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Has anyone else on here got a Daimler Ferret?


Richard Grosvenor

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I also can't see how a squaddie would of got out of the escape hatch as for the front hatch i've got no chance so won't even attempt it ,last year mine caught fire (lack of oil in fluid fly wheel ) me and my mate could,nt get out fast enough then i realised the fire extinguisher was inside so in i popped thankfully i managed to put it out before it got nasty ,it's just that in that confined space to turn and see flames lets just say clean underpants! :shock:

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I have a Ferret, a Mk 2/3. I recued it from a paintball place cheap because the 'gearbox was broken'. I put some oil in the fluid flywheel (!) and drove it around the same day. I rented it back to the paintball site for a few sessions (me driving) and ended up charging them more than I paid them for it. So far as information, there is a Ferret owners website and a site in Australia - DGA - has published all of the now defunct Ferret owners Club newsletters. Sorry, don't know how to include 'click on' references but a search should find them.

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So far as information, there is a Ferret owners website

 

Hello

I used to go on the Ferret owners forum ( http://www.ferretsccoutcar.info/html), it was very useful but all of a sudden it went off. Since then, all I get when I try to access it is -BAD GATEWAY.... Blah blah blah.

So I don't know what happened to it. :?

 

Regards

Richard

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello Chris

 

I spent hours on your site a few weeks ago and that was just looking at Withams photos! Very good.

 

I am amazed at the before and after photo's of your Ferret, I can't believe it's the same vehicle

 

As far as the Ferret site, I can get to the site but I can't get on to the Forum ( not that I really need to as this site is excellent, (just in case Jack is about :wink: ))

 

Thanks

Richard

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Ferret Heaven still works, they key is typing in the correct address, http://www.ferretscoutcar.info - you had something else.

 

Chris,

 

I think Richard means the other forum. I also cannot find it anymore, used to be a member of it. We were always being told to answer the technical queries on it as it would be permanent........but now its gone! There is no link that works, to a forum on the above website.

 

Richard Farrant

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Richard(s),

I know the forum you mean. (I missed the word forum in the original post - d'oh!) Something went wrong and I think Jim just pulled the plug. I seem to remember it didn't get that many visitors anyway? I agree there was an awful lot of technical information on there, supplied by Alex, it's a shame that it's vanished.

 

The Ferret was a good project, it did turn out nice in the end, but plenty of hours were put in to it. I just wish the damn thing would stop leaking oil. Recently it's more than the normal few drips, looks like the wheel stations need some attention!

 

Cheers,

 

Chris

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  • 1 month later...

I have just replied to another Ferret thread and spent a lot of effort trying to describe a custom user modification we used in BAOR: an XPM stowage bin on top of the engine decks. Then I find you post a picture. Grr! ;o)

 

Intrigued by the ladder. We always jumped in my day (we didn't really: a foot on the wheel hub, foot on the tyre and up). until one day we found a four foot steel ladder and it was permanently carried in the stowage bin. But then, my driver and I lived a life of luxury while we were rebroadcasting the command net. We had a four man Chieftain bivvy, a low coffe table, folding chairs, camp beds.

 

It was a hard job but somebody had to do it.

 

;o)

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Hello Neil,

I've already replied to your post about Ferrets and Cold weather so I won't say everything I did on there again :wink:

 

I am very interested in the engine cover stowage bins. Firstly, what is XPM?

(I not very good at abbreviations! :oops: )

Is it the rack thing on the back of mine or are they something different?

Have you any picture's of any Ferrets you have served on as I would love to see what they looked like in action?

 

As I said in the other post I think mine was a rebroadcast unit because of the 2 long tubes on the front which I think carried the aerials. There is a mast type thing just behind and to one side of the turret.

 

Many Thanks

Richard

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Hello Neil,

I've already replied to your post about Ferrets and Cold weather so I won't say everything I did on there again :wink:

 

I am very interested in the engine cover stowage bins. Firstly, what is XPM?

