ID this Trailer Chaps

[Ganmain Tony]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

The only complete ones I have seen photos of I found by searching radar on this forum,but your photos have answered quite a few questions about my trailer plus brought up a few more.All the photos show the trailers with single wheels on the front but mine and "yours" both have duals,mine did use to carry a Cat D6 around though and I know that the previous owner fitted the extra wheels at the Gold Coast before they brought it home in the late 1950,s.
When I got mine the previous owners had all the radar shelter turntable , tool boxes and stabilisers that they proudly gave me. I am missing the adjustable feet which I see that "yours" has.I would like to know how the single wheels were fitted to the dual wheel hubs,does any one have a parts book for one of these trailers?
Cheers Ken

I must admit Ken, the duals made me suspect it wasnt an authentic beasty, because I assumed that all WW2 trailers had singles. Whats the old saying? never assume because it makes etc etc...

Cant help with the parts book but would love to see some photo's of the original trailers during their time in service.

Sounds like you better come and grab it Ken. The lurkers on this forum have now seen it so be quick...

Keefy...I like the way youre thinking.

[Rob Endersbee]

One of my mates has two of these parked in his yard, thought they were Radar, now we know for sure!!. Both of them have singles on the front and duals on the rear. No legs though, or data plates. I wonder what happened to the "House" off all of these??. Perhaps turned into a store room on a farm.

Look forward to some photo's, then we can clean up one of them and get it on display in the Museum.

[Grant Bowker]

Nov 24, 2010 we had three threads active on radar trailers. I found one link but the other links within that one didn't go anywhere for me this morning.

[alamotex]

Originally Posted by Rob Endersbee

One of my mates has two of these parked in his yard, thought they were Radar, now we know for sure!!. Both of them have singles on the front and duals on the rear. No legs though, or data plates. I wonder what happened to the "House" off all of these??. Perhaps turned into a store room on a farm.

Look forward to some photo's, then we can clean up one of them and get it on display in the Museum.

Rob You are right in suggesting that the "house" off all these trailers ended up as store rooms on a farm. That was the fate of several that were sold by a scrap yard in Quebec, back in the 50's or 60's. The interior electronics were stripped well before they reached the scrap yard. You are probably familiar with the Australian War Memorial photo collection items ID 067915 and 067916 which show trucks and trailers lined up at the 5th Base Ordnance Depot. Moorebank, NSW. Photos of the GL III (c ) deployed in a military role are very rare. Joe Costello who runs the rcsigs militaria website, found a set at the Library and Archives, Ottawa catalogued under RADIOLOCATION . see www.rcsigs.ca/ViewItem/1116 and as thumbnails below.

Cheers Brian

[Robin Craig]

The last picture in the last post by "alamotex" has me thinking.

I know I have seen that trailer around here, somewhere, in the last 2 years but cant figure out where, now I'm kicking myself.

I am, by my own admission, not a WW2 buff but do recognise odd things.

Now I will have to fire up the Mk1 brain memory and think if I can track where I was.

R

[alamotex]

Robin I note your address as Kingston, ON ? Would be most interested if your recollection of seeing a ZPI trailer, turns out to be close to home. The folks at the C and E Museum have never mentioned it. In my post #23 I incorrectly refer to the Australian War Museum..that should be the Australian War Memorial.

Cheers Brian

[Robin Craig]

I have had the benefit of a small nap since my last post.

I am now absatively posalutely sure I have seen one of these.

It is being used somewhere to house a generator. I'm fairly sure it was in a quarry and had to be mobile, and give weather cover, which it does.

I think I saw it in the last 2 years.

It may take me while to figure it out but leave that to me now, but don't hold your breath as it wont be that soon!

R

[Mike Cecil]

Wow! This HAS been a fascinating series of posts! And who would have thought that our - sorry, that should probably be 'their' -own Sir Tony of Ganmain would be the initiator? I say, well done, Sir Tony!

Now for my 'tuppence-h'penny worth', to coin a pre-decimal phrase. All the Canadian Radar trailers sent to Oz that I have found record of, and the prime movers and support vehicles, fall within the ARN range 145959 to 146058, and 147737 to 147761. (There are none in the range 123801 to 123960: these are mostly CDN Lynx Scout cars). I have not counted them as yet, but will do so once the update is done (see below).

When I originally extracted the info, it didn't mean a lot other than to be 'unusual' and include some Chev CMPs which were my prime interest in that datablock. The radar sets were a pain to 'decipher' as they were described and registered simply as 'Trailer, Radar A' and 'Trailer, Radar B', so I didn't really have a clue what they were. But now, thanks to this post, I can put the 'A' and 'B' against the actual type. As the manufacturer was also recorded at the time, it nails each one down nicely: I think an update to the database is now needed, which will give me a total of each item.

Excellent work, gents, and I have to agree: the knowledge base on this forum is outstanding!

Mike C