Vehicles
Vehicles
Just after the war, Dad built a farm-type tractor he started with an old “Whippet” car and used the engine gearbox and chassis. He added a second gear box after the first to give very low speeds and more of them. He used a truck back axle and a pair of proper, large diameter tractor rear wheels. This meant lifting the chassis above the front axle, which increased ground clearance.
He hadn’t completed it very long when somebody wanted to buy it. This was replaced with an Allis Channers tractor. For the mill, he first bought a Fordson petrol tractor to which he fixed a heavy winch. Ideal for tree felling, logging and powering the mill machinery.
Later he bought a single cylinder two stroke diesel job. This was very heavy and had 40hp output. It weighted 3 ΒΌ ton and had a 3″ steel bar across the front for scrub crushing. A very low revving engine (400 to 1000rpm) but go for hours on very little fuel. About 41 litres for 6 hours, plus a quart of lubricating oil. This really drove the mill gear.
Our truck. In 1946, Dad bought a “Dodge” 4-wheel drive ex-army ute. A 6-cylinder petrol job, which the army rated 15cwt. With the addition of another leaf in the rear springs, we found it capable of a 30cwt load. A very capable go-anywhere vehicle on which we shifted almost everything. With suitable sides, we could carry stock, pigs or three small cows. When cutting and selling firewood he mounted a circular saw bench on the back, which he drove with a 5hp Petter engine. He could fill the tray up to a set level and know he had a measure quantity of firewood.
Many loads of rough firewood traveled into our yard piled up on the tray.
For logs: up to 10ft long were ok on the 8ft tray, for longer ones the tray sides projected behind the cab and lined up with the very heavy front mudguards so we could roll a log on the side passed the cab and have it projecting over both ends. We had to remove a cab door to be able to get in for driving.