Gordon_M

I seem to remember a large MVT presence in that area - maybe one of them knows of something? The only thing I can guarantee is that a vehicle, no matter how small when in one piece, takes up several times that size when you start dismantling. My tiny K-38 trailer, about as small as you can get in this hobby, is still taking up lots of space. Gordon

I'd be brazing that up. I think I'd braze it before I opened up the main bore too. Gordon

Eric copied me on the link to your winter drive in the newly-restored VF - very nice. Gordon

<polite correction mode on> Oh dear, falling out with Mike next ...:cool2: The HMVF have forums, as in, "mark forums read" as you say, however my intention was to post the information round many different locations, starting with the WW2 Dodge Forum, the 39-47 Dodge Yahoo Group, and Maple Leaf Up. Since these are multiple locations, each with multiple forums, I would humbly beg to suggest that my original use of the term 'fora' was correct, in both English language and Latin usages :angel: To my eternal joy my Latin tutor was actually called Horace, couldn't make it up, could you? </polite correction mode off> Anyway, did we get a model type of the serial plate or not? Gordon

We all love stencilling vehicles - some people seem to do it all day every day in between painting the wheelnuts red ( here he goes again .... ) Shipping stencils do appear in a lot of WW2 photos, positioned whever is convenient. Of course if you are going to ship a complete vehicle ( as opposed to a jeep in a crate, twin unit pack, multi-unit pack ) you would probably stencil it - would you only do it once though? I'm wondering if vehicles got the shipping stencil on one side, or both sides. I know once would be enough, and would conserve time and paint, but just wondering ? Anybody seen any regulations or guidance?

Well I've seen piles of Dodge stuff, but never that configuration. Basic generator looks like a 12v Command or Carryall unit body. I can only guess it will fit something like a multibank tank or landing craft engine. The twin belts, bearings on both sides of the pulleys, and flange that looks like it will mount a radiator fan would suggest that configuration. What's the generator type on the plate then? It should say. if we can post the type round the diferent fora that might get us an answer. Gordon

It does occur to me that WW1 trucks are more of a challenge. There's just no way you can phone up a dealer for most of this stuff, and the WW2 emphasis on standardisation hadn't kicked in. As a contrast I think there are two types of Dodge water pump that cover the entire Dodge truck fleet, 1/2 to 1.5 ton, from 1939 to 1947, and both of them can be bought off the shelf. The same basic pump was in use from about 1934 to around 1968, so even if you can't get the exact original it is relatively easy to get something very close and adapt it. ----------------- The sort of techniques you are using used to be common, but are disappearing quickly. In the 1970s I worked in Carron Company in Falkirk (Carronades, cannons - Henry Shrapnel came her to develop - well, Shrapnel, as the company was good at the precision casting < chequer > that was necessary on the outside of the grenade housings to get them to burst correctly) There was a machine shop with all sorts of interesting kit in it that never looked like it was used, most of it WW2 period, or at least installed then. Being of an enquiring mind I questioned the value of this stuff, so one day, when there was a shop breakdown on a big production machine as a gear had stripped or worn out, the elderly (actually he was historic, but a really nice chap...) engineer invited me to drop in to that shop during the day at odd moments. During that shift he used a power hacksaw to part-off a length of gear blank from a bar, lathed it to size, and set up and machined a helical spur gear with keyway from scratch, roughly the size of a truck diff main ring - the gear was in place and working at the end of the shift. I saw right away that he used about half the machines in the shop on that one gear, and did so quickly and easily. In fact he just set up the blank on most of them and let it run on power feed while he was doing something else. I did notice he seemed to be the only one in the entire company that could use even one of these machines, and I suspect that when he did eventually retire ( he was already long past the formal age ) all the perfectly usable machines just had to go in the bin because no-one else could operate them, and no other company would want to take them on for such irregular use. Of course the kicker is the next time one of the big machines broke a gear Carron would have lost a lot of production till it was fixed by a sub-contractor, and if the sub-contractor couldn't fix it ( or more likely couldn't be bothered ) an otherwise perfectly serviceable machine would end up as scrap. I'll bet most of us have similar stories of; " you used to be able to get that made / fixed / designed / built from scratch just down the road from here twenty years ago but now it has to come from Germany / India / China / a specialist in Outer Mongolia who charges an arm and a leg to talk to you, and it'll take six months " I'm raising my tea in your memory, Hector, as that was around forty years ago, and I'm sure you are tending machines at a much higher level these days... :angel: ( Maybe we need a thread to promote companies in the UK that can still do some of this stuff - no commercial interest posts, of course? )

