 |
Home | Events | Location | Education | Shop | Vehicles | Weapons
|
This vehicle is currently on display at the Museum
The wartime Austin Gantry breakdown vehicles provided light recovery
support well into peacetime. The range of ‘Combat' trucks, under development
in the late 1940s and early 1950s, was to have included a 3 ton
A GS recovery vehicle was developed at the Fighting Vehicle Research and Development Establishment (FVRDE), initially in conjunction with Mann Egerton & Co. The body was fitted to a Commer four wheel drive chassis which had been modified to support the weight of a truck on suspended tow. The modification included fitting twin wheels on the rear axles, making smaller tyres necessary to keep the vehicle within the standard overall width. A chassis winch was fitted.
The body consisted of a platform on which a girder structure was mounted and a single boom hinged crane jib, held in position by cables running from the girder structure. A jib winch within the structure could be used to adjust the height and also provided the main lift for casualties and other lifting tasks. Lockers at the front of the body carried recovery equipment. Two detachable sprag legs or anchors could be fitted at the rear to fix the vehicle in position when the main chassis winch was being used to recover a vehicle.
After trials it was decided to award the production contract to Vauxhall Motors, producers of the Bedford 3 ton GS truck. For this role the Bedford RL was modified similar to the Commer and fitted with smaller wheels twinned at the rear and a chassis mounted main winch. Production bodies were built by Marshalls of Cambridge.
The Bedfords came into service in the late 1950s and remained the standard light wheeled recovery vehicle until supplanted in the 1980s by the Bedford MJ.
Length |
7.98 m (26 ft 2 in) |
Width |
2.32 m (7 ft 7 in) |
Height |
2.71 m (8 ft 10 in) |
Wheelbase |
3.96 m (13 ft) |
Winch |
5 tonnes capacity |
Crane lift |
4 tons (max) |
Engine |
Bedford 6 cylinder 4.9 litre petrol |
REME Museum of Technology Home Page
Email Enquiries or telephone 0118 976 3375 for further information
Page produced by Peter Eldred - Last updated 24 July 2004