- Posts: 1679
- Thank you received: 2
Float ID
15 years 3 months ago #6954
by GM Diesel
GM Diesels - Converting diesel into noise since 1938.
Replied by GM Diesel on topic Re: Float ID
Onetrack, I will agree the detroits can be annoying little suckers but they do have an important place in diesel history. 
Swishy, thankyou for your creative " how to get a wheel of the trailer thingo ". I understand the complicated little sucker now.
Basil
Swishy, thankyou for your creative " how to get a wheel of the trailer thingo ". I understand the complicated little sucker now.
Basil
GM Diesels - Converting diesel into noise since 1938.
Please Log in to join the conversation.
15 years 3 months ago #6955
by Swishy
Pix of the WWII 1945 Tank Transporter @ Bendigo
img407.imageshack.us/img407/6352/rogershr0.jpg
Rogers trailers with 480 employees working in three shifts and producing 10 trailers every 24 hours for
military use.
Cya
[ch9787]
OF ALL THE THINGS EYE MISS ................. EYE MISS MY MIND THE MOST
There's more WORTH in KENWORTH
Replied by Swishy on topic Re: Float ID
Pix of the WWII 1945 Tank Transporter @ Bendigo
img407.imageshack.us/img407/6352/rogershr0.jpg
Rogers trailers with 480 employees working in three shifts and producing 10 trailers every 24 hours for
military use.
Cya
[ch9787]
OF ALL THE THINGS EYE MISS ................. EYE MISS MY MIND THE MOST
There's more WORTH in KENWORTH
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- Topic Author
15 years 3 months ago - 15 years 3 months ago #6957
by
Replied by on topic Re: Float ID
Geez, I never knew that any of the old Rogers would still be left in existence in any of the Govt or quasi-Govt depts. The old girls are 9' 6", or 10' wide, so that stopped a lot of them being bought and used after the War. You had to jump a hundred hoops and had all kinds of BS restrictions placed on you, if you bought one and tried to licence one for the road.
The one I had, was cut down the middle and had 18" or 2', and the middle wheels, cut out, to bring her back to 8' and to make her road-legit. It still weighed nearly 8 tonnes, even cut down.
The rumour was, that Mick Caratti owned it at one time, and used to cart his D9's around on it (not legally - but nuthin' that Mick ever did, was ever legal
)
I parked her in the scrap pile in 1975 when I bought a new Boomerang float. The brakes never worked just about all the time I owned it, but the Mermaids never bothered us then, like they do now ..
However, the lack of brakes .. and the cracks .. and the lack of brake parts .. and the illegality of being continually overloaded with the D7F's .. made it riskier and riskier to own and use, as we ventured further and further from the Wheatbelt.
Once we started working around Kalgoorlie in the early 1970's, the Heavies were running back and forth on the East-West Hwy regularly, and they were just too snoopy to continue risking it, so she got retired.
The cops ran the Heavies back then, and if they had some mean ole Sarges who knew trucks, inside out. I'll never forget, one time, the Mermaids pulled the brother up at Yellowdine. They always had a Sarge and a rookie as a team.
The Sarge was giving the brother a hard time about a wheel nut missing off one of the front wheels of the old Deutz (they were 10-stud discs) .. when the rookie .. who'd been snooping around the float, came scurrying back to the Sarge and the brother, and said, breathlessly .. "Hey, Sarge!!! - this trailer .. and the truck .. have got DIFFERENT number plates!!! .. " ROFL
Needless to say, the Sarge was mightily pissed-off at this piece of useless info .. and the kid, who thought he'd just uncovered a criminal act that would see him promoted .. slunk off, under the withering glare of the Sarge ..
The old Rogers lay in the scrapheap, unloved and unwanted, for about 12 years .. when one day, a local small-time contractor with a D7E rang up, and wanted to know if we wanted to sell it!!
We did a deal (about $1000 changed hands, from memory - but don't quote me on that), wondering what the hell he was going to do with it?
