Badger1bear
If your not on fire, then your too far away
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- kent
Ok Guys, as some of you know I am into vintage vehicle restoration amongst other things and when we was told about this old Chevy I couldnt resist asking the owner if he wanted to sell it. The truck is a 1943 Chevrolet CGT. The CGT stands for Chevrolet Gun Tractor. They were used in World War II to tow a limber and a 25 pounder gun around the battlefield. After the war a lot of the military vehicles were mothballed or sold off at military auctions. E.W. Tyler bought 8 of these vehicles and converted them over to mobile cranes. The trucks are part time four wheel drive and could go anywhere. The original Chevrolet petrol engine was taken out and a more fuel efficient Perkins P6 diesel was put in. All of the original tinwork was used as moulds and the cabs were formed in fibreglass, the rear of the truck was removed for the crane but the front face of the Chevy can still be made out from when she was used as a War horse.
The cranes worked as pairs running all over the country erecting farm buildings (precast concrete) if you see a farm building with the Green background and the name Tyler in the middle then there is a fair chance this little workhorse could of erected it. The crane itself is 21 feet long and the fly jib extends roughly another 9 feet. The pivot point of the jib is about 8 feet off the ground so by the time you add that all up, its a long way up in the air :-)
The cranes had a Boughton winch nestled in the chassis rails which was used to erect the crane into its working position. The winch pulled the crane to roughly just before vertical and two hydraulic rams took over to take the crane just past vertical and into its working position.
Heres a pic when she was put to work erecting farm buildings
The cranes worked as pairs running all over the country erecting farm buildings (precast concrete) if you see a farm building with the Green background and the name Tyler in the middle then there is a fair chance this little workhorse could of erected it. The crane itself is 21 feet long and the fly jib extends roughly another 9 feet. The pivot point of the jib is about 8 feet off the ground so by the time you add that all up, its a long way up in the air :-)
The cranes had a Boughton winch nestled in the chassis rails which was used to erect the crane into its working position. The winch pulled the crane to roughly just before vertical and two hydraulic rams took over to take the crane just past vertical and into its working position.
Heres a pic when she was put to work erecting farm buildings