16svt

1944 AEC Matador Artily Tractor for sale

High speed diffs, good mechanicals, original body, Very good tyres. cab is good, but will need O/S rear cab pillar and timber above O/S wheel arch done soon. Its a nice vehicle.

Located near Stroud Glos. Looking for around £15K

Call Dan on  07711839269 to view 

have you tried Bernie Smith. He sorted all my seals for my AEC O854 and was very very good.

http://www.vintagevehiclespares.com/links.php

I know noting about these engines, But what is the breather arrangement ? check the breather is clear as any crank case pressurisation can cause a labyrinth seal to pass oil.

Now on Ebay with pictures

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/-/222320108629?roken=cUgayN

Does your supplier do the track that fits onto the bottom of the window. Or do you know another source of them?

 

Bob

Try this

https://www.vintagecarparts.co.uk/products/867-window-lift-channel

This has just been posted on the AEC forum. It must be bloody rare if its was it says it is.

http://middx.net/aec/board/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=766&sid=4488bc95878edcb28765b9b972762091

I bought mine from here.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262341306134?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

They seem to be good quality.

They are breeding!!!!It seems I now have two.

Thanks for reply, I was thinking of just fitting small air cylinder in place of original hydraulic one. Probably work ok if compressor can keep tank full... :red: The wagon has been sitting in field for 30 odd years but is in reasonable condition apart from cab. Engine turns and transmission should be ok. Owner reckons it did very little mileage when he used it as timber crane.

I have never seen an 0854 6x6 at vintage rally here in Ireland, are there many preserved in England? I know the place is full of 0853 Matadors over there. I just heard recently of two that went for scrap, not that far from where I live...so sad.:embarrassed:

I know of about 6 O854 Coles cranes and about the same for the O854 refuels and a handful of timber tractors maybe a few more. There are bound to be more hiding away, but I would be certain there are no more than 30.

If you do convert yours to air, the best thing to do would be find someone breaking a Matador and get the front cylinder and mounting brackets from the front axle. The mounting bracket just bolt onto the swivel pins and are an easy fit. You also need to use the longer brake arms and quadrant adjusters from the Matador set up as the hydraulic arms are shorter and it makes adjusting the brakes far easier. The O854 hydraulic system requires special shims that go under the brake shoes to adjust the brake up. I would imagine these would be almost impossible to find and would have to be made. The rear I would just use cylinders and mounting brackets from a MK1 Militant. I think that you would also need to change the operating arms, but i have not looked into this yet.

What year is yours?

Its quite possible to convert an O854 to full air brakes. I have a O854 Coles crane that has been converted very badly, I am thinking that if I continue with this lorry I am just going to rebuild the brake system with the MK1 Militant system. However, I have also just bought another O854 Coles with original Vac over Hydraulic brakes and I intend to keep this one as it is, as its so original. With companies like "past Part" and loads of others there is almost nothing you can't get repaired/rebuilt (at cost). Certainly I would not for see any problems getting hold of brake seals and hoses.

Good luck with it Dan

Please try and post some pics, I have just bought one for spare. but i am always interested in more depending on what they are like and how much.

what area is it located in?

Cheers Dan

Mine is O853 6721 built August 1944

http://www.rlcarchive.org

A search for 18YZ54 shows they hold a key card for your vehicle and you can apply for a copy online. Its a great service and should shed a bit of light on your vehicles history.

Off the top of my head, I would say that chassis number will date it to late 1944.

No PLESAE don't stop, its very interesting. I check it for update every day. I asked about the engine as it has an exhauster fitted, I was just interested in if it had been built with vac over hydraulic brakes.

Doug, you are doing a great job on an interesting and rare vehicle, keep it up and we all want as many photos as possible.

i notice that its got an A196 engine. were Dorchesters Vac over hydraulic brake? or is it an engine replacement?

Hello,

 

The AEC 0854 chassis number is on the nearside chassis rail like the Matador but is usually located higher up. Although in my experience it tends to be partially obscured by one of the crane bed mounting brackets.

 

Ian.

Thanks for that, I will take another look on Monday.

John Harrington on the Facebook AEC society page has informed me that my crane was RAF 122128 and then 21AC20. I will now send off to the RAF museum to see what records they hold.

Remember that it is important to keep the load as near the ground as possible so that if it does get too hairy you can put it down very quickly! Also it is - of course - a good idea to have at the very least a couple of helpers with tag lines to keep the load under control.

 

With my Iron Fairy 6, if I have to travel any distance, I jib-in until the load is resting against the front of the crane and secure it with a ratchet strap or similar so that it can't swing.

I have driven a MK6 Iron Fairy. They are quite unique. More like a forklift with a jib. you can't help moving with a load as the slew is so limited. Bloody useful bit of kit for getting into tight spaces and low hight. There really is nothing like them.

Marvellous to see such an 'unusual' vehicle being renovated and used again . I guess everyone would love a tank or something else equally as exoctic but I can well see the attraction and the practicality of having a crane !

 

For many years I had a Coles Argus (think it was an Argus ?) on my yard. I still have the manufacturers plate on my workshop wall, she was built by the 'British Crane and Excavator Corporation of Sunderland' and was serial number 22094 ..........so I think that dates her as being an early 60s model? Supposedly rated at a 6 ton lift she would and often did get called upon to lift much more. Her personal 'best' was a lift of very nearly 11 tons but to do that ?.... and to any H&S fellas out there please don't read or at least please ignore this bit ........ I ran the one side of her up onto a ramp made of railway sleepers, 2 high......... then slewed her round to that side so that the whole crane was tilted backwards before I started.....then we backed the low loader under the jib and away you go ..

