Motor lorries/trucks of WW1

[BSM]

There has been the odd reference in this thread to Locomobile (Riker) trucks so I wondered if anyone could add anything with regard to their WW1 usage? I have gleaned from various sources that 3 such chassis are preserved in one form or another and a fourth has very recently been discovered and identified, complete with Dunlop solid tyres but lacking engine, transmission etc etc.

To add to the Locomobile question.....during an AIF MT reconciliation between the Aust. Corps DMT and the War Office, Colonel Tunbridge identified three (3) British Units as having Locomobiles and they were the 93rd, 95th and the 96th Siege Batteries. A total of 98 lorries at the time. These were part of a check in 1917 and they were charged against Australian Units who in fact had not been issued with same. Rod.

[BSM]

Hi,

I don't know whether this is of interest. It's a picture of my grandfather (on the left) with the Karrier truck he drove. He was in 20th aux petrol co MT ASC. I have recently found out through a link provided by a kind contributor to a genealogy forum that this corps was formed in Sept 1915 and was based in the Rheims area.

Lizzie, the collection at the RLC Museum includes an image of the rear view of a rabbit (drawn during WW1) that is the same as the example on your Grand fathers Karrier. It is labelled as the 'Army (Unit) Mark' for the 20th Auxiliary Company ASC thereby supporting the Unit ID noted in your post. Great pic! Were there any more surviving MT images from that source? Rod

[Moonraker]

I might as well tack this on to this thread. I've just discovered the

 

Commercial Motor archive

 

It has a reasonable search-by-decade function, and I was able to discover a couple of useful articles about a "Lacre van engaged in Baggage Transport at the Cavalry manoeuvres" of 1908 and a riposte to a comment about the lorries used by the First Canadian Contingent. Apparently the Canadians though well of the Kelly trucks from America.

 

Moonraker

 

EDIT: More about the Contingent's transport

 

here

 

Enter "206" in the page box, which should take you to the actual page 147 of the original document.

Edited 8 May , 2019 by Moonraker

[The Dark]

The hearings on the United States Congress' Second Deficiency Appropriation Bill, 1919 has a listing of all the vehicles in American Expeditionary Force inventory as of November 2, 1918. It includes 25 Garford light delivery trucks (<1 ton capacity) and 551 Garford 1.5 or 2 ton trucks. The only 1.5-2 ton trucks in service in greater numbers were Pierce-Arrow and Nash Quad. These aren't Liberty trucks, since those were 3-5 ton trucks. So while they may or may not have served with the Australians, there were non-Liberty Garford trucks in service on the Western Front.

For the Locomobile/Riker, there are 994 Riker 3-4 ton trucks listed as being in AEF service.

The AEF had 29 Kelly-Springfield 1.5-2 ton trucks and 559 of their 3-4 ton trucks in service. The latter was fourth, behind Packard (2829), FWD (1384), and Riker (994).

 

There's also a separate list of foreign-manufactured vehicles in AEF service. Those with significant numbers (>100) are:
Fiat open-topped car (210)
Sunbeam open-topped car (104)
Fiat 1.5-2 ton truck (566)
AEC 3-4 ton truck (1,107)
Dennis 3-4 ton truck (490)
Karrier 3-4 ton truck (292)
Douglas motorcycle (122)
Imperial motorcycle (543)
Rover motorcycle (157)

[James A Pratt III]

books on WW I vehicles:

US Military Vehicles in WW I Albert Mroz

Military transport of WW I C Ellis

Russian Motor Vehicles the Czarist Period 1784-1917 Maurice a Kelly