Peerless Trucks

[mikewest]

On 5/5/2020 at 1:02 PM, Great War Truck said:

Luckily with the tyres we have access to a friends 100 year old tyre press. Lots of manual labour involved but this is how it was done during the war. These photos will give an idea of how it all worls. Also useful for trimming fingernails.

A friend of mine has one of these presses in his warehouse in working condition. 50 years ago I asked his dad the reason for the round bed with rings  in it like the press shown above. He told me it was pressing the hard rubber tires on truck rims. If anyone reading this is interested in it ,I could inquire about it. Mike West 585 738 1541  mawest729@gmail.com

[alextheantiqueautoguy]

I have been up to my neck in research the last few months, and part of it waded into the Peerless Trucks. After the end of WWI, one entrepreneur bought up hundreds of American trucks in the UK and was going to auction them, apparently at very low prices. Over 100 appear to have been Peerless trucks.

British truck manufacturers went up in arms to protest! Eventually, the King told the dealer he could not sell the trucks in Britain - even though he bought them in Britain!

Next he decided to bundle his trucks on a shipment to the USA where intended to sell them at a auction.

The last information I have at this point is that truck dealers in the US had the same reaction, not wanted surplus war trucks sold at cut-rate prices in the US.

I have always been under the impression that those surplus trucks ended up in Britain by virtue of a few photographs... regardless of where these particular trucks ended up, I expect there is still a Peerless truck or two in Great Britain. That's my bet.

 

[Great War Truck]

The British army purchased over 10,000 Peerless during WW1, but the disposal of them at the end of the war makes an interesting story. Surplus British army trucks in France had to be shipped back to the UK for disposal (much to the shock of British truck manufacturers) with nearly new trucks costing less than half of a new locally built truck. Surplus US Army trucks in France were sold to the French Government. Very few were shipped back to the USA. The British supplied British and US built trucks (including Peerless) to the US Army. British built ones were mostly repurchased in France by the UK manufacturers and shipped back to the UK for refurbishment and sale, but there was a block on importing the Peerless back to the UK and those were disposed of in France. It is an interesting story.

 

There are four surviving Peerless trucks in the UK. Our restoration has been slowed down by covid, but the new valves should arrive any day and then we can get on and rebuild the engine. One of the rear wheels is at a wheelwright being rebuilt. Then it is a case of fitting the new tires and we have a rolling chassis that we can start hanging things on. All very exciting. 

[jeff_a]

Great War Truck,

Thank you for the pictures of solid tyre installation and the engine rebuilding. Here's a rare pic of a Peerless lorry being driven at speed. From IMDB . Title "1918 Peerless Truck Mobile Gun Platform in Roadways, 1937":

 

 

Edited March 26, 2022 by jeff_a (see edit history)

[alsfarms]

Nice action photograph!

Al

[Great War Truck]

Here is some similar film of us driving the Dennis 50 miles "at speed" from London to Brighton:

 

 

Edited March 27, 2022 by Great War Truck (see edit history)

[Great War Truck]

We have taken back the second Peerless wheel today after some repairs. A few of the spokes and felloes needed replacing. Our local wheelwrights were quite excited about the prospect of taking this on and they have done a super job. The steel band had been cut to get the wheel apart, to get it back on they welded it together, put it into a fire to expand it then drop it over the top of the wheel and tap it down.

The whole process is shown on this clip:

 

[edinmass]

Great post, and I watch your every update on your site........👍👍

[Great War Truck]

Thanks Ed. Hopefully we will see some real progress this year. The new valves should arrive shortly then we can put the engine back together. But first, we need to get the new tyres on the rear wheels. Using a hand pumped press to do it this will be an exercise and a very long round trip to the press. 

Cheers

 

Tim

[edinmass]

 

Tim......The Great Dorset Steam Fair is going to get on my schedule and I hope it will be next year. I will reach out to you when my plans are set. Looking forwards to another drive around the Cotswolds. Keep up the good work. Ed

[Great War Truck]

Yes, do come over. Come for a ride. Any news on the new Mullins museum in the Cotswolds? I was there a few months ago and it didn't look like they had started building it yet.

 

Cheers

 

Tim 

[Great War Truck]

Quite a lot of progress to update you on since my last post. Rear wheels now have new tyres and are on the chassis. We had a size issue and had to fit a shim. The rebuilt steering box is back in. New steering wheel. The rebuilt engine is now in the chassis with the ancillaries being added. A lot of progress this week. 

[alsfarms]

Nice update..... keep going.

[jeff_a]

Fantastic! Imagine someone popping out 10 or 12,000 of those massive things for one order(The U.K.) between 1914 and 1919.

Edited November 4, 2022 by jeff_a (see edit history)

[Great War Truck]

Today's effort. Radiator now on.

[alsfarms]

That is going to be one nice Peerless truck.  Have you had the engine run up yet?

Al

[Great War Truck]

Hi Al

 

Not yet, but very soon i hope. Still some things to do.

Tim

[Great War Truck]

A bit of plumbing today and setting up the clutch. All going well.

 

[alsfarms]

I sure would like to be in your shop when you have your first start!  Looking better every day.

Al

[edinmass]

I can almost smell the paint burning off at start up……..looking forward to seeing it go down the road.

[Great War Truck]

Getting closer to starting it up soon. Come over if you can make it Ed.

