Clarktor Aircraft Tugs in Britain and Australia

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Jared Archibald

Any information on ... Clark tugs

Jared,

Quite an exciting find. Could you please post a picture of your "British Heavy"?

Below follows a Life Magazine Side view of Air Corps tractor for pulling planes out to field (Location: US, date taken: 1941).

Regards,
Hanno

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

A very good pal works for Clark and I have dialogued with him and a colleague of his about the wartime products. There are photos of a Ross Carrier tug, as well as a Clark Carloader Forlkift and a four-wheeled Clark Clarkat Aircraft Tug for use on Aircraft Carriers produced by the Clark Equipment Company, Clark Tructractor Division, of Buchanan, Michigan and acquired by the Ministry of Supply in our new book. Pearsons of Liverpool handled them and prepared them for the Ministry. I can imagine that the Clark tug could have been ordered by the M of War Transport, but through the MofS.

The guy I contacted was Joe Swelnis.

Brian at the REME Museumm commented a while back:

You have come up with a poser there because, when the Record Cards were distributed from Chilwell originally, they covered A, B and C vehicles whereas forklifts and things of that ilk were for the most part in a different category. Certainly after the War they were listed as Mechanical Handling Equipment (MHE) and only later some which might be driven on public roads were given standard Army type registrations. As far as I know they remained in the MHE category though rough terrain cranes and forklifts may have been categorised as C Vehicles. I am not sure if this MHE category was in use during the War.

The best bet is to try both the RE Museum which has the C Vehicle cards and the RLC Museum just in case something is tangled up with the B Vehcle cards. If there were equivalent cards for MHE I have never heard what happened to them.

Although it may not affect what you are doing, I know some of this equipment was shipped to the Middle East, probably direct from the USA, because cranes were stripped from a batch of Hysters and fitted to AEC Matadors to convert them to recovery vehicles. What became of the industrial crane chassis I know not but they would have made viable industrial tractors to pull trailers around a depot or base workshop. I know that batches of WD numbers were allocated to overseas Theatres for them to use on vehicles acquired locally or direct from the USA or Canada but I do not know how they numbered MHE received direct.

On another tack I have in my collection a US Army QM Corps catalogue of industrial cranes and forklifts etc similar to the Ord Corps TM 9-2800 for A and B vehicles. It might prove useful if you have any pictures of industrial equipment still unidentified.

If that is the case, I can further imagine that Clark tugs were sent to the Mid-East and then issued to the RAAF....and then sold. In due course they were shipped to Australasia.

[Snowy]

IIRC one MJCQ member has a Clarktor he is restoring here in Brisbane.

Steve.

[Ed Storey]

Is this a Clarktor Aircraft Tug? Interesting 'bomb load', this image came from "Manufacture of Clothing 1945-53" QMC Historical Studies Series II No. 1.

[Jared Archibald]

G'day again everyone,

I will now attempt to load up a couple of images of my Clarktor tug.

The first is of it on the car trailer on the way home.

The second is showing what it does best - dragging things around.

The third is a pdf of the build card. This includes details of 5 machines - the one I have is BH-184.

Hanno, the Life Magazine picture is of the same type of tug - the rear hub on mine is a different design but the rest of it is very similar.

Ed, the tug in your pic is one of the light duty types - it only has single rear wheels as you can see the lugs at the edge of the rim. A beaut pic.

David, I believe the moderator of the Clark tug group on Yahoo is the same Joe that you have corresponded with. I will continue my dialogue with him.

Snowy, I have recently made contact with a bloke in SE Queensland who is restoring a Clark. His name is Peter.

Thanks to everyone who has responded to this thread - please keep them coming.

Jared

[marco]

Hello Jared,

Attached photo is from the Clarktor-6 which resides here in the shed.
The serialnumber is CM-33-441807 and this number can be found on the chassis rails near the rear axle and also on the rear beam behind the rear wheels.

This example was pulled out from a 30-ft high pile of scrap which had to be cleared after having been there since the early 50's.
In the meantime the restauration has been finished.
Although this example is a light-duty version it pulls my Staghound through the grassfield with ease....

According to the manuals (War Department TM10-1637 and the Clarktor published "Clarktor-6 Service Manual") there are 3 models, the "light duty" , the heavy duty "Mill 44" and the heavy duty "Mill 50".
Engines used are Chrysler T105, T125, T112 or T116 models.


With best regards,

Marco Hogenkamp
Lichtenvoorde
The Netherlands

[gordon]

Gave it to Simon Bormley in Blackburn.

The engine was a 1941-45 T214 Dodge unit, three speed box ( I think standard Dodge) and Clarks made the reduction drive rear axle. Easy to identify the heavy version as the cast iron rear wings / fenders are 4" thick.

Clarks made loads of other stuff in the way of axles and transmission parts for GMC DUKW I remember.

Gordon