1944 jack found today
 

Anyone seen this one marked 1944/No.18 before?

Grease Guns
 

Do you fellows find manny of these in Canada?

A mate down in Victoria found a few in his local shed.

Max:

Kindly send extra grease gun up to Matt & Tabitha, so they can bring it up to me.:D :salute: :cheers:

Inspection Light
 

I have recently purchased an inspection light for my C15TA which was sold to me as an American half-track example.

It appears to be identical to the example pictured on this thread apart from the hanging hook which is handel mounted rather than shield mounted.

Is this the only difference between Canadian and American production? I note there is a hole in the shield where the Canadian type hook would mount.

There was no plug on it when I purchased it.

Inspection Light
 

Hopefully attached is a photo of the Inspection Light I am talking about.

Apart from the hook position it would appear to be identical to the CMP pattern.

Holdfasts
 

Hi Guys:

My 43 Ford LAAT has a pair of holdfasts with picquets in its' toolkit. The Picquets are nearly 30" long and have a handle of smaller bar stock welded on as opposed to holes built in "a la" Canadian modular tent style. They look sort of like a sword with a hilt.

We used the same things on my artillery driver wheel course 27 years ago when we were taught winching and rigging. The grouchy old RCEME Sgt always referred to them as "engineer picquet holdfasts" or just "holdfasts". We also trained with "deadheads" long before I learned about the Grateful Dead slang. Our deadheads were usually the spare tyre from a gun tractor buried in a four foot deep hole with a chain sticking out to which we hooked the winch cable. Pulled you slick as goose grease out on the prairies when trees were scarce!:D Alternately we chained the holdfast or deadhead to the tractor's arse end to anchor it when pulling out a heavily bogged gun.

If all that didn't work, then we called the twins: Arte and Marte; more commonly known as Bluebells! :salute: Cheers, Bill!

Of course when they weren't listening we called them blue b*lls!:eek: :D :salute: More Cheers, Bill!

All kidding aside, like Bill says, the hardest part was getting the damn things out of the ground after the recovery job was done!

:cheers: Mike

Deadhead
 

Bill, Hi! " Down under" it was/is called a "Deadman".
Arte et Marte (by skill and arms) I guess you figured the tag.
Here a deadhead is exactly what it says. a DEADhead.
Did you use "scotches" or "scotch plates" to anchor your tractor?

I'll second Mike's opinion on the use of the spare tire for an improvised anchor ( I never heard the term deadhead used for one; that term refers to a vehicle which has to be towed) and would add that it has saved me on a couple of occasions with a slight twist to it's use. In the winter, while stuck on a country road in the barren wasteland of saskatchewan, I used the spare tire as an anchor by digging a trench into the snowdrift and running the winch cable through the center of the tire. Under load, the cable cuts into the bank, and the weight of the snowdrift actually held while I winched myself out.

Regarding the cast type holdfasts; there is a small mountain of them still in their wooden crates out at the military salvage yard here in Manitoba, if anyone is real desperate for a couple. According to the manual, each one, once firmly pegged down, was calculated to hold 4 tons, and where a greater resistance was required, they could be laid up to 4 inline since the end shackle was rated at 16 tons.

Deadmen
 

Use of the spare tire as a deadman/ground anchor is a tried and true offroading recovery technique.

As a historical note, just down the road from where Rob Love lives, the 19th century steamboats coming up the Assiniboine River to Fort Ellice in the spring shipping season would use a series of deadman ground anchors - logs or heavy timbers, taken ashore by rowboat, buried square to the pull of the line, and then winched up to, using the steam-engine driven capstan winch on the bow. They would work their way up the Brandon Rapids winching and holding from point to point - very slow going.

Seem to have got off the CMP tools track here, though ...

Re: HOLDFAST
 

Intriguing, received wisdom here suggests the ground anchors were supplied as a plate with 9 pins, 8 being used on the plate and one as an "extractor".

Reputedly, the pins are hexagonal to make extraction easier by using the 9th spare pin as a lever in the pin eye and rotating it to create a now loose(ish) circular hole.

I guess you're saying the theory and practice don't exactly agree. . . . . ;)

R.

