Dennis 3ton Tipper

[Davidtin]

Hello, my Name is David and i live in Austria.

I am 26 years old, and i love old/rusty vehicles...:)

A few weeks ago i bought an old Dennis Tipper.

It's a very cool Truck, and it fits perfectly to my 1943 Triumph 3hw.

Are there other Dennis owners on this Page?

 

Sorry for my bad English, normaly i speak German😂

 

[Rootes75]

Thats a great project, been stored in the damp by the looks of the mushroom!

[Ex-boy]

It looks complete, which should save a lot of hunting for parts. Your English is good, so no need to apologise. 

I wish you the best of luck with the project.

Steve.

[Davidtin]

Thank you!

The Truck is complete, the Engine turns free and the Wooden Cabin is also in good condition.

Only the Floor and the Tipper needs an good Carpenter.

In the next Days i will make an Oilchange, and try to start the Engine.

Maybe i have Luck an the Engine runs good..

 This Dennis was lost by the british Army after ww2.

Until 1994 he works on a big Farm in Carinthia.

Then the Truck was stored in a dry Garage.

The last 2,5 years he unfortunately sits in a Field....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 28, 2020 by Davidtin

[Richard Farrant]

24 minutes ago, Davidtin said:

 This Dennis was lost by the british Army after ww2.

Until 1994 he works on a big Farm in Carinthia.

 

Looking a the Ministry of Supply rebuild plate it was overhauled in December 1952 by an Army Auxiliary Workshop, UK based, so unlikely it was disposed of for a few years after that, so unless it went out to BAOR and was 'lost' over there, it was most likely auctioned off and exported by a dealer. Wally will probably know more.

Good find though, a lot of these Dennis tippers were used around the beach heads in Normandy.

[Rootes75]

What year is the Dennis?

[Duson]

Nice find, congratulations. Recently I was watching some IWM videos and there were few with Dennis tippers, see here from about 0:50 minute mark:

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060008462

also a nice one here: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060019478

and one more here: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060019512

Good luck with the resto,  last year there was one Dennis for sale on this forum, do some reasearch.

[Davidtin]

Thank you for the movies:)

I think the british Army also had an Workshop in Austria.

Because they where her until 1955.

I found the Logo from the 8. Army on the Truck, and they had their Headquarder in Klagenfurt/Carinthia..

 

[Alex van de Wetering]

On 9/28/2020 at 11:26 AM, Davidtin said:

Are there other Dennis owners on this Page?

David, nice find! As Richard and Duson mentioned above, if you look closely a lot of these Dennis tippers appear on pictures and movies from Normandy onwards. I think nowadays they are pretty rare.

There is/was one in Belgium in tan colour. It can also be found on the forum here somewhere.

 

 

THE BRITISH ARMY IN NORMANDY 1944. © IWM (B 5396) IWM Non Commercial License

Edited October 11, 2020 by Alex van de Wetering

[mammoth]

It might be a good idea to take the sump off and remove any sludge. The reason being that if there is oil sludge in the sump modern detergent oil will dissolve the sludge and and send it and the dirt it is holding around the engine and through all the bearings.

[Petelobus]

If I may reopen a thread, I am involved with a number of Dennis vehicles that all share this basic type of 3.7l engine. I am curious to know please, what type of carburettor was fitted to the wartime chassis? I believe they incorporated a governor of sorts. The earlier models all tended to be fitted with a Zenith carb, not a terrible unit in itself but they suffer somewhat from a lack of an accelerator pump.

Mammoth is correct, always good practice to drain if not remove a sump on an unknown engine, anything could be hiding in there. At least these engines do have quite a fine strainer and plenty of surface area in the sump for detritus to settle. I would advocate after an initial oil change and grunge out, running to temp on some cheap oil and draining again, just to be sure. These are a sturdily built lump, and they pull well. I think at least 6 or 7 variations on the theme were built (cone or plate clutch, carb spec, manifolds, dual ignition, etc.!).

[David Herbert]

In common with most WW2 British trucks, the governor on the carburettor does not set a continuous speed for the engine but instead limits the maximum RPM that the engine can reach, although of course it can't stop an overspeed caused by being in the wrong gear going down a steep hill. Now that we are all used to driving motor vehicles this is much less of an issue so I wouldn't worry about having a working governor.

David

[Petelobus]

Thanks David. They aren't a very revvy engine, so I agree a governor is not really here or there nowadays. Could they be used as a hand throttle, or 'cruise control' for military purposes?

 I was actually more interested in the advantages an accelerator pump might endow the vehicles I am involved with (buses!). The standard Zenith is just fine, until the jump is made from 3rd to 4th. Unless I really scream away in 3rd before changing up, there is very little pull in top. It will eventually wind up to 40mph, which is more than adequate and much faster than I would ever cruise at. It would just be nice to get up to speed with a little less labouring. I think the engine in this bus is among the earlier variants of the engine that Dennis built. They stopped fitting them in trailer pumps circa 1965.

Owen.

