We just heard about another surviving subsidy Dennis with gearbox in place under another chalet - just a few days after it had been scrapped. Tim (too)

A fabulous collection. These Italian planes are very appealing to the eye. Tim (too)

As you may probably remember we found the correct diff under a dismantled chassis on a Cornish beach. It had been sitting in our shed for a couple of years and as the gearbox was now finished this was the next big project. So on new years Eve we dragged it outside to have a look at it. The plan was to get it hot so that the bolts might release their grip, but as it was a bit chilly (-2.5) the gas in the bottle was not playing game, so we brought out a fan heater to warm up the gas cannister. Also as it was now dark a halogen lamp so we could see what we were doing. So we spent New Years outside in the cold and dark attacking a great lump of metal which was sometimes freezing and sometimes red hot. It was my best New Years ever. The first job was to get the end off. Thinking that it would never come off in one piece i was very suprised after a great amount of heat and with the help of a giant stilson it released all in good order. The bolts on the case were quite wasted, but Steve attacked them with a hammer and chisel and they all came away or unscrewed without too much bother. The balls in the race appeared to be in good order as well and had not been damaged by the gas. As you can see, a bit of sand has got into them so they will need a good clean.

Here are some more photos of the box now in place. It was fun and games trying to get the holes lined up and we will still need to take the bolts out again so that we can put a tube around the outside of the bolts to strengthen the sub frame. At first we didnt think that we had the arm that engages the gear change, but on having a rummage around we found that we had an original one in grey primer that we must have taken off something and tidies up a long while ago. You forget what you have sometimes. Anyway, on putting it on we found that it engaged almost perfectly.

Here the assembly of the box has just about finished and we fix it into the chassis. Luckily we have the right tool for the job as you will see. Unfortunately, it takes up a lot of room and we had to move most of the stuff that seems to build up around the chassis outside to give us room to manouver.

Yes, i think that you are right. As you dismantle a truck and get to look at the design and the way it was put together you can quickly form an opinion as to the way it was built. We are of a mind that the Autocar trucks were very well designed and built to a very high standard and that the FWD's having a number of design flaws and were built to a not so high a standard (being polite). I have found it challenging to locate in print drivers negative opinions on the lorrys that they drove. It seems that there was always a worry about possible litigation and they never refer to their lorrys by manufacturers name if there is something bad to say. Saying that i have just read a book which slams the lorrys issued to an ASC co. Wheels dropping off, pistons braking, axles collapsing etc. He never once mentions the lorries by name, but in the photo you can see that it is a Maudlsay. He then goes on to say that the lorries were quite good, but not up to the tasks given them. Tim (too)

Right track, but the steel sleeves are part of the original design and as they were in good condition we could just reuse them. Here are a few more photos in the same sequence

Anyway, going back to the earlier subject, over Christmas we managed to rebuild the gearbox for the Dennis using all the parts that had been cleaned, rebuilt, or newly manufactured over the preceeding 12 months. Even though we had taken thousands of photos of the dissasembly, we had still missed taking photos of some parts. This was resolved with a fair amount of trial and error. Here are some photos of how we spent our Christmas. It was rather like a 3D jigsaw, but knowing that if you put one of the first bits in incorrectly, then you would have to take everything else out to correct it later. More to follow later. Tim (too)

|Just something i found on the internet. I have not seen it in the flesh. It would be fun to have an example like that for beltring though.

In W & T there were photos of the US Army in Germany using such a conversion, but i was not aware of the French using them as well. Looks fun. Tim (too)