Re Rhodes Ridley

I was lucky enough to be given a private viewing of the Rhodes Ridley at the Rhodes premises in Mackay St. Kewdale, Perth on 30 September 2003. Mr Bill McConnell generously invited me to come and a look at the truck. He could not do enough for me making me very welcome and telling me all about the truck. I took a number of photos. I have seen a lot of photos of the truck on various websites on the internet but I have not seen any photos of the engines.

As you will see in my photos there are two sets of instruments and controls on the dashboard, one for each engine. I believe the chassis was fabricated from five/eighths of an inch thick plate and measures 16 inches deep by 4 inches wide. I think it is box section. You will also notice that the truck is left hand drive.



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Well now
th@ now sounds interest n

start one Screemer
n wen happy in run n
engage clutches ..... to drive n start tuther motor

am eye close or no cigar

LOL
cya

I think you'll find its a redundancy thing- if one engine fails in the field, you could disengage the clutch on that one and keep going on the other.

I believe that it was only the FANS that ran in opposite directions (because of the way the fan drive was set up) the motors both ran in the same direction.

These twin GM's were used in General Grant tanks and a few other USA military applications. The twin motor setup was known as a Power Pack.

Morris.

From Geoffa's photo, you can see both fans run counterclockwise.
I read that not only were these things paralleled up (400hp), GM also offered the twins mounted in line as well, that's 4-6/71's.
Imagine the racket at full noise.

I think what is confusing everybody is the fact that one engine is back to front because there is no room for a blower between the two. So technically, one engine block is turned around and the crank is turning backwards in relation to the block of that engine.

The gearcase has a gear driven from each engine, and the they need to both turn the same way to drive the PTO shaft. If the engines were turning opposite directions, they would need a forth, idler, gear positioned between one engine and the PTO.

Have run a couple of these twin 6's on compressors and mudpumps. Sods of things to get the tune balanced.
Have also seen one setup with torque converters
Believe they also came in a quad version. Those tanks had some interesting drive set ups depending on which company made them, Hard to imagine the noise and heat inside one of them.
The ones we had only had 1 starter (air or donkey engine) and you would start one then start the other using the clutches as said above
Cheers Steve

These ran twin 6-71's driving a common generator for the electric traction motors. I wonder if the Detroits are the same setup

DERM 63 at Daylesford by bparo2003 , on Flickr

a 6-71 GM diesel in the engine room by bparo2003 , on Flickr

Something bad wrong with that last photo of the GM fitted into that rail-motor

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WHERE'S the bloody OIL LEAKS ?


regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

Going by the clutch levers I would say yes.