GMG, Unimog, County and other lesser-known all-wheel drive off-road tools

[James1979]

I’ve never seen an FC County. Seen plenty on the beach when I was a kid with the crab boats but don’t remember any FC ones.

Is that a special order?

 

[500e]

Roughish ride on the road the early GB was not to long lived on long road work, a mod was to drill out a oil feed hole in the GB casing to allow oil to flow int the rear bearing a help but not a cure, decent make bearings helped as well, we could have box out in under an hour, steering was low geared it could catch you out the first time you drove it, wipers abysmal, the center GB cover came to bits but engine was berried a bit, was good off road we had a lot of customers with LR with the free wheels locked and LS diff it would pull the landys all over the place.
Paint could be poor with variable adhesion.
Body was strong and welded to chassis it was a utility vehicle open doors and hose out like the early LRs
This is all Transcat stuff never got into Altairs , a bit more development it could have been a good workhorse The Peugeot engine was no trouble, never had diff or front swivel problems, I did hear someone had problems with drive shafts but we were told they used to load it way over the recommended, and killed any vehicle they had

 

[8ob]

Fleet?

Aldershot, they did have a depot at Fleet.

Bob

 

[nickk]

Iirc county have bounced from one owner to another,30 years ago they weren’t far from me in Knighton.
In the late ‘80’s a few local farmers had UMM’s ,haven’t seen one in years.
What became of UNIPOWER,did they get swallow up with AEC.

 

[8ob]

I’ve never seen an FC County. Seen plenty on the beach when I was a kid with the crab boats but don’t remember any FC ones.

Is that a special order?

This is going back a fair way but there were quite a few about, it would have been fourty two years ago I last used one and that wouldn't have been new then. I did try and buy one with some tree spades on the back a while ago but it went for silly money.

Bob

 

[Mick Annick]

Aldershot, they did have a depot at Fleet.

Bob

I didn’t know that

 

[8ob]

I didn’t know that

Some blurb on them Mick, they occupied quite a big industrial unit that backed onto what was the Traction bus depot, the way it was laid out made it look part of it but it was a separate unit. We were kids when they moved out, the site became our playground

County Tractors set record breaking focus

The County Tractors brand was the focus of a well-attended event at the National Show Centre, beside Dublin airport, at the weekend. Almost 400 County tractor enthusiasts joined together, and some …

www.wheelsandfields.com

Bob

 

[anto44]

Here's a few more county pics

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0cy9muNPJM31VxTGqFKg58npQh9uVLEAXfVxUg2xXZ9JeXAUhfnLsBUBXP8sGsVmQl&id=100054342053455&sfnsn=mo

 

[25.4_mechanic]

Here's a few more county pics
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?st...fnLsBUBXP8sGsVmQl&id=100054342053455&sfnsn=mo

Thanks, but sorry, I'm not on there - any way to get to the pics differently?

Carsten

--

 

[Robotstar5]

Iirc county have bounced from one owner to another,30 years ago they weren’t far from me in Knighton.
In the late ‘80’s a few local farmers had UMM’s ,haven’t seen one in years.
What became of UNIPOWER,did they get swallow up with AEC.

@Baloo had a Unipower

 

[Agroshield]

What became of UNIPOWER...

Some info. here:

Universal Power Drives - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Unipower M-Series Special Wheeled Chassis | Military-Today.com

The Unipower M-series range of military trucks was developed by Universal Power Drives in the late 1980s. These high mobility trucks were designed for demanding military applications, carrying specialized equipment.

www.military-today.com

They had some connection with Scammell, then were bought by Alvis and then Alvis were bought by BAE Systems. Then the trail seems to go cold.

I think the prime movers that ALE (now Mammoet) have were near the last you would see of the marque.

 

[zzr1200]

I've got an UMM Transcat
View attachment 365484

Interesting tyre choices/fitment?

 

[CompoSimmonite]

So, they have built LHD and RHD, so a certain number of units will have been produced...?

Tell me, how is the thing as a car and as an off-road vehicle? Thank you.


Car

Interesting tyre choices/fitment?

Previous owner fitted tyres. Currently it's "off the road" as they also did numerous bodges to bodywork. Instead of fibreglass and filler they used hardboard and acrylic bathroom sealant . So whilst it looked good enough for me to buy on closer inspection I decided that a full bodywork restoration needed. Nice and simple as flat panels in 2mm steel. Cab is a bit tight so am going to extend it a little (just a few inches), as the later Alter model, so seat will go further back.The engine is half in the cab, as it's behind the axle, so footwells tight. Chassis in mint, unlike all the Land Rovers I've owned due to being made out of 6mm box section. Rear tub might be cut off (it's welded to chassis like the cab / front panels) and turned into a little longer tray back style due to the amount of rot on the seams, bodging and slightly crunched rear corner.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

BTW besides the UMM Transcat I've also got a Mahindra MM540 -

 

[plewlandsbob]

There used to be a number of firms, that converted tractors to 4wd, before the manufacturers, started introducing their own 4wd models.
The following pics are all off the web. My old photo albums are buried, in the spare bedroom lol.
Stuart Gibbard , has written some very good books, about ford tractor conversions. One on County, one about Roadless and one about other smaller companies.
Iam an Agricultural Engineer, and served my time under 2 ex ford tractor mechanics. We did a lot of work on Counties and roadless, that were used timber extraction.
Roadless

 

[plewlandsbob]

Muir Hill

 

[plewlandsbob]

Doe triple D

 

[plewlandsbob]

County

 

[plewlandsbob]

More Counties. They also did crawler conversions. Iam a County fan,.

 

[plewlandsbob]

Matbro Mastiff