Carn't stop myself.

[hrpearce]

Against Howard's advice I raised my hand a couple of times and ended up with this;

[Matthew P]

That looks like a whole lot of truck. I'm figuring you didn't tow it home on a car dolly behind the old pickup/ute

Matt

[hrpearce]

The tyres are too worn to drive it home on a permit so it will be picked up by a tilt tray.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Oh my, that looks like a capable truck. "ACCO, son of Blitz!"

H.

[Howard]

Originally Posted by hrpearce

Against Howard's advice I raised my hand a couple of times and ended up with this;

That's a whole lot of truck for the money.
Interestingly, a mate of mine asked me to bid on this beasty.
His maximum bid was the opening bid... so I didn't get to wave my hand at all!
Well bought, Robert!

[hrpearce]

Markings on the ACCO.

[hrpearce]

Tray needs a bit of work. Two cross members have been cut to fit the tank.
A six cylinder diaphragm pump is fitted where the winch should be.

[Beau Bruce]

If you don’t already know mate, if you remove the pump and tank from the truck to return it to original, don’t throw the pump to the scrap. It is a Hardi spray unit pump (363 guessing looking at it in the one photo) and they are worth a pretty decent amount even in second hand condition. A new one off of memory from my work is a couple grand.! Might make up for some of the repair cost to the truck.

[Mike Cecil]

510 unit sign was 26 Transport Squadron, serving as part of Field Force Command late 70s/early 80s.

The 6841 is the Unit Serial Code for that unit. The painted 'tree' under it represents the colour code for each numeral:
6 =Buff
8 = brunswick green
4 =grass green
1 = signal red

The 'roo and ARMY were supposed to be painted in orange.

Only units that were intended for operational deployment were supposed to carry the Unit Recognition Mark, as detailed in the Quadripartite Standardization Agreement 1079 - Common Vehicle Marking and Identification.

The 12 is the bridge sign.

Nice truck.

Mike

[Ryan]

That's quite a step up from your shorty.

[Mike Cecil]

Robert,

Do you know the chassis number? You can then set to work looking for the ARN in AWM126 (if you don't already know the ARN, of course).

Mike

[Philliphastings]

A nice score there Robert,

My old unit and there is a slight chance I may have driven it once while I was at 26, although we were down to only 2 or 3 Inters by the time I was posted in (1985)

I’m currently restoring a Mk3 4x4 model which went to South Vietnam with 1 Transport.

Also bought from a farm sale it is a real delight and a lot of truck for the money.

Good luck with your new purchase !

Cheers

Phill

[hrpearce]

I haven't been ignoring your comments, just had a short break on the cost. I took some more pictures today.
I have to solve an air problem and replace split radiator hoses before I get stuck in.

[Grant Bowker]

A couple of questions:
Looking at the plate for transfer case operation, it shows two positions for high ratio 6 wheel drive and none for low ratio 6 wheel drive. Is this correct? It's hard to believe they would make the truck this way and hard to believe that they would leave the plate incorrect throughout its life... It's also interesting that this plate is the only one with mismatched screw heads (1 Phillips, 3 slot).
It looks like it is fitted with cruise control. Is this standard?

[Mike Cecil]

Hi Robert,

From the plate images, the chassis number is 3795 and the date of manufacture/completion was August 1973 (8-73) under contract V119238.

I thought there was a post by Tony Smith providing details of the ARN as 25-241 (I recd an email notification) but it seems to have been deleted. I checked the REMLR site listing and that chassis number is indeed listed as 25-241, with delivery in 1974.

Of course, that ARN number is post-1972 and therefore too late to be listed in AWM126, and a quick check of chassis numbers of F1 trucks listed in AWM126 confirms that, the highest F1 chassis being about 3672.

Yours appears to be one of the last batch of F1s which consisted of 267 vehicles with ARNs from 25056 to 25322, with delivery to 1COD Bandiana commencing on 24 May 1972, and concluding sometime in 1974. The contract number for the 267 vehicles was C551002, rather than the original contract number for F1 trucks of V119238 as shown on the plate (the V system had been superseded by that time by the 'C' and 'M' prefixed demands M for maintenance ie purchase of spare parts etc, and C for capital equipment).

Mike

[hrpearce]

Thank you Mike, I printed the email notification of Tony's and that lead me to the original engine number giving me something else to find on the truck.
Can you answer Grant's question as I have limited opportunity for test driving in the hills with no brakes.

[Mike Cecil]

Cruise control: not heard of that being fitted in service.
Plate: would have to look at others to compare. Seems odd, as Grant has observed.

Anyone got an orig plate they can put an image up?

Mike

[hrpearce]

Forgot to mention the cruise control was added when the truck had a boom spray fitted for spraying crops.

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

Plate: Seems odd, as Grant has observed.

Anyone got an orig plate they can put an image up?

Mike

Very strange. Other 6x6 plates definitely show "Low ratio six wheel drive (lift trigger)", not "Pull trigger".

Also strange, I don't know where my other post went.

[hrpearce]

So is mine worth more because of the mistakes, like rare coins?

[Tony Smith]

Well, there's your name for the truck, the "Double headed Penny', or "2 Betty 2 Bob".

Or maybe your truck doesn't have low range 6wd and is worthless (or worth less).

[Philliphastings]

I forgot to mention the door stencil/callsign (whisky one, one)indicates your truck was attached to 26 Tpt Sqn Workshops whose unofficial motto was ‘The Camel Bricker’

I still have the same christmas tree deployment symbol stencilled on my trunk and field pack in the garage...

Cheers

Phill

[Mike Cecil]

A 'rare' repro plate done by someone who didn't do their proof reading??

As Grant has observed, it is attached with screws (rather than the original rivets.)

Phil, so this was a 'spanner truck': nice to know, thanks. Unit sign would be the 510 over the RAEME background colours when carried in full colour, rather than the muted field markings.

Mike

[hrpearce]

Thank you for all the information it makes the truck more interesting.
All the plates are screwed on it is just that one has mixed screws. If you open the photos in another window and zoom to 250% there is over spray on the top edges indicating the plates have been there quite a while.

[hrpearce]

Using Tony's information I ordered these plates and they arrived today.

[Tony Smith]

Awesome!

[Mike Cecil]

Nice!

Mike

[hrpearce]

Totally destroyed in bush fire.

[motto]

BUMMER!!!!

David

[Robin Craig]

One of my favourite Australian military vehicles, looks all business and no fluff fluff.

Lovely machine. I tend to agree with the previous poster that the pump is worth a bit of money, more than you might imagine, I have the sister pump on my sprayer. on the farm.

Looking forward to watching this