Another new member

[Murray Mk4 Inter]

Hi all,
I found this site while trying to do a bit of research on our new project.

My son is dead keen on all things army and has wanted a army truck for some time. I had been keeping an eye out of a good one.
While watching gumtree, a truck came up advertised as a "Blitz". It wasn't a blitz but was what looked like a Mk4 Inter 4x4.

To keep the story short, we went and had a look at it and it was complete with very little rust for it's age and condition and mostly unmolested.
We made the owner an offer and are now my son, who is only 17, is the very proud owner of a 4x4 Inter.


This truck is going to be a father/son project, which I must say has me very keen and excited.

Without going into too much detail here, as I'll start another post in the Inter section, is the truck is actually a Mk3, ARN 170-241.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll be asking plenty of questions and I'm looking forward to getting know other people with a common interest.

Cheers
Murray

[dkg001]

Good to see another inter saved, I think 170 241 may have had an interesting service history possibly SVN deployment. Looking forward to the photos.

[Mick_Marsh]

How I got my Inter was a similar story. It was advertised as a Blitz.

Welcome to the forum. I look forward to reading your build thread.

[zulu delta 534]

Congratulations on picking up a bit of Australian war history.
A little bit of info on your vehicle to whet your appetite.
This vehicle served in South Vietnam in 1966-67 with 1 Transport Platoon I Coy RAASC which in turn was the 2nd line transport component in theatre from 1966 to mid 1967.
This vehicle was originally allocated as a 2 Section vehicle (1 Platoon initially had a  policy of coinciding the fourth number of the ARN with the section number, but this fell through after operational requirements and damaged vehicles required otherwise.) but in fact served most of its time in 4 Section.
This vehicle would have arrived in to SVN on the May 1966 delivery trip of the HMAS Sydney and possibly RTA some time late in 1967-68 as the replacement Unit that replaced 1 Platoon (2 Platoon) was issued with F1s as they came on line and the Mk3s were sent home and often rebuilt, often being fitted with Mk 4 cabs.





This second shot is quite interesting as it shows 170 241 as a standard cargo configuration whilst the truck in the background is configured as a TCV (Troop carrying vehicle with centre seating) and the vehicle behind 241 has sides fitted with the seats in an upright position.
The Tac sign 31 is shown on a blue and yellow background (RAASC) whereas the 1 Div sign on the near side has a red background with a black pentagon and a white "1"
As a further matter of interest the driver (#1) of this vehicle for its 12 month stint in country (shown standing by the drivers door in the top picture) is still an active member of the 1 Platoon members' association and happens to be living in Tasmania. If you are at all interested in making contact along those lines, PM me and I will see what arrangements re contact can be arranged.
I wish someone would come up with 170 411!

Regards
Glen

[AGAS 5]

That is fantastic ! Well done and thank you Glen

Pete

[Carzee]

Wow, what a find, coming up on the 50th anniversary of its 'tour' next year.
Welcome to REMLR.

Here are some of the Army files at the AWM which mention 170-241:
awm95-10-1-1.pdf 28mar66 1RAASC pre-Vietnam (Ingleburn vehicle list)
awm95-10-1-11.pdf nov66 1RAASC
awm95-10-1-1.pdf dec66
awm95-10-1-13.pdf jan67 1RAASC
awm95-10-1-17.pdf apr67
awm95-13-2-8.pdf 4dec67 BLR
awm95-13-3-4.pdf 25apr68 Issues

[Murray Mk4 Inter]

Hello to all,
Thank you for the warm welcome and the information about the history of the truck.

Those are great photos Glen, I find it unbelievable that such photos even exist.
Also, to think that the driver of the truck can be identified and lives in the same State is just beyond words.
I will pm you Glen in the near future, and by all means if you know this gentleman, you may let him know that his truck is still around
and in good hands. If he would like to see her, he is most welcome. My son and myself would most certainly like to meet him and hear
anything that he has to say.

As for those Army files Carzee, how do you go about looking at them? I'm sure there would be some interesting reading in that lot.


Work has started on the truck. At this point in time, there is no time frame but I hope to keep the work slowly progressing while letting my son
do some of the work and me passing on some of the skills needed.