It's the 'point of balance' that will stop a Coles Cranes lifting more...

The actual lift hoists / motors etc seem to be capable of lifting way more than their factory rating of 6 tons or whatever they may be. In the case of this big lift all I did was hoist the load up so that the low loader trailer could pull out from underneath her...I certainly wouldn't have tried slewing or 'travelling' the crane with such a load on the hook.

The only time I very nearly came to proper grief and had her over?.... was due to what you mentioned above , unlevel ground ....Ironically this was with a very small, (probably less than half ton) load on the hook. What happened was ......... Travelling across my yard with a small cylindrical tank on the hook one front wheel went into a particularly deep pothole which caused her to 'dip' suddenly and unexpectedly sway that way ....this caused the small load to swing in that direction like a pendulum........then as the offending front wheel came up out of the pothole this caused the crane to lurch back the other way ..with the effect that the load which had swung way WAY out of the 'circle of lift' ( for want of a better description) came swinging back in the opposite direction and going WAY out of the circle of lift to the other side .....She lurched so badly that she lifted the 'outside' wheel each time the load swung....acting automatically I lifted my foot off the travel pedal which then also caused the load then to swing 'forwards' violently on account of how suddenly I had stopped and then to come hurtling back to wards the cab and colliding violently with the RSJ frame we'd thankfully cobbled onto the front of her many years before to protect the radiator and cab from such a foreseen but unexpected event ........It all got very hairy as I couldn't decide whether to abandon ship out of the open door or to stay put or to try and leap out of the window to my left and make my escape across the top of the engine housing .... the way the load was swinging and the crane lurching I couldn't actually decide which way to try and go as the way my luck usually runs is whichever way I went would surely have been the way she finally decided to go over

 

Thankfully things did calm down as the weight of the crane finally overcome the exaggerated effect of the pendulum like swinging load..... but it was a very 'interesting' 30 seconds or so and one that I will never forget The lesson that day I guess was 'Be thou aware of complacency' .....When setting out to lift what we know is a big load I think we'd always be careful ......but it was the complacency that day of it being a very small load and shifting that little tank from one side of the yard to the other was something I didn't even think of ...

.. So ...you are very correct to wary ....watch out for potholes and any other discrepancy in the ground you may lift and travel over !

What a great story and a happy ending, with some good advice thrown in. I alway air on the side of caution, but like you say you really need to watch for complacency.

I have done a few lifts with my old girl now and she seems very stable. I have not tried moving with a load yet. I think that if i do it will only ever be with the load at the back.

The other odd thing is that under the penciled amendment for the chassis number it states the colour as Yellow. I have now done a fair bit of work on the vehicle and at no time have i seen the colour yellow. The first coat over the undercoat is drab green, then Deep bronze green and then red.

I know from the log book that the first registered keeper in 1950 was the Ministry of Supply, the next was The Department of Atomic Energy and then The Atomic Energy Authority.

Now could it be that the Ministry of Supply took it from Surplus RAF stock? and registered it for road use in 1950?

I really could do with finding the stamped chassis number. I have looked, but it is not in the same place as my Matador.

Does anyone know where to find the chassis number on an AEC O854?

HI Dan

Since we last had contact you prompted me to look at the AEC 0854s more closely what l have found out up to now is chassis numbers 08541323 to1346 were made between FEB 44 and MAY 44 08541366 to 1451 were made between MAY

44 and DEC 44 all for the RAF as up to now all l have looked up are the ones for military use at the moment l cannot find anything on chassis number 08541352

 

 

REGARDS WALLY

Wally, I have been trying to trace the history and would like your help. I have had the RLC search for the chassis number O854 1352 with no luck. But there seem to be a bit of an anomaly on the old style log book.

Now the chassis number 1344 is very neatly written in the correct place on the logbook. But there is a note on the left hand page stating the chassis number as 1352. Now unfortunately the chassis number is not visible as there is a mounting brakes for the crane over it. The chassis does have this on it.

Now the first coat of paint on the crane is clearly Olive Drab, which i think would date it from 1944 or there about. Could the chassis number have been changed or recorded incorrectly? I guess the only real way to tell would be to cut the plate that covers the number off, But if the chassis number on the chassis is not what on the log book then that could open a can of worms. I only really want to try and find the history out.

best welded with mig as the chassis is not mild steel hence the advice if stick welding to use low hydrogen rods, if joining two sections then a decent fillet needs to be ground out and a plate bolted on the inside covering the join, some say the chassis should be cut at 45 degrees to make the join stronger, as for filling deep pits weld them up and grind of, try not to put too much heat in to any specific area so as to reduce the chance of distorting the chassis, if the pit is deep fill the bottom and move on to another and then come back to it when its cooled a little.

Thanks for that advice, that was exactly what I was looking for. Its not too far off what i had been doing already.

I have been doing various little jobs on the crane since i last posted, Hoovering all the ****e out of the crane, rebuilt the seat in the crane, sorted the crane engine air filter out and lots of other little jobs.

Today i spent 6 hours welding and grinding a small area of the chassis that had rusted/wasted quite badly.

Only manager a patch about 5" long, but pleased with the results.

In a few places, the chassis on my AEC O854 Coles Crane is heavily rusted/wasted. I have decided that as there are not too many spare chassis about, my only real option is to build the wasted areas up with weld. I am not too worried about this as the Crane has a massive sub frame and there is not too much stress on the chassis where I am welding it. What are the 'forums' views on this? also what are peoples thought on cutting bit out of the chassis and welding replacement sections in. This is not something I intend to do, i just want to know peoples views.

Cheers Dan