Commers with Knockers...

asw120, back then they used to refer to them as a D2F and when the later tilt Cab model came out they were the D3F. - Kav.

Thanks Kav! It was the D2F I was looking for.

Cheers, Jarrod.

Sorry for the slightly off-topic question, but what was the official model designation of the Dodge-badged one with the Cummins V8? Just curious, that's all. (with the model of cab which might have single, or dual headlights)

Thanks, Jarrod.

D2F had 4 headlights as per Knocker cab specs.

Hi All .. just going through the (period correct) parts manual and i'm not exactly sure what the earliest TS3 diesel Commers came equipped with...vacuum/hydraulic brakes with a normal foot pedal/ relay rods and running an exhauster, or the compressor driven air/hydraulic treadle valve set-up ??

...this old girl has the pedal/relay rod, but is air over hydraulic ??. I guess this may've been another mod carried out on her in place of the Clayton Dewandre vacuum set-up...Jeffo or Cunning may be able to help... I'm hoping to rig up a second air tank to supplement the puny looking one attached to the mated hydraulic cylinder on the RH side

Hi Defective, It looks like that truck has had the modification that was described in an earlier post where you take the link out of the Clayton Dewandre booster and just use the old master cylinder to suppy the air/hydraulic booster. Unless you are going to pull a trailer, I don't think that you will need to put an extra tank in the system as they don't use very much air for each application and they are good brakes. The original TS3's had a vacuum exhauster that looked like a compressor mounted on the side of the motor, but a lot of these were later converted to air with compressors later on. I think the first to have the Air pedal with the air/hydraulic activator, was the CDY with the full width windscreen which was somewhere about 1959/60. At the same time you could still get a Vacuum system if you wanted it. From the CADY in about 1961/2 with the big cab, the hydraulic master-cylinder plus the air/Hydraulic booster was standard. They had the same system in the CBEW and they were good and they had a port to activate the trailer brakes. This sounds like your system. There were several different types of Westinghouse Governors used as all the early ones used to get blocked up with oil and carbon.-Kav.

Hi Kav .. thanks for the great info and i understand exactly how you are describing things. The reason for the auxilliary tank is as you described.....to potentially pull a trailer....and as she's been an old prime mover in the past, that contingency plan is good to have up your sleeve...

...the "U" bolted fixed turntable i've recently fitted looks really cool on her...and ol' mate from back in the day mentioned there were plenty of the long wheelbase (C 762/CD 762..162" wheelbase) Commers doing prime mover work back then...

... how did the air (or vacuum) lines hitch up to the trailer ?...no pogo stick for sure, but was there a breakaway valve like the Yankee jiggers ?? thanks for your help

Defective
Gudday M8

me 2 cents worth sez

sum ol vacuum trucks with trailers had the hoses hook up @ the back of the prime mover n connected @ the rear of the turntable

Guess n there B more room to wrestle wiff the hoses than up front wen the trailers of ther day had a big overhang in front of turntable

Butt


There again


WotWoodEyeKno

LOL
cya

...that makes a lot of sense Swishy ...with the QRTT still over the horizon and no need for the same "quick release" applying to the hoses, the simple thing would be to run them up behind the T/T...i s'pose running air lines would be pretty much the same ??

...thanks for the heads up mate...

Defective you don't even want to think about Vacuum trailer Brakes these days-it makes you shudder to think about them. You only got 2 or 3 hits of the brakes- then you were out of Vacuum and you had to wait for it to build up again. The little evacuators were painfully slow to build up so you had to pull your brakes on and hold them on to save vacuum- and this made the brakes heat up. Don't forget that during the 1960's a lot of trailers only had 5 inch brakes and as Swishy said, there were a lot of fixed turntables so the Vacuum brake hoses were often disconnected with a screwdriver when you wanted to unhook the trailer, if you didn't have breakaways. The hoses were also thick and cumbersome and were not very flexible so they mostly attached behind the turntable. There were a lot of 162 inch wheelbase commers used as prime movers because they were bought as body trucks and as the work increased they cut the tail off and put a trailer on. I had one with the turntable 25 inches in front of the centre- it doesn't do much for a comfortable ride. Cheers - Kav

...Sorry Kav .. i wasn't thinking of doing vacuum/hydraulic current day, but agreeing with what would've been easy for operators back in the day...

.... operating an air/hydraulic p/m with air/mechanical trailer, the rear of prime mover trailer connections hitched up to a fixed turntable semi trailer would still work well...and look very period as well i suspect ??

...Kav, that c/line for the turntable placement was a heck of a long way forward...did it cause problems with the chassis ?...(I s'pose there was no landing gear to foul !)