Did i tell you about this one. Back in the UK from South Africa.

[Great War Truck]

I had heard rumours of another surviving Peerless truck which was supposedly in a shed just 10 miles away! Turns out the rumour was true. At a show we saw it on a flatbed with a for sale sign on it. The owner had recently died and it has come out of the darkness after 30 years. It is a post war rebuild now fitted with a diesel engine and pneumatics. 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 31, 2023 by Great War Truck
Photo issue (see edit history)

[jeff_a]

Wow, ten miles away from you! Still has chain drive, too.

Edited August 1, 2023 by jeff_a (see edit history)

[blastermike]

Tim i dont have to tell you but maybe some detective work would bring forward information on the original engine? perhaps and what became of it? 

thanks for sharing the pictures 

mike

[Great War Truck]

I suspect the engine is long gone. This Peerless was subject to a Slough rebuild around 1930 which is when the engine was swapped over. 

I have now made contact with the owner and hopefully will go and see it sometime soon.

It is on the market at £22,500

Tim

[jeff_a]

A photo of another old war horse; as so many Peerless Trucks were involved in the Great War. This is the one found in good shape under rubble in some kind of clay quarry.

 

Edited February 25 by jeff_a (see edit history)

[Great War Truck]

I wouldn't say that it was in good condition. It had been completely buried under china clay waste for about 30 years. After restoration it drove on the London to Brighton run which is about 50 miles. It now lives in a Cornish museum but has not run for years and may not ever run again. We will see.

We were recently sent photos of one of our Peerless trucks being recovered from a farm i think around 1980. Shame that all of the original body work was lost. It would have made a good pattern.   

[Great War Truck]

We are cracking on with the body now. We have had new wings made - awkward shaped things. The first of the drive chains has just gone on. It has been a long road but we are getting close to starting now. 

[Great War Truck]

We pushed the Peerless outside to see how the paint on the body looked. Quite pleased with that. Still a lot more to do but we hope to start it soon. 

[Great War Truck]

We are looking to register it for the road soon. We found the chassis number 014489. Does anybody have a record of what numbers were applied to the Peerless up until 1920 so we could calculate the date of construction please?

[edinmass]

When I get to Cleveland next time, I will check at the Western Reserve Archives to see when the truck was built. They may have an on line service that they charge for to look it up.......Ed.

[Great War Truck]

Thanks Ed. That would be great. I had not heard of the Western Reserve Archives before. Please let me know if there is any cost.

[jeff_a]

Jeez -- that Peerless looks great!

[Great War Truck]

Thanks Jeff. It has taken an awful long time to get this far. 32 years in fact with some gaps while we restored some other trucks. We still have our second Peerless to restore and now also a 1916 Royal Flying Corps Crossley Tender which was built in Manchester. Still looking for a Peerless engine, but i am hopeful that one will turn up yet.

 

Kind regards

 

Tim

[Great War Truck]

We had a very interesting day today. This is going to be a long post, which i will have to break down into sizeable chunks. As you will remember, we have completely rebuilt the engine (making new pistons), obtained the correct mag (an American built Bosch DU4) which we had professionally rebuilt and found the correct Peerless carb which was badly damaged and which Steve rebuilt. So, with all these variables today was the day when we hoped to start the engine for the first time. So we topped up with oil, water and petrol and swung the handle

[Great War Truck]

Steve, fortified with a Cornish pasty and beer had a swing in the handle, but with no success:

 

After a great deal of effort with no result we checked the magneto (which we had professionally restored) for a spark. Nothing:

 

We swapped over the mag for an Old Sims which we found on the shelf. It had quite a good spark but didnt fit so we had to hold it in place with a block of wood and tried again

[Great War Truck]

With the new mag in place we got a definite chuff:

 

 

and then another one:

 

 

[Great War Truck]

We are all getting old and not as strong as we once were. With a rope on the starting handle and two pulling that and Steve kicking the handle it finally burst into life and ran:

 

 

Stopping the engine to make some adjustments, and fortified with cups of tea we tried again:

 

 

We ran the engine for about 20 minutes. It idled really quite well especially considering so many unknown quantities and guess work. An untried incorrect mag, a rebuilt previously badly damaged carb and an engine which had not run for at least 70 years and we had completely rebuilt. 

[jeff_a]

Great to see this in the videos. I like the sound of it chugging along!

I read a report from the Front once, in which a motor pool captain said they started out with 100 trucks from different manufacturers, but after a time the only ones still in operation were their Peerlesses. Do they seem a little overbuilt to you, like a railroad designer laid out the frame?

[Great War Truck]

Hi Jeff

 

They certainly are very solid. In a wartime review of the Peerless he described it as "Massive in construction". Not quite sure what he meant though. I find it strange that there are so few survivors though. We are off to the giant autojumble at Beaulieu next weekend. Might see if we can pick up another Bosch DU4, or parts for the next Peerless. However, we will have our eyes mostly focussing on parts for the 1916 Crossley Tender. I cant wait to make a start on that.

Anyway, still lots to do. Steve assembled the bonnet/hood and that is looking really quite good. It will of course scratch up the dashboard each time we open it of course. 

 

Life is not all work and no play though. We took the Thorny along with some friends to a local museum yesterday. a 14 mile drive through a city centre, busy roads and then railway crossing to contend with.