International Harvester XF4 Army Prototype

Hello All

I recently acquired a very rare IH XF4 ex Australian army trial prototype. Four were built by International Harvester and four by Ford for testing in 1971/72.

Although looking a little tatty, this vehicle is in very good straight condition.

See more info here - www.remlr.com/Army-Inter/xf4.html

I am interested in knowing more about these IH vehicles. Do any members have any photos etc?

A collector in Victoria has 3 of these vehicles. Two IH and one Ford. I would like to contact this person. Does anyone know who he/she is?

I am also interested to know if any late 1960/early 1970s Shute Upton 6000 lb power take off winches are available. I do not have any photos of these winches so if you have any please post up

Thanks in advance.

Stuart

the transport museum at pucka punual had one of these in there colection,try and contact them

the transport museum at pucka punual had one of these in there colection,try and contact them

Hello towie

The Bandiana museum has one. I will check to see if Pucka has one as well.

Thanks

This is the one at Bandiana..

Tommy, Good find, & a great save.. well done..

Hi Stuart, I worked at FORD Product engineering during the time these were built "but I was not involved" with the build program in any way. I can't remember the name of the engineer in charge of the program other than his first name was Geoff & the mechanic on the program was Geoff Barnes. They were built in a back section of the product engineering building in Geelong. Dennis Brooks, a member of the HCVCA was with FORD at the time & may (or may not) have more info than I have.
John Belfield from Melbourne,( a collector of all things ARMY) may also have knowledge of these vehicles. At the time of building these vehicles from memory the proposal was to be able to parachute the vehicles in to where they were needed & if they lasted a number of hours they had done their job. Cheers Tim

Hi Stuart, I worked at FORD Product engineering during the time these were built "but I was not involved" with the build program in any way. I can't remember the name of the engineer in charge of the program other than his first name was Geoff & the mechanic on the program was Geoff Barnes. They were built in a back section of the product engineering building in Geelong. Dennis Brooks, a member of the HCVCA was with FORD at the time & may (or may not) have more info than I have.
John Belfield from Melbourne,( a collector of all things ARMY) may also have knowledge of these vehicles. At the time of building these vehicles from memory the proposal was to be able to parachute the vehicles in to where they were needed & if they lasted a number of hours they had done their job. Cheers Tim

Thanks for this info Tim . Anything and everything will help out. Unfortunately, rare vehicles require a heap more researching than the common garden variety . Having said that, I do like a good challenge.

I can imagine Ford constructing their four XF4s somewhere in a corner of the factory as Ford would have been concentrating on supplying the burgeoning local car market during the late sixties.
I presume that the Australian Defence Department funded the construction of all XF4s with no guarantee of placing an order. Such a psychological dilemma for all those involved in the construction phase.

i think a lot of the stuff from pucka was shifted to bandiana

I seem to remember an magazine article being done on these back in the late 80's I reckon and I feel it was 4x4 magazine I have no idea what the magazine would be called as 4x4's arent my thing I would have read it at work or somewhere like that
Maybe someone here can stir their grey matter thats into 4x4's

Paul

I have no idea what the magazine would be called

wheels and tracks?

dunno what it was maybe 4x4 Australia was that a magazine back then ??

Paul