It is large, but since the system is unpressurised it will have work to do - the ability to move water would depend a lot on the engine revs too. Next question then, and apologies if you have already covered this in the last 71 pages - what maximum engine revs does the engine run at, and is the pump drive geared up by pulleys or does it turn just at engine speed? Gordon

Well, we still use this sort of stuff on cheapish oilfield valves, which have external stuffing glands not unlike this setup. These days the packing gland is energised from one end, and is in its own chamber, which also has a grease fitting so that stuffing can be injected ( ooo errr missus :-D ) from an item not unlike a grease gun. Wouldn't work unless the majority of the packing material was enclosed though, which it doesn't seem to be on the original design. Be wary of over-tighening it initially, which will cause it to warm up and 'fire up' Leave it relatively loose and even let it drip a little till it has run awhile, then just tweak it up.

Don't you just love the way they have put it up on axle stands to save the tyres from going flat ....:-D Definite case for leave it as it is, I think.

It looks like any water passing by could drain out directly underneath the washer setup, or am I wrong? I'd guess that the change from early to late, and the addition of a stuffing / packing gland, would correspond with a change from an unpressurised system to a pressurised one maybe? Were the early trucks run without a pressurised water jacket but the later ones with? It would be the pressurisation that would tend to drive water past the gland I think. Gordon

Well, just by looking at the photo .... it looks more 30s than 40s. The trailer chassis is obviously contructed for one purpose, such as hauling a fire pump, generator, or maybe a barrage balloon scavenge pump. Not heavy duty, and not cross-country either. The basic layout isn't right for a bomb trailer as it isn't heavy enough, presumably the sticking up bit between the front wheels is a handbrake? The superstructure is just an adaptation of the basic trailer, and it looks to be fixed in position, so not the sort of thing you could load something on and raise or lower it, but I don't see access stairs or ramps or whatever either. So, a braked four wheel trailer around 1 ton or 30cwt, for road transport of an item that needs to be at that height, or is more conveniently loaded / unloaded at that height? I can't get the concept of a barrage balloon out of my head - would this take one complete barrage balloon assembly, or something very similar. Large but relatively light, and correct volume / size / weight rating / period. Gordon

The heat and pressure buildup after a relatively small amount of input was - interesting. I certainly won't be doing that. :-(

The orignal of the " star in a blue circle " had a red meatball in the centre of it, but it was ordered deleted to prevent confusion with the rising sun emblem of Japan in the Pacific theatre. It is possible that the very earliest vehicles shipped to the UK had the full insignia. Early Armoured divisions inside the US used a reversed version I think, red outside, white star, blue ball in the middle - anyone have a decent illustration? Gordon

If you look at the Dodge image above it is an early T222 D15 (Mickey Mouse Ear camo only on the early ones ...) but it has the standard CMP 15 cwt back body, so that canvas would fit; D15, C15, C15A, F15, F15A, and even the cab-forward D15 prototype which I have mentioned before, here it is, courtesy of the Colin MacGregor Stevens collection; If you have a look at one of the other shots of the Bedford, you'll see that has been made from a big green sheet just draped over and tied down - notice how the corners aren't shaped at all? Forget moulding canvas. You'd be far better off with a very close weave fabric that could be draped and painted.