Here is a photo as we found her.




Again, thanks for the welcome.
I've started another post in the Mk3 Inter section, so I'll keep that one updated in future.

Cheers
Murray

[Mick_Marsh]

It looks as if yours has the same problem mine had. Winch not working.
Mine needed a new shear pin. I had some made up.

[Kaneya]

Congratulations Murray, this bloody truck was the bane of my existence for some time. I have 170-421 and our trucks were mixed up in packet orders held by the AWM on a few occasions. I had the heart renching elation of seeing my ARN, only to find out it was yours.
Mine was made in '64 went to SVN and finally came back and refitted like yours at Broadford in '70.
I would say they're probably not sisters, but cousins at least.
Luckily enough I have one precious pic of mine. To have as much as you do is outstanding.
Hope you have some great times in her, not sure what part of OZ you're from.
Next March we are looking to get a Packet of our own Trucks to take a run from Mansfield to Corowa over some of the hills of Mt Stirling and Razorback if interested.
Cheers
Kaneya (Brad)

[Carzee]

Here are some snips from AWM files, convoy orders and standing orders etc, which are typical of those mentioning 170-241:


( Zulu Delta is mentioned there as a LCpl )











( LCpl Spruce was RAASC and then RACT throughout his career, served as a Mjr before retirement)

[Murray Mk4 Inter]

Hi Mick,
I'm not sure what the go is with the winch at the moment as I have not tried to operate it or even work out how it operates.

Kaneya, I've been reading your posts about your truck and the grief you were having with miss-typed vehicle numbers.
I thought you may happy to see the truck that was causing all your troubles.

Carzee, what can I say, but thank you. That is fantastic. I find it amazing that the AWM has these files.

What I would like to know is how the truck ended up in Tasmania.
I bought the truck from the son of a farmer, who bought it from Peter Finch 4x4. Apparently the neighbouring property bought one at  the same time as well.

Is the service history from after Vietnam service available too?

I suppose a lot of questions will not be able to be answered, but both me and my son are stoked with the amount of information already brought forward.

A big thank you to all

Cheers
Murray

[Bluebell One-eight]

Hi Murray and welcome to the province of the Inters. As soon as you posted the ARN I thought änother VET saved!One for you Glen, some time ago there was a discussion on the roof platform on the Mk3s. These were fitted to all Mk3s in the first two contracts, a total of 1210 vehicles in all. The third and last contract vehicles did not have the platforms fitted. The platforms were supposed to be removed when the roof support rib was fitted as a modification, but it didn't happen in all cases however. There were two extra chassis manufactured during the first contract, and these would have been used as spares  in the rebuilding process. Identifying which of them were the spares is next to impossible because the records are a mess. There are many duplications and omissions when chassis were changed. There are quite a few numbers missing from the list. This means that it is possible to have a truck that is not the one indicated on the records, in some cases it might be possible to identify the truck by its engine number ( 170421 is one the engine number confirms its identity because the engine was not changed when rebuilt) That's about it for now, I had better start posting some pix of my beast 172793 soon. Keep posting progress Murray, cheers John 

[zulu delta 534]

I could quite possibly be well off the mark here, but having had a conversation with the old Platoon Sgt on the subject of this truck, there seems to be some recollection that this vehicle suffered from a few "holes" appearing in the original cab that lined up only about 2 inches lower than where they could have caused a rapid octave change in the voice of the driver! As I said, memories are a bit hazy but we both seem to think that it was this particular driver (and therefore truck) that was involved on that particular occasion.
Unfortunately with the cab changeover, we will never know, as all traces would have gone with the old cab.  If you make contact with Vic, ask him. (This would be one of thousands of similar types of events that occurred that were never "reported" to, or by, the brass of the day and as a result will not show up on Unit Logs. Another good example of this is the "wire incident" [see Carzees sitrep 83 above] that is reported once or perhaps twice and written off as "an act of pranksters" but any driver will say that it was much more common occurrence  than is reported.)

Thanks for the info Bluebell. I always wondered why that platform disappeared as it was just so handy for rolling tarps etc.
Regards
Glen