OFM Low Loader info please

Hi all, I've recently added this gem to the collection. Do any of you know much about these? It appears to be ex army, and has hydraulic brakes, the axles have early Frieghter hubs, but the axle beams are only 90mm square, and it's on single piont suspension. Any clue's would be appreciated, thanks, Cam.

Cam - Not much to add, the plate says it all. These low-loaders were an Australian Army unit, built by the Maribyrnong Ordnance Factory in the mid-1960's, to carry Engineer construction plant.
Don't ask me why Ordnance decided to build their own, instead of just buying off-the-shelf Freighter, or other civvy brand floats. Your defence dollars at work ..

We had several of these in 'Nam .. in the link below, there's a pic of one in our plant yard in Nui Dat. Good, handy, reliable, low deck, little float .. but I seem to recall they had pretty backward, air-over-hydraulic brakes??

One things for sure, you've got a "collectible". I'd guess maybe only 50 or 60 were built in total, this was the days when the Army considered an order for 50 items a big deal ..

cas.awm.gov.au/photograph/P08176.002

Here's a pic from my own collection, of a U.S. LHD Kaiser/Mack, that we had on loan from the Yanks, hooked up to one of the Maribyrnong floats.
We had two in our plant yard at Nui Dat, and they worked hard all day, every day.

Sorry about the less-than-stellar pic quality, it was snapped on the run very early one Sunday morning, before starting work, and the early morning light wasn't good for photo work.
Add in 40 years of deterioration of the colour in Kodak 35mm slides, and we have even more problems, that not even PhotoShop can fix completely ..

i45.tinypic.com/2qtcq9v.jpg

Thanks Ron, this one still looks to be in good condition, obviously someone has added the ramps later, but the deck is still flat.

Cam - Yes, it's a nice, straight, good condition example, that has probably only ever spent a few thousand miles running close to Army depots in Australia, and spending 98% of its time just sitting around. A lot of military stuff just wears out by neglect and lack of use, not miles on the road.

Yes, the ramps are an addition, they never had ramps when the Army built and used them .. we just pushed up some dirt or utilised a couple of blocks of wood to load up.

on one track's info could we guess - no 22; model OFM; built 1964 ??

BigC
GuddayM8

Nice find/steel
LOL
I'd imagine the military copied a freighter trailer
here B one of the 1st triaxles in melbourne bout mid 50's
freighter tri with air hyd brakes on little low loader wheels 8.25x15 tyres n 12.1/4" drums for the hyd brakes


the neck looks very much the same n the rear lead up ramp to RSend = same
In the early 60's we had the 1st folding gooseneck in Australia on 8.25x15 air mechanical brakes, PBR came round to us to view how the brakes were set up
not long after PBR released low loader brakes for the 8.25x15 low loader axles
not long after they also had a modification made to convert PBR air Hyd to Air mechanical
all long gone now as no one nose wot U B talk n about
LOL
The X perts now a days will B tell n U to wip the axles out n fit new ones
Cya
[ch9787]

Swishy, no chance of just whipping out the axles and whacking in some new ones, the axles are 90mm square, new ones today are 127mm, I'd allready thought of that. The whole thing is in pretty good nick, the brakes do need some work, though it has come from a TAFE colledge and has had a fair bit of money spent on it.

mammoth - The OFM stands for Ordinance Factory, Maribyrnong. No 22 would be the consecutive number built. 64 could possibly be the year of build.

Swishy - No, the PBR info is not all long gone, not while you've got blokes like me snaffling up old PBR books when they appear for sale.
I have a 1962 PBR Power Brake Equipment catalog (for trucks, semi-trailers, buses, etc) which lists models, parts and design info, plus braking discussions, for all PBR brake products .. vacuum, compressed air, hydraulic and mechanical .. and it even has huge fold-out colour charts, showing the schematics and layout of both vacuum and air braking systems for semi trailers ..

G'day Cam,
Looks like just the thing to bring home more bargains!

Any idea what it would weigh?

-Stuart