Carrier found

[ron]

Hi Guys,
Just a quick update, I have been on yet another field trip chasing carriers, and bought another one pics to follow shortly,its a Met gas one,
Regards Ron

[ron]

Well its still out there, this is N.O.S, carrier track its still out to be found,never been asembled and still with the remains of its original labels or tags,

[ron]

This a pic of the n o s track loaded

[ron]

A few weeks back I posed a question regarding the narrow wheels that I removed minus the rubber from that Marmon Herrington conversion on a Universal carrier hull,a couple of replies suggested that they may have removed the rubber and then turned down the wheels to better fit the English track that was fitted to the converted carrier, well in this pic you can see a standard Australian carrier wheel and the one behind it complete with full untouched rubber is two and a half inches wide and the Australian one is the standard three inches, so it does seem that maybe early in the piece narrow wheels were made here and fitted to Australian made carriers to use up surplus British track, its not a good pic but I will post better ones at a later date,it might pay some of the boys to have a better look at any early Australian carriers,its just a thought, Ron,

[ron]

Hi Guys.
Further to my last post regarding those narrow wheels on that Marmon Herrington carrier conversion that I recovered last year, I was talking to a friend of mine today that has been involved with armour for many years, the coversation got around to those slimmer wheels,he was of the opiniom that they were Australian made wheels to fit the Vickers light tank when they required replacement ones when you look at the earlier pics of the recovery of this interesting vehicle,its interesting to note that the conversion used the same double bogie system as the Vickers light tank, with the exception that the steering was accomplished by the Marmon trasfer case
and they also used British track,The question is why? Why not use Australian track and Australian wheels,instead of turning down the wheels.if in deed they did, the wheel I found last week is untouched and narrow,They must have had access to both the Marmon parts,and Vickers parts as the previous owners son had told me the parts were from tanks that had been returned fom New Guinea, just a thought anyone got any ideas? please excuse the rave on, but I find things like this ineresting hope that you do too.
Regards,
Ron

[Lynn Eades]

Ron, I believe the Vickers light tank came with wide horned track and wide wheel / rubber. The tank at Puckapunyal has wide wheels as per Aust carrier width, but the wheel is the same (flat spoke design), but with wide rubber.
I believe this is where the original wide track came from.-Not an Aussie idea, but a Vickers Carden Loyd idea. Unfortunately, the rest of the world wasn't smart enough to adopt the it.

[Lynn Eades]

Ron check out the horn width on this. Also of note is the track jack. (pic. originally posted by Keith Webb.)

[ron]

Hello Lyn,
Thanks for the reply to my post,I see what you mean and agree with what you say regarding the track and wheels on the Vickers light tank
I wonder what the Australian narrow wheels were used for?
Thanks again,
Regards,
Ron

[Lynn Eades]

My guess is that Australia made wheels for the English or Canadian carriers that it held, when stock was not available from over seas