Mountings, Carriers, No. 1

[rob love]

I am pretty sure I have a set of those floating around the shop. I was never sure what they were. Thanks for the photo Bruce.

[David Dunlop]

In the event there are some WIRE-5 wireless table owners out there with rotted table tops, or they are so full of holes they look like swiss cheese, maybe we can get it all sorted out with a group effort.

From what I can see on my 'Bread Board' the two Mountings would have to be spaced about 35 inches apart on their centre lines.

Can you measure the spacing between the four bolt holes on the feet for us? If we can rough out the spacing pattern for the Mounting holes, somebody with an original table could compare/match out measurements to holes on an actual table and confirm their actual location on the table top. With outside dimensions for the table top and Mountings sorted out, it should be easy enough for replacement wood to be cut for any table restorations needed out there. Probably a 1/2' or 3/4' plywood.

The Installation Instructions make no reference at all to hole locations on the table, or any drilling information for that matter. They simply read:

(7) Bolt the Mountings, Carriers No.1 to the Wireless Table, placing Table Mounting Strips on top and underneath the table and using eight 1/4"-20 x 1' long hexagon head bolt, nuts and lock washers.

(8) Lift the whole assembly of Carriers, Sets, No. 23 (this is after the Wireless, PSU and Control Box are installed) by means of the carrying handles and slide into position on the Mountings, Carriers, No.1. Fasten the Carriers, Sets, No. 23 securely by pushing up the spring clips at the front left and right ends of the Carrier.

Seems perhaps the Mountings holes were predrilled in the wireless table by Wilson Truck Bodies, or whoever built the tables. Life was so much easier then.


David

[cletrac (RIP)]

I have a set that are surplus to my needs. Maybe we could work out a trade. I need the shock absorbers though. Did they use two or three on a setup? These came wired together like they were a unit.
The end holes on the metal strips are 11 7/8" center to center. The bolts that go through the table top are 2" long so the table could be 1" thick.

[David Dunlop]

Nice photo Dave. It struck a bell and I went poking in the Working Instructions for the Mk III 19-Set. Sure enough, in the 'group photo' at the back of the manual of all the Wireless Truck kit, there was the set of Mountings and they appear to be fastened together.

Just checked the spacing for the outer two holes on my Carriers, Sets No.21 and they are only 9 or 9.5 inches apart (they are starting to splay out a bit with age and I better address that soon), so for these Mountings, they seem to have spread the distance between the rubber feet to compensate for the wider load with the Carriers, Sets, No. 23 added to the mix.

Could you check one other thing while you have your Mountings handy? The 'standard' feet on my Carriers, Sets No.21 are 7/8" wide. Are the ones on your mountings the same width, or did they beef them up a bit as well to handle the extra load? I think I ran across one lone foot assembly years ago that was much fatter than any of the others I had with my 19-Set gear and I tossed it assuming it was not correct. Now I am curious to see just how dumb I might have been back then.

Cheers,


David

[cletrac (RIP)]

The feet are 7/8" wide.

[David Dunlop]

Thanks David. Guess I didn't throw out anything special after all.

Oh, they only used two of these mountings (a mount, 2 x feet, 2 x straps and four 1/4" hardware sets), one on each end of the Carriers, Sets, No. 23, to install it on the wireless table. Supplies were probably stocked as complete Mounting Kits bundled together, as well as on an individual item basis to be issued as needed.

David

[David Dunlop]

Yes, these are a required part of the kit needed to mount the Carriers, Sets, No. 23 to the wireless table.

As an aside to all, and forgive me if I mentioned this somewhere else on the Forum, in a Galaxy far, far away, but with regards to the little u-shaped rubber/steel foot assemblies used with these Mounts and all the steel Carriers, Sets for the 19-Sets, they need to be bolted down when under load. If they are not, over time, the load bearing down through the centre bolt spreads out towards the two steel foot plates, pulling on the two rubber pads in the middle. The first sign of this taking effect will be that the steel plates of the feet no longer sit flat on a table or bench but start to curl and point upwards. If left unresolved, they will simply tear apart. One way to prevent this is to cut two strips of 1/2" or 3/4" plywood long enough to reach both foot assemblies on one side of your Carriers. Countersink appropriate holes and from the bottom up, bolt the plywood strip to the feet. That will stop any further spread/disintegration of the feet and still allow you to move the set anywhere you want to as needed. The design of these feet in this regard seems to be a bit of a weak point. A better system is the round rubber donut assemblies used in a lot of electronics, where the load transfer is straight down and then out around the circumference of the donut equally.

Anyway. Save your feet. Bolt them down.


David

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

The Installation Instructions make no reference at all to hole locations on the table, or any drilling information for that matter. They simply read:

(7) Bolt the Mountings, Carriers No.1 to the Wireless Table, placing Table Mounting Strips on top and underneath the table and using eight 1/4"-20 x 1' long hexagon head bolt, nuts and lock washers.

(8) Lift the whole assembly of Carriers, Sets, No. 23 (this is after the Wireless, PSU and Control Box are installed) by means of the carrying handles and slide into position on the Mountings, Carriers, No.1. Fasten the Carriers, Sets, No. 23 securely by pushing up the spring clips at the front left and right ends of the Carrier.

Seems perhaps the Mountings holes were predrilled in the wireless table by Wilson Truck Bodies, or whoever built the tables. Life was so much easier then.

David

On that basis, I'd agree that the table tops were pre-drilled as part of the contract for whichever set the truck was intended to have installed. (WS19 or WS52 would have been options, possibly with the WS19 (Canadian) HP (though I don't think that ever went into service: according to Louis Meulstee in WftW Volume 2 the Canadian Army Overseas used the British RF Amplifier No.2 due to problems (weight, power consumption, spurious emissions) with the Canadian WS19HP in user trials).

Later use of the vehicle with other sets would have added extra holes or possibly led to the replacement of the tabletop with a new piece of plywood to give a smooth surface with on awkward holes.

Chris.

[cletrac (RIP)]

Here's a few on ebay.

[Chris Suslowicz]

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Question Mark Over.

[rob love]

Those are the ones made from Plutonium. Surely the regular ones can't be worth that?

[Chris Suslowicz]

"I refer the honourable gentleman to my previous reply."

They are junk - rusty, and missing the shock mountings (disintegrated) and reinforcing strips (presumably still attached to the missing remains of the shock mountings).

P.T.Barnum was right!

Chris.