Leyland Contractors, ours and yours: Some Qustions

Dave_64 wrote: Tatra,
Read your posts with interest, especially your local variations of what were common vehicles over here. Every now and then you throw in something a little different. The locally produced Autocar which were powered with the VT430 Cummins, I always took them to be an earlier version of a marinised 903 ??

Up to roughly what year were they still being assembled (or built) over your way? Also the 'ASHDOD' conglomerate (?) seems to have had a finger in many pies. Leyland? Mack? Scammell as well as Autocar?

I notice that quite a bit of heavy stuff was of US origin, (or Brit) for the IDF. Arms embargo?

Dave,

Starting with your first question, the Autocars were US made but designed for the Israeli market only - the story is that Israeli hauliers Miffalei Tovalah who used to transport potash from the Dead Sea to the ports on the Med and the Red sea wanted to run 80 T road trains. The Israeli Ministry of Transport was not happy about such weights so said: "sure, but you need 400 hp tractor if you want the permit". Obviously they thought no one had such a model on offer in the early 60s. There were no truck engines with that hp but Cummins already supplied VT 460s to the IDF when it converted its Sherman tanks from the Ford GAA petrol engines to diesel. MT's technical director had been involved with the military conversion so went to Autocar's and Cummins' agents in Israel which in turn went to Autocar, and the result was the truck you mention, which was made in 1964. Unfortunately at that time the Cummins V8 wasn't really up to such outputs and after a few years the engines were replaced with Cummins 335s and the trucks (20 only) were sold to other operators. Yes it was the earlier version of the 903, sort of.

Ashdod started as an assembly plant for Leyland trucks and buses under an agreement between the Israeli government and Leyland and at least 10,000 vehicles (including some Israel-only ones) were produced there between 66-73. The operation was taken over by Mack in 74 after Leyland failed to fulfill its obligations. They then assembled Macks until 83 when they folded (the market was liberalized...), R600 Flintstines, MB600s, MR600s, DM800s, F and FM700s, Cruiseliners and Superliners.

US and Pommy trucks were always popular in Israel even before the state gained its independence but yes, there was a problem with being boycotted by the Arabs if you sold stuff to Israel, hence changing the badge to Leyland on Albions and Scammells... But Sisus and AECs also.

Cheers,

T

rex wrote: Hello Tatra
About to put her in the shed and start, managed to buy the new cab Nicky had for sale along with an ex Army Contractor in pretty sad condition. I have a spare AEC 1100 engine in case the one that is in the Truck has problems.
Is it possible to join the Scammell group ?
Due to our business being Heavy Over dimension Transport we do a Calendar each year showing a load for each Month, September 2016 is a shot of the Contractor on the back of a Low loader coming home from Robertson.
I will see if we can download the picture onto the Forum, thanks for your interest will need to learn how to post pictures as the work begins the good thing is I have to share the Shed with two of our Son's as they begin the work on the F500 and F 600 Ford's.
Rex

Rex, that's good news, the 8X4s were unique and it'll be nice if one got preserved. If you're on Facebook, the group's address is www.facebook.com/groups/244529705625395/ I'd ask to join if I were you - I'm sure people will be delighted to have you there. It's a UK group but they accepted me, lol, so you'd have no probs... Cheers, T

Oh, just because we do like pics... Those are IDF Contractors during the 1973 war. The barge was most likely used in the bridgeheads over the Suez Canal into Egypt. The second pic shows retrieval of captured Syrian AFVs on the Golan heights. Last one is of the returning Israeli forces after the cease fire agreements in 74. All from the Israel Sun archives on the Harvard U Israel collection.

Bump to the top with my own little project, which I'll feature more on when it's finished...

This is what it will look like, one of the first Contractors ever (maybe even the first), on its way to the Etz Lavood chipboard factory in Kibbutz Afikim, Israel.