(I not very good at abbreviations! :oops: )

Is it the rack thing on the back of mine or are they something different?

Have you any picture's of any Ferrets you have served on as I would love to see what they looked like in action?

 

As I said in the other post I think mine was a rebroadcast unit because of the 2 long tubes on the front which I think carried the aerials. There is a mast type thing just behind and to one side of the turret.

 

Many Thanks

Richard

 

Hi Richard,

You are going to be disappointed by XPM. It means cross-pattern material, the sort of stuff you make stowage bins from. ;o) In hangars and stores you might also see doors and partitions made from it.

 

I HAD vast quantities of pics of Mark 2/3s, particularly from my time with the United Nations Force in Cyprus. They were taken for the benefit of my widowed mother, to let her know that I was having a ball in Cyprus (I'd been slack in writing on a recent Northern Ireland tour, so I made up on this tour). Unfortunately the pics all went to my mother (obviously) and after she died, my brother cleaned the house out and I never saw them again.

 

Possibly good news is that I have a mountain of negatives filed away that have never been looked at since the day the pics were taken. Having bought a scanner with transparent materials adapter, I recently sat down and looked at a few. Most were of my children, but I did find a reel of Scorpions taken at Lulworth Ranges in 1977. If I ever get my life sorted and find the Ferret pics, I'd be happy to make them available.

 

As to the question "Is it a rebro Ferret?" I have to say that there is nothing special about them. All they did was carry two radio sets to a suitable location and automagically connect them so that as one received on one net, the other one transmitted the signal on the other net for technical or tactical reasons. All Ferrets were built to carry two radios, so any would do. All rebro Ferrets that I ever encountered were straight Mk1s, but there is no reason why Mk1 variants with extended hull coamings might not be used as rebros. I doubt yours would have been a rebro in the late 70s - early 80s, since in my experience they all had .30" Browning MGs. That doesn't mean that it had not been used for rebro in an earlier time.

 

As to the tubes on the front plate. Yes, certainly the bottom one was the standard storage position for four-foot Larkspur antenna rods. The military VHF band dictated antenna lengths up to eight feet; military HF worked best with 12 feet of antenna, though eight would usually suffice as the antenna was electrically tuned to the frequency in use.

 

Clansman brought slightly different frequency ranges, so antenna sections were 1 metre long instead of four feet. Hard for me to guesstimate: is your upper tube just over 1m long? If not, (and assuming the upper tube is military) maybe your vehicle served some other specialised radio purpose. like maybe Forward Air Controller, talking to incoming Fighter Ground Attack aircraft on UHF frequencies and requiring even shorter antennae. Not convinced by this. I was Regimental Signals Storeman for about two years during which time we converted from Larkspur to Clansman. We held UHF sets but IIRC the UHF antenna was incredibly short (inches not feet). Do you know if your vehicle ever served a foreign army? Maybe the upper tube is the same idea, but for an entirely different frequency range. Assuming two sections per antenna, maybe the sets operated about 100-150MHz. But there are a lot of assumptions in that.

 

Looking at your pic, the front antenna base looks like it's probably Clansman. It might be Larkspur HF (C13) but I'd have expected the HF antenna to be at the rear so that the antenna could be sloped without risking the commander's head. I'll go for Clansman.

 

We didn't change our antenna storage tubes after conversion, so I am truly confused by your upper tube.

 

Hope some of this helps.

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We didn't change our antenna storage tubes after conversion, so I am truly confused by your upper tube.

 

 

It's a confusing little Ferret! It has more questions than answers.....Brilliant fun though!

 

The upper aerial tube is exactly the same in construction as the lower one, it's only the length that is different, so I'm thinking that they both went on at the same time. I can't remember how long the tube is, I'll have a look.

 

I think the front aerial mount is a Clansman (from memory), the rear one is a lot heavier made though.

 

Regards

Richard

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I think the front aerial mount is a Clansman (from memory), the rear one is a lot heavier made though.

