Chevrolet with Thornton bogie, anyone?

[gordon]

Leafing though my pile of manuals, always a dangerous thing, I ran across an illustrated Parts List for a truck I've never heard of ?

Chevrolet 4103 Special Heavy Duty Chassis with Cab

also

Thornton Dual Tandem Drive Parts

and

Bendix Vacuum Power Brake Parts

Issued October 15th 1940

Revised Feb 1st 1941

General Motor Overseas Operations
1775 Broadway,
New York

I can just make out a Supply Mech stamp on it too, looks like 2011/9/1

I'm familiar with the Thornton Bogie on the Dodge WK60 series, and I knew that you could get them on other makes, but wasn't aware of any Chevrolet supply.

Anyone know about these - David, Pete?

[Richard Farrant]

Gordon,

It is shown in Bart's original directory, page 84. They were originally a French order but diverted to the UK.

regards, Richard

[gordon]

Never seen that before and don't have a pic.

As an export order it wouldn't appear in my US listings. I take it they were originally designed for plain cargo bodies?

G

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by gordon

Never seen that before and don't have a pic.

As an export order it wouldn't appear in my US listings. I take it they were originally designed for plain cargo bodies?

G

Gordon,

It had a normal cargo body with hoops and canopy.

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

Phew! Here goes!

Firstly, a pic: I have a photo of a GM Limited-assembled truck, sans Census Number, just assembled, from say April 1941. Here is one from a book: Bart's? This has been seen before on MLU.

Secondly, 2,650 Chevrolet 'Houlder-Thornton' 3-ton 6x4 lorries were delivered under diverted French contracts (regrettably I don't have the French contract no.). They were allocated:

L 767151 to 768983
L 4493620 to 4494019
L 4537944 to 4538143

They were acquired under Demand Supply-Mechanical 2011 and it seems that the catalogue reference was 9, so presumably that translates to S/M 2011/9?


Survivors were sold-off around 1946/7/8 including L 768846 which was registered February 4th 1947. We also know of L 768300 serial # 1YR194421


This proves that these were built in Flint, Michigan, and were based on the YR chassis.

Rego evidence shows that these were built in batches in September/October/November/December 1940 and in January 1941. Assembly started around April 1941 and waqs conducted certainly in GM Ltd, Bamber Bridge near Preston, Lancashire, and probably elsewhere.

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

The Model 4103 was the YR by the way.

[cliff]

Has anyone got any close up photos of the Thornton Dual Tandem Drive Parts and Bendix Vacuum Power Brake Parts used on these trucks? I have a possible idea of a model of it at some stage if I can find the information.

[Leon Hassing]

Hello Cliff,

I do have these pictures from the net.
They speak of a Welles-Thornton drive.
Would you know wether this is the same as used on the Dodge WK60?
I have been trying to find info on it to build one.









Hope they are of use

All the best

Leon

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

Thornton Tandem Company of 5128 Braden Street, Detroit produced conversions for GM since at least 1932, with four-wheel drive.The Thornton system used a ‘Thornton’ transfer or relay case mounted above the rear axles, that took the drive from the engine and then distributed it to banjo-type axles and thence to the wheels, using Rzeppa CV universal joints. There was also a two-speed system that provided for a total of eight forward and two reverse gears. The system was also available for turning a Chevrolet truck into a tractor-trailer combination for larger payloads. It was also used in Ford and Dodge chassis. In the UK Universal Power Drives Ltd of Perivale, Middlesex used Thornton components in their 'Unipower' conversions, for Ford, Dodge, etc. chassis.

The Canadian distributor was H.V. Welles Limited of Windsor, hence 'Welles-Thornton' nomenclature.