Bugger me, if the next time I saw it, he'd replaced all the braking system with stuff he'd scrounged .. got it all working .. added a 3rd axle to it .. welded up all the cracks .. got it licenced .. and he was merrily hauling his D7E around on it.
I spoke to the contractor a couple of years later, about how the old/new Rogers was going .. and he was telling me about how a bloke had run straight into him, on an S-bend, on a gravel road, and ploughed right into the leading axle of the Rogers!!
Thank God it was him, and not me, when I was always illegal!! .. :-[
This bloke was a local accountant, apparently, and he owned a hot little Toyota coupe, and was always running late and doing 130 clicks everywhere.
Anyway, Alan was coming around this sweeping bend on this nice wide gravel road, fully loaded, not far fom his home .. when this bloody mad accountant came screaming the other way, over a rise and into the curve, at 130 clicks .. and then lost it, as he was cornering .. and slid right into the leading axle of the Rogers!!
Alan said the Rogers axle got bent backwards about 6" .. and the wheels, hub and axles took the entire front 1/4 of the Toyota, right off!! ..
He said it cut the car like a knife, from the LH headlights .. in a straight, but angled line .. right across the front, to the rear of the RH front wheel. The Rogers axles even cut huge chunks off the motor .. and the car spun to a halt in the middle of the road .. and the accountant was left sitting in the seat, with his feet on the pedals .. but with nothing left in front of the pedals!! .. his feet and the pedals were hanging in space!! ..
Alan said the road was littered with chunks of engine block, engine accessories, panels, trim, glass, and plastic .. like something out of a Yank action movie!! He said he looked in the mirror as the bloke hit him .. and the car just seemed to explode! .. like in a Yank movie ..
Anyway, the accountant bloke wasn't hurt, fortunately .. but his car was a write-off, and Alan was mightily pissed-off, that he had to go and rebuilt the float again!! He got a payout on insurance, but it never fully covered the cost of the damage .. and he lost time with his dozer while he repaired the old Rodgers, again.
I haven't seen Alan for many years (probably at least 12), and I know he's well and truly retired, now. I still wonder if that old Rogers isn't still running around somewhere, enjoying about a 5th resurrection, from certain death ..
What amuses me, is that plate on the Bendigo Rodgers .. 15 mph maximum speed loaded, and 20 mph empty. Geez, wouldn't that make for a bloody boring trip!!
I guess if you remember that they hauled them with the old Hercules-powered Diamond T's (which were still in everyday use, when I was in the Army in '69-'71!) .. you'd soon understand that 20 mph was a cracking pace for the old Diamonds. I seem to recall they peaked out at 30 mph.
Tyres were a real worry in 1942 and 1943 .. because the Japs had grabbed all the rubber plantations, and rubber was like gold .. and every exhortation was used to prevent tyre wear and damage. Convoy speeds were deliberately kept low to preserve scarce tyres.
The Australian Army had a huge recovery/salvage/repair arrangement for tyres in that period .. and not a single tyre was ever thrown away .. even if it was totally buggered. They scrimped and scrounged rubber from buggered tyres and used it to patch repairable ones .. and "repairable" had a whole lot different meaning in 1942 & 1943 ..
The convoy speeds up "the Track" (Adelaide to Darwin) were 30 mph loaded .. for ALL cars, utes and trucks .. and 40 mph empty .. even when "the Track" was bitumenised by the Yanks, between Alice and Darwin.
I drove down a section of the old "Track" in July 2008 (they've left about 27 kms, I think it is, as a "tourist section", when they put the new sections of the Stuart through .. and I couldn't help but marvel at the fortitude of those blokes pounding back and forth along "the Track" in 1942/43, at 30 mph, in choking dust and heat, for 1000's of k's.
On the Aust War Memorial site, I recall seeing pics, of the long water-filled troughs, along "the Track", that they used to drive the vehicles through, to try and cool the tyres and save rubber ..