 

Regards

Richard

 

Richard,

I've just realised that I misread this when you posted it. (I read "aerial tube.") FWIW, if the rear antenna base was heavier made, it shouts FOREIGN at me. As I said previously, ISTR the C13 antenna base (Larkspur HF) was similar to the Clansman (though the more I think about it, the more I think it was similar to a VHF antenna base, but earthed differently).

 

A Larkspur VHF antenna base was a simple inverted cone about the same height as your front antenna base and therefore smaller overall than Clansman. ISTR that, like the Ferret, Larkspur dated back to the 50s, so I cannot envisage any other UK radio sets being fitted.

 

On our UNFICYP tour, two or three times per week a section from the troop based in Nicosia to cover BritCon West (out beyond the disused Nicosia airport) would carry out a patrol in the CanCon (Canadian Contingent) sector.

 

Canadian sets were entirely different from ours, so a kit was produced to enable the section commander's B set to be replaced by a Canadian set which fitted onto a tray on top of the A set behind the commander's seat. This required an antenna base unit compatible with the Canadian set. It must have been HF, because the ABU mounted a huge semi-flexible antenna, so long that we mounted the ABU on the engine rear plate by removing a bolt or two and rebolting it through the ABU mount. Then we pulled the antenna forward and attached it somehow (I forget after 30 years) to the front of the vehicle in a giant curve over the top, reminiscent in a way of what you often see on SdKfz 251 halftrack command vehicles.

 

At the end of the patrol, I detached the Canadian set and reattached and wired in the B set. Then I undid the bolt holding the ABU onto the engine plate. Sadly without undoing the front end. Under enormous tension, the ABU whipped up and smacked my finger hard enough to need stitches. Lesson learned.

 

It gave me an excuse not to drive for a week. Because a commander had broken his nose a la Mick McCarthey about the same time ("I slipped climbing into my Ferret, honest") and was put on light duties, I got to play at commander for a week, which was nice.

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Hello,

Here is a picture of the rear aerial bracket.

DSCI0032.jpg

 

Now, last night I had an email from a HMVF member telling me that my Ferret was being discussed on a Yahoo Ferret chat thing, I can't yet get on there so, I'm not 100% sure what is being said! :x

The opinion is that the bumper, ladder and front windscreen were fitted after it came out of service, most likely that the vehicle was then used at one of those Tank Driving places.

By the condition of the Ferret and the fact that in the 18 months that I have owned it, it has never needed any work other than regular servicing I don't think that it was ever used for this. These vehicle's are normally run into the ground and this one isn't.

I later had another email about the chat room were it said that my Ferret was used as a slave starter at a Vehicle Storage Depot in Belgium .

It would seem strange to tie up one vehicle purely to start others, especially as Ferret's ( like most other British Fighting Vehicles) have the inter-vehicle starting boxes and cables.

But, having spoke to a few ex-soldiers, bump starting was often the preferred way to start a "dead" vehicle. There's no towing hitch on my Ferret, but, with that bumper it could push another vehicle, a bit like the Centurion BARV's

As I've said before, it's the quality of the bumper that makes me think it's not home made.

There is 19 nut's and bolt's fixing it to the hull alone!. Surely no-one would use this many fixing's if it was only for show. And the square hole's in the ends must be for something.

I have read that some Ferret's were used by REME and some had even got cranes fitted for recovery purposes

I've enclosed some close up picture's of the bumper to see what other's think. (Yes I know it's mucky and needs a respray :oops: )

DSCI0024.jpg

DSCI0023.jpg

DSCI0026.jpg

DSCI0028.jpg

 

Regards

Richard

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Hello Chris,

Yes, I think that it could be for a beacon. There's a rubber cap on top and underneath there is some sort of electrical connecter. Inside there is two wires but I haven't traced where they go.

 

I couldn't get on the Ferret heaven Yahoo thing because I wasn't registered for it, I am now. :wink:

 

Regards

Richard

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