Why Gun Tractor Shape

[rob love]

I think Bruce had it right. The early trucks had run flat tires so no need for a spare. The ring for the 25 pounder was not kept on the gun for any long distance...it was stowed on that slanted back. After Burma fell, and rubber became scarce, the vehicles were built without runflats, so needed a spare. At that time the stowage location for the firing platform went onto the top of the limber, and the spare tire location was the slanted backside of the truck.

The move to mechanization was the death of the limber. As mentioned, the limber removed the weight of the gun trail from the backs of the horses. But with mechanization, the towed loads actually need the weight on the hitch for stability. And why not just build a bigger truck so you can carry all the ammunition, tooling, and the gunners kit as well as the gunner? The limber also would have made it a real bitch to back up more than a couple feet.

The Canadians actually built artillery tractors in the early 30s out of locally sourced Leyland trucks. The purpose built DND designed bodies had a large stowage capacity, but the setup still retained the 18 pdr limber. I suspect that when we started building trucks for the British, we ended up following their basic design of the artillery tractor.