Aust. One Ton trailer info. required

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

Have dragged my One ton trailer out of the shed in readiness for Corowa.
(Hmmm, just had a look and trailed equipment is 18 months away, thats forward planning.)
Anyway, now I have started on it, I would be interested on any information on the markings as this is not my field of expertise at all.
What I do know:
Corio Air Engineers pty ltd
(Geelong of course)
Built 16/11/1959
Mk 1
Chassis 1356
Contract C104053

Pic 1 It's bigger and heavier than I remember
Pic 2 Tailgate art, "QA" ?, 50 ?
Pic 3 ????????
Pic 4 Christmas Tree? Do remeber these being referred to years ago on a post, but could not find it.
Pic 5 One of these each side U/L CofG "City of Geelong"??

More to come
Rich.

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

Cont'd
Pic 6 Bridge Plate. I assume this is three Ton loaded? If so why is it a one to trailer? Do we still use these, if not when were they phased out (Decade would be close enough)
Pic 7 Well I guess we know who bought it at auction as well
pic 8 I assume these are also auction details, Lot No. etc

What I need as well is:
An unladen weight so I can register it, surprised this was not on the plates.
There is no provision for a brake lock while reversing, was there? (Over ride brakes work real well, bugger when reversing though)

Vic roads tell me that there is no provision for Club Rego for trailers, and that saftey chains must be fitted. Anyone tell me different?

Any information would be appreciated.
Rich.

[Keith Webb]

Euan can probably tell you about this - he has one the same.

[Keith Webb]

Unloaded centre of gravity.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Richard Coutts-Smith

Pic 6 Bridge Plate. I assume this is three Ton loaded? If so why is it a one to trailer? Do we still use these, if not when were they phased out (Decade would be close enough)

Rich,

The bridge plate does not denote the weight of the vehicle, it denotes the lowest bridge class the vehicle can pass.

Hanno

[Richard Farrant]

Hi Richard,

That trailer is almost a direct copy of the British FV2401(A) 1 ton cargo. The main visual difference is mudguards and wheels. Weight laden for our version was 1.78 tonne, which would be 1,780kgs.

regards, Richard

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

Centre of Gravity, I was so close with City of Geelong.... Thanks Keith, explains why there is one of these on each side, near the axle.
Thanks Hanno, bridging signs are just one of those things I never took much attention of, this is the first time I have had a "vehicle" with one, so now I have to play catchup.
Of course Richard, forgot the link to the English trailer, even though I have told people about the mudgaurds in the past. It is in my "54 Chertsey catalogue, and does have the weights.
Plenty more boxes to be ticked off if anyone else wants to have a go.
Rich.

[Mike Cecil]

Richard,

Corio Air Engineers = manufacturer. Not sure about the number they built under contract, as it appears they may have commenced chassis numbers at 1,000. Seems to be about 500 trailers, which would be about right for the Aust army requirements at the time.

U/L C of G: Unladen Centre of Gravity, which is about the same as Keefy said. In other words, the plate marks the CofG point when the trailer is unladen.

5434 and the 'pyramid' above the 'roo: Embarcation code for the Unit, in both numerals (5434) and colour bars, above the Australian National Symbol. No, it does not mean the unit/trailer went overseas.

100849: the Australian Army registration number. This would have been carried on an AMF number plate affixed to the rear/number plate bracket. Black plate, white numbers, letters 'AMF' above in the centre.

3 in yellow: Bridging Plate. The Bridge to be passed over must have that number or higher before the trailer can be taken over that bridge. '3' denotes that the GROSS (fully laden) WEIGHT may be up to 3 tonnes, but that does not mean that the gross laden weight of this trailer is 3 tonnes, just that it doesn't exceed that weight. Gross weight for this trailer would be 1650 pounds plus 2,240 pounds = 3890 pounds = 1.763 tons

50 = Tactical sign of the 1970/80s of 16 Air Defence Regiment, based at Woodside South Australia. They were armed with RBS70 VLLADS and Rapier missile systems at that stage. Also carried by 16 AD Regt Workshop RAEME, so could be configured as serving with either.

Pic 3: a sub-unit sign. Only a former member of 16 AD can tell you what it might be! Whatever 'it' is might be cradling/holding a spanner (ie workshop) or a missile (ie the Regt itself): who knows!

