D series 400,badge or photo

Hi guys have just bought neat little 1971 ford D400 D series,wondering did they have the badge similar to the bigger ones on the doors EG. D0912 on these smaller models as i have 2 of these now and they dont look to have ever had any,if they did i am chasing some or at least as a stopgap a decent photo of one my son can make a sticker out of for me,I will post some pics up when my boys can do this for me for reference here and in restoration post

G'day Johnp

The Older D series did not have model code badges.
The better cab spec had a Chrome finish moulded badge as :-



This is the Nearside.
The Offside is the same, with the badge ranged towards rear of door.
I cant remember the spec difference between Std and Custom, but it wasn't just the badge
The D400, D750 etc refers the the approx payload in tons ie. 4 ton, 7.5ton.

I hope this helps you.

Cheers
RS

roland,thanks for that,i am completely baffled at the moment,this truck is fitted with Aussie compliance plate dated 10/71 it has a GVW of 15300 but no kg or lbs along side it i am unsure what system we were operating under at this time(metric or imperial),licence papers state tare of 3150kg and GCM of 12701kg but what would my aggregate weight be?.West Aussie rules from a few years ago stated we had to display Tare,Agg,GCM on rhs of vehicle,but that is no longer the case (to display them) this old girl still has it painted on door but no AGG,if D400 stands for approx weight it can carry then i am lost trying to decipher all this,convert 15300lbs to kgs it comes out at 6954.55 or convert the 12701 on door back from kgs to lbs and i get 28000lbs i dont know where to go from here(help) :-[

Hi John -

My tuppence worth, and relying on memory from way back ... the GVW (gross vehicle weight) is a design maximum for the vehicle, and this figure cannot be exceeded unless the vehicle is re-engineered and a new compliance plate fitted.

The tare weight is the unladen weight in its normal condition, with deck/body/fixed ramps etc fitted, with full fuel tank(s) and a driver in the cab). So this figure varies with the setup of the truck, as is weighed and recorded as a licencing requirement.

The GCM of the vehicle is the gross vehicle mass, or the maximum that the vehicle and its load can be. This too is set at licensing, and depends on how the truck is configures, number of axles, tyre size etc. So this figure may NOT be the same as the GVW, but could be in the ball park.

Your figures of (tare) 3150kg and (GCM) 12701kg allow for a load mass/weight of 9551kg, or 21056lbs. This is 9.551 tonnes, or bang on 9.4 imperial tons.

According to www.ford-trucks.com/article/idx/0/104/ar..._351M400_Engine.html the 400 petrol V8 motor was rated at 260 hp @ 4400 rpm. The "400" designation was not a weight designation, but referred to the engine size at 400 cubic inch, or 6.6 litres.

As Swishy says though, I do stand to be corrected!

Further to the above John, your original post mentions a "neat little 1971 ford D400 D series" but a 400 cubic inch petrol V8 engine and a 9.4t load capability indicates that it is getting to be a half-decent size as far as small trucks go!

Hows about a photo?

John - In 1971, we were still using Imperial measurements, alongside Metric. Metric conversion to measurements was commenced in 1969, and was completed in 1988.

In 1969, the conversion only applied to some immediately-changeable measurements, such as scientific measurements.
The cost of "tooling up" for metric, and the need to source the measuring devices on a large scale, made for a slow changeover.
Million of signs had to be changed, and markings on every single item that had a weight indicated, had to be altered. Just changing road signs alone, was a huge task.
By 1974, Metric changeover was starting to get into its stride, and most measurements were metric, but both could still be used.

In that year, new vehicles had to have both Metric and Imperial speedometer readings for road speed, but odometers could still be miles.

By 1976, all new vehicles had to have fully metric speedos, and all weights marked in kgs or tonnes.

The weight marked on your compliance plate, is 15300 lbs GVW (Gross Vehicle Weight). As part of the metric changeover, Mass was substituted for Weight in the mid-1980's, as Mass is the scientific term.

Using the formula of 2.2046 lbs to a kg, 15300lbs is 6940 kg.

GVM is the Gross Vehicle Mass or weight, which is the total weight of truck (tare), and load. This is the old "aggregate" weight.

GCM is the Gross Combination Mass or weight, which is the total weight of truck, load and any trailer.

Therefore, your weights are ....

Tare - 3150 kg.
GVM - 6940 kg.
GCM - 12701 kg.

This gives you a load capacity for the truck alone, of 3790 kg.

With a GCM of 12701 kg, you can legally tow a trailer grossing 5761 kgs.
However, I think you'll find the brakes will limit you to a 4.5 tonne GVM trailer, as trailers over 4.5 tonnes need full air brakes.

Your truck is nominally a 4-tonner, but the weight of any tray governs whether you can actually carry 4 tonnes legally.
Most "4 tonners" are rarely legal for 4 tonne, some can only carry 2.5 tonnes legally.

The older D seies where D 300/400/500?/750/850/1000.
A bit later on, they changed the designations to show the GVM and power, A D 300 became a 0712, 7 ton GVM 120 hp (petrol), a D400 became an 0812 (petrol) or an 0810 (360 diesel natural) later on the last 2 letters for a diesel changed to 11 when they went to the 380, but by then the 0911 was the smallest D series available with a diesel. The D 750 became the D1211 with the 380 or the earlier one D1210 with the 360, the D 850 became the D1414, or the earlier version D1314 with the 365 Turbo motors. When they first changed the designations it was an aluminium badge up on the door, and when they went to square headlights it was a plastic badge.

G'day
Thanks for coming in Cam..
I understand what Bugly is talking about Re; '400' refers to size of Petrol Engine in Cu. In....
But the trucks we are talking about did not derive in The USA, and were mostly Diesel, not Petrol.
I stand by my claim that a D400, was a '4 Tonner' in UK speak. The D1000 was a 10 Tonner (16t GVW).
As far as I can tell the figures from OneTrack are correct.
Tare - 3150 kg. Unladen weight of bodied vehicle.
GVM - 6940 kg. Max laden weight of bodied vehicle
GCM - 12701 kg. Max overall weight of loaded vehicle and any trailer.
This a would mean that in later terminology it would have been a D0707(4 cyl) 0r D0710( 6cyl) .
This was driveable in the UK with a car licence.
Basically the D series Ford was a British product not a Yank.
I hope this makes sense.

Cheers
RS

Ummm ... you are quite right! Of course it is English and not yankee ... I went off on a tangent!

What I didn't realise was how small it was. Was it a "normal" early D-Series cab? John ... does your truck have a 4- or a 6-cylinder engine?

Roland, we never had the 4 cylinder motors here as far as I know, except in the Thames.