Mirror Models 1/35 Diamond T 969A Wrecker
Number of images: 13
Created on: Sunday, 7th December 2014
Diamond T 969A Wrecker.
The Diamond T 969A was a vehicle recovery truck based on a 4 ton 6x6 chassis, powered with a Hercules RXC six-cylinder gasoline engine and equipped with a five-speed overdrive transmission and a direct and under drive transfer, manufactured from roughly 1940 until 1945 by the Diamond T Motor Car Company in Chicago. The wrecker carried a heavy duty set of Holmes W45 Twin Boom Wrecker gear, designed in the inter-war period for civilian breakdown trucks. Either boom could operate as a normal crane but together the booms provided a greater lifting capacity at the rear of the vehicle. The wrecker was fitted with stabiliser legs on each side to keep the vehicle upright when the booms were used for side lift. This also saved the necessity of using the opposite boom as an anchor. The lifting winches were power operated, rated at 10 000 lbs. Linked together, a lift of 10 US tons was possible, but to suspend a towed load of this weight would exceed the truck's chassis loading. These trucks carried a front mounted Gar Wood winch rated at 15 000 lbs. Wreckers were quipped with De Vilbiss or Kellogg compressors. More than 6 000 969 and 969A wreckers were produced, fitted with earlier closed or later open cab. These vehicles were also supplied to Allied countries through the Lend-Lease Act, and after the WWII numbers of them were still in use in various countries for many years.