C104356: Commonwealth Contract Demand/Contract number against the manufacturer for the supply of the trailers.

Chassis 1356: manufacturers number. In this case, it corresponds to ARN 100849.

Unladen weight: According to the listed data, 1650 pounds (in unmodified form. A proportion of these trailers were modified with wider wheel rims and mudguards which may alter the weight slightly upwards).

Nomenclature: 'Trailer, 1 ton, Cargo, (Aust) No.1 Mk.1' but changed in late 1959 to:

'Trailer, Cargo, 1 Ton, Aust. No.1 Mk.1'

Acquisition: 1959-1960

Disposals: Mostly 1970s and 1980s.

Regards

Mike C

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

Thanks Mike, think you have ticked most of the box's for me. Very happy to have the ARN
I appreciate that enormously.
Somewher along the line I will have to do a repaint, how much of the artwork I will carry over remains to be seen. I can see some of the original dark green underneath, and I favour this (as a match with the Humber), which predates some of the markings.
Regards
Rich.

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

I like the Bilby idea, other than that I guess we can narrow it down to an animal with big ears, two feet and a tail. I must admit that this figure has really bugged me for the last 3 years, it had some longevity as it appears to have been painted on twice.
Rich.

[Mike Cecil]

Bilby sounds good, and the weapon is most likely an RBS70 VLLADS missile pod: it has the right look, and is with the right Regiment (16AD).

Mike C

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

Thanks Diana, I think REMLR has come up with the goods on this one, A loaded Bilby it is.

Mike, Never heard of a RBS70 VLLADS missile pod, had a look on the web, if this is what you mean:
http://future-weapons.org/rbs70_air_defense.php
it strikes m that this would be a well armed marsupial indeed.
Case closed
Rich.

[Mike Cecil]

Richard,

RBS70
V ery
L ow
L evel
A ir
D efence
S ystem

The acronym VLLADS is, I think, unique to Australia (like SRAAW for the M72 LAWS rocket and and MRAAW for the Carl Gustav)

The image on the weblink you gave shows the missile pod sitting on top of the launcher cradle/aiming device/tripod. It's the tubular 'bit' at the top. Note the thicker ring around the end, and its the same at the other end, just like in the drawing of your 'loaded Bilby'. The missile pod is removable/replaceable on the launcher. Each time you fire it, you take off the empty tube, and clip on a new one.

I'd say with little doubt that that's what the drawing on your trailer is supposed to represent. Yep, a well armed little sucker: ask any RAAFie silly enough to fly 'nap of the earth' within range!

Regards

Mike C

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

Hi all - the animal is a Platypus which is the unit animal for South Australia. Each state had their own animal and bilbys did not feature.

Bob

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

The Platypus.

Bob

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

Hi again - to me it looks like some sort of shaft or pin. It has a five sided bolt head with corresponding facets running along its length but starting under the bolt head. It doesn't look like any weapon to me.

Bob

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

Awful big ears Bob, and a thinner tail?
Rich.

[Mike Cecil]

Bob,

Have to agree with Richard and Dianna on this one, Bob. It's like no Platypus I've ever seen. But just as a test, I showed the image to my wildlife-artist wife, and asked 'what Australian animal do you think that might be?' and her immediate reaction was 'Bilby: only long-eared, long tailed Aussie animal it could be'.

As for the 'bolt', well, the trailer belonged to the Q-Troop (supply troop) of 16 Air Defence Regiment, who exercised regularly at Woomera and Cultana, so an RBS70 missile pod slung over the shoulder of whatever animal it is is appropriate, and the Bilby idea fits with their likely encounters with Bilby's in their training areas.

'Each State had their own animal and Bilbys did not feature'? I agree that the Bilby did not feature, but can't agree that the official Divisional Formation signs from WW2 bear any relationship to 'states' or are 'state based'.

Besides, as Dianna said, this is post war. We see a plethora of different emblems adopted by units: the pig for 5RAR, the Black Leopard for 1st Armd Regt (now a lion), the eagle by 2Cav, Scorpion by 3Cav (carried through to 3/4Cav) and the strutting rooster for 21 Construction Sqn, to name just a few (others).

