Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry Moon
Why would the Australian Army make up a manual or picture of the tire Carrier with an oddball truck unless they were more common than thought.
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Hi Harry,
It's my guess they just picked the nearest truck and it happened to be a tipper! They were produced in considerable numbers here (judging by the number of survivors) so it's not particularly unlikely. I'm sure Mike is correct in saying: "In Australia, the tippers were the only CMP during the war to be fitted with conventional wheels and 8.25x20 tyres as standard that I'm aware of."
I guess it's possible that dual wheels occasionally found their way onto non-tippers in the field, as seems to have been the case in post war years as mentioned by Keith: "I have seen post-war pics of No6 CGTs fitted with dual rear wheels, a field mod no doubt." However I don't recall seeing any wartime pics of duals on non-tippers.
After disposal of course a great many CMPs were fitted with duals for road use, mostly by dealers I suspect, who offered customers a choice of singles or duals (see ad below). It seems there were several different types used, and I happen to have a couple of the type pictured on the spare tyre ramp. These came off an F60L wreck. As you can see they have 6 cutouts in the wheel centre, unlike yours which have 5 cutouts. I suspect the 20cwt trailers may have used early Ford wheels - I'll post some pics shortly which may help identify.
Cheers,
Tony