Jim's Purchase

September 1998.

A Canadian Universal Carrier Mk1.

Jim has made quite a good "find". Another collector has decided to sell a surplus carrier that has been "littering" his shed and yard.

Just recently I recieved the following from him:
'I just negotiated a deal for a Mk1 carrier, good tracks and sprocket, working brakes and steering, spare motor, all armour, instrument panel, vision blocks and most of all the stowage bins.
And photocopies of the manuals. He (the seller) seemed apologetic that I was going to have to look for the fire extinguisher bracket that goes on top the motor cover (!) and the brass fittings for the BREN mount.'

The plan.

'I am going to build a temporary "lean-to" against the side of my garage and use as a sandblasting tent. As things come off the carrier, they will be sandblasted, primed and painted, then stored in the garage. After I get down to the hull, then I will start putting everything back together. I will also have the motor sent over to a friend for rebuild, the radiator flushed, the transmission inspected, and fuel tanks boiled out and lined. I am lucky that I have someone who is familiar with their maintenance and operation that is a part of my WWII group that is willing to help.'

A note about Carriers.
Popular name is "Bren Gun Carrier", actually most carriers are in reality "Universal Carriers" of either the Mk 1 or Mk 2 pattern.
Now here is where it gets a bit complicated.

A "real" Bren Gun Carrier is distinguishable from side on in that the side armour on one side slopes downwards petering out above the diff (this is a rough guide only), they are partially armoured.

Universal Carrier Mk 1 (AUST LP1) , our locally built version. It was fully armoured with side armour of full height: the glacis plate was 2 piece instead of the English pattern of 1 piece. These vehicles were stick steer with a brake master cylinder connected to each stick. Very wastefull of power and hard work to drive as they had the normal CMP (Canadian Military Pattern) diff which did not have the tank style "regenerative" system.

Universal Carrier Mk 2 (AUST LP2) these vehicles had a steering wheel connected to a camming plate which moved the centre axle from side to side, this caused a track warping effect and made it much easier to follow a straight line on a cambered road, no power loss from continual steering corrections. If the wheel was turned more than 1/2 a turn, linkages also brought in the sprocket brake on that side allowing a sharp turn. Done at speed, without due care, this would almost certainly cause a thrown track: it being quite possible at high speed to distort the thrown track rendering it U/S.
Braking was by foot pedal.

Canadian versions - I do not have any info.

As of December 1998 Jim now has his carrier home (USA) and has already started pullng it to bits, here are some more pictures.

Here it is arriving. What really took my eye was the tanks in the background. They belong to Mike Moss in Easton PA.

Download the big pics by clicking on the small pics...

 

Download the big pics by clicking on the small pics...

 

Download the big pics by clicking on the small pics...

 

Download the big pics by clicking on the small pics...

 

Download the big pics by clicking on the small pics...

 

Download the big pics by clicking on the small pics...

 

 

As Jim has sent quite a few photos of his carrier I felt I had better include one of his "Blitz", which is what they are called in Australia, correctly it is a Canadian Military Pattern Truck.

Download the big pics by clicking on the small pics...

 

Many thanks to Jim for providing the photo's and story.

 

 

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