Sean N

This just popped up for sale on Facebook, thought it might be of interest here for those who don't do FB https://www.facebook.com/groups/859603390775800/permalink/7187431067992969/ Sean

Thanks Clive. I wasn't going to start stripping panels to confirm my memory!

Richard, I checked mine today. It's just over 2 metres wide x just over 4.8 metres long internally. Didn't check the height, but I can stand up straight in them with room to spare and I'm 6'2". LIke you I've never understood the braking system either, can't see why they couldn't make the whole thing either air over or full air both axles, but no doubt there was some reason for it. Not sure if modifying the system would get you into all sorts of approval and testing problems?

There were two different generations of these style of trailer. The earlier ones had a narrower track and don't have the wheel arch extensions / mudguards; the arches are flush with the body. Clive, I think my office trailer has rockwool insulation as well, but I couldn't remember and wasn't sure if all box body types had it, so didn't want to say definitively. Mine is Office, Trailer Mounted, 2 ton 4 wheeled Rubery Owen contract WV5478, code no. 6240-0735, CES P/33918/4. The body is FV605923 (and it's had the first five mod strikes applied!). Can't remember the trailer FV number - 2505? Keeping in the theme of this thread I'm still looking for front axle brakes for mine - it's all original, as it came straight from MoD, but the brakes had been cannibalised so I've got nothing inside the drums!

Richard, I might be able to measure my Rubery Owen field office trailer this weekend. It's the later wide track type like the one in the original post, but with windows. Steel frame, steel sheet cladding on the outside, hardboard panelling on the inside and as I recall either insulated between or certainly space for insulation. You're not too far from me so could come and have a look if you want to for reference, though it is full of junk at the moment.

😄 I've just been looking up parcel deliveries and the websites kept telling me my parcel couldn't be carried - then realised I was instinctively putting in mm dimensions and the site wanted cm!

Alastair, that looks and sounds great - congratulations, you must be very pleased. Will it be at A&E in June? 😉

Having missed 2022 I'd really like to attend, or at least help out if I can or hitch a ride or spectate, but can't find any details except the Facebook page, and there's no registration link? How do I sign up?

I really meant that body style rather than 488 per se, but might have been better not to confuse things.

Having looked I have around 50 cans, 1940s to 1990s dates but most are 1950s and 1960s. There are a handful of civvy ones but pretty much all of them are military and the earlier ones have the war department stamp and broad arrow as well as makers' name and date. I'd think about selling these as a job lot at the right price if anyone was interested.

Funnily enough I was just looking at this thread as well as I was trying to recall whether there was a specific name or FV number for the older style hook and latch type trailer hitch that came before the NATO hitch. The ones I have are marked FV245820 but I suspect that's only the number for the hook casting / forging itself.

They fit any Lucas 488 type light with the military screw lens adaptor, but whether they will fit a particular vehicle depends on the vehicle as they're quite big lenses - on some vehicles the lights are too close together, or there is some bracket or bodywork in the way, so they will clash.

I may have a spare wheel if you want it. In Dorset.

Two Austin K9s, a very early one and a very late one (not deliberately, just the way it worked out), and a Bedford RL, though they've all been parked up for years rather depressingly. Might be for sale soon. I'll see if I can find some photos. The early K9 is interesting as it has what's basically the civilian Loadstar cab, though with the wheel arch extensions, and lots of detail differences to the later K9s. I think it was only the first few hundred that were like this.

I have a number of jerry cans available, good, bad and downright ugly, 1940s to 1980s date stamps. Message me if interested.