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[tim1casa]

Hi there.

 

I am new to this forum. My name is Tim Pringle. I live between Suffolk, near Felixstowe and Catalunya, north Spain. I am an avid lover of all ancient machinery, and use various tractors on an olive grove in Spain as part of our business.

 

I have always loved Military Vehicles, but I am not able as such to be a collector. However in the line of farming my olives, I have acquired a very unusual trailer.

 

It is an amazing piece of kit, very heavy, ancient, rusty, and a little "adapted" to put it mildly,but has been beautifully built. It definitely must be WW II vintage, and I was told it had been a searchlight trailer. However, it is extremely heavily built with a massive chassis. The front wheels/axle bogey is detachable via a heavy duty pin, (all seized up at present). The linkage is sprung by a quarter leaf spring, and sits well down between the wheels. The rear side members have been "trimmed" on either side to remove ?stabiliser arms/brackets as they radiate out diagonally from the centre, plus there is the remains of a steel box like structure on the front of the trailer. The chassis is at present covered in some fairly rotten old railway sleepers.

 

Prior to me acquiring it, it had been used as a yacht trailer. When I discovered it, it was lying in a field abandoned, but immediately I could see a use for it in transporting my Same crawler, firstly from the truck it arrived on, and now between my two 'lands'.

 

I enclose some photos, but unfortunately I have none of the trailer on its own, and its layout. Unfortunately the best picture is on a file that is too large to load. At present the trailer is in Spain, but the reasons I have joined the forum is I would love to know its original military purpose, and I could do with a couple of 'military' tyres to replace one ex lorry tyre, and another with a seriously split wall. Does anyone know who can supply 900 X 16 tyres?

 

 

Cheers Tim

[Tony B]

Welcome, I ll swop you the Renault 4 for some tyres!

[shane.c]

Welcome to the forum,

[snowtracdave]

Welcome Tim , you're obviously not far from us - the CSH skip in the yard is a giveaway !That's an interesting collection of working vehicles there - what models are the loader & the M-F vineyard tractor ? . I think Jonny Loot on The Forum can usually supply the tyres you're looking for - assuming you want new ?

Edited December 19, 2013 by snowtracdave

[tim1casa]

The CSH skip was at Wyvern Farm, London Rd Stanway where I rented a unit, (a tumbledown cowshed) to do up a few vehicles. The yellow F4 Renault van, which is with me in Suffolk, the Same 85 Leopard Crawler, and the Chaseside LM700 Fordson Power Major based loading shovel. I use the Chaseside to tow the trailer with the Same on, a little over its recommended weight I'm afraid, but until I can afford something bigger it has to do. The vineyard tractor is an MF 135, but a Spanish built Ebro example. The Renalut 4 is also Spanish built, it's an F6 "Estate", which means it has removable rear seats (no rear seat belts tho). I love it for its rough terrain ability, and use it on my "finca" to carry my chainsaws and other tools around plus take my olive crop to the mill. I have to watch going under the trees because the van part is quite tall. I'm afraid no exchange for tyres! I'm really looking for second hand tyres. I'll buy new if I ever restore the trailer.

 

Just remembered, I took a whole lot of photos before I bought the trailer. I will try and include them.

[Tony B]

Well if you only want second hand tyres. I've got a couple of Norwegian clover leaf, off road use only though. Looking for a home.

[Gerry275]

[That's an interesting collection of working vehicles there - what models are the loader & the M-F vineyard tractor ?

QUOTE]

 

either a 135 or 148 MF vineyard would be my guess.

[arcot1751]

Welcome to the HMVF, I used a Renault 4 van in my work as a gamekeeper, it would go places that had the Land Rover scratching Cracking vans I want another !

[Richard Farrant]

It looks like an Anti Aircraft radar receiver trailer, they were load rated for 5 tons.

[tim1casa]

Thanks Richard. I will try and find a photo of one on the internet. Didn't look too much like a searchlight trailer to me, too heavy and too low slung. Glad it's rated at 5 ton, as I guess my Same must weigh 41/2 tons.

 

I will eventually replace the sleepers, so one will be able to see the chassis and rear axle. I intend to try and get the trailer to split again, and see if I can get some form of braking. I might have to change the rear axle to something that is braked so I can legally move it around in Spain. Most of the country roads around me were just tracks, camins, but they have tarmacked quite a bit between my two lands. Unfortunately the traffic police, mossos, view them as B roads and expect everything on them to be road legal. So I need to do a bit of work on the thing, like side and brake lights, and indicators etc. My Chaseside requires them too, plus a registration plate and insurance before I can take it out.

 

If anybody is after a Renault 4, best site is "Clementines Renault 4 garage". Vans do occasionally come up for sale, not that there are that many left in the UK. For my F4 I took a Rt hand drive R 4 GTL saloon and put a French F4 body on it, because the French chassis was in a worse condition than the english one.

 

The F4 is actually ex-French Army. It was french olive inside and under the 2 pack paint job on the outside. However I think it had been involved in a minor contretemps with a tank, as the front chassis was bent, and the van body badly rippled. So although it looks nice, it is by no means perfect. It really is waiting to be signwritten (vinyls) applied, but as one of its main duties is visiting the local tip with our rubbish, my wife is not too keen on turning it into a company vehicle.

 

Their off road ability is awesome. There is a French run trip every year called "The Raid". 1000 Renault R 4's driven by students drive from Paris to the South of Morrocco to deliver teaching materials. Look it up on line, looks graet fun. I might convince my daughter to have a go as she is learning a little arabic at Uni at the moment. I reckon an R4 could be the fastest thing across a plowed field, that's if you wanted to stay in the seat. Used to do a 4 X 4 version too.

[Richard Farrant]

Hi Tim,

here is a scan of the trailer that I think you have. It was British built by Dyson, but I have seen a very similar one built by Scammell Lorries. Check the dimensions to see if they match.

 

regards Richard

[Tony B]

The 4x4 version was a bolt on attachment. I had R4 cars and vans, with Kliber M&S tyres. They were fantastic little things. My party pice was to run sideways up a 45 degree embankment to park. Some clown tried it with a Triumph Herald and flipped. I'm sure the Britsh Military trialled some at one stage. For the doubters amongst you

[tim1casa]

Hi Tim,

here is a scan of the trailer that I think you have. It was British built by Dyson, but I have seen a very similar one built by Scammell Lorries. Check the dimensions to see if they match.

 

regards Richard

 

Thank you for looking that up. From the description and the illustration/drawings, it does look like it is this trailer. The tyre sizes are correct, as is the brakes description. The levelling jacks have obviously been chopped, but what interests me is the fact that this trailer was splittable, and has rods at the rear for what would appear to be loading ramps. Did this vehicle evolve from a more general purpose trailer?

 

I won't be able to check the dimensions until I return to Spain in Feb, but I'm pretty sure you are correct in identifying it as a GL III. Thank you so much, it's just a shame I don't have the correct 4X4 tractor to pull it.

 

Cheers Tim