The one I had, was cut down the middle and had 18" or 2', and the middle wheels, cut out, to bring her back to 8' and to make her road-legit. It still weighed nearly 8 tonnes, even cut down.
The rumour was, that Mick Caratti owned it at one time, and used to cart his D9's around on it (not legally - but nuthin' that Mick ever did, was ever legal
)I parked her in the scrap pile in 1975 when I bought a new Boomerang float. The brakes never worked just about all the time I owned it, but the Mermaids never bothered us then, like they do now ..
However, the lack of brakes .. and the cracks .. and the lack of brake parts .. and the illegality of being continually overloaded with the D7F's .. made it riskier and riskier to own and use, as we ventured further and further from the Wheatbelt.
Once we started working around Kalgoorlie in the early 1970's, the Heavies were running back and forth on the East-West Hwy regularly, and they were just too snoopy to continue risking it, so she got retired.
The cops ran the Heavies back then, and if they had some mean ole Sarges who knew trucks, inside out. I'll never forget, one time, the Mermaids pulled the brother up at Yellowdine. They always had a Sarge and a rookie as a team.
The Sarge was giving the brother a hard time about a wheel nut missing off one of the front wheels of the old Deutz (they were 10-stud discs) .. when the rookie .. who'd been snooping around the float, came scurrying back to the Sarge and the brother, and said, breathlessly .. "Hey, Sarge!!! - this trailer .. and the truck .. have got DIFFERENT number plates!!! .. " ROFL
Needless to say, the Sarge was mightily pissed-off at this piece of useless info .. and the kid, who thought he'd just uncovered a criminal act that would see him promoted .. slunk off, under the withering glare of the Sarge ..
The old Rogers lay in the scrapheap, unloved and unwanted, for about 12 years .. when one day, a local small-time contractor with a D7E rang up, and wanted to know if we wanted to sell it!!
We did a deal (about $1000 changed hands, from memory - but don't quote me on that), wondering what the hell he was going to do with it?
Bugger me, if the next time I saw it, he'd replaced all the braking system with stuff he'd scrounged .. got it all working .. added a 3rd axle to it .. welded up all the cracks .. got it licenced .. and he was merrily hauling his D7E around on it.
I spoke to the contractor a couple of years later, about how the old/new Rogers was going .. and he was telling me about how a bloke had run straight into him, on an S-bend, on a gravel road, and ploughed right into the leading axle of the Rogers!!
Thank God it was him, and not me, when I was always illegal!! .. :-[
This bloke was a local accountant, apparently, and he owned a hot little Toyota coupe, and was always running late and doing 130 clicks everywhere.
Anyway, Alan was coming around this sweeping bend on this nice wide gravel road, fully loaded, not far fom his home .. when this bloody mad accountant came screaming the other way, over a rise and into the curve, at 130 clicks .. and then lost it, as he was cornering .. and slid right into the leading axle of the Rogers!!
Alan said the Rogers axle got bent backwards about 6" .. and the wheels, hub and axles took the entire front 1/4 of the Toyota, right off!! ..
He said it cut the car like a knife, from the LH headlights .. in a straight, but angled line .. right across the front, to the rear of the RH front wheel. The Rogers axles even cut huge chunks off the motor .. and the car spun to a halt in the middle of the road .. and the accountant was left sitting in the seat, with his feet on the pedals .. but with nothing left in front of the pedals!! .. his feet and the pedals were hanging in space!! ..
Alan said the road was littered with chunks of engine block, engine accessories, panels, trim, glass, and plastic .. like something out of a Yank action movie!! He said he looked in the mirror as the bloke hit him .. and the car just seemed to explode! .. like in a Yank movie ..
Anyway, the accountant bloke wasn't hurt, fortunately .. but his car was a write-off, and Alan was mightily pissed-off, that he had to go and rebuilt the float again!! He got a payout on insurance, but it never fully covered the cost of the damage .. and he lost time with his dozer while he repaired the old Rodgers, again.
