Great War truck

I know someone who would like that M37 at that price, but only if it was already in the UK.

Not seen anything like this before. Death the great equalizer - well maybe not. I guess we can not judge the past on modern day values.

I was driving through Maryland and spotted this one beside the road. Probably a National Guard truck.

I was staying with my niece in Washington DC and went for an exploratory walk around the site. It is the oldest shore establishment of the US Navy being built from 1799. The yard is perhaps best known (unfortunately) for the shooting which took place there a couple of years ago which resulted in 16 people being killed. Most of the site has been empty for a long time and is currently being redeveloped. The museum of the US Navy is located there which I didn't have time to visit but I took some photos from outside the fence looking in: preserved guard tower from the corner of the yard: USS Barry - due to be scrapped this year Vietnam period PT boat: Submarine conning tower: The old bolier shop which survived the yard clearance and is now a pub: Deck guns: Armour plate from Japanese battleship (Yamota I think it was) I was amazed to see this 1918 US Navy railway gun.

These photos were taken at the Smithsonian at the mall which attracts most visitors:

I have just got back from two weeks in Maryland and Virginia. I was not sure if I would find very much of interest to me, but was amazed by what I found. Here are some photos from the Smithsonian museum (not the one in central Washington, but the one by Dulles airport). Some of these will be very easy to identify, others not so. Anybody fancy having a go?

Thanks. That one has been knocking around for a while. It is a mish mash of trucks. After restoring it he attempted to sell it for E40K. He then took the engine out and sold that for a Stutz Bearcat restoration for a good profit. Doesn't leave much chance of selling the truck I would think. On the previous topic, I didn't realise that the Crossley had gone to New Zealand as well. I wonder if that will be turned into a WW1 vehicle as well? A good chunk of it is post war I understand.

I have just been sent details of the film "They met in Bombay" which according to reviews was a fairly awful film. Interestingly I think the Furrer collection was featured in this movie. The first minute of this film shows a Liberty B being crashed (quite spectacularly) and later on you see more clips of the Liberty trucks and FWD's. The Furrer collection was used in several movies during WW2 and I think it highly likely that it is here again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj_x3NhrOe4 It is available on DVD but it sounds like such an awful film I am in two minds to get it. Japanese soldiers in WW1 German helmets........

The last part of the job was to solder it up, using solder paint and then a quick clean before fitting it and heading back to Leicester

He then swaged and cut the short piece between the pump and tee and this looked very nice. However, it was at this point that the deliberate mistake became apparent in that the pipe was exactly in line with the fan belt! A brief curse and a bit of careful re-bending then took place with an acceptable result. The last piece of pipe was then swaged and bent.

Next, he salvaged a bit of bent pipe left over from the Dennis fire pump installation by annealing and straightening it. This was swaged and tried in the pressure regulator. That fitted well but the challenge now was to bend the pipe. To avoid flattening the pipe during bending, Steve made up a pipe bender to be held in the vice. This worked well and the pipe was tried again.

As you can see in the last photo of post 1756, the oil pipes between the pump, the pressure regulator and the main line alongside the crank case were still missing. Steve had managed to salvage the others but this assembly remained. He had previously made up the tee and union nuts but needed to cut and form some new pipes. These pipes have swaged ends so the first challenge was to work out how to produce them. Father took a trip to our local second-hand tool shop and found a swaging kit. This is the shape we had to produce. Steve selected an appropriate tool and had several goes but it roved harder to achieve than expected! Eventually, he worked out the height to which the tube should be set and by annealing it three times he achieved success.

Not original I would say. Post war Dutch I would think.

Thanks for the help everybody. That was a very useful exercise. I am not sure if anybody has ever had to make an insurance claim but I am terrified of litigation and think that having completed a risk assessment helps focus the mind on risks and would help if we ever have to make a claim. Thanks again

The panel on the front is called a "Storm curtain" and is to provide the driver extra protection from the weather. Seen on a many British FWD's. The scuttle only comes up to just above the drivers knees so they are quite vulnerable. The US FWD's did not have these. I am not aware of identification panels being used on trucks as they would generally not come that close to the front line. It is more likely to provide extra protection against the rain for the contents.

Does anybody have a template for a health and safety risk assessment that I could use for a small MVT event please? Thanks Tim

I have just realised that this is the later rad which I thought was post war. It has more depth to improve the cooling. A pity that the photo is undated. Late war or post war?

The radiators started of in brass but due to cracking issues were replaced with cast ones instead. These are the ones which as you say had holes in the side. By the time the US Army FWD's arrived in France I believe that they all had cast rads. British ones can be seen having both brass and cast radiators. Following the end of the war rads were produced in the UK in the same style as the cast ones but a little wider. Not sure when they went from brass to cast but late 1916 to early 1917 seems likely. The steel ammunition body was only used by American forces. The Yanks also used a wooden "B Type" body which was generic and would fit other trucks (like the Liberty B). The British GS body can be found on some FWD's which were purchased by the British and lent back to the Americans. They are quite different in design. Other differences you will note between US and British FWD's is that the Americans have an oval fuel tank to the round British one. Tow hitches are quite different design. Also the hooks in the corner of the chassis are different. I have never seen a photo of a British FWD with anything other than spoke wooden wheels. Americans started off with wooden spoke and then went to discs and metal spoke (of two different designs). Hope that helps

The eagle is unusual in its position and angle. Not seen one quite like that before.