Great War truck

Thats the chap. Nice bloke. As you say cant be too many barns in Oxfordhsire with Morris's in them. Good luck with your restoration. Tim (too)

Sounded really odd. Couldn't relate the noise to a Jeep, so maybe it wasn't. Funny colour too! Was that definitely an OT810 and not a Hanomag one? Tim (too)

Well, i have not added any more pictures for a while, so i thought that we should keep you up to date with what has been going on. The new scuttle is just about finished and we think it is looking rather good. Hopefully we will fit it the weekend after next. This is how it looks at the moment. As you can see, finding room to paint in the dry is getting a bit tight. Our biggest problem (or opportunity depending if you work in a customer focussed organisation) is the paint. We are now decided that the paint we have been using is too glossy and will have to repaint everything we have done before. A bit of a pain but it was never right. Having spent £300 on getting the right stuff ordered and mixed perhaps we left it a little late to come to the conclusion that it is wrong, but anyway we have got another batch made. Better now, as opposed to when we had fitted the body. Another big thing is that the new wings arrived this week, and this is how they look: Another shed load of money, but having the correct ones will really make it. Now, we will set Tony to work with his paintbrush before they rust. Hopefully will have some more pictures posted soon Tim (too)

Incidentally, the photo was taken in Steves dining room, which actually always looks like that. he is not married, as you might have guessed. Tim (too)

Sounds interesting. Love all that early stuff. A lot of the early marine engines were the same or at least similar to the WW1 truck engines. Anyway. Look what we have found now!! As this one is a fairly easy one, i will tell you. it is an original WW1 Peerless petrol tank. Never fitted, with makers plate and all. What a find - by a very good friend who passed it on to us, i must say. Friends! The best part of this mad hobby of ours. Tim (too)

Quite right (now someone else work out what i am agreeing to!). It seems that we were more pleasant to each other when we were talking about SS re-enactors staging executions. Love and hugs (but not in a dangling canvas bucket way) to all. Tim (too) PS. i must just state that as area secretary of the North Oxon and Cotswolds MVT i would be thrilled and delighted to stand down to anybody whatsoever with whatever vehicle they owned, if anybody else would volunteer to do the job. AGM at the end of this Month. Will i still have the same job this time next Month? I bet i will.

Matt I was holding off asking you what carb you had as you say it has now gone i didnt want to embark on such a trip of dissapointment. However, it has got too much for me. Can you tell me what sort of carb you had until recently? Or maybe this is another one of those humourous wind ups? Tim (too)

It is appalling that anyone can be so narrow minded and blinkered to put the post war MV's at the back or in a different field. Are these people really MVT people, or are they the local agricultural show/village fete organisers. Such behaviour is terrible but i am concerned that you direct this at the MVT as a whole, when there may be just a few people who are MVT members doing this. As an area secretary for the MVT i will say that our membership is a fairly even mix of WW2 and post war and we seem to get on well with no antagonism. On our road run, the night before we had two restored military Land Rovers and a Ferret arrive for our barbecue and booze up, but none of these chose to go on the run. The weather was appalling though which might have something to do with it. Also the ferret was beautifully restored and was too nice to get scratched to bits going green laneing. I have never identified any antagonism between WW2 and post war vehcile owners, but will raise this matter at our next meeting and gauge public opinion. Back to Windsceen and the shows tours that you mention. Well having had another look: 1). The M20 tour had nothing but M20 photos in it. 2). Exbury had 5 WW2 vehicle pictrues in it, but no post war 3). Tankfest had 3 WW2 and 4 post 4). Kemble had 3 WW2 and 6 post 5). Weymouth had 10 WW2 So indeed, no post war vehicles at Exbury and Weymouth which i suppose are organisers decision. However Weymouth i know there were to be no post war vehicles as spaces were limited and they wanted only WW2. I dont know about Exbury. Anybody else know? I dont think that the post war vehicles would have looked in place at Weymouth as it is really a veterans parade. No excuse for no post war vehicles at Exbury though, unless places were limited. Well, the WW1 event was invitation only and then the organiser didn't tell anybody that it was on. We were trying to get the largest number of WW1 trucks together and were not making money for anybody, nor had any costs to cover. it probably wont happen again. It would have been fine to have a post war truck there, but due to the advertising, you could have lived next door to the site with your Layland Mrtian and never known it was happening. So to some up. I love all MV's. I am not aware of any prejudice against thir owners. I do not doubt that it can or has happened on occasion, but surely the problem is not as bad as the postings would suggest. If it is happening i do not accept that the MVT can be blamed for this, however show organisers may restrict types of vehicles to suit the situation. For example Weymouth. I also remember many years ago that a Saracen owner was angry that the MVT told him that he should not take his Saracen on the 50th anneversary victory parade through Bayeux for the Normandy celebrations. I was concerned that WW2 US reenactors riding GMC's, half tracks were allowed to do so on that day. To me that was inappropriate. This must add another chapter to this posting as not only would i not allow post war vehicles through on that day neither would i allow WW2 US (ie those not used by the British or with US reenactors on them) through the town on that day. Any other day fine, bring your Dodge, Stalwart, Challenger, ride an elephant, it doesnt matter. But on that day at that place only WW2 British or Canadian vehicles (or US built but British used), re enactors and WW2 veterans should be driving through. Now, that should really get the fire going well Tim (too)

Oh good. An interesting argument. Just to add more flame to the fire i would like to say that: 1). In the latest edition of Windscreen (MVT), if you ignore the pages relating to shows, tours, club reports etc, there were zero pages relating to WW2 vehicles alone; one page realting to WW1 trucks and 35 relating to post war trucks and trailers. The cover was of a scammel Explorer. 2). When we did a WW1 truck show there were 5 WW1 trucks and no others. No public either. I had a good time, brilliant in fact. Largest gathering of working WW1 trucks seen in this country for a long time. 3). We (MVT) did a road run earlier this year. All were invited (everything whatever it was). We had 15 vehicles in all, including one post war Jeep and a civilian Land Rover. I must be guilty as charged as when i tried to take a photo of us all in line along a road, i tried to keep the civilian (never a military one i must say) Land Rover out of the picture and felt slightly dissapointed that my photo of all these green machines (including post war one) would have a brown and white Land Rover in the middle of them. Guilty as charged. Yes possibly by some. Do the post war machine owners have a valid argument. Yes they do, but things are not that bad are they . The words "slight persecution complex" do spring to mind. I love post war stuff. Can not think of any situation that i have been involved in where they have pushed to the back. Hold 2 gallon tin of petrol in left hand, sprinkle liberally on the fire. Tim (too)

All great storys. Here is another classic photo of an Autocar (sorry another one). Sometimes it takes a special sort of skill to get yourself in a ridiculous position. http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/Greatwartruck/Autocarinahole.jpg[/img] Tim (too)

Sorry, what i meant was not fun being ripped off. Fun being in identifying what vehicle (or parts of vehicles) you are looking at.

Well done. Quite right. It is a Peerless built carb for a WW1 Peerless trucks. Generally the Peerless carbs were considered to be useless and changed for Solex ones. Incredibly rare to to find an original one. It weighs in at 18 pounds and cost about £50 postage. If the seller had cleaned some of the cr*p off of it it would have reduced the weight by a pound i am sure. Crazy hobby eh? Tim (too)

Hi Richard Where abouts was the barn in Oxfordshire. Our N.Oxon and Cotswolds MVT group has a chap in Oxfordshire with two of them and he has just restored one. Have you bought the other one off him? Tim (too)

I thought Bedford parts were still quite easy to find. Arent there at least two Bedford parts dealers. Although i do like the GMC, you can gave too much of a good thing. There are not enough WW2 British MV's at shows these days. Tim (too)

Exactly that. It was advertised initially as a WW1 FWD and the radiator seems to indicate that, however it wont match up with anything in a book. What really gave the game away as to what it was, was a metal plate on the back axle which was covered in yuck and another smaller plate on the chassis. It is very easy to get taken in in this game and buy something that later proves to be something entiraly different. All part of the fun. Tim (too)

Been searching for 12 years and it arrived today straight off of E bay. I got it for $300, but as it is an original correct one i would probably have paid $1,000. Now you are all probably wondering what it is. Anybody want to have a guess? Tim (too)

Now i can tell you all about this one. I had an E-mail from a French Journalist saying that they had discovered a WW1 FWD but could not identify exactly what type and could i help. After looking at a great number of photos it turned out that it was actually a "United" truck from about 1920, which had an FWD radiator and a Wisconsin engine (also out of an FWD) fitted. United existed for only a short time and built trucks out of proprietary part. This United truck is probably unique. What makes it especially odd is that there is no reason why it should be in France. AT the time it was manufactured France was awash with thousands of cheap ex military trucks so it is very odd that United might export one to france. The body of this one appears to be off a horse drawn carriage. It was also in a severe flood at some stage as the engine and gearbox were full of water and the truck had a "high tide" mark halfway up it. It has been restored and i was offered it for €40,000 (ridiculously high price). It was recently seen for sale in CMV magazine advertised as a WW1 truck for £14,000 (still too expensive). It is a mongrel truck, but very interesting. I would still think that it was not worth more than £6,000. Tim (too)

We have all done it. On the roundabout outside Tesco's, at a busy junction, blind bend, on a level crossing or at the entrance to a showground. So what is the worst place that you have either broken down, stalled, or caused massive traffic congestion. I have two entrys worth consideration. The first in our tipper Autocar "Lazy Susan". We were negotiating a very long hill outside Sidmouth in Devon, and it was only firing on one cylinder, doing less than 1 mile an hour. With no where for us to stop or the caravans behind us to pass, the traffic was really building up behind us and we new it had gotten really bad when the Police helicopter hovered overhead for a while. When we got to the top we managed to pull over and let the miles long queue overtake. Remarkably we only got abuse from just one car. The second entry is by the Canadian Motor Machine Gun Corps as evidenced in this much published picture of the time. http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/Greatwartruck/AutocarCanadian7.jpg[/img] Strangely enough this was also an Autocar albeit armoured, which broke down in a French village as a German Batallion was entering from the other side. All but two crew members had been killed or injured. One dismounted a machine gun and held off the Germans with that while the other one worked on the truck. When he got it going the both jumped in and they drove off at speed, leaving Chaos behind them. Often i have stood at a rally field swinging the staring handle with a crowd of amused on lookers watching while the other MV's are heading off to the arena. The sense of urgency can never quite be replicated as that of when there is horde of Germans charging down the road towards you and you are relying on a mate to hold them off while you are swinging on that same damned handle. "This time, this time it will fire, fire you b*****d, fire, come on, dont let me down, argh, fire, come on, one more try, fire, come on, this time, next time, ah, well done, i knew you could do it". Tim (too)

OK. So, if the US found them unsuitable for direct combat, why did the Israelis hang machine guns all over them. A different kind of war and i would think that thye would be even more vulnerable to the greater technology. Far more suitable for the Engineer role, like that HIAB equipped one that we occasionally see for sale. Did the Israelis learn from the US in WW2, or relearn following the 6 days war. I guess like you say, that they would be delighted to have anything at all really. Tim (too)

I have always wanted one of these. I have driven them, ridden in them and chased a little old lady across a field in one. Brilliant things, i love them to bits. Why is it then that as soon as WW2 finished the US Army couldnt get rid of them quickly enough and were thrilled to give them all to France and Israel. I have seen a picture of one totally blown to bits by German artillery and the caption indicated that the crews hated them because the armour was just thick enough not to provide any protection from an HE shell, or in fact from anything at all. Why is it then that the other nations who used them are have only recently got rid of their last ones? Were the German SDKFZ 251 series as equally problematical, as it would seem that the only post war users of those was Czechoslavakia? Did the German crews like them? Any thoughts anbody? Tim (too)

Quite right too! There is far too much stuff lying around that is still live and dangerous and i am amazed that people will take live stuff home with them. I bought a very nice 18 pounder shell and case off the internet only after the seller provided additional photos of the thing entirely dismantled. Even now i am a little wary of it. As for the WW1 truck collectors, we are a very international group and we all talk to each other and have a pretty good idea of what is around and what is lost forever. But then every now and again something rare pokes its head out of the woodwork and we all are suprised, update our records and then start looking for the next thing. Latest additions to the list of surviving WW1 trucks is another Peerless in South Africa and a Leyland in Australia. I started doing a list of surviving WW1 trucks and got to 65 in the UK alone. I am sure that i can easily double that by including France and the USA if i put my mind to it. London to Brighton. Yes we have not done that for a few years. Both the Autocars completed it quite happily, but we have never been 100% happy with the running of the FWD, so we have not taken it. Sometimes it goes like the proverbial bat out of hell, and sometimes it just does not go at all. Instead of tinkering with the FWD and getting it running well we have got stuck into the Dennis. I guess the interest is more the restoration of them as opposed to running them. But anyway, you might just see the Dennis on the Brighton seafront in 2008 (maybe). Tim (too)

I thought that you might all be interested in these remarkable photos that were passed to me by Hayes Otoupalik. With the passing of a Mr Furrer in 1987 the considerable contents of his WW1 museum (in Arizona) were put up for sale and jointly purchased by Hayes Otoupalik and Gordon Clare. These have now been mostly dispersed to other museums and collectors now. The contents really were considerable and were i beleive the largest collection of WW1 transport in the world. Furrer purchased half of the MC Bradley Military Rental business in the 60's and opened a museum with the contents. Previously these vehicles had been supplied to the film industry and featured in many WW1 films such as Wings. The tanks featured as Japanese tanks in the WW2 film Sands of Iwo Jima. The contents of the museum was immense and included 9 Liberty B trucks, 2 FWD's, 2 US FT17 Tanks, 23 M1909 escort wagons, 2 X 75 mm guns, limbers and caissons , field kitchens, searchlight, the list goes on and on. Not even starting on the uniforms, helmet and equipment. Most of this has now found places within museums across the USA, providing rare artefacts that would, if it had not been the foresight of MC Bradley and the film industry have been lost forever. Here are a selection of photos. Enjoy, for you will never see the like of such a collection again. http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/Greatwartruck/FWDArizona1.jpg[/img] http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/Greatwartruck/LibertyArizona1.jpg[/img] http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/Greatwartruck/LibertyArizona4.jpg[/img] http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/Greatwartruck/LibertyArizona5.jpg[/img] http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/Greatwartruck/LibertyArizona2.jpg[/img] http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/Greatwartruck/FWDArizona2.jpg[/img]

This was such a superb topic, it would be shame to let it fall by the wayside. Have we seen this picture before? Or this one? Buckets were there for the select few that liked to expose them in public, but i still believe that they were never carried from the tow hook unless you were wanting to send a message to a like minded person who likes to get his bucket out! Comments and abuse anybody? Tim (too)

Well i cant find our copy of SSGB, but it might be in a box in my parents loft. I will take a look next time that i am down there. However i have found that i still have "It happened here" on VHS. I have just zipped through it and i got most of my facts right. The germans have just about left Britain to be controlled by Blackshirts and British SS while they go fight the Russians. Americans are dropping weapons to the British resistance and the SS are being SS like. Depressing, but it could well have happened just like that. Tim (too)

Yes, the Russians had a great deal of ex British stuff left behind when we pulled out in 1919/1920. Some of these remain at Kubinka. Austin armoured cars, Mark IV tanks etc. A very interesting time. There is a famous picture taken at the end of WW2 of a German WW1 armoured car outside the Reichs Chancellry. It is in the After the Battle, "Fall of Berlin book". Tim (too)