Chinese Six

As the Leyland LAD Octopus topic in Restorations was at risk of being diverted by a discussion of the twin steer single drive configuration I thought it might be worth starting a topic dedicated to the subject.

At Ampol Melbourne in the 80's we had an Isuzu of this configuration. Short wheelbase with a small, four compartment tank and 4 rear mounted hose reels for oil deliveries to anyone with bulk oil storage rather than drums.

No photos of that one but here's one of Ipec's.

the old mercedes truck i have is twin steer single drive .. also a pantech ..unfortunally its going to be a long time restoration ..by the way i have a a pantech the same as the one in your IPEC photo . . a old lucar 28ft alloy pan

IPEC also had M.A.N. twin steer single rear aswell. I think Shell may have had an Albion in Sydney.

Kenny, is/was your Benz red with a black wheelarch painted on the pan above the 2nd steer axle? Jeff.

no it was originally a ex "ad-link" ..adelaide to port lincoln furniture truck .. the guys i bought it off were in victoria ..it is all white with a steel pan with "full skirts" its a 1985, 1425 V series

Jimbo
GuddayM8
Gr8 Pix
keep m cummin

Just to alter u're train of thort for a mo

can anybody remember A KW 8x4 all on torsion bars front n rear
I think I seen it @ the opening of the KW factory @ bayswater early 70's
it twaz spose 2 B a demo truck painted red oxide under coat all over
the COE K cab twaz low mounted with entry mayB in front of wheels
probly didn't C the light of day on the rd coz of the weid torsion bar on steers n may B handlin on rd problemz

ButEyeDOSt&2BCorrected
Cya
[ch9787]

Remember it well Swishy.

(with the usual risks of memory corruption)

Brought out as an evaluation vehicle from, I think, KW Canada. It was around when I worked at Bayswater which was 1974-77.

Display at a truck show, possibly Brisbane around 1975.



The movement inherent in the torsion bar suspension allowed the axles to tend to steer around a corner rather than scrubbing. This is fine on drive axles in helping to reduce tyre wear but apparently added some unwanted excitement on the steer. I recall a comment that it was particularly hairy on railway crossings.

End result of the evaluation was that there was no further action on the project. Truck was subsequently cut down to a single steer prime mover and purchased by Brown & Mitchell. Affectionately known there as the Camel Truck.

I used to do a Mittagong/Sydney courier run in a ford trader.[great downhill, empty]. Every other morning, early, I would by passed by a blue twin steer, single drive UD with the word "ICE" on the air foil. They would pass me like I was standing still.

My Scammell Routeman MkII was an 8 wheeler but is now a Chinese Six as a previous owner converted it to carry a garbage compactor & cut off the back lazy axle & some chassis length. And no, I will never stop whinging about that act of vandalism of an historic Ex-Shell tanker Scammell.
This Ex-Rapid Transport truck is a 1974 MAN 8.186 with 180HP slanted 6cyl & ZF pogo stick gearbox but has major rust in the cab/roof falling in & if I could get a rust free cab I'd like to restore it. These are in NSW, Australia, but I also have photos from UK of Chinese Six ERF prime movers.

Jimbo51,

Thanks for posting the pics of the Canadian set-back axle K154 - that's a variation on the K100 theme I never saw before, the only set-back axle models I saw were the ones KW sold on the Swiss and Israeli markets but that thing is even more radical...

(bigger pics of the Swiss variety here: www.toprun.ch/truck/12-2005/Daniel/.viewer/viewer.html )

Cheers,

T