martinsaunders06

Hopefully these pics are ok 🤞

Hi John , here’s a few pics of the the Scammell with ARV stuck and bogged down at the big steam rally at South Cerney army camp when you got stuck in a soft gravel patch entering the military section . Think from memory you said (tho you may correct me ) the your train weight was something like 104 tons . We pulled it out using 2x heavy military straight bars with my Leyland Drops along with my 1984 John Deere 4650 tractor . Drops with comms repair box weighed in a tad over 18 tons and 350 hp , had all diff and cross locks engaged and the John Deere weighed just over 9 tons , 4x4 with powershift and diff lock on and another 200 hp . Other than the tyres digging to grip on both it was a effortless extraction and reckon the Drops might well of done it on her own (Think I have a short video tho not great quality ?. ) Not long after this at another rally I put the Drops on the tractor pulling sledge and it dragged the sledge with weight box fully up , ground spikes fully extended and brakes locked on the whole 100 metres and when asking I was told it pulling a dead weight of approx 75 ton .

Sorted - bit of searching and there is a tiny screw under tachometer interface top cover that trims or adjusts rev counter needle . Martin

The last couple of years the Alternator on the drops has been a pain , no matter how tight the v-belt was etc it intermittently put the charge light on and belt squealed . At Xmas I fitted a complete new boxed Drops army modification kit from Daf bought from withams , in the kit it says it's a replacement for the obsolete original alternators , its a lot chunkier needing new brackets and also has new waterpump and alternator pulleys which take it from single to a double drive v-belt which is much better idea , extra wiring harness etc . Everything works ok tho up until now I'd only driven it in the yard . Driving up the road the Engine Rev counter now reads really high to the actual engine speed -2000 rpm is showing like 2900rpm ?. ? Has anyone any experience of fitting this modification in service and come across this with the Rev counter , is there a solution that is extra to the modification kit like a different tacho interface relay or rev counter ? . . Any help is appreciated thanks . Martin

Sounds like lots of over technical suggestions , regardless of the weight you ain't picking it up off the ground , any decent farm manitou or Jcb would no problem take the weight off the rear end and drag it out backwards at a angle and same for reasonable sized 4wd tractor if done slowly , sensibly and steady . This sort of thing around the farm is a run of the mill thing done many times with in a year with large heavy heavy bits of kit esp during silage /maize .

Some more pics

Yep Tony that's the one . Martin

Ferret is now back on its plinth and has been cosmetically restored , this was the end of January with our local paper reporting it had stood there since 1989 after being presented to the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars Squadron of the Royal Wessex Yeomanry . The work cost almost £4000 and was carried out by Track and Wheel in Buckingham and paid for by the RGH benevolent fund . The Ferret is named Gallipoli in memory of the men of the RGH who fