[Private_collector]

On Wednesday afternoon I was honoured to have a visit from Mike Cecil. It was excellent to get to meet him in person, and we were able to spend an all too brief couple of hours or so talking and looking over my truck. I had always indicated that the chassis on my restoration vehicle had been shortened by an owner that preceded the guy I bought the wreck from. That is what was told by the seller. Curious, it always struck me, the 'shortened' length was 115" WB, which is precise length of the uncommon tractor CMP that couples with a large trailer. If you refer back to post #55, you will see a reasonable view of the chassis rear, showing a butchered section at very back of both rails. That part of the chassis has obviously been modified. You will also note the heavy-duty springs on rear axle. The H-D bump stops were taken off chassis by previous owner.

While looking over the vehicle, Mike asked about the chassis number. I have checked every inch of the chassis previously, and had to reply 'there isn't one'. Attention then turned to the workmanship (or possibly lack of it) of the shortening. Both Mike and I found no evidence of any modification to the chassis length. No join, no non standard welding, nothing. That is very curious. Mike enquired about what sort of rear body I was contemplating. I'm still not 100% sure, but had given thought to a turntable, based on the 115" wheelbase it is now. In the absence of any visible mods, is it possible the chassis may actually BE one of those tractors???

Mike felt that the rear section of a tractor chassis (behind the spring mount) wouldn't be as long as mine, in order to achieve maximum clearance between tractor chassis and trailer. Now look back to post #55 again. See the boxed-in bodge at back of the rails? Naturally I removed these and had proper profile replacements of same length welded in it's place. In reviewing some old photos, I can now see that badly made box section was in reality an additional portion of length to the rails. The chassis rear used to be considerably shorter. Perhaps too short for some farmer or house restumper, BUT maybe the right 'shortness' for trailer tractor use???

I don't know if the cab is the original for this vehicle, I don't know what other parts have been added or subtracted, except that in removing the rear heavy-duty spring sets I may have contributed to the departure from original specs!

Any thoughts? Do you have any way that I can tell if this chassis was originally 115"?