Don Pelvin’s collection of military vehicles, New Zealand

[Andrew Rowe]

The NZ Wheeled Carrier was based on imported Ford rear engine chassis from Canada in 1942 /3 . There were evidently 99 chassis imported into NZ( C291QRF ) or could be C191QRF ? and 76 were fully built up with this armored body , completed by Feb 1944 , which was based on the "Indian Patterned " armored car. The NZ version was all welded powered by the Flathead V8. After the war about 45 were converted to fire engine for our State Forests in NZ . The bodies were taken off and railed down to a local river bank and dug in to stop erosion. I recovered a full body back in 2000 from a big flood that exposed one of these. The model of chassis used was on 10.50 x 20 tires and you sat at the front between the chassis rails to steer it. weight was around the 3 ton I think from memory , but quite agile , had the widest (7' 6" )width axle setups in the CMP range of vehicles , height is 6' 6" , length is 15' 6" . I have had about 12 chassis over the years for this vehicle. The top shaft in the transfer case was "opposite" handed to the normal CMP transfer case , being that the engine was in the rear of the chassis . The one in this article was ex-fire engine chassis married to an original body from another location. This body came into being because the original owner took if from a complete vehicle and made a camper out of the chassis and put it on a ship and toured the UK with it, back in the 60's and early 70's , and left the Camper in the Uk when he returned to NZ . The original owner of the body told me this story in the early 90's , and has since passed. He also had a Loyd Starter charger Carrier and Daimler MK 2 armoured car parked in this paddock next to the NZ Carrier body . 7 vehicles were sent to Guadalcanal in 1943 , one for each of our Artillery units stationed there. 9 were sent and used in Korea in late 1950 , to early 1951 , also for Field observation for Artillery. Withdrawn from service in 1957. There are 3 restored Wheeled Carriers in NZ , ( National Army Museum has 1 )with 3-4 "Under " restoration to varying degrees , Cheers Andrew.