Leyland Contractors, ours and yours: Some Qustions

cribpointowmater,

Where the RAN ones on loan from the army (it's possible to see the army paint where the white has chipped off)?

Being ex-Israeli navy myself, I remember we used to have our "own" vehicles but this did not extend to any of the Contractors - if there was a need to transport anything large one would have had to ask the heavy transport battalion to send one of the Contractors (or DM800s later) + Lowloader (for example, to transport the barges shown in the pics I posted earlier) to do the honours...

By the way, the IDF Transport Corps kept one Contractor in their collection and there's another one in the Armour Corps museum (sadly neglected and not driveable).

Cheers,

T

As an aside, and you squint, you will see that the Contractor uses an LAD cab with a bonnet stuck on the front

A short clip showing one of the IDF Contractors in a mixed convoy in 1973 (note the noisiest vehicle is the civvy B61 Thermodyne )

www.itnsource.com/compilations/faithhist...events/?lr=S25010802



(scroll down to clip 2 of 52. Also see clip 13 for a Leyland 680 pass).

Cheers,

T

As an aside, and if you squint, you will see that the Contractor uses an LAD cab with a bonnet stuck on the front

You are dead right, Mammoth, and I had never realised that before. Well spotted!

It doesnt really work, looks homemade.

Pete,

You can always take it off:
http://www.baumaschinenbilder.de/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=352867
Original here, taken by a German chap visiting downunder:
www.baumaschinenbilder.de/forum/thread.p...id=241632#post241632
Cheers,
T

A big improvement, maybe the original one fell off.

Got me thinking about these Leylands. Did anybody happen to see in "Just Trucks" late last year what looked like a Contractor ( Leyland I think ) for sale. It looked like an 8 wheeler, twin steer axles. Did anyone else see this, as the B&W photo was small and blurry. I presume this might have been a home made job possibly. I'll try to see if I still have the book around somewhere.

Kenworth_10x6

Pete,

You can always take it off:


Cheers,
T

Swiped this lot from another forum, so here's what it looks like as of a couple of days ago.

Here's the blurb that went with it.

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It started life as an Aust Army tank transporter that they used back in the Centurian tank days.It is owned by Rex Andrews out of Sydney.He got it as a "mint condition runner" with the old stecco trailer. He put an Alison auto in it, took the cab off and sent it to Brisbane for a year or 2 and used it as a steerable dolly under big beams to push them out for cranes to get. It says Leyland on it but it is really a Scammell Contactor.They were badged Leyland here because Leyland owned Scammell and by the time they arrived and they did not want the Scammell name on them.

It was once a lovely truck until Rex got his hands on it.

The Aust Army had about 12 or 13 of them. Two made it to Vietnam. There is a complete one in the Bandiana army museum and there is talk of another getting restored. Rex did give the bits from it (winch etc) that he never used, to a collector who is restoring one.He gave the cab to Hi Haul trspt in Melbourne to put on an old Scammell they still use down there as a block truck. So all was not lost.

I should point out that in this set up the drivers seat has been raised. When it was first built as a steerable dolly the drivers seat and steering wheel were down real low .Lower than the bonnet and the guy driving peeked over the top, or looked out the side .He actually sat at about the same level as the wheels.

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regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

Scammells. Albion etc were all allowed to have there own badging but as Leyland careered toward self destruction all export vehicles were badged Leyland as a marketing exercise, (strengthen the brand) but just ended up dragging all the branches of the group down with them.