Australian M816 wrecker build.

[john piercey]

Hi Howard,love your way of thinking,will be good to see pics of it at shows etc you will definately get some curious looks etc.
Are you actually going the whole hog and converting it to RHD or just going with the stickers,and if you are converting will it be legal for the road there?,i couldnt see Aussie state road authorities letting anything on the road here unless it was imported and came that way from its country of origin .
W.A. and the N.T. let LHD cars on the road pre 1988 but anything after that date has to be converted to RHD,other states have different rules(i think)but i dont think anyone has actually tried to convert something RHD to LHD and still stay registered in Aus on the road (unreg or off road they dont care).
American DOT may have a more liberal approach than our guys,im not saying it cant be done but i reckon the hoops they would make you jump through would be enough to make MOST people shy away,if it was possible you would probably have to run on a special permit-limit hours etc etc.
My son has a 1942 Diamond t 980 and a Diamond Reo M35 here both rough conversions to RHD we will probably convert at least the Diamond T back to orig LHD configuration.I have a Humber fv1601 and a Inter Acco 6x6 f1 GS
Again Howard i am just fascinated by what you are doing and would like to see how it all turns out,a U.S. truck converted to RHD Aussie spec piloted by a pom in The U.S.of A---Lucy you got some splaining to do---.'
cheers and best of luck John

[Howard Smith]

John - I am going as "whole hog" as I can... BUT that doesn't include switching to RHD! The purchases of M816's in '71 and '73 were factory LHD - and hence the "Caution Left Hand Drive" stenciling on the rear.
There are other Aussie LHD's - mostly WWII yank stuff.
Here in the States RHD isn't a problem - both my Land Rovers were imported without issue and have never had any problems driving them either.

I can convert the gauges to metric but that question hasn't come up yet in my research - I think Australia went metric from the early '70's to late '80's but as far as military purchases from overseas - not sure.


Pick attached is of "Shakey" at the Puckapunyal Tank Museum. The other wrecker is a M543, Vietnam era, also LHD.
Seen in this pic is the subframe (4"tube) above the drag winch rollers - an inservice mod, when the Mack troop carriers entered service, to switch over to Holmes tow gear from tow bar (Hollebone) and Whiffletree.