Rhino Heavy Armoured Car

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

Hi all
Another evening spent on a side track. This thread is for Plushy's project to build this vehicle. I've trawled the net and found these few images and have plagerised some text. However under the Bern Convention I am allowed to do this for research purposes. However some good reading is in Mike Cecil's Military Vehicle Profiles bokk on Armoured Cars. This first image is the one I posted in the Softskin Forum. It is the rear view of Rhino ARN 78002.
Bob

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

This is the front view of Rhino ARN 78002

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

Ex. Wikipedia

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

During the early years of World War Two there was a need was identified for a heavy armoured car for the Australian forces. As supply from the Allied nations was unreliable at that time due to higher priorities a specification for local production was issued. This asked for an armoured car with 30mm frontal armour and not less than 10mm on the sides and rear to be armed with the standard 2pdr antitank gun.
The vehicle that appeared utilised the Fox chassis with the engine being built by GMC of Canada. The hull was of welded flat plate. The driver was located centrally in the forward part of the hull. The fighting compartment was in the centre with the engine compartment at the rear. The design of the vehicle utilised a considerable number of angled plates to help improve its armoured protection.
It seems that only two prototypes were built despite an initial order of 132 as there were problems with the weight exceeding the chassis limit.

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

This site shows an APC variant.

http://www.jedsite.info/afv/romeo/rh...au-series.html

Cagey bugger, won't allow image copying. I can never work out this protectionist attitude.

[Plushy]

Thanks for the photos and info Bob 30 mm armour plate on the front would make it pretty nose heavy i wonder wether they added any extra leaves to the leaf springs ?. Is Mike Cecil a member here or does any one have his contact details he might know where i could find plans or drawings on the rhino .

If i do this it will be a 2 or 3 year project as i want to get my F15A on the road first

Plushy

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

These images are actually off the AWM site. The ARN of this Rhino is 62879.

Regarding Mike Cecil, he would be mortified that you haven't heard of him. Curator of Military Technology in the AWM, collector of military vehicles, author of countless fact filled articles and books on military vehicles, Corowa attendee and all round great guy. Good mate of Keefy, although Mike can't help that. What more can I say.

Bob

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

BTW he is a very busy guy, gets inundated with enquiries so we are all very sparing with our enquiries. He will point you in the right directions though.
Bob

[Plushy]

Bob ,
i have heard of him just wasnt sure if he was a memeber here , i will be talking to Keith this weekend so i might twist his arm a bit to get him ask Mike for me next time he talks to him ,or i could get off my lazy butt and do it myself

Plushy

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

Cagey bugger, won't allow image copying.

There is an easy way round this! Hint: don't right-click! I just tried my technique and it works.

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

Mike suggests that the Rhino contract was Aust.:
278 CA 652.

Also that there were 251 Model 8446 Fox chassis delivered to Australia. Not included were 131 chassis shipped aboard the SS Port Montreal which was sunk by enemy action enroute to Australia.

AUSTRALIAN MILITARY EQUIPMENT PROFILES, VOL 3, AUSTRALIAN SCOUT AND ARMOURED CARS 1933 TO 1945,
Chassis # 2844600001*, Engine # 270-175044, ARN 74363
Chassis # 2844600027*, Engine # 270-175045, ARN 141744

You can see that the GMC 270 cu in engines were in fact assembled in either the Pontiac, Michigan, Plant or the Flint Chevrolet motor plant which helped out with GMC military engines in the war. No 270 engines were ever built in Canada (Walkerville).


*I suspect that these were Holden chassis numbers, and that the assembly plant code is missing.

[Tony Smith]

Originally posted by David_Hayward
......Also that there were 251 Model 8446 Fox chassis delivered to Australia. ....

AUSTRALIAN MILITARY EQUIPMENT PROFILES, VOL 3, AUSTRALIAN SCOUT AND ARMOURED CARS 1933 TO 1945,
Chassis # 2844600001*, Engine # 270-175044, ARN 74363
Chassis # 2844600027*, Engine # 270-175045, ARN 141744

*I suspect that these were Holden chassis numbers, and that the assembly plant code is missing.

Here's some more chassis numbers and ARNs for some 8446 Rhino/Fox chassis:
28446-M00064 to -77 with ARNs 144722 to 144735. Melbourne assembly.

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

Great research Tony! More data for me to log in.

Cheers!

[phoenix]

Originally posted by David_Hayward
There is an easy way round this! Hint: don't right-click! I just tried my technique and it works.

Won't allow you to save the image, or won't allow you to hotlink it??

Getting around ways to stop you saving images is easy enough, and the hotlinking issue is because of the bandwidth of others using the image on your server takes up.

[Ryan]

Has anyone got pictures of the front end loader conversion done by the Ballarat company? And how many were convertered as such?
ryan

[Plushy]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...1102007016.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...1102007017.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...1102007018.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...1102007019.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...1102007020.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...1102007021.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...1102007022.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...1102007025.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...1102007026.jpg

Does this help Ryan ?

[Ryan]

It does James but it also opens up a new question.
The FEL conversion I came across had the scoop coming off an overhead crane. So which one is the authentic one?
ryan

[Plushy]

Ryan i have seen four different configurations for the FEL conversions and to me it seems like the design was changing as they went or maybethe customers made changes afterwards .