New to me C60L's

[Ken Smith]

Good day Keith ,
It is a Canadian cab, it has all the things like checker floor, different vents, round hole in the top of the cab, windscreens different, I have several Australian 13 cabs both early and late so I know it is not an Australian cab.

I didn't know the bit about the vin plates on the dash being an Australian thing though, all the holes for the plates are in the engine cover, I wondered what was missing as the truck is so original, but if they have been shifted up to the top of the dash that makes sense.

The left hand chassis rail is marked like this,

4X8443- which according to David Hayward should be X48443-
71597
SM 6404 I have never seen a contract number on a chassis before

Photos coming .

Cheers Ken

[Keith Webb]

On reading your other posts I now realise this, it must have a fascinating story to tell, there are very few Canadian build Chevrolets in Australia apart from a few early post-war imports such as the C8AX.

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

SM 6404 I have never seen a contract number on a chassis before

It's possible this was Indian practice Ken. The only other example I'm aware of myself is Lauren Child's mysterious "F22" in the UK, which was contracted to India around mid '45: C291Q.L-W under SM6389 was for Tractor 4x4 FA W/Out Winch C291Q for India, 350 vehicles. Build date is 12 Nov 45, and while it's my belief it was built in India, others are of the view it was diverted to the UK.

Here are some more pics of foreign built C60L in Australian use in Japan, alongside Australian built CMPs. The one at the collapsed roadway appears to be ex-Indian Army (full length wooden body) while the other one appears to be ex-British Army (steel body & spare wheel carrier):

HOBJ0344 Japan c January 1950 BCOF.jpg P01813.119 Okayama, Honshu, Japan, 1947-12-16. Members of the Transport Platoon, 67th Infantry .jpg

Gratuitous but rather good pics of late production Australian F60S tipper in action (Ford diff visible):

HOBJ0346 F60S tipper Japan c January 1950.jpg HOBJ0347 F60S tipper Japan c January 1950 BCOF.jpg

Regarding your Holden built engine cover Ken, presumably this got swapped at some stage during Australian service, possibly even in Japan.

Regarding your ARN 77821, the block 77001-79000 was originally allocated to New Armoured Vehicles (notified in Mechanization Circular No.307 of 4 March 1942) and it's my understanding that unused serials from earlier block allocations were used on vehicles acquired later overseas. I imagine Mike C can provide more info on this practice.

[Ken Smith]

Well here goes.

DSCF4307.jpg DSCF4306.jpg DSCF4305.jpg DSCF4304.jpg DSCF4303.jpg

Yippee I have done it sought of.

[Keith Webb]

Well done Ken!

What a beauty and definitely an import!

In amazing condition too.

[Tony Wheeler]

That's truly spectacular Ken! Amazing to see that hatch in Australia, let alone in such good condition. What a great story this vehicle must have to tell. Congratulations on a fabulous find, well worth waiting 30 odd years to acquire!

Nice to see that Northern Command stencil again too, it's very familiar to me. I wonder if our vehicles were stablemates at some time.

I take it you've done some rubbing back since these pics, do you have any showing the 4004 serial?

IMGP1744 - Copy.jpg

[Mike Cecil]

This is an interesting find, and as Tony suggests, quite likely taken on charge in the 1950s. I'd agree with Tony that these might be brought to Aust with troops returning Korea/Japan.

The 77000 block was originally reserved for Aust AFVs (as Tony said), but we all know how many of them were actually made (the Dingos are in this block), so the remaining numbers were left vacant. If you look through what was later assigned to the unused ARNs, they are either 'clean ups' - odd batches of mixed vehicles - or new vehicles taken on charge in the 1950s (such as Wiles cookers, 2wheel dolly converters, and so on). Some have entries in biro, so are even later than that. This, in my opinion, squarely places the batch of 'X' prefixed C60L trucks as having been taken on charge in that period.

Most of that C60L batch were from SM6404 and SM6197 and have the 'X' prefix to the chassis number. Most are also 1944-45 production.Most were written off by Board of Survey in mid-1956 at 1 Base Ordnance Depot (Qld), so I'd suggest not too long after their arrival in Australia, having been in outside storage for a few years and had several paint jobs during that time to maintain them. Being all sold off in Qld, that's where the remains of the others are likely to be lurking!

As a full-import, the rear body would therefore be a Canadian all-steel GS body.

Particulars are:

77821, written off Board of Survey 1 BOD 13/6/1956, authorised for disposals list 17/7 1956. Chassis 4X844371597SM6404, engine number DR3750990

Mike