Linares FC Tray

History

The flat-tray Linares FC2: the Linares-built two-tonne forward-control chassis-cab with an open drop-side platform body — the plainest and most common way the type was bodied.

Both engine options were Linares's own 3,429 cc straight six: 104 CV at 4,000 rpm with 241 Nm at 1,500 rpm on petrol, or 94 CV at 4,000 rpm with 309 Nm at 1,800 rpm on diesel, driving through a four-speed synchromesh gearbox and a two-speed transfer case. The truck was 4,949 mm long and 1,960 mm wide, stood 2,235 mm to the top of the cab, cleared 280 mm and grossed 4,600 kg. The 2000 was sold as a chassis-cab and bodied to order. Linares's own catalogue listed a tipper, a crane platform, a snow plough, an insulated van, an irrigation tanker and fire-fighting equipment; independent bodybuilders added many more. The simplest of them all is the flat tray — a plain steel or timber platform with drop sides, often with a headboard behind the cab — and it was this that made the 2000 a mainstay of farms, quarries, public works departments and forestry services. With the cab over the front axle, the platform sits low and long relative to the vehicle's overall length, and permanent four-wheel drive with 280 mm of clearance let it work well off the road. The related and larger Linares 3000 carried the same idea on a heavier chassis. The base vehicle and body style are real; the military service is unverified, and the record is left as a draft pending better evidence.