More Blitz Finds

Plushy · #1 31-10-07, 14:15

Hi Everyone ,
I managed to get a bit of a search in today and heres what i found ,

Plushy · #2 31-10-07, 14:18

and at the same place i found this one :

certainly interesting conversions .

Oh and can anyone identify this ??

cheers Plushy

Plushy · #3 31-10-07, 14:32

Thought i better add this one its at wedderburn and is used often to unload steam engines for the wedderburn steam rally and other events .

Unfortunately no data plates but a very thought out conversion .

Plushy

Keith Webb · #4 31-10-07, 19:46

I reckon the first two you found may have been the 8446 chassis for the Rhino armoured cars, AKA Fox.

Les Freathy · #5 31-10-07, 22:10

James
the four wheel trailer is a British made unit as used by the army here for a number of roles and built by various firms including Taskers, Sentinal, Rubery Owen and T Harrington LTD. It would interesting to know if the Australian army purchased some of these in the 1950s and 60s or if it made its way there after demob
cheers
Les

Richard Farrant · #6 31-10-07, 22:53

Hi Plushy,

It looks like Les has beat me to it

In my view, it is a Sentinel trailer chassis and it looks like a Water Purification Unit. I have come across these before and think that there was a roof on it, but canvas screens hanging down all sides, that could be rolled up.

There is normaly a data plate on the side of the drawbar or on front cross member.

Richard

Plushy · #7 01-11-07, 00:59

Hi Guys
Next time i am up there i will try and talk to the owner as he wasnt home when i was there , there were no Data plates on the crane or the front end loader conversions , so i will see if he bought them that way or if he did the conversion there was also some military generators or welding units up there but i didnt get a close look at them . I will also get more info on the trailer .

Cheers Plushy

Ryan · #8 01-11-07, 01:00

Quote:

Originally posted by Keith Webb
I reckon the first two you found may have been the 8446 chassis for the Rhino armoured cars, AKA Fox.

That's what I would have guessed at. Do any Rhino's ( was there ever more than one?) exist today around Oz?

Keith Webb · #9 01-11-07, 01:10

Quote:

Originally posted by rynoki
That's what I would have guessed at. Do any Rhino's ( was there ever more than one?) exist today around Oz?

No, there are none although there were I think two prototypes including an AOP.

The chassis were converted, some by Metropolitan Gas in Fitzroy to mobile cranes.

Plushy · #10 01-11-07, 01:11

so originally they might have looked like this :

Plushy · #11 01-11-07, 01:13

how hard would it be to find the original design plans for one of these? and how hard would it be to reconstruct one ? looks like a nice torturous project

Keith Webb · #12 01-11-07, 01:23

They were a failure, partly because there was too much weight on the front axle.

Just looking at Mike Cecil's book there were four built for evaluation.

In order to bring the weight to an acceptable level the armour would have had to have been reduced to such an extent it would have been vulnerable to small arms fire.

Peter Bros in Redfern also did conversions to electric cranes - they were to have made 75 each but the project was abandoned after only 10 were made by the end of the war.

Many of the chassis were sold and converted to the loader configuration post-war, and some were converted to a street sweeper configuration.

Kym Loechel · #13 01-11-07, 01:54

I collect mining machines and Blitz so that second machine is a real humdinger..
I've seen a similar conversion on an old Fordson tractor with almost identical lifting gear.. Sadly that one ended up on the scrap truck as "who would want that animal" was the attitude.. The same guy scrapped at least 2 Studebaker 6x6.!!
Very nice find ( well to me anyway.!!)

Bruce Parker (RIP) · #14 01-11-07, 03:08

The first two are Fox chassis and a remarkable number of parts are still there. On the second one, the air cleaner, rad and rad carrier and even the floor plate with the accelerator pedal are original. The spring shackle mounts that articulate in two directions are unique. It appears the drivelines, again unique to Fox are intact. It would be interesting to know if these vehicles were available whole or for parts to aid at least two ongoing Fox restorations in Europe. Knowing these were out there a few years ago would have made me drool. Even now, that front steering gear looks very pretty. It would fit in the space below the seat in front for the flight home wouldn't it?

jim sewell · #15 01-11-07, 08:16

I would guess that these are GMC 270 engines especially the first one and in the second the exhaust manifold looks similar to a C60X,
Regards
Jim S.

Bob Moseley (RIP) · #16 01-11-07, 11:16

Hi all
Even though the concensus on the first two images is that they are Fox, Plushy has shown an interest in the Rhino. Build one James, you have 138 sleeps before Corowa 2008, heaps of time. And just as an incentive I've attached an image of the Rhino that was given to me by an elderly contact who was an Army Test Driver in WW2, testing South Australian Carriers and later in West Australia with the State Engineering Works testing their Carriers. The image shows my contact, during the war, standing in front of a Rhino that he eventually drove from Adelaide to Melbourne. That would have been an epic drive. It is a low res image but hopefully it will come out alright.
Bob

Ryan · #17 01-11-07, 11:23

Nice pic Bob, I don't believe I've seen a Rhino from that angle before.
On a side note, does anybody know what happened to the above pictured prototypes? Scrapped, sold off, shot up on some long forgotten range?

Plushy · #18 01-11-07, 11:36

Ok well its a Fox or Rhino or a Rhino or Fox so if any one has photos of either the Fox or the Rhino can they post them up here so i can work out if this is a Feasible project . I will head up to the place again next week and do a more through photo session of all the details on both trucks .

now my brain is in overdrive another project

Plushy · #19 01-11-07, 11:38

plans or drawings would help too

Bruce Parker (RIP) · #20 02-11-07, 00:34

A Fox is a Rhino, and Rhino is a Fox, at least as far as the chassis and running gear goes. Both are one and the same and came from the same assembly line in Oshawa. When produced, no one made a distinction or even considered our Oz friends would put their own hull on it. They did, in a few instances, and discovering the final product was a touch overweight, abandoned making any more. The Fox wasn't exactly a lightweight sports car either.

Rod Diery · #21 12-11-07, 08:43

Quote:

Originally posted by Plushy
[B

Oh and can anyone identify this ??

cheers Plushy [/B]

This is either a Water Purification unit or a Mobile Decontamination unit of probably early 1960s vintage. The two types looked quite similar. Originally it would have had a steel roof with canvas curtains around the upper sides. I worked on quite a few of these things back in my RAEME days but I can't remember much about the interior layouts.

Cheers
Rod

Plushy · #22 12-11-07, 09:37

I spoke to the owner today and its a Water purification unit he has all the original documentation for it and its service history it apparently went to Nui Dat during the war , the owner also had two Big S.Perry Military Generators as well as a few other military bits and pieces unfortunately he is a hoarder but i might be able to get the two 8446 chassis as i have somethings that he wants .

I will keep you all updated .

Cheers Plushy

Ryan · #23 05-12-07, 08:48

Speaking of the Rhino Armd Car, I've had this sitting on the hard drive for some time. It's off a Blitz crane conversion.