changes in 1948 early 49

[tom the pom]

This was copied on to another thread,

The following information comes from the Grenville Motors "Allocations Books"

3 seats: R861132 (June 1949) is noted as 3 seats, so everything before that had only the two outer seats. R861306 is also listed as F/Hood and 3 seats, but I'm unsure if the F/Hood is the truck cab hood. (3 seats is also a notation on later vehicles)

PTO: R861164 (June 1949) the first mention of a PTO

Bonnet Spare wheel: R8666133 (December 1949) is the first mention of spare wheel bracket on bonnet, which means that vehicles before this one probably all had the spare behind the transom.

Centre PTO: R06200076 (April 1950) mentions centre PTO which makes sense for a Welder and indicates that all the "PTO" before probably had the output on the gearbox and on the rear cross member)

Capstan winch: R06108669 (June 1950) the first mention of "winch", so likely all the 1948s and 1949s we now see with winches were all retrofits. (Remember the mounting plate for the Aeroparts capstans wont fit on the early chassis without modification.)

Metal roof: the first mention of a "Metal Top" in the Grenville Motors books is January 1951, prior to that they were listed as STD (soft top) or PTO or Winch (Capstan) sometimes "PTO/winch" meaning both


There are so many thing wrong here, or presumptions,

a PTO was fitted to 860138 and 860164

3 seat were fitted many times before the number 861132,

Spare wheels were on bonnets from allot earlier,

Centre pto is interesting a
s this is a tickford number quoted,

It should be pointed out that these are notes from Grenville motor and does not look at other state importers, as these could have been on earlier vehicles and just not noted, which begs to ask why bother adding it to that thread?

[JDNSW]

When looking at 1948-9 changes it needs to be remembered that in this period the vehicle production rate was being rapidly increased, and numerous changes were being made.

Many of these were introduced as new parts became available, reverting temporarily to the older ones if there were supply shortages. In both these cases it is probable that there never was an accurate record of at which chassis numbers these changes happened.

Further complicating the situation is that at least some changes, for example the steering relay, were offered by Rover as a retrofit to vehicles already delivered. And certainly later options such as bonnet spares would have often been fitted to early examples as soon as they became available.

John

[Aaron IIA]

My ex Champions R86647** has a bonnet mounted spare. It would be hard to tell if this was factory or an early retrofit.
Aaron