Can anybody identify this truck?

...just got off the blower to Bob in Goulburn and we were both having a laugh about what in fact this jigger was...

...it was a Bussing prime mover that he first saw in the mid/late 50's with an extremely set back front axle that with its close coupled trailer... made the front axle almost under the trailer ...

...it was owned by a bloke in Adelaide carting car parts in big containers for Arnolds or Cargo who were involved in shipping these items for GMH...

..Bob went on to say how Jacksons in Tasmania had one doing wharf work around Hobart and another bloke in NSW had one as well...both conventionals and very early in the days..

...another actually operated as a bus around Wollongong NSW and was still active in the early 60's, although most of its mechanicals by that stage were AEC...

...also Wingfield Tpt in Adelaide operated a couple of cabovers in the late 50's, but were of the more pleasing, normal appearance

Watts bus service .
I used to go to school on that bus

Well done to everybody who came up with answers and photos. Looks like you've solved the mystery, Detective. Be good if anybody had anymore photos of Bussings in Australia.

LOL, mystery solvered.
Well done detective (and OldDog)

Well b

...the Watts bus piccy also shows... how as old as it would be, and for its time... an early pioneer of set back front axle buses in Australia...

Judging by the position of the front axle it is a bus chassis, weather it is a Bussing or not is another thing. Some of the bus body builders used to finish of the front of their bodies the same way, and looking at the Bussing pictures the bars are spread out a lot further, so that my just be a red herring. As to which Bus chassis had the front axle that far back in the late 50's, there wasn't a lot, most of them still had the set forward axle, I'm only thinking Leyland, AEC, White, Bedford, the AEC did have a few with a set back front axle. That axle is a long way back though and I thought the europeans had long front and rear overhangs for their mountain roads, so it would piont to it being of european orogin. There was MAN bus chassis out here so there is no reason that a Bussing wouldn't have been imported. As far as parts went, in those days if you couldn't get something you either made it or made something else fit. I've heard a lot of stories of one bus chassis having 3 bus bodies on it in its life time. The holes right at the bottom of the front would also piont to an underfloor engine. As another bit of conjecture, maybe even an AEC with an underfloor motor that just had the front and rear overhang extended as far as it would go to get max length and not have to extend the middle and reuse the bus front in the cabin manufacture. If all it was carting was volume the axle position wouldn't matter to much.

Regarding bus chassis with set back front axles, the early postwar vertical front engine, often half cab, Leyland OPS Tigers and OPD double deck Titans and AEC Regal Mk.III single deck and Regent Mk.III double deck chassis had set forward axles. In the late 1940s Leyland brought out the underfloor engine, set back axle OPSU Royal Tiger with horizontal 600 engine, and AEC introduced the similar spec Regal Mk.IV. with horizontal 9.6 litre engine. In the early 1950s Leyland introduced a lighter version of the Royal Tiger, the PSUC Tiger Cub with horizontal 350 engine, AEC countered with a lighter version of the Regal Mk.IV, the Reliance with AH410/AH470 engine.

Bussing NAG photo from State Library of Victoria.

...that picture is a ripper fageol .. keep 'em coming

... JC, who owned that great old Kenny ''the Legend and I'' has informed us that Hungarian gent Dennis Ban owned the Bussing that was in the first pic.... driven by Wally Lamb (the Great White Father), and was a subby for Friendly Tpt in Adelaide, who had a contract with GMH from the mid 50's carting parts in big containers to the assembly plants at Acacia Ridge in Brisbane and Pagewood in Sydney.....thanks JC for your recollections

...late edit...by the way JC the forum member is the daughter of JC the truckie....John Coombs

Hamish, that's a late 1930s Burgl