Strange mail issue

That's an engineer (pioneer) troops' bayonet meant to cut wooden posts for barbed wire etc.

I've read that man for man the Japanese may have been the best soldiers of the war. However their government badly misjudged how an industrial power would fight back.

-jsw

Well, don't think you got "all of the story"...most rural carriers are contract carriers and they get payments for usage of whatever vehicle they use to fulfill the contract.

If the postmaster assigns a USPS LLV, that vehicle is owned and operated by the USPS and while the list of rules is typically byzantium as one expects from the combination of a pretty strong labor union and a government entity, it is not a rental/lease arrangement with the carrier.

If your BIL was using his own vehicle, he would have been operating as a contractor and paid for the usage plus a fuel allowance and all as part of the contract.

It's not unknown for rural carriers to purchase surplussed LLVs for their own use as they have the RH drive and all for the purpose that is either, as your BIL discovered very difficult to use a normal LH drive vehicle or somewhat expensive and detrimental to resale value to retrofit a standard vehicle. Some out here years ago brought LH-drive English-manufactured vehicles over, but haven't seen any new ones recently; I presume it got too expensive to get them shipped...

The rear parking lot came out on the same street, so that is no excuse. The building to the right of the post office, is where my computer business was located.

My dad had one of those. Apparently he found it to be very handy.

It wasn't the shipping - it was not being able to import new vehicles that do not meet all the US safety and emissions requirements, and not being able to find suitable older vehicles that are legal to import - due to corrosion or high price. Tjis is where the JDM vehicles have taken a small bite of the business.

Hmm ... the MGA, at least, was fairly easy to change from LHG to RHD or vise versa.

The accelerator linkage was actually near the right side of the right-hand footwell, and for a LHD (US) version, there was a crank attached to the gas pedal and passing over the trans tunnel. (It was also possible for a passenger to hook a toe under the crank and lift to accelerate the car when the driver did not wish this.

Brake and Clutch (both hydraulic) shared one master-cylinder block which could be unbolted and moved from side to side, with pedals. There was a blanking panel on the side which did not have the assembly.

Hand brake was on the right of the trans tunnel adjacent tot he seat, so could be reached by either driver or passenger.

The rack-and-pinion steering could be flipped end for end, and the steering wheel moved to the other side.

About the only thing which would be tricky would be unbolting the instrument panel, and replacing it with a mirror image which would move the speedometer, the tachometer, and the turn signal paddle to the right. Most of the rest of the controls were in the center section and could be used from either side, with the horn button in the exact center of the panel.

So -- if you kept the panel and thee different parts of the accelerator, it would be easy enough to convert back when you no longer needed it to be RHD.a

Of course, it was a bit small for mail delivery, especially with no back seats.

Enjoy, DoN.

On 03/04/2017 10:23 PM, DoN. Nichols wrote: ...

...

Not exactly a mail delivery vehicle, though, when done... :)

On 03/04/2017 6:38 PM, snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca wrote: ...

Possibly; this was some time ago before everybody got so uptight about such trivia...I suppose there are also byzantium rules that contract carrier vehicles now have to be road legal and all as well as whatever it takes to get something into the country. I guess if one is upfront on the process on end use instead of just for personal/collector status then all the BS rules are likely in play even for used stuff.

Of course, out here and in even more remote areas where a rural carrier may have a route that encompasses 100 mi, reliability is pretty key when it may be 20 to the next ranch house...

Not meaning to be dissagreeable on the MGA, but you are wrong on the rack. Most of the parts are the same, bur the pinion pitch is reversed The tach cable, speedo cable, choke cable, and starter cable need to be changed or modified. The speedo cable from a RHD vehicle is too short for LHD, the rest are too long.. The accellerator pedal and bracket need to be changed, along with the dimmer switch bracket. Some brake and clutch lines and line brackets also need to be changed or fabticated.

