> I found a truck on a farm near here today that has me a little intrigued.
> What is interesting is that it has a plaque on the dash which says"
> ARMOURED CAR. LIGHT SERIAL NO. 77641" According to the farmer who owns it,
> this was a type of armoured personnel carrier built onto these trucks.
> Does anyone know anything about these Armoured Cars?????
Rod
It sounds like you have found the lower half of one of our home grown
vehicles
and your farmer is correct in what he says..
If I am barking up the right tree it is the automotive portion of a
"Rover" Armoured Car. There is only 1 example I know of that looks like
a
vehicle and that belongs to Col Anderson in Sheparton, Victoria.
They are a big boxy thing with sloped armour. If you imagine the basic
hull shape of a Sdkfz 251 (Hanomag armoured half track) or OT-810 (Czech
variant) chop the nose off and put wheels instead of the tracks then
this
is what a Rover would look like, but much higher.
If you had a hull all you would have to do is remove all the cab etc
leaving behind all mechanicals,seats, dash and steering etc and drop the
hull on, they were designed as a quick, stop-gap, type conversion.
As for the serial No I would delete the first 3 numbers and only believe
the 41 part. I have no idea how many were made but there could not have
been more than a couple of hundred at most.
Guess what, the only known area that hulls are still turning up
is........
Western Australia! Last I heard there was about 5 hulls in varying
condition
just begging to be put back on a set of mechanicals all of them in the
west! As they were constructed from flat plate (I don't know what grade
of
Armour, if at all) they are straight forward to restore should any part
have suffered the 'BBQ plate' treatment and be missing.
I have a vague idea that there is 1 reasonably complete example
somewhere
over your way but I just can't remember who or where. If you have any
dinkum interest then your next reference will have to be the Canberra
War Memorial or Col Anderson.
> Rod Diery
> Kulin Western Australia
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