Redherring

A truly fascinating project. Love the engineering.

OK. I looked up 'Spitfire spares' and discovered photos of very similar units. There were three. Same cork float, same stainless rod/spacers, but about half the length. Made by Smiths. Apparently not Tempest or hurricane...:undecided:

I acquired this at a car-boot sale in Camberwell (Australia). It is approximately 48cm long from one end to the other. The diameter of the cork is 5cm and a shade less than 9cm long. Stainless (looks like it anyway) steel rods and spacers. Rods are soldered to the brass end. Does anyone have any thoughts about this? I'd love to be able to wave it about confident I knew what vehicle it was from! Regards Robert.

Ahh. From the banana republic!

Thanks Richard. In the age of the internet, the acquisition of materials from far away places has become 'as easy as'. I shall follow them up. Regards.

Great. But not the usual ute body?

Try not to get the electrics from the Champ mixed up with those from the model T! Am enjoying your thread. Thanks. Robert

Would be interested to know from where you obtained the original looking wiring? Regards Robert

Cummon guys... We're not working hard enough on this chassis ID. I've been right through my photo collection and come up with nowt. Frustratingly, not that many photos show much underneath.:undecided: Are the rear wheels in this photo similar? (Appologies to whomever/whereever this unnamed photo came from.)

Hello all. I'm from Melbourne, Australia. I was drawn to this site by the marvelous renovation blogs. Just love those 'blow-by-blow' descriptions, photos, and the quirky spelling! I started life as an engineer and have had an interest in heavy military machinery from boyhood. The old collection has grown slowly over the years from a single wrecked chassis to two fairly compete sets/piles of parts - for a brengun carrier (Australian version) and White scout car. Also have a Stuart M3 hull & motor - no turret or upper structure - but it is almost uncut which is more than you can say for many hulls hereabouts which were variously turned into bulldozers or farm tractors with an oxy torch. Also have a very cut and hugely modified Australian Cruiser tank (AC1). This one was rebuilt into a mobile crane. That it has survived suggests this was fairly successful. Another love is old trucks from the dawn of truck-time... and that's another story. Regards Robert Stewart

The 'shiny' photo intrigues me. Do you happen to know who the people are? Regards Robert

Sheer poetry...

Welcome from downunder too. Carriers are fairly common down here. I have one made by Ford in Australia - one day it may feature on this site as a restoration job. There are a very few Canadian versions here too. Am a volunteer with the CFA as are a lot of country folk. Cheers Robert

How intriguing. Not only did the Australians redesign the gun mount and recoil for the 25 pounder so they could squash it into their cruiser tank turret, they performed the same operation on the 17 pounder as well. Do we have a parallel universe here? Were Weir's involved? On another issue. Do you happen to know whether there is a site I can download the Service handbook of the 9.2-inch Howitzer...

This might be a little left field... but in 1942 the Australians designed a new variant of the Australian Cruiser tank design capable of mounting a modified 25-pounder gun in a fully traversable turret using a larger turret ring than was used on the production AC1 'sentinel'. The gun could load armour piercing or high explosive rounds. The Ordnance QF 25-pounder field gun/howitzer was quickly redesigned for this purpose, work that would later prove useful for the design of the 'small' Ordnance QF 25-pounder short gun/howitzer used extensively in the mountains of New Guinea later in the war. The AC3 never made it into full production, however I understand the redesigned 25 pounder gun went through testing in the prototype AC3 which now resides at the AWM in Canberra.

Anything to do with stuffing larger guns into turrets?

Thats the one. Note also the rear drivers side wheel is different. However if you check a photo of the other side of Mike's bus you will notice that the rear wheel is of the earlier X-type pattern... as on my Leyland chassis!

Looks like an experiment in the old electrical engineering lab! Thanks.

Rivetted by the pettit locomotives from start to finish. 'HMVF' is a terrific site. Thanks guys.

Love to see a few more photos of this chassis and its workings... please...

Doug, As you can see this chassis predates the RAF family. Mike Sutcliffe's Barnsley & District bus is built on a similar chassis - same dimensions apparently. However the front axle is quite different; I haven't seen another axle quite like it or its left front wheel hub. You will find photos of Mikes bus on the web. Rob

After the success of my last foray into cyberspace with the 'odd door'. I now have the 'odd wheels' puzzle! These are the front wheels from my S-type Leyland of 1912-13 vintage. Any ideas as to why the outer hubs are so different? No I haven't had them apart yet. Regards Robert

No snow here but the cricket was washed out! 'Agast'

I wrote to these people with no response. Interesting project. Alas too far away from here to visit. Love to see a before pic. Does anyone live close by?

Interesting chassis. Interesting challenge. But have no idea what it is. It possibly survived by providing something with portable support. In terms of narrowing down the possibilities... probably european, possibly german, big-big chassis, joggled frame, likely very early 1910 -1914 build. Probably not a Bussing or a Benz.