The hillman minx and singer gazelle were fairly popular along with the austin/morris models - like the austin Cambridge, and the Devon/Somerset and Dorset. Later models were the Austin 1100 and 1300, along with the odd Bedford CA (same as Canadian market Envoy) Van and the odd Thames 400E (Ford) van.

Even for collector/personal use, to be able to import ANY vehicle it has to either meet current requirements or be older than a certain age. - In Canada that is over 15 years of age. In the USA I believe it is 21 years for emissions and 25 years for safety regulations - so any vehicle over 25 years of age can be inported, and some over 21.

Smart design.

I like the Unimog for this. Unlatch it, and the steering wheel, instrument cluster, and pedals slide over to the right for RHD.

A Mog would be hell to drive one on a paper route (stand up to throw the paper over the cab) or mail delivery (bend waaaay down), though. I believe the mail trucks get a bit better mileage, as well.

Here are 2 Mogs specifically designed for bulk mail delivery/handling:

There were actually RHD "Export" models of many North American vehicles in the sixties and seventies. Also "ausie" versions of some - some made in OZ , others here and exported.

O.K. I'll take your word for that.

Hmm ...choke cable and starter cable were near the center, and could be reached just where they were as I remember it. I seem to remember them being located so they woule be a bit better for RHD anyway. (This is from experiencing owning a 1500 and later a

Easier to deal with a "too long". Just a bit of strain relief somewhere to keep it from flopping around. :-)

I forgot about the dimmer switch. Could it not just be flipped over moving from side to side? I've never removed it, so I don't know.

O.K. All in all -- rather minor modifications other than part of the rack-and-pinion steering gear, and perhaps the acceleator linkage. (And the mirror-image instrument panel.)

O.K.

O.K.

Enjoy, DoN.

Just for general use in the country they could be rather strange. The later MGBs fell afoul of a "minimum swept area" rule for windshield wipers which was larger that the total size of the windshield. The solution -- three windwhield wipers, with something over 60% overlap. YOu could just add the swept area of each wiper to get the total, even if most of the windshield would be swept by two wipers. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

Maybe something here:

My best friend in high school had a Millman Minx. Weirdarse car. THREE lugs per wheel, Whitworth hardware, LHT on the left of the car. We played hell finding a Whitworth tool kit for him in '69. I'm glad all we had to do were simple repairs on it.

My sister had an Austin 1100 back then, too. I refused to even look at it because I'd just received my learner's permit and the screaming fast Kawasaki 90 at age 15-1/2. (Sorry, Snag. Rice burner pic.)

Austin 12" tires? Who ever heard of that? Those preceded the Minis.

The mini with 10" tires preceded the 1100 by quite a few years, and every Hillman Minx made had 4 stud wheels. You are getting mixed up with the french cars - Citreon, Renault and Peugeot used 3 bolt rims, as well as the new Smart.Even the Simca and Talbot used 4 bolt wheels

- so even the simca/sunbeam IMP (also sold at some point as a Hiullman) had 4 bolt rims. The hillman DID have left hand threads on the left side, and they were BSF threads (The fine version of whitworth -so not "technically" whitworth - but I won't split hairs).

I've NEVER seen a British car with only 3 wheels - not even the Robin. (And I've worked on a LOT of different british cars including a few hillmans and humbers - and my first car was a series 1 mini))

I hadn't seen one and a quick scan of the Morris page seemed to support my memory prior to writing that, but I stand corrected. Other than Dad's AH 100-4, Cheri's 1100 and MGBGT, and Tommy's MGTD, I haven't been around many Brit or Euro cars. Oh, I turned down a tune-up on a Jag v-12 once because I didn't have a flow gauge or tune-up specs for the exotic beastie. I'd have loved test driving it after the job, though.

I probably should have said "metric/whitworth", because the set we found had metric sockets/wrenches and whitworth taps/dies.

Neither had I, nor have I seen another since. But I strongly recall that it was a Hillman Minx and it had 3 studs, not 4. I could be wrong, but it's one of those "certain" old memories which pop up now and then.