Hello All,

I was digging through some old pictures today and found one of a truck and trailer my great uncle built in France in WWII. He called it 'Big Aggie' named after his wife. I wish I had written down more information on it. I remember him saying it had a v-12 engine in it, and several transmissions. He wrote on the back of the picture that it would haul 60 tons. He always told the story that General Eisenhauer saw this outfit and had Freuhauf trailer come out within a week and take pictures and measurements to mass produce it.

Jdnut

JDnut, that old banger is a 980-981 Diamond T Tank Transporter,built for the British Armed Forces, I have a very early one built in 1941,they have two gear-boxes,main speed box and range box (browny box) these old tug's are in my mind the best trucks "ever built",I have seen some awsome work done with these trucks with weight's way above 100 U.K. tonnes, the free World today was made possible through the strengh and vigor of these trucks hauling Tanks to battle sites from !941 to the early 70's Wynn's Heavy Haulage made history with the D/T in England, In Australia they formed the start of the " LAND TRAIN " If you want to drive the best drive a D-T.
I have driven stacks of trucks with more power, more noise , but none with as much class .
tctractors

Chris, a high quality photo. Very enjoyable. Thanks for posting. GWH

I seem to rember about 40 years ago exactly the v12 or whatever tank retrievers poppin,farting and belching when traveling in Nam, they never seemed to run perfect, must of burned a lot of gas, but it was free, just sign for it and get all you could haul away:rolleyes: , where could we go?? saigon:confused: !! to The Playboy Club, no touching then!!!

jdnut, nice ole truck, Nice pic too. Love that old stuff. I also found out here in the Black Hills of SD where they cut down the Christmas tree for President Eisenhauer. His wife Mamie is from my home town of Boone, IA and my Grandma had a letter from her on the White Stationary. Thanks for sharing. John

I thought the Diamond T's had a big straight 6 in them not a V-12. Hercules or Waukesha comes to mind.

From what I remember of the stories he told, They took the truck body and added a bigger engine and more transmissions for their specific purpose. He used to say that an inproperly trained driver would burn out the low gears if they did not use it right. I wish I had written some of what he said down now, but I was too young at the time to think of it. He also had some pictures of American tanks that had taken direct hits.... I wish I could find some of those now. He and his son did not get along so most of these treasures were lost when he died. This picture was sent to my grandfather (his brother) thatis how I got it.

Chris

My family still uses an Army surplus lowboy like the one pictured above.

The axels have been swaped out with oil bath 10 hole units,and the wheels have been replaced with with low proflie wheels.

We still have the loading ramps pictured above the axels, but use them on the wash rack to pressure was the underside of crawlers.

We no longer have to move those heavy ramps when had the deck rebuilt while the axels were upgraded to change it into a tilt bed trailer.


One of the water districts out here even had a crane panted OD Green like the one pictured in the background of the picture.