The French never had a 27 mm tyre in their spare tyres programme, contrary to the British who introduced the 27 mm / 1 1/16” tyre in 1956 already, as this size of tyre was fitted both on the Euclid Rear Dump Truck (1956) and the 7.2 “ Howitzer (1958), followed by others in the 1960s. These tyres, spare tyre no. 13978 (later 093), had a regular tread until ca. 1961 and got a heavy duty fishbone profile since then. They were discontinued as late as 1973.

In 1960 we saw the introduction of the French no. 888 Camion pétrolier saharien ‘GBO’ Berliet. A big model representing the huge prototype that the French used for heavy duty work in the North African oil fields. This model is similar to the Euclid, in particular as its size and the (first) use of the same 27 mm tyres is concerned.

The spare tyres the French had available in that period were the ones numbered 834-839: 15, 17 and 20 mm. only. No 27 mm for replacement. Now I wonder if the French ‘borrowed’ the British-made tyres for use on their big models and did not produce those themselves. It is striking that the issue of the Camion pétrolier coincides more or less with the change-over from regular-tread to heavy duty tread tyres in Britain and that the French always used these ‘traditional’, first type 27 mm tyres. Any facts or views on this?

Kind regards, Jan