Ex RAAF? 1960 International "Airconditioning" Truck

[Jared Archibald]

G'day everyone,

over the Christmas break I was given the vague directions to a "ex-army Ford Compressor Truck" that was on a block somewhere inland of my place.

I was able to track it down, and after negotiating my way past an over-friendly calf called 'T-Bone', I was able to check out this mechanical beast and get some pics.

It turned out to be a 1960 International Harvester truck fitted with an original V8 engine and 3 speed gearbox. It was painted khaki, and most suprisingly it was Left Hand Drive - I have never seen one of these trucks that wasn't RHD before (see pics)

The body is a rounded box made of square steel tubing and skinned with sheet metal. It appeared to be very well made. All over the body were black stencils - some were warnings - in three places "Warning-Rotating Condensor Blade" with an arrow pointing to the roof, and others described contents of lockers - "Blower Drive Belts", "Ducting Outlet Cool Air", and "Access Filter". There is now no machinery inside the body.

On the dash was a schematic of how to operate the airconditioning - only in top gear (see pic). Also there was a small tag that stated it was "Serviced By 2SD GEMS" with a job number and date. I have checked this out and 2SD GEMS stands for 2 Stores Depot - General Engineering Maitenance Squadron: this was a RAAF depot (now defunct) situated in Villawood in Sydney, NSW (about 4500kms from its resting place). This is the only reason I think it is ex-RAAF, rather than ex-army. Until I deciphered this label I thought it might have come from the U.S. run Pine Gap facility near Alice Springs, but I don't think so now (we have a lot of LHD cars in the NT that have originated from this base).

Well, that is about all I can tell you. What can you tell me?
I am guessing that it was some sort of mobile airconditioning plant for non-running aircraft on hardstands, or for mobile offices??

Please tell me more about this truck.

Jared