Chevrolet 1533X2 30-cwt trucks

[Charlie Down]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Charlie, by "radiused curve" do you mean curved throughout? If so, that cannot be right, as the wartime photos show the 1533X2 bumpers to be straight, with a angled bends at each end.

Hi Andrew,
For years I thought that they only fitted curved bumpers, then as I got more involved in the research I kept hearing about angular bumpers. I checked my photographs and I'm confident that both were fitted. Its hard to get the right angles, and most photographs look like one version or the other, but its not always 100% clear. However the attached clearly shows a curved bumper and an angular bumper fitted to LRDG 1533x2 trucks. Both seem common and as its hard to distinguish which type it is in each photo its hard to say which one was most frequently fitted.

[Andrew H.]

OK I stand corrected. However I have to say that I have never before seen one with a curved bumper.

[David Dunlop]

Charlie.

In that left photo with the curved bumper, is the brush guard tube directly above it also curved to match the bumper, or is that just the shadows playing tricks on my eyes?

David

[David Herbert]

I think that both those trucks have curved brush guard tubes but possibly the one with the curved bumper is more curved.

David

[Charlie Down]

I think that the top tubes of the bush guard are both curved, even though the angular bumper version has the bush bar mounted on the central straight section of the bumper. I've checked my references and it looks like the vast majority that I can see from the right angle to discern their shape are curved. There's a couple that look straight, but could just be the angle. Some have rotated so the curve is in the vertical plain, not horizontal. Also found a couple that have no bush guard fitted at all, which I haven't noticed before. I've learnt the hard way with these trucks not to draw definite conclusions, so I'm comfortable to say that the vast majority are curved and there could be some that are straight!

[David Dunlop]

Maybe the curve was introduced so that when you crested a dune at speed and encountered a camel, it would be deflected to either side, rather than coming straight up over the bonnet and into the back of the truck.

David

[Charlie Down]

The first photo shows a Y Patrol truck without a bush guard and the 2nd photo shows the bush guard top tube rotated, showing the curve in the tube. Interestingly all the rotated tubes show the curve going up not down. I have no idea if that is significant.