The Classic Machinery Network

I'm looking to restore an old trailer to pull behind my t20 and need help identifying it.
It is a screw tipper and the nameplate on the front of the screw gearbox reads "William E Cary Ltd., Red Bank, Manchester". Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Grubber

Do you think the name plate is purely for the tipping mech? The problem with ID is if the original makers name is missing it will be like a needle in a haystack.
Many small ag engineers (almost blacksmiths) built trailers just after the war out of all sorts of bitsandpieces. JCBamford was one of them. The name plate on our old 3t trailer was actually on the head board wood so many fell off into the nettles.

Thanks for the reply essexpete, yes i agree that the name plate is from the manufacturer of the screw mechanism. I suppose I was hoping that someone would have a trailer with a similer mechanism and could shed some light on the original trailer. W E Cary produced suspension springs for ford anglia's up to the seventies as far as i can see but there is no real history before that on the internet. There seem to have been loads of modifications over the years so i suppose a starting point would be to start removing them.

Grubber

Hi Adrian and welcome to the CMN

Amazing what you can find out about things on Google ... now William E Cary Ltd, Red Bank, Manchester were specialists the making of springs for all sorts of vehicles, bumper arms, draw bars and body ironwork .. so it is possible that Carys did make the trailer... however as Pete said it could mean anything as plates of maker of trailers could of been put on the wood work and fallen off ... so hope this helps

http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/File:Im1954CMS-Cary.jpg

Thanks Martyn. That link has sent me off on another direction regarding the trailer.

Grubber

used to have a trailer just like that, but then again as previously said local blacksmiths made and adapted so many that I guess they all looked similar. The support jack casting looks very similar to ours, trying to remember make; might have been a Salop. The trailer was always known as "The Camel", it was just plain awkward, a pig to reverse, hard work tipping the body but ever so easy to tip over with a load of bales.