Shilo's new T-16

[rob love]

I was looking for the additional data on the top front plate....thanks for the guidance Gordon.

Build date, according to the data plate, was July of 44.

Good info on the hitch. Were the hitches factory or post factory? Seems odd they would paint and mark the vehicle, then add the brackets afterwards.

The letter A on the artillery rectangle will need a little more sanding. There were only 3 or so identifiers that would have the A in that position, and there will be another letter before it.

[horsa]

The British did mods after delivery. Probably the same if any vehicles went directly to Canada as opposed to being assigned to Canadian units once in the UK. Speculation was the numbers were painted on at the factory since they were build to contract.

Photo attached has a staging area with T-16s being covered up with tents and the rear row have no tow mechanism. They have "T.D." census numbers which would make them gun tugs. These also don't have the wading squares welded on yet, although very late war vehicles didn't get them at all.

[tankbarrell]

David, why does the TD census prefix make them tugs?

[horsa]

Don't have any of my research documents available as I'm out of town with the day job for the next week. But when I still had my T-16 we'd come across references that the TD census numbers corresponded to tracked prime movers. Mine had the TD markings but we'd restored it to be a 4.2-inch mortar carrier.

Link below is from my restoration thread on MLU showing the project as we got it and the progression. We sold it years later and its in a private museum in California.

http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/showthread.php?t=9136

[George McKenzie]

My friend came by yesterday with a T16 Very little rust but not much left above the fenders. Interesting thing is that it has four leavers to steer it He lives in Vancouver and will be on this site soon .

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by George McKenzie

Interesting thing is that it has four leavers to steer it

That'd because the T16 uses a controlled differential steering system, discarding the track warping system devised by Vickers-Armstrong.

Inner two levers are for controlling the differential and used for normal steering. Left and right outside levers work on the drum brakes and are only used for tight and slow turns.

T16-ford-carrier.jpg

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

Left and right outside levers work on the drum brakes and are only used for tight and slow turns.

You can see a tight turn executed with the brake levers here: https://youtu.be/NutxkByK8RI