Mystery racks/holders

[Ken Smith]

Good day,
I bought these off a fellow that goes to lots of farm auctions and any army stuff he buys he gives me first go at it.
There were 6 of the little racks 2 with the top that lies down, and no wide plate on the retaining pad and 4 with the fixed arch and a wide plate welded to the retaining plate.
The tightening screws which don't show up in the photo, are beautiful cast wing nuts as are the lock nuts.
The racks are painted OD with Deep Bronze Green over the top of that.
The only other army things at the auction were a Vietnam era 3 ton 4 wheel trailer, and another 2 wheel trailer which he thought might have been army, so nothing there to help with identifying the racks.
Any ideas?
Ken

[David Herbert]

For holding a jack possibly ?

David

[Ken Smith]

Thanks David I had wondered about that, because they would do a good job of holding a jack and the base is about the correct size.
The only thing is I am assuming they all came off the one vehicle or trailer.
I had a good look at the bottom and can't see any marks where anything has been sitting either a can or a solid base.
The annoying thing is they look like they have only recently been unbolted.
Ken

[Lynn Eades]

I think they are LP2, LP2A, carrier, jack brackets.

[Ken Smith]

Lynn, I had a look at the large number of LP2 jack brackets on the carrier forum and they are similar, but the tapered sides seem to start closer to the bottom. The wing nuts are different on just about every bracket pictured so I can't go by them.
Did carriers stay in the army into the deep bronze green paint era.
I have some more photos to put on but my computer has a problem tonight and it won't let me do it.

Ken

[Lynn Eades]

O.k. Ken, I'm a learner. I was only guessing.
Early on when the Kiwis built LP2s, they used a Ford (light truck?) jack that was not up to the job. Maybe something similar happened in Australia?

[Ken Smith]

Lynn, I thought that was a good guess, I thought I was going to have lots of requests for original jack holders. Plus it does confirm from the LP2 pictures that it does conform to a jack holder bracket design.
The info so far is possible jack holder, WW2 into post war, something that needs levelling stands if they did all come off the one vehicle, and something that is obscure, as in not many made or being restored.

Ken

[Lynn Eades]

Ken, do the bolt holes in the base line up as per a carrier?

[Ken Smith]

Lynn, I admit to knowing nothing about carriers. I owned a British hull with a lot of spare parts for 6 months in the nineties, but made a decision to concentrate on trucks and so sold the carrier to someone in New South Wales. I admire the dedication of people that restore armour.
I measured the hole spacings in the base. I measured both types of bracket and both are exactly the same.
Hole spacing centre to centre lengthwise is 6 3/4" centre to centre width is 5 1/4"
The bolt holes are 3/8" and the head size is quite large 3/4" across the head flat to flat, so possibly Whitworth.
They would have been bolts and nuts as the imprint of the bolt head is very clear on the top of the base and so it wasn't turned to remove.
Hope this makes sense.
Ken

[Ken Smith]

Good day Lynn,
Did the hole measurements match carrier hole measurements? There aren't any carriers around here for me to measure.
I noticed on a search for carrier brackets on the forum that someone had posted a photo of the hinged type the same as mine, he did say he didn't know what it fitted.

Ken

[Lauren Child]

It looks very similar!

http://www.grubbyfingersshop.com/wal...eux_large.html