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REME MUSEUM of TECHNOLOGY

HISTORIC VEHICLE COLLECTION

Wheeled Recovery Vehicles

Truck 4 ton 6 x 6 Wrecker Diamond T Model 969 and 969A
(E 93.752)

This vehicle is not currently on display at the Museum

By 1939 the American Diamond T Company had gained a reputation for well engineered and robust trucks. Its tank transporter tractor unit had been put into production for the British Army. The tank transporter tractor was mainly allocated to allied armies under the Lease Lend scheme during World War 2. The US Army used some, but only as a substitute for a vehicle designed by their own Ordnance Department. The smaller 4 ton 6 x 6 series of Diamond T trucks were designed for the US Army in World War 2. Many of these were allocated to the British Army, especially in the Middle East, Far East and Mediterranean areas of operations.

Like most US Army load capacities, the 4 ton rating was an underestimate of the vehicle's capability. This was intended to ensure that the designated load could be carried on rough ground. The strength of the vehicle's construction allowed it to carry twice this load on good roads but the US rating remained part of the vehicle's official description.

The recovery vehicle was sometimes assessed as an equivalent to the British and Canadian light recovery vehicles. In practice it was in an intermediate class. It was capable of recovering trucks heavier than those a 3 ton gantry lorry might handle but not as heavy as the loads recovered by Scammells, the US Mack or Ward LaFrance.

The Diamond T carried a heavy duty set of Holmes Twin Boom Wrecker gear. This gear was designed in the inter-war period for civilian breakdown trucks, like the similar Garwood system. One boom could be used to lift a disabled vehicle out of a ditch on one side of the recovery vehicle while, if necessary, the boom on the other side could be swung out and anchored to a convenient solid object to act as a stabiliser. Either boom could operate as a normal crane but together the booms provided a greater lifting capacity at the rear of the vehicle for suspended tows.

As with most of the military ‘wreckers', the Diamond T was fitted with stabiliser legs on each side to keep the vehicle upright while the boom was being used for side lift. This also saved the necessity of using the opposite boom as an anchor and overstraining the structure and supporting cables. The Holmes gear booms were tubular with reinforcing trusses made from steel rods.

The lifting winches were power operated and were rated at 5 US tons each (10,000 lbs). Linked together, a lift of 10 US tons was possible, but to suspend a towed load of this weight would exceed the truck's chassis loading. The US Army system of recovery was to use the boom jibs for recovery tasks which with British equipment would be carried out using the chassis winch. The Diamond T 4 tonner carried a front mounted Garwood winch rated at 15,000 lbs (7½ US tons), ie less than the combined rating of the two jib winches.

The Museum's vehicle is a Model 969A, originally with a soft top (canvas) cab, but in civilian use, a hard top cab has been fitted. This vehicle awaits full restoration.

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Page produced by Peter Eldred - Last updated 24 July 2004