Thread: Wiles Senior cooker.

I plan to reduce the heat corrosion of the chassis by a slight redesign.
The new ash hopper will not be welded to the chassis like the original design , but to 3 mm thick angle iron sitting on top of the original chassis members.
This light angle iron will take the heat of the fire before the chassis and strengthen the existing chassis.
To the bottom of the angle iron I will weld to the ash pan and leave a small gap between the chassis and the ash pan.
I also found a good picture of Stealth's wiles junior taken many many years ago at Menagle steam museum.
Ron

Originally Posted by 101 Ron

I plan to reduce the heat corrosion of the chassis by a slight redesign.
The new ash hopper will not be welded to the chassis like the original design , but to 3 mm thick angle iron sitting on top of the original chassis members.
This light angle iron will take the heat of the fire before the chassis and strengthen the existing chassis.
To the bottom of the angle iron I will weld the ash pan and leave a small gap between the chassis and the ash pan.
I also found a good picture of Stealth's wiles junior taken many many years ago at Menagle steam museum.
Ron

Jim Wiles would probably done that modification if he'd thought of it.

Have said it before but I reckon it is worth repeating & that is, it is good that this piece of wartime & later Australian Memorabilia is being saved. I'm sure a lot of this stuff finished up in the Scrap Bin heading towards Browns Scrap Metals or it's equivalent in your State. I'm guessing there can't be many survivors left.

There has been a bit of a book printed about the history of the wiles cooker.
Most of the information comes from the Wiles brothers.
They did have a tough time getting the Wiles cookers into the army system, and developed the smaller junior cooker when a war time design committee could not.
The wiles junior was designed to be towed by something small as a WW2 jeep or to be parachuted to jungle area...……….in that it was good.
But not told is the design faults .
The juniors had a very bad habit of rolling over due to the extremely short towing A frame, which was lengthen I think by the army on a small number of them.
Placing the fire on top of the chassis rails is not a good idea either.
I have noticed early Juniors do not have frame/chassis reinforcement at the hand water pump and rear most part of the A frame, and later ones do to different extents …………….must have been a problem at one time.
Why were the mud guards set so low that it was possible for the tyres to rub on mild spring compression.

Originally Posted by 4bee

Jim Wiles would probably done that modification if he'd thought of it.

Have said it before but I reckon it is worth repeating & that is, it is good that this piece of wartime & later Australian Memorabilia is being saved. I'm sure a lot of this stuff finished up in the Scrap Bin heading towards Browns Scrap Metals or it's equivalent in your State. I'm guessing there can't be many survivors left.

A lot of WW2 military stuff was dumped in Moreton Bay or a bit offshore including RN Fleet Air Arm F4U Corsair fighters. Ask any old trawler men from the area. In typical military fashion nobody thought to note the lat/long of the dumps. The trawl nets found them.

B24's were lined up at Archerfield to be cut up with axes and chainsaws, and melted down in a big electric kettle on site into aluminium ingots which went to people who made pots and pans, etc. A flooded quarry at Archerfield was filled with the non-aluminium pieces.

In typical military fashion nobody thought to note the lat/long of the dumps. The trawl nets found them.

Different times I suppose, Brian. I guess the thoughts of getting shot of the War & getting back to a 'normal' life was probably uppermost in the minds of the country, besides who wants all this old crap, & the War Museums probably had a fair suck of the Sauce Bottle & grabbed what they could before those "executions" took place.

"Cash in what we can & dump the rest" sort of thing.

Anyway 101 Ron is doing his bit to make up for lost time.

Edit.
Reminds me of a book I have about the WW2 Bomber Airfields of "Bomber Country" (Lincolnshire) in the UK.

The author describes the long lines of hundreds of Lancasters & other heavies lined up nose to tail around the Peri Track of one Lincolnshire airfield just waiting for the chop. The way he describes it is quite moving & he goes on to talk about the sterling duty they carried out etc, etc, etc & the aircrew who were lost. Sad in a way that there are only a handful of Lancs left in the world.

It is quite an eerie feeling standing on an old deserted WW2 Runway at dusk with just the sounds of the wind & bird noises in the background.

If one lets the brain play tricks (easily done) one could swear that you could hear ghostly sounds of Bombers on short finals approaching after a raid & one thinks "Better get off of here". No kid.

Attached should be photos of the new ash hopper and pan draw.
It is made from thicker steel that the original and drops into the chassis rather than being welded to it.
It will protect the chassis from most of the heat and erosion caused by the fire as it not welded to it and effectively leaves a air gap between the hopper and chassis.
Should last another 60 years.

The pictures tell the story.
Found some new old stock hub seals from a friend.
Correct wheels now fitted.


Ron

So when will you be ready to serve a bully beef or M & V stew to an Aulro gathering? Tinned bacon and powdered egg cooked in a pan inches deep in dripping?