Quote:
Originally posted by Les Freathy
AS usual i get the photos the wrong way round, the first one was taken at Beltring and has different number plate than these two taken a couple of years earlier. So is it the same machine with a new paint scheme and plate or are there two?
Les
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Its the same one Les.
There are a few problems though. . . . . . . .
Find a square-on side picture and you'll notice a lot more interleaved wheel hub showing than a Sd.Kfz.9/1 should have, in fact as much as the larger 9/2 - the crane version.
The position of the inner wheel face viewed through an outer wheel hole in a horizontal position is another clue; past the hole on a 9/1 and through the centre on this example.
There are more track links than a 9/1 also of course.
The front wheel track and the track centres are wider.
The X bracing pressings on the body are at a noticeably shallower angle than is ever seen on period pictures of a 9/1, so the panels are all slightly longer.
There are no references or any data to suggest the cargo body was ever produced to fit the slightly larger 9/2, which in any case had a double height, twin beam chassis to take the much greater load of the 10 ton crane whereas the cargo body is a 3 ton payload.
There is evidence of the roadwheel suspension lock-out system still in place, unique to the 9/2.
Copious data exists with pictures of British engineers operating a 9/2 at the end of the war which suggests a source, this particular British operated vehicle was renown for a steering brake fault and is well recorded as being almost impossible to turn left. I _think_ I know a provenance for the subject vehicle, the no turn left snag is a significant thread, but I may be wrong.
You ponder it all, just my rambling observations.
Hell of a re-work job all the same; I have a tiny problem with "restoration" here as the Concise Oxford Dic. says: "Return to a former condition or position."
Anyway a fine example of pre-war German over-engineering, like all the first 3/4 track models, which I believe were designed to impress and awe the western world together with pleasing the Führer with their swift and silent progress in the Berlin parades on their rubber padded and oiled needle bearing tracks, with resilient faced roller sprockets.
I don't think any were designed for war, at the first opportunity all the niceties disappeared and plain steel tracks with dry pins appeared. (SWS) The copies too (OT810) didn't adopt the high-tech track system either.
R.