Well, most of these covers had their origins in plain sheets that were draped over the back of covered wagons back when Tony was a boy 8~) If you have a look at his Weapon Carrier in the shot above, the canvas is just four flat sheets. 1. One big side to side wrapover sheet, with trapped ropes for tensioning purposes and side tie-downs. 2. One cab cover. 3. Front cargo compartment sheet. 4. Back cargo compartment sheet. For modelling purposes, just drape a sheet over whatever it is, and let it sag a bit. Gordon

Keeping the Studebakers on UK airfields meant that all those support parts didn't have to be moved forward after D-Day. Carryall and Command Dodges were kept on airfields for a completely different reason - they were too obviously senior staff officer transport, and officers up the sharp end knew that being anonymous in a jeep was much safer. One other oddball move was to take a load of the Dodge ambulances the airfields were issued with and swap them for K2's, which allowed the 4 x 4 Dodges to go to the sharp end while the 4 x 2 K2's just drove round nice flat airfields. This apparently accounts for shots of US personnel on USAAF airfields driving K2's. If I had to guess, I'd say that when production and logistics really got into high gear, and Axis air power was greatly reduced, a lot of these procedures went out the window. Wrapping up, you could see much the same vehicle mix, Studebaker, Carryall, Command (sadly no K2's) on the ALCAN and CANOL projects, for pretty much the same reason. Apparently a lot of the later Carryall and Command production went there rather than using shipping space to get it to Europe and not using it at the sharp end.

The first pic, on the first page ? It's a Studebaker US6, you can tell by the fender. GMCs had a double curve on the fender, Internationals had a gentle single radius curve, Studebakers went nearly straight back and then 90o down, like that photo. The reason that Studebakers ended up on air bases is because they were "limited standard" trucks rather than the GMCs which were "standard" Limited standard vehicles tended to be kept in one theatre, or with one organisation or one function, to avoid supply chain difficulties. They were also usually obseleted first and donated as war aid first, for the same reason.

At first glance I thought it might have been an Aqua-Cheetah, but it clearly isn't in the remaining photographs. The marine drive type suggests 1950s rather than 40's too. I'd like to know exactly what it was - given the location probably Soviet ?

Think about it. When you have just typed out your post, and posted it, the system knows you have already read it - so it doesn't show up on a 'new posts' search - at least, not until someone else posts another reply in the same thread. It puzzled me for a while before I figured it out. Your new posts are there, but the system knows you have already read them...

I think there is one five ton in southern France; http://www.g503.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=124480 ... but the cab is different. Gordon

Yes, that's it. Not the easiest of places to work on. It's basically easier to rip the wiring out one wire at a time and replace it than do the lot in one go. Gordon

Let's see now. Your WC should have SEVERAL wiring harnesses. There should be one under the dash down to the big round connector, and that is the one that will give you most grief. Headlight and engine wiring should be no big deal, and the chassis wiring harness runs from the big round connector to all other parts of the chassis. VPW, Vintage Wiring of Maine, or make your own. They even turn up now and again NOS on E-Pay, and I got my Carryall wiring harness from Steve Rivers. Whatever you do you'll salvage much of the chassis wiring as it is usually covered in oil. Dodges tend to be 6v ( I seem to remember yours was a late, 12v unit? ) so wiring gauge and connector quality will normally be a big deal. My personal technique is to strip all the wiring out and assess it. Some leads have great cores and connectors, but lousy or patchy insulation - they tend to get new heatshrunk insualtion and get put straight back. Other leads with damaged conductors or wrong / missing ends just get cut back to the usable bit and put on the parts pile. You can actually buy the cloth-covered wire of the right gauge and even colour, so it would be entirely possible to replace your harness one piece at a time till it was new. If you do go for new harness, you should specify if you want twin stop lights and turn signal wires built in, as some suppliers will do that. Gordon

TANK OVERHAUL had an episode with a Challenger 1. It was one of the prototypes, and they had to find a turret from somewhere, but it was other wise complete (with no Chobham armour though)

http://www.ww2dodge.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5569 Just a couple of pages on the WW2 Dodge Forum but some nice images at the links. To be absolutely fair I'm going to post a link on there bringing people here too, as there isn't as much support around for Pre-WW2 stuff as there could be. Gordon