[mammoth]

An accelerator pump only helps to get the revs up when you push your foot down and the effect is momentary. It won't create horsepower where there is none.  You could fiddle with tuning the carb and ignition timing but otherwise the choice would be to either substitute a slower diff ratio or treat 4th as overdrive - to be engaged only when the going is good. On the other hand your engine may be worn in which case a cylinder compression test would be the starting point.

[Richard Farrant]

I remember East Kent Roadcar ran Dennis Lancets (similar front to yours) up into the late 60's. I looked up a Solex carb book from early 1950's and that make was not fitted as standard to Dennis, but there was a listing for a Solex as a replacement. The Solex governer is a system where when the velocity of air going through the venturi reaches a certain point the butterfly closes up a bit, on WD vehicles it was set around 40mph in top gear. That is fair enough but if you were climbing a hill in 3rd it would inhibit progress and you were not doing anything like 40! A small adjustment on the spring cures that.

[Petelobus]

The engine is almost certainly well used, it was second or third hand when it was fitted to the bus in the 70s, but it did no work at all until late 2019 when a small group of us decided enough was enough, after various people had fiddled with it to no avail, we had sump, manifolds, carb off and started on those again. It had air, exhaust, and petrol leaks galore. I am told it was honed and had new rings, valves etc. back in the 70s, as they were still then commonly available. I have seen pictures of this work being done. I was quite pleased that after a couple of weekends worth we got it to behave itself. You are quite correct, top has to be treated like an overdrive, it slots in at 30mph on the dead level. I am not convinced of the efficiency of the vacuum advance, but I daren't advance it up any further. Accelerator pump was just a thought as this is something it lacks. Being a fairly heavy 4 cyl engine, the revs are slow to drop, but the clutch stop is very effective, so this helps. Not much was done in 2020, so still early days really.

[Petelobus]

Richard, East Kent had a small batch of near identical Dennis Aces, I think they ended their days with roof chopped off, as small open toppers in Hastings!

[wally dugan]

I have located the workshop location of B 401  in 1952 but am a bit puzzled as it in  west AFRICA. In the past l have come across a workshop number been allocated to different location in the same period also the information states this is a REME  operated one not a auxiliary army one. l have received a forty four page report on the operation of both REME and  auxiliary workshops that was done in the 50s and it makes interesting reading as all was not well with them . So at the moment  l am looking closer at other locations for B 4OI at the time given to make sure that the location is correct the search will go on until I am sure

 

Edited May 28, 2021 by wally dugan
spelling

[Davidtin]

Hello Guys, thank you the insteresting Inputs ;).  There are some News about the dennis' History, although I have to admit that there hadnt been done much to the vehicle itself in the last few months.  Attached you will find some other rests of color on the rear door which indicates that the vehicle was also part of the RASC. It looks like the same marking had also been painted to the right front fender but had been painted over. I will try to make it visible again with grindingpaper, maybe I can then tell  the number of the coy it had been it.

Our engine is equipped with a solex carb, which is also mentioned in the workshop manual.

Workshop b401 being in africa might make sense. First of all the eighth army had been there.

Second, I had the opportunity to talk to the guy whose family had owned the dennis from 1955 to 2006. His father had purchased the Dennis at an military auction when the royal army left austria, officials there also told him that the auctioned vehicles had been in africa before.  

Members of the british Dennis society were able to tell me that the vehicle was delivered to c.o.o. Chillwell on 29.8.1940  (order no 48807) ,so it was built earlier than expected. Sadly I couldnt find out yet where it was delivered afterwards.

Seeing the documents locating b401 would be very interesting for me- would it be possible to get them via email?

Thank you all for your interest and informations!

 

regards from austria, David

 

 

[Richard Farrant]

The RASC sign during WW2 was a square cut diagonally with Red to left and Green to right. The blue/yellow sign was post war RASC,, not sure of the exact date the change was made.

[wally dugan]

This is my understanding the eighth army was disbanded in JULY 1945 the red and green of the RASC was used until 1965 when the RCT was formed and the yellow and blue arm of service replaced the red and green l will stand to be corrected also B401 was based in NIGERIA the  REME officer in charge was a  CAPTAIN SMYTH.  The markings may have been placed on by some one after the vehicle was sold from the army

[Richard Farrant]

22 hours ago, wally dugan said:

This is my understanding the eighth army was disbanded in JULY 1945 the red and green of the RASC was used until 1965 when the RCT was formed and the yellow and blue arm of service replaced the red and green l will stand to be corrected also B401 was based in NIGERIA the  REME officer in charge was a  CAPTAIN SMYTH.  The markings may have been placed on by some one after the vehicle was sold from the army

Hi Wally,

According to a War Office pamphlet of 1952, the RASC vehicles were signed with Blue/yellow diagonally back then. I was pretty certain it was done a long time before the change to RCT.

[wally dugan]

As l said l would stand to be corrected

[Rootes75]

Were these wartime Dennis 3 tonners ever specified with Perkins engines? 

Just out of interest my friend sent me a photo of one in a barn not too far from us but I noticed the Perkins Square deal all round badge fitted to the grill.

[XS650]

Not in wartime , post war the Perkins was a factory  option.