Pins and Anchors
 

Rarely used scotch plates, the chains had usually been sacrificed to hold something else in place, and were seldom avail. Quite true about the 9th pin,however a large crow bar was more efficient, but a boom winch was by far the easiest.
Cheers, Bill
(relative of the "twins")

Deadmen
 

Been away a few days!

Now that Lynn has refreshed my memory; Rob is exactly right... "deadmen" were buried, "deadheads" were towed (or followed the Grateful Dead in a Volkswagon minivan!:D

We were taught the same thing as FV623 about the hex shape and the 9th spike... usually cheated by driving the truck right over the holdfast and winching the spikes out if they were beyond muscle power. Bent a few!

The scotches (never used the word "plates" with them) were definetely not for drinking! :cheers:

Cheers! Mike

Inspection light
 

I was at a yard sale today and found what i believe is a cmp inspection light but am not positive . It is has a 6 volt incondescent bulb in it . Thats what i'm not sure of , the lights posted here have smaller automotive bulbs in them . The handle is rubber and has General Motors Products of Canada Oshawa Ontario stamped on it . If some one could help me out on this it would be great . This is a very good thread , it has been very helpful to me to collect tools for my cmp's .

Eric

Not a CMP piece...
 

but I thought I would slip this in here. Found by our Prairie Command President Gord Falk, obtained it from his father in law who was a Canadian Kangaroo. Very cool piece! Issued to Bofors crews also? Marked 1938, Cheers Rob

Notice the green pick to clear ear wax...
 

ok

Re: Inspection Light
 

Neil, et al:

Drool...any idea where I can get one?

On the Max Hedges photo of two grease guns, I bought some of these from an English Motorcycle dealer, and they had just come out of a Britsih army Clear-out. Some had labels with Pompom type grease gun. Although from the same manufacturer they were made in both Chicago, USA and across the lake in Canada. I still have some left, but P&P is quite high.
My asking price is GB pounds 20 each.

There is another pattern of this type of grease gun around: slightly shorter, with a slightly thicker body and screw on ends. The type in the picture has a twist top that takes a small turn to come off.

Rob

Inspection Light
 

Jon

The Inspection Light was a one off I found at Kemble this year.

No one replied to my question, but I think it is clear that the only difference between the American and Canadian version's is the location of the hanging hook. As mentioned in my thread there is even a hole drilled in the top to take the canadian style of hook.
One manufacturer probaly made them for both countries.

I am also lead to believe that I have the wrong inspection light socket fitted to my C15TA dash board because it has two pins rather than one. Perhaps some one can confirm this point. I am using a standard bayonet type two pin plug as fitted to war time British Trailer sockets. Even then I had to file the pins down by 50% to get it two fit.

Parts for sale
 

I was looking through the garage the other day and decided to thin out my tool collection.

http://www.servicepub.com/images/save0086.jpg

Now that garage in the picture is the place to have a garage sale . People would be lined up for the goodies in there, i know i would be at the front of the line .

Eric

Fuel tank dipstick
 

we have these three dipsticks.

The one on the left is for a WD 3ton

The one in the middle is for a 15 CWT UT

The on on the right is for a COUPE UT

Has anyone seen any of these before?

Ration box...
 

2 men/1 day

Bofors Battery Bugle...
 

Broad C Arrow 1943 marked. Still looking for those rare Bofors ammo box's for my LAAT. Backdrop is 610 SQD. over Hawkinge, one of the most facinating BOB airfields I have ever visited. Fantastic place, oooozzzzing with history! Cheers Rob

Yet another Jack. This one is marked
"Made in Canada
1942
Auto Specialities"

It's too big for a CMP jack bracket, what does it suit?

I have a D handled vehicle shovel on my C15TA marked Bull Dog made in Canada.

Is this a war-time make or post-war.

Wheel Chock
 

Hi all
Don't know if this is CMP. Just received it from one of my contacts. Unfortunately only one as I reckon there should be a pair.

Wheel Chock 2
 

And it's a Dad & Dave along with the numerals 3 over 9 stamped sideways.

Jacks
 

Seems to me when it came to jacks they used what ever they could find that would handle the weight.

second try at posting pic
 

I have been watching peking to paris and got a sudden thirst for vodka

Re: second try at posting pic
 

Speaking of the Peking to Paris program, how many people saw it and recognised our own intrepid forum member Lang Kidby, who was the organiser of that amazing trip?