Mike C

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

Spent some time on the AWM site last night, looking for period pics of one ton trailers, found only 1 (Vietnam), did find 2 of the RBS70 and crew on ship. I never seem to have much luck with searching this database, no matter how general I make the terms. (Bit like the 4 photos of Australian Army Humber One Tons, that are British Austins).
Surely the archive is more extensive than it seems?
Rich.

[Mike Cecil]

Nope, not really.

What ya see is mostly what they got....

Mike C

[Mike Cecil]

Richard,

If you identify a mistake in a caption, send the details to the Photo Film and sound section general email address (available on the website) for the duty curator to investigate and, if verified, correct. Your email must include the image number, existing caption or part, and your suggested correction.

Regards

Mike C

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

Mike,
that e-mail address is there, but it took some finding (photographs@awm.gov.au).
Pics in question are shown on this post;
http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ghlight=Humber

Correction advice has been sent.
For the record there are 800 000 photos in the collection, just not the ones I want!
Rich.

[Mike Cecil]

Richard,

Yes, that's always the way: never the images you need/want. When I was writing Mud and Dust it became apparent that there were some glaring deficiencies with the Vietnam coverage, so I went searching and found vets with several images to fill in the holes. Fortunately, they were willing to provide them for the AWMs use in the book, otherwise I'd have been a bit light on in such areas as semitrailers and tank transporters. Just shows that 800,000 images don't cover every aspect of the subject.

Mike C

[Darrin Wright]

Hi all,
I sent a link to this thread to a friend of mine posted to 16 AD for his input, this is his info (cut & paste):

Tail gate art "White rat with the red Eye shoulder launched missile behind" indicates that the trailer was used by the 111th Light Air Defence Bty, 16th Air Defence Regiment;

Christmas tree:- the colours correspond to the numbers (grey is 5, Green is 4, and yellow 3) and the numbers above are the same, this again points to 16 AD Regt, (Numbers are the Unit Designator code - UDC and indicate owner unit)

50 on tac plate again points to 16 AD Regt, kangaroo with crossed rifles and figure 1 indicates the owner higher Command :- First Division of Aust Army.

U/L CoG indicates unloaded centre of Gravity,

As for the QA the exact meaning is lost in history, but this kind of marking would be used to indicate the owner section within 111 Bty, in the same way call sign 21 indicates B Sqn , Alpha Troop. if I was to guess I would say that this was alpha troops, Quartermasters trailer.

Regards

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

Darrin, thanks for doing that. I now have more history on this trailer than all my other vehicles combined, and then some.
Rich.

[Mike Cecil]

Thanks, Darrin,

Never thought of the Redeye! That certainly dates the trailer: Redeye was in service for a relatively short time, and has been out of service for many years.

QA: the Artillery sub-unit marking info states the 'Q' prefix is for Quartermaster (ie supply) sub-units, with the following letter/numeral being the designator for this vehicle, so pretty much what you said.

Mike C

[easo]

Bridge class is also use for temporary bridging (not sure about MGB or bailey) to record daily tonnage for servicing, for example on the Leopard AVLB it had a total usable tonnage of 2000tons at up to 50ton at a time (from memory) so the AVLB crew could add up the bridge classes of the vehicles crossing. Once the usable tonnage was reached the bridge could be serviced, inspected or replaced. We would start at 2000 and count down.

Regards Easo

[Ian Pullen]

The trailer is indeed from 111 Bty 16 AD Regt based at Woodside in SA. The trailer was used by the Missile Resupply Sergeant (M.R.S.) from Alpha (A) Troop as part of the Battery Quartermaster (BQMS).
He was basically the guy that drove around the countryside resupplying the missile dets with stores, fuel rations & of course missiles.
It was towed behind a Mog

[Lynn Eades]

In my ignorance,(dont go there Bob) I'd never heard of one before this thread, so found a picture. This is the Greater Bilby (the lesser is extinct) They are about rabbit sized and highly endangered.

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

Thanks to all concerned with finalising the service history of this trailer. It shows the importance of finding all those old markings, although in this case they were clearly visible. I do now wonder what is hidden under these ones in the lower strata of paint....
I doubt I could ever bring myself to repaint it to match the Humber, too much history in it's own right.
Rich.