FWD Su-Coe Gun Tractor | SM2018 | chassis 61132

[derk derin]

Hello Melvyn,
I hope that manual you bought from me helps you. Hope it arrived to you already? That truck looks to be in great condition for it's age. Does it run and can you drive it around the yard?
Regards,Derk

[Melvyn Bean]

Originally Posted by derk derin

Hello Melvyn,
I hope that manual you bought from me helps you. Hope it arrived to you already? That truck looks to be in great condition for it's age. Does it run and can you drive it around the yard?
Regards,Derk

Hi Derk,
Yes the manual arrived & is spot on thanks
The truck doesn't run at the moment, one of the previous owners has removed the rear cylinder head (I don't know why) and disposed of the old gasket too, so I am currently searching for a gasket set before I can even try to get it started. It does still have the correct Waukesha petrol engine fitted though.
Regards
Mel

[David Dunlop]

Melvyn.

FWD used to have a plant in Kitchener, Ontario during the war that built the right hand versions of these trucks, while the parent, American plant built left hand models. Canadian production ceased at some point shortly after 1945 and the facility became the North American parts warehouse for FWD. A pair of these trucks showed up in a Winnipeg scrap yard in the Transcona area in the late 1980's and I phoned the Kitchener operation to see if they still had manuals available. They only had a few sets used for parts references, but did mention they probably had enough parts in storage to built a brand new truck.

Around 2005, FWD merged with Seagrave and the Kitchener facility was shut down. I don't know if all the parts stored there were scrapped, sold to a third party somewhere for servicing purposes or relocated somewhere by Seagrave.

Seagrave specializes in fire trucks. There website is below:

http://seagrave.com

Might be worth contacting them to see what they might be able to help with for your truck.

David

[Melvyn Bean]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

A pair of these trucks showed up in a Winnipeg scrap yard in the Transcona area in the late 1980's and I phoned the Kitchener operation to see if they still had manuals available.

Hello David,
Did you save the trucks from the Scrapyard?
Thanks for the info on the 'post war' dealings of FWD, I will contact Seagrave and see if they can help out in any way.
Much appreciated.
Regards
Mel

[David Dunlop]

Mel.

Lovely big rigs but far more than I could ever handle on my own. The scrappers had the bodies off both trucks and destroyed in the first 24 hours of their arrival. They were not interested in selling the cab and chassis assemblies with the winches still attached and pulled them for separate sale, Once cab and chassis was sold to a local chap who tossed the cab and mounted a 1940's panel delivery van body on it to build a 'Mud Truck'. The other FWD disappeared from the scrap yard a couple of weeks later.

For what it is worth, FWD was an independent operation in England in the inter war years and in some way or another merged with/became AEC in the 1930's.

Back in the 1980's or 90's here in Canada, I think there was a fully restored FWD Gun Tractor somewhere in the British Columbia area of Canada. Might have been on Vancouver Island. Don't know whatever became of it.


David

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

The best FWD cab over I ever saw was one painted yellow with a de Havilland logo on the doors. It was a wrecker that had been used at the aircraft plant during the war and must have seen little use, and most of that indoors. Sadly, it has perished over the years.

[Melvyn Bean]

A few more pictures. Still fitted with 3 wartime dated tyres!!