FWD HAR-01

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Richard Coutts-Smith

Maybe one of the moderators could tack it on to the discussion as linked by Tony?

Merging done.

Always nice to see the rusty remains of mighty vehicles.

Hanno

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

Thanks Hanno, job done.
Rich.

[Niels V]

http://www.veteranposten.dk/visAnn.asp?Id=285210 One for sale here

[jack neville]

Does anyone know if this truck still exists?

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by jack neville

Does anyone know if this truck still exists?

The HAR-01 in post #12 (and the 12 Cab Ford) are no longer at that site. I has been some years, so I don't know if they were sold or scrapped.

The owner from that time has passed away, and I don't know if it's been passed on to a family member or sold to a new owner.

The site has been comprehensively picked clean (or rehabilitated, as they say) of all heavy items, ie the trucks and lots of smaller stuff like spring packs, diffs, drums/hubs, transmissions that were scattered about. The only remnants left are lighter gauge items like corrugated iron water tanks and a couple of severely corroded car bodies. That would suggest to me a scrap dealer, as what is left is not viable to scrap.

Of note, the area was affected by the Dec 2019 Bushfires, and the property clean-up contractors would "helpfully" remove absolutely everything if not told to leave specific items.

[jack neville]

Originally Posted by Richard Coutts-Smith

Pass this truck a couple of times a year up in the hills, no idea what it is. Has fold out wind screen, RH drive, Waukesha engine, 4x4. I'm sure this was also "running when last used" as they say in the adverts... That would be the dash board sitting on the bumper.
Could be post war, but maybe not.
FWD?
Any ideas?
Rich.

All the years this truck has sat in the bush and no one ever noticed the fuel tank sitting in the cab. A rusted out Attack Carrier fuel tank which must have been adapted for this truck and strapped to the back of the cab.

[jack neville]

The truck in post 26 has been recovered.
The truck in post 23 after having languished for the last 9 years as garden art has also been recovered.
Some abandoned but very good sheet metal from Cloncurry in Queensland has been purchased.
I will start a new thread but I am pretty excited to have gathered all these rare relics in a short space of time.

[Mike Cecil]

Well done, Jack, looking forward to the new build thread.


Mike

[Bob Phillips]

I would like to add a few comments re FWD vehicles now that this thread has been revived. I live just a few miles from Kitchener Ontario in Canada where the FWD company had their canadian assembly plant. trucks arrived in a broken down state from the home factory (Clintonville Wisconsin I think) and were reassembled in Kitchener. I have attached a photo from the early war years. The site is long since redeveloped and after the war FWD made a variety of heavy trucks using International cabs. In my 40 years of prowling through junkyards and farmyards looking for military vehicles in Ontario, I can tell you that the FWD was not very common here though I found several o ver the years. Today they are non existent except for a few hoarded away by collectors. I owned a cab over version with a twin boom Holmes wrecker that had been operated by De Havilland aircraft but the wrecker went to Holland and the truck to a collector in the Ottawa area. They were neat trucks with wooden framed cabs that unfortunately didn't survive Ontario weather conditions very well. I also seem to recall that while they were slow moving vehicles ( same as CMPs) the speed reduction occurred in the chain drive transfer case. I still have a NOS transfer case buried in a van body here somewhere. I can post a few pictures of the old trucks that were here years ago if anyone is interested.

[jack neville]

Serial number of the garden art truck is 147564.

[jack neville]

These AWM photos show truck#147755 (?)
I don't know how many of these trucks came to Australia but as tow vehicles for radar units there would not have been many I would not think.
If someone knows how to decipher the ARN registers could they let me know.
Interesting they only have one headlight-on the right side, as we drive on the left in Australia. Maybe?

[Grant Bowker]

I have the idea that the US contracts for the HAR had two headlights but the commonwealth contracts only had one. I don't recall the source for that belief, possibly the Observer's Handbook by Bart Vanderveen?

[Hanno Spoelstra]

What a great project to take on Jack, you are to be commended.

Have you read the article “FWD HAR-Series Trucks” in Wheels & Tracks issue no. 5?

[jack neville]

Thanks Hanno.

Yes I have all the Wheels and Tracks. Some very good information in that article.
I think the HAR 01 will be a lonely project with little resource material to draw on.
I have HAR1 manual copies but there are a lot of differences to the HAR 01.
Very few photos so far located.
At this stage there appears to be one restored in the UK, none restored in Australia that I am aware of and no other restoration projects being undertaken that I know of.
I hope to be proven wrong.

[Mike Cecil]

Jack wrote: I don't know how many of these trucks came to Australia but as tow vehicles for radar units there would not have been many I would not think.

Based on AWM126, there were a minimum of 58 HAR-01 tractors (all I've located - there may be others), 28 configured as type 'A' with radar trailer type 'A'; 25 configured as type 'B' with radar trailer type 'B', and five where the description does not include radar or type, but the engine and chassis numbers fall within the overall sequence of the total.

If someone knows how to decipher the ARN registers could they let me know.

What part of the entry are you having trouble with? For ARN 147564, which is identified as a 'Auto Coy' truck, with a load rating of 6 ton, engine number 527354, no chassis number listed, model 'HAR', and taken on charge at 'VB', which is the abbreviation for Victoria Barracks. Problem is, there are/were two Victoria Barracks - in Sydney and in Melbourne. Disposal information in red ink indicates sold to York Motors under Sales Advice Note 3657. The use of red ink indicates disposal soon after the end of the Second World War.

Hope that helps. Nice but difficult project due to the scarcity of parts and information.


Mike

[Tony Smith]

Another piece of info that Mike hasn't added is that ARN147564 was configured as a "Prime Mover "A"", meaning that it was the truck intended to tow the Trailer "A", better known as the ZPI (Zone Position Indicator) Trailer.

