Grant or Staghound Turret Ring?

[Stuart Kirkham]

Hello

Is this a Grant or Staghound turret ring?

I inspected an old crane on the weekend as I suspected it had a M3 Grant turret ring installed as the turntable.
Unfortunately, I could not get a good look at the ring as it was covered by steel plate. I did manage to get a couple of photos that may help identify the ring.

Of interest was the hex head bolts holding the ring in place. Can't say if they are original. The Grant had the domed screw type bolt heads whereas the Staghound had the hex head. It could be that the dome heads could have been swapped out for the hex head bolts.

The crane was built here in Perth in 1964. I know that many cranes built in Perth around that time used the M3 Grant turret rings.

Any help would be appreciated.

[David Herbert]

The grant ring has the top surface where the heads of the bolts to the hull are on a slope of about 15 degrees. Your photo apears to show it flat so I don't think it's Grant. Matilda is very similar to Grant which leaves Staghound as a posibility. There are of course lots of other turreted vehicles that were used by Australia. Counting bolt holes might narrow it down as would measuring its diameter but published figures don't always measure the same thing - Inside dia., Outside dia., Pitch diameter of ball path etc.

David

[Stuart Kirkham]

Hi David.

I'm pretty sure it's not a Matilda ring as there were no Matildas over this side of Australia during the war.
I suspect it is Staghound as there were plenty of those over here. 10th Light Horse had a heap of them up until the late 50s.
Unfortunately, the crane is about 1.5 hours drive from Perth so getting measurement will not be an easy task.