Rare Morris

This looks like a pretty big truck to be a Morris. What model is it? The seller does not seem to know anything about it.

www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/northam/trucks/m...ial-truck/1177470030

Lang

Certainly is a Morris Commercial.

Morris Commercial OK but it looks bigger than the usual light vehicle of that era with that bonnet style. Maybe just an optical illusion?

Does not look a bad prospect for a project.

I will have a Google to see.

Just as a comment - Have you noticed a lot of photos now on Gumtree/Ebay etc are done in portrait mode only getting half the subject. I think it is the look-at-me selfie generation who think a phone camera only works that way. "Amanda" in the Gumtree add was probably putting the truck up for her dad.

Lang

These bigger 8 stud wheel long nose Morris Commercials are not a common truck. Found only two with a search, both beautifully restored. The red one was subject to an arson attack and destroyed in Ballarat a few years ago

Yes, yes and yes,
It is a five tonner Model CV ("Equiload" said to equal the weight between front and rear axles) made for a few years from 1937. The eight stud wheels certainly indicate the largest in the range. Without opening the bonnet it is difficult to be certain but it is probably a model 13/5, indicating five ton capacity with a 13 foot wheelbase. It would have a six cylinder side valve engine. The sheetmetal is very similar to most Morris Commercials from 1937 to about 1952.

If only it was not on the far side of the paddock from me, it would be mine. I wonder how much it costs to freight a truck back? A mate is wondering the same thing as he has his eye on a different truck over there.

Morris.

A farmer on the edge of Bendigo had one of these trucks and it was fitted with a Saurer Diesel. I think they were a Swiss engine. As far as I can recall, it was delivered new with the Saurer fitted.

Morris

Send me a PM. Might work out a way to drive it back.

Lang

14B-Beaver, yes Morris larger trucks were available with the SaurerDiesel engine factory fitted. I did my apprenticeship on BMC vehicles & I assisted the truck mechanic (washed all the parts) to remove , overhaul & refit the Saurer engine. They had to replace the crankshaft & from memory it took some months to get a crankshaft from Europe. Cheers Tim
ps the truck was owned by a farmer out west of Geelong somewhere.

Another, smaller tonnage

www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/northam/trucks/m...-restored/1177923813

Yes, these larger Morris Commercials had an option of the Saurer Diesel engine but not until after WW11. The engines were built by Morris, under "licence" (possibly stolen from the Germans at the end of the war?) Morris added the letter "o," for "Oil" (the then British name for diesel, now they call it "DERV") to the model number, so my previous example with the Saurer would be a Model CVO.

My old mate Michael Kerrigan (R.I.P.) used to love to tell me the story that the only truck he ever bought new was a 1949 Morris Commercial with the Saurer diesel and that it was the worst truck he ever owned! Each time he told me the story, I explained that working a truck six days a week to make a living was very different to restoring it and driving it to two truck shows a year. We both loved the discussion!