There are several of these still existing, including one used as the Office for Corowa. You'll have to park it up next to the trailer at least once for a pic!

http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3459
http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=24088
http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=24089
http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=20686

[Mike Cecil]

Ah, yes, missed including that little gem .... one of the 28 + 'A' prime movers for the 'A' trailers.
Mike

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Unloading of the ship of the British truck FWD HAR-01 in the port of Murmansk 1941-44


Courtesy of Andrey Gvozdikovskiy

[Mike Cecil]

Just chanced across some HAR-01 relevant data while indexing paperwork (I'm way behind - some of these documents date back to copying I did 11 years ago!)

At an MGO conference on 4 July 1944, it was decided that the total number of sets for Canadian radar units would be limited to 54 sets - 49 that were already in Australia, and a further 5 then in transit, complete with trucks. No further trucks for radar units would be required from Canada.

If such was the actual case, it would mean a total of 108 FWD HAR-01 arrived in Australia - 54 tractors for the A trailers and 54 for the B trailers. I've only managed to locate a total of 58 thus far, so there may be another 50 FWD HAR-01 lurking somewhere within the pages of AWM126.

Mike

[Rich Payne]

I posted this on an FB group as I couldn't ID it... The oddly cropped image is taken from the scrapbook-style 'Chilwell 1939 - 1945' self-published book.

The WD serial number appears to come from a Canadian block.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Rich Payne

The WD serial number appears to come from a Canadian block.

Does it read H427979x?

As per the Chillwell list, that number is part of the block 4200000 - 4299999 "Canadian not on 'B' Census". But not listed on WD Census Numbers allotted to Canadian Forces in England (1942) which only runs up to 423-. That means the number on this FWD was one from a range assigned after July 1943.

Originally Posted by Rich Payne

I posted this on an FB group as I couldn't ID it... The oddly cropped image is taken from the scrapbook-style 'Chilwell 1939 - 1945' self-published book.

PS: added the full scan from your FB post

[Rich Payne]

I agree, that's what it looks like. I'd assumed that it would be prefixed 'CH' for Canadian service...I also hadn't given any thought to Chilwell stocking and maintaining vehicles that were on the Canadian lists.

[Gordons]

ran across this old Fwd lined up with Ford SnoGo, C60 Chev, and snow blower, FWD has a name inscribed in firewall and the date 1942, not sure what year it is but its in pretty good condition for sitting out in the cold all these years.

Attachment 125682

Attachment 125683 Attachment 125684 Attachment 125685 Attachment 125686

[Gordons]

few additional pic

Attachment 125696 Attachment 125697 Attachment 125698 Attachment 125699 Attachment 125700

[jack neville]

Of the few remaining HAR 01 trucks so far encountered none have any rear body remains. Photos I have acquired so far are very small or poor quality so getting an idea of construction is limited.
Wheels And Tracks #5 mentions the trucks as being fitted with Canadian produced GS bodywork. “Two types of body were made for the HAR 01 chassis; they carried Codes 4R1 and 4R2 and were made by Brentford Coach and Body Ltd.”
They appear to be of steel construction.
Was this body style fitted to other Canadian sourced trucks? When the time comes I would like to build as accurate a copy of the correct body.
Is there any known blueprints of this body style?

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by jack neville

Wheels And Tracks #5 mentions the trucks as being fitted with Canadian produced GS bodywork. “Two types of body were made for the HAR 01 chassis; they carried Codes 4R1 and 4R2 and were made by Brentford Coach and Body Ltd.”

Jack,

Body 4R1 info from Clive Law’s Drive to Victory:

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by jack neville

Of the few remaining HAR 01 trucks so far encountered none have any rear body remains. Photos I have acquired so far are very small or poor quality so getting an idea of construction is limited.
Wheels And Tracks #5 mentions the trucks as being fitted with Canadian produced GS bodywork. “Two types of body were made for the HAR 01 chassis; they carried Codes 4R1 and 4R2 and were made by Brentford Coach and Body Ltd.”
They appear to be of steel construction.
Was this body style fitted to other Canadian sourced trucks? When the time comes I would like to build as accurate a copy of the correct body.
Is there any known blueprints of this body style?

And some more info from the AEDB Design Record:

[jack neville]

Thank you Hanno. Exactly what I need. The POW cans are interesting being on both sides and in that location. Do you think there is two X sets of three cans or just two individual cans.
The square shape did have me intrigued when looking at the small fuzzy images.
Any thoughts on whether the tailgate would be standard? I expect there is a hole corresponding to a hole in the front of the body for passage of the winch cable.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by jack neville

Any thoughts on whether the tailgate would be standard? I expect there is a hole corresponding to a hole in the front of the body for passage of the winch cable.

Typically with a mid-mounted winch, the winch cable is fed under the chassis and out to the rear or front, depending on where the pull is needed.

But one of the sheets mentions a small door in the fron of the 4R1 body to permit the passage of a cable. A was the winch used to hoist the diesel engine into and off the body? In that case I don't think the tailgate needs a hole, it would be lowered to permit exit and entry of the load.

This type of vehicle is unknown to me, so I do not know if the diesel engine was bolted onto the body, or just carried within and could be taken out. It says the body has angles attached to the floor of the body for "mounting" the diesel engine.

What did the diesel engine do? Drive a generator?

[jack neville]

It would seem that the Diesel engine powered trailered radar units.
Why diesel? That itself seems unusual given most allied vehicles and equipment was petrol.
I knew nothing of this truck until recently either. There appears to be only one restored in the UK and no others being worked on.
Any and all information is going to be very welcome.
And needed!