Is This One Of A Kind or Production

[Little Jo]

Hi Keith Phil and Hanno

That is correct. Keith took the video after the big wet in Corowa. The USA MUT belongs to, Aaron Fell, President of the WVCG, (Wartime Vehicles Conservation Group) South Australia. The MUT is genuine and is not one of those cut in half and re-joined again vehicles. Those of you who attended Corowa the previous year will recall Aaron hit a big Kangaroo in the dark in the early hours of the morning on his way to Corowa. Causing some damage to the MUT.

Cheers

Tony

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Guys

Thanks for the information so far, but what is the story on the Right Hand Drive. Was this a one-off conversion or one of a number.

The Corowa info will be of interest to my friend the M151 aficionado he has probably welded back together more M151s than anybody else. Watching him gas weld and X cut body back together is a hoot. He uses coat hangers as welding rod. Apparently coat hangers are a really good match for the M151 steel. When he is done you have trouble knowing where they were cut. That level of reconstruction was probably the reason they changed over to crushing.

His current M151 is the re-coilless rifle version.

Look forward to more comments.


Cheers Phil

[Little Jo]

Hi Phil

I can confirm the MUT in Keith's video was converted to Right Hand Drive from the original Left Hand Drive. No USA made MUT's were ever used by the Australian Defence Forces. As far as I know they were only ever made as Left Hand Drive vehicle .One USA MUT was sent to Australia for evaluating and testing, this vehicle is believed to be still in Australia and in private hands, however Mike Cecil may be able to assist there.

Cheers

Tony

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Little Jo

As far as I know they were only ever made as Left Hand Drive vehicle

Correct, like I said they never left the factory with RHD.

See my old web site on the Mutt: http://www.geocities.ws/fordm151/

H.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Little Jo

No USA made MUT's were ever used by the Australian Defence Forces.

They were not officially in service, but they were used - see M151A1 "jeep" in RAAF service?

H.

[Little Jo]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

They were not officially in service, but they were used - see M151A1 "jeep" in RAAF service?

H.

Hi Hanno

Knowing first hand how good Aussie forces were at wheeling and dealing, they probably swapped a few cartons of beer for a M151A. Just like their forefathers did to the Yanks in Australia in WW2, watered down whisky for a inflated price.

Cheers

Tony

[motto]

The state of Victoria ceased registering L/H drive vehicles in 1948 except for special purpose vehicles such as mobile cranes and water tankers. I suspect other states did likewise at around the same time. The reason given was that LHD vehicles were supposedly disproportionately represented in road accident statistics.

The result of the ban on registration of LHD vehicles in Victoria was that the vast majority of US sourced WW2 vehicles released to the public were converted to RHD along with most of the M series trucks. John Belfield had a steady flow of work from one of the bigger surplus dealers at one time carrying out RHD conversions on the M series. Johns work was excellent but the variation in the quality of the conversions was enormous as many of them were done in home workshops using whatever came to hand. This particularly applied to '42 Jeeps. Few of them steered anything like the original.

The LHD situation was eased in Victoria only a few years ago with the advent of the Club Permit scheme which allows road use of a vehicle over twenty five years old for either 45 or 90 days for $70 or $140 accordingly. LHD is quite acceptable for permit vehicles.

What the current situation is in South Australia I don't know but the RHD conversion of the M151 would have been necessary to get the vehicle road registered at the time.

David

[rob love]

There were attempts to prohibit the right hand drives from the roads here in Canada in the last few years. Same reasoning given.....possibility of accidents. In the end it turned out to be mostly started by the auto dealers who did not like the relatively inexpensive and low mileage imports stealing business away from them.

[Little Jo]

Originally Posted by motto

What the current situation is in South Australia I don't know but the RHD conversion of the M151 would have been necessary to get the vehicle road registered at the time.

David

Hi David

LHD Vehicles on club registration are legal in South Australia and they do not need to be converted to RHD. When I had my 1942 MB Willys Jeep on club rego I had to have my LHD Jeep checked by the Transport Department who issued an exemption to drive a LHD vehicle on the road, the exemption carried photographs of the Jeep and the document had to be kept in the vehicle at all times.

Cheers

Tony