I haven't seen Alan for many years (probably at least 12), and I know he's well and truly retired, now. I still wonder if that old Rogers isn't still running around somewhere, enjoying about a 5th resurrection, from certain death ..
What amuses me, is that plate on the Bendigo Rodgers .. 15 mph maximum speed loaded, and 20 mph empty. Geez, wouldn't that make for a bloody boring trip!!
I guess if you remember that they hauled them with the old Hercules-powered Diamond T's (which were still in everyday use, when I was in the Army in '69-'71!) .. you'd soon understand that 20 mph was a cracking pace for the old Diamonds. I seem to recall they peaked out at 30 mph.
Tyres were a real worry in 1942 and 1943 .. because the Japs had grabbed all the rubber plantations, and rubber was like gold .. and every exhortation was used to prevent tyre wear and damage. Convoy speeds were deliberately kept low to preserve scarce tyres.
The Australian Army had a huge recovery/salvage/repair arrangement for tyres in that period .. and not a single tyre was ever thrown away .. even if it was totally buggered. They scrimped and scrounged rubber from buggered tyres and used it to patch repairable ones .. and "repairable" had a whole lot different meaning in 1942 & 1943 ..
The convoy speeds up "the Track" (Adelaide to Darwin) were 30 mph loaded .. for ALL cars, utes and trucks .. and 40 mph empty .. even when "the Track" was bitumenised by the Yanks, between Alice and Darwin.
I drove down a section of the old "Track" in July 2008 (they've left about 27 kms, I think it is, as a "tourist section", when they put the new sections of the Stuart through .. and I couldn't help but marvel at the fortitude of those blokes pounding back and forth along "the Track" in 1942/43, at 30 mph, in choking dust and heat, for 1000's of k's.
On the Aust War Memorial site, I recall seeing pics, of the long water-filled troughs, along "the Track", that they used to drive the vehicles through, to try and cool the tyres and save rubber ..
Please Log in to join the conversation.
15 years 3 months ago #6958
by Swishy
JuanTrack
GuddayM8
Gr8 info
Any pics?
Twaz the dun thing many moons ago
to vist the Army auctions n buy up the ol Rogers Tank Transport Trailers
As many haulage contractors could not get a reliable row of 8 small wheel n suspension with air mecanical brakes
they were gutted out to make big floats n dollies for Heavy Haulage
Pappy did buy 3 n had big floats n dollies made
we still got all the suspensions n running gear
one of my 1st jobs twaz helping our mecanic @ the time to file the brake cam shafts to an aceptable upgrade.
the brake drum n spider spoke were cast in one
so the word of the day twaz 2 use soft linings
and in all th@ time we have never replaced any worn out drums/hubs
Dont look @ the aborshion of an idea of suspension above the Rogers
LOL
cya
[ch9787]
OF ALL THE THINGS EYE MISS ................. EYE MISS MY MIND THE MOST
There's more WORTH in KENWORTH
Replied by Swishy on topic Re: Float ID
JuanTrack
GuddayM8
Gr8 info
Any pics?
Twaz the dun thing many moons ago
to vist the Army auctions n buy up the ol Rogers Tank Transport Trailers
As many haulage contractors could not get a reliable row of 8 small wheel n suspension with air mecanical brakes
they were gutted out to make big floats n dollies for Heavy Haulage
Pappy did buy 3 n had big floats n dollies made
we still got all the suspensions n running gear
one of my 1st jobs twaz helping our mecanic @ the time to file the brake cam shafts to an aceptable upgrade.
the brake drum n spider spoke were cast in one
so the word of the day twaz 2 use soft linings
and in all th@ time we have never replaced any worn out drums/hubs
Dont look @ the aborshion of an idea of suspension above the Rogers
LOL
cya
[ch9787]
OF ALL THE THINGS EYE MISS ................. EYE MISS MY MIND THE MOST
There's more WORTH in KENWORTH
Please Log in to join the conversation.
Time to create page: 0.495 seconds