Don,
interesting point that I did not know about! I can tell you that DND records indicated:
Quote:
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Conveyor Line Saddle drawings on file for the 8-cwt and 15-cwt. 4 x 2 and the “Quad” chassis were dated 4 April 1940 and are marked inter alia, “type used final assembly Windsor”
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So the F15 and F-GT were in production by early April. In May 100 reworked "Quad" floor plates were sent to England.
I should add here that there were major problems experienced with front axles on CMPs that took about three months of work by the RASC to rectify [1940]. This clicks with correspondence in July that I found now: Rzeppa design Universal joint and axle shafts as fitted by Ford to the front 4 x 4 Trucks were deemed interchangeable with the G.M.-used Bendix-Weiss, but Ottawa suggested that both right- and left-assemblies of the same type be fitted rather than mix-and-match!
I can certainly imagine from all this and other evidence that whereas the F-GT/C-GT were intended to be comparable to the F15A/C15A and that they were upgraded over here, there is a major difference between the two chassis: the GT and the C/F15A differed in that the former had the standard type transfer case, and the latter a totally different design. I am certain that the evidence points to the 15-cwt 4 x 4 being a later production entrant: known Chevrolet C15A sequential numbers start well after C30S and C60S for example had been in production, and there is no evidence that 15-cwt 4 x 4s were imported into England for some time after Southampton and Dagenham had started work, joined of course by Slough (December start).
Then again we have the F15 which may have been the starting point, based on commercial Ford chassis, and the possibly 'orphan' C15A with its helper springs and diffeerences from the F15...this gives me the impression that Oshawa 'did its own thing' here, with adaptation of a basic '40 Ford COE design: the 1939-40 Model Ford 1˝-ton COE Model C011W basic design. Note that it had to be a Ford 101" chassis: GM only produced 107", and also Parts Book evidence suggests that Windsor produced chassis components for Oshawa pre-drilled for various applications. If you look through the pre-war DND papers as I have, as well as Clive and others, it is obvious that from 1938 Ford of Canada kept plugging their COE 1 1/2-ton chassis that was initially a Dearborn product, and it was the Ford men that led the design team!