2600 DAF with a Garwood M543 crane

Here the pictures from my last model. It is a 2600 DAF with a Garwood M543 crane.

The model
Early 1960 DAF brought a revolution in the transportation industry. Since the international transport and the total weights increased DAF developed a whole new truck concept. The cabin was equipped with many luxurious, such as 1 or 2 beds, a mechanically sprung drivers seat, heating / ventilation system, ashtrays, reading lamp and it was even possible to order a transistor radio. Things that are very normal today (if not already past) but before this car was on the market not present in any truck. The power was enormous, this is the "68" with the 1160 DKA engine with 250 hp.

In the years 70 and 80, the recovery company’s also need to buy heavier recovery trucks. Because of the high costs, they often bought a 2nd hand truck. They restored the truck in-house so that the truck was useful again for many years. Then they went looking for a suitable crane. This was mostly in the military dump and was often of the brand Austin Western, Turner or like this one: a Garwood. When the crane was mounted on the undercarriage the company had for relatively low costs a nearly indestructible recovery truck.

Cabin
John Zager, a fellow modeller, has made the moulds for the resin cabin. Kerry Poynton from KP conversions in Australia produced the kit. The resin kit consists of a cabin, dashboard, seats, bumper, battery boxes, fuel tank and fenders. The rest of the cabin components such as handles, headlights, windows, wipers, mirrors, stepping stones have to be homemade. Although the kit is of good quality it is necessary to use filler and it should be sanded. But then you have a unique model of which there are produced about 25 kits. This is the third one which is ready built.

Chassis
For the chassis I have used an old Italeri model of a DAF 2800 6x4 tractor unit. The chassis is completely stripped and built up with the resin parts and homemade parts.

Garwood crane
The Garwood crane was fully hand made. Although there is hardly any recovery truck with Garwood crane in active service anymore, there are some restored trucks to find at recovery companies. The Scania dealer Gerritse in Tiel let me take the measurements and photos of a restored truck. After one day working I had information ehough to build this model.