Australian M816 wrecker build.

[john piercey]

Originally Posted by Howard Smith

Thanks Ron - yeah, I have pics of a few wreckers, all with red/white diagonal stripes on the front bumper and "WIDE"... and ..."LOAD" on the outside quarters. I think it's the guards for the body side lamps and or maybe the mirrors!
Can't wait to get it on the road with the CAUTION RHD on the back - gonna get some funny looks/questions.

Hi Howard,i think i got confused when you said Caution RHD but i think you meant to say Caution LHD in a country which is LHD in which case yeah you will get funny looks.
Holden HQ series 71 to 74 is my way of remembering roughly when MPH to KPH took place ,early cars were old measurement and around late 73 leading in to 74 their speedos showed both miles and kilometres on the speedo face,the next model HJ series were just in metric (i think) my memory has dulled though so i could be wrong.Dont think you would have to convert even on a truck that was imported in to Aus as there were probably no metric gauges available yet for direct fitment to m816 dash anyway,although a decal/sticker was available for quite a few years by various makers to suit a wide range of vehicles speedos.My guess would be they stayed in miles per hour for a fair while at least and then MAY have copped a conversion sticker at some stage of their later life.
If you are aiming for a Vietnam era wrecker i think MPH is a fairly safe bet.
Cheers John