I've had these pictures from Dennis Child in South Africa. They relate to a truck built by a company and badged as 'Ralph' . But who was that company or what was a a Ralph? It appears they made all sorts of trucks from regular road-going US-style cabovers (like the ones above) to weird bonneted heavy haulers with all of them used in SA and the middle east too. So come on BLB anorak army, what can you tell me about 'Ralph' the unknown truck? And most of these shots (from what I can gather) were taken in the 60s/70s...
Here's a 6x4 Ralph tipping truck running for Consolidated Mines in SA...Looks a bit like a Pacific in this shot. Below is one where the Ralph badge can be clearly seen. Looks like a Kenworth otherwise....
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And another black & white shot of an earlier style bonneted 6x4 tractor 
Now here's a Ralph doing some heavy halage work at the docks...
Now here's another Ralph cabover in colour...
And a Ralph heavy haulage unit in Durban..
Now cick through here for more mystery Ralphs...! But first another cabover...
Unfortunately I've no idea where Dennis got these pictures but if they are any of yours in this slection then let me know so I can credit them properly...
Some Ralphs were definitely ex-military often used as a tank transporter....
Now here's a couple of cabovers...including one with aircon..ooohh luxury!
Now here's a whole bunch of them working together..complete with MkII Cortina Police car.
And another heavy hitter in B&W--the more I see the more I think 'Pacific' or 'Oshkosh'
Now back to glorious technicolour...first with a cabover...
And last but not least a bonneted truck again----and please out me out of my misery as I'm most intrigued by the Ralph!!!!
So who can tell BLB anything about Ralph eh? And my thanks to Dennis and whoever else took the pictures.
Dennis will be the man to tell us more but all I can recall is that the Ralph was the brainchild of Ralph Lewis and was, allegedly, the only home grown South African truck. Less than 50 were built and they failed because no two were exactly the same and build quality was suspect (axles out of line, etc). The company was called Rolway Engineering I think because Ralph Lewis favoured Lipe-Rolway clutches. Drivelines were typical of early 1970s US kit, being mainly Cummins, Fuller, Rockwell. And yes the cabovers did look very much like the Kenworth of the period. I believe that 3 units went to Consolidated Diamond Mines.
rolway enterprises limited,
p.o. box 3988,
alrode,
transvaal,
south africa.
the c12c3 tipper with the body up in the air was powered by a 700hp cummins v12.
and the cortina was a mk3 or more commonly known as "a sloping clocks".
According to my information only 42 Ralph trucke were built, the first in 1967, number 42 in 1971.
Best regards,
Alex Miedema
http://www.buzzybeeforum.nl
It's contributions like this that make BLB indispensable to anoraks - Amazing stuff!
A pretty definative history of RALPH was published in 5 parts in the South African Transport Magazine, August & October '74, February & September '75 and a final one in October '80 that listed all the chassis numbers and for whom they were built.
This type of custom one off building was not unusual in South Africa at the time Atkinson Foden and ERF did it and produced so quite unique vehicles.
I remember the RALPH well and did work on a couple.
Pitty none have to my knowledge have survived.
For the facitities that RALPH and other manufacturers had at the time it was impresive what was actually produced, a tribute to real skills that have all but dissapeared. Real hand built.