any info on FWD's???

[Darrin Wright]

FWD trucks or the HAR-1 are a very tough rudded truck and they look good, one of my favourites. Out in Australia they were used to build the Adelaide Airport, what happened to them after that I am not sure. Many were used in Darwin for quarry work and civil construction, they were worn out and eventually scrapped. Many FWD trucks were converted to dump by lifting the tray and placing a hoist assemble between the tray and the chassis.
To my knowledge, all HAR-1 trucks were only produced in cargo version, I beleive that any other varients will be post war modified or modified by their Army owners ie: Snow blowers. I stand corrected if there were other varients, the manual only shows cargos and makes no mention of other trucks like other US manuals do.
I have included a scan out of my manual showing what the truck should look like.
Glen Stone in Sth Victoria does have a very nice and accurate truck painted in desert sand. He restored this vehicle when he lived in Rutherglenn and I beleive hed used 2 or 3 trucks to make his. There are several other trucks in Victoria, but they are hard to restore due to lack of parts (in Aust anyway).
There weak point was their diffs, the pinion gears sheared due to over laoding, in Australia it was common to place Chev blitz diffs under them, this may also have assisted with the gear rations and road speed. An unusual feature was the diff casings, they were cast square- saved on the production of U- bolts. Another point is the manual only shows the truck with one headlight, wether this was the photographed truck for the book or all trucks off the production, line I am not sure.
The T case was chain driven.
I hope this info helps.