BenHawkins

Here is another Dennis I found during my quest for parts. This one is 1914 and was originally supplied to Ernest Shentall of Chesterfield, who lists his profession as fruitier in the 1911 census. It is the two ton chassis and as you can see is pretty corroded in places. At some point it was sold to George Wallis of Alford, Lincolnshire and spent much of it's life as a trailer before being rescued in 1997.

I recently found the 1908 patent for the gearbox that was fitted. The interesting feature was that 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear used a freewheeling device (much like a bicycle) which would make gear changes very easy (but gave no engine braking). Top gear was a straight through dog clutch.

In fact this is the worm wheel I hope to use: It is a bit worn but I belive still usable. I still need to finish drawing up the worm shaft and have it made.

It uses an overhead worm drive back axle, a technology pioneered by Dennis.

"The oldest motor manufacturers in Britain". Dennis Brothers claimed they produced a motor car in 1895 for which I have seen no proof but there is plenty of evidence for 1898. Charawacky, the RFC Crossley looks like a great project. Ben

Thanks for all the encouragement. It was really wonderful that the owner had the best interests of the vehicle at heart. Here is an advert from the year before it was built showing the same model for the same customer: The Carter Paterson bodies were transferred over from the horse vans and although there were a couple of updates to the design for 1908 which included different dumb irons and an aluminium radiator it should basically look the same. Ben

Looking down the length of the chassis when it was under the house: Looking towards the front axle. Unfortunately I have very few photos of the steps involved in removing the axles, brake rods etc. as we were far too busy actually doing the work. We supported the floor on an array of axle stands, trench struts and jacks before removing the chassis. The day we extracted the chassis: http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/~rdavis/Chassis/ Once the chassis was out we replaced the temporary supports with a wood frame on stacks of paving slabs. The owner (a builder by trade) planned to modify this when he adjusted his floor levels. Ben

About two years ago there was an advert in one of the commercial vehicle magazines advertising an old Dennis chassis on solid tyres for sale. The chassis was under a house in Surfleet, Lincolnshire. When I visited the seller their living room was a 20 foot lift van (basically an early wooden shipping container) and supporting the floor was an early Dennis chassis. The story from the locals was that the "caravan" was used by the Army in the Second World War as a mess hut. The owners wanted to lower the living room floor to match the rest of the house (which was around 18 inches lower), but wanted to find the chassis a good home if at all possible. The wooden wheels, axles and brake linkages were all in place. Getting it out was going to be a struggle as the original caravan had been extended on all four sides but I did not want to see it cut up. After 10 weekends of propping the house up and unbolting it piece by piece we got it home (everything but the chassis travelled across the country in the boot of a Ford Escort). Eventually I uncovered the chassis number 573 which referring to the original factory records gave the original purchaser to be Carter Paterson Express Carriers. Although Carter Paterson sold 55 lorries to the War Office under the Subsidy Scheme in 1914 the records show this did not include my Dennis chassis so it probably saw out the twenties with CP & Co (who ran their vehicles for twenty to thirty years) before being turned over to a scrap yard and converted to a living van and some how ending up in Surfleet as a mess hut. Restoration is going quite well considering the age of the vehicle. It is currently flat packed but I hope to get the chassis sand blasted soon and then start bolting it all back together. If anyone knows anything about the military activity in Surfleet I would be keen to hear it. Ben

As someone who is attempting to restore their first veteran truck (a 1908 civilian Dennis 3 ton) I have great respect for this team. You have to start with an incredible amount of research to work out what the missing parts should be and have immense patience to wait for them to turn up. Very few parts can be bought off the shelf and you end up making virtually every nut and bolt if you want things to be to the original pattern. You need sound engineering skills or very deep pockets (and probably both ideally) along with thousands of hours. The part I have found most difficult is deciding what to rescue, and what to leave where it is (even if that does risk it getting scrapped). The engineering challenge is however what makes it all worth while in my opinion. If you like to reverse engineer parts, learn disappearing crafts and don’t like sitting in front of the TV of an evening then this is the hobby for you. Ben

New member to the forum, but have been reading a few of the WWI vehicle threads for a while. Ben

Steve, Tim, Tony, Great job. Is that an oil scoop on the splined worm shaft coupler? It seems very Dennis. The bearing set-up was proven on the early axles (from 1904) at which point Timkin had only been in business selling his bearings for five years, so they may have been a little new at time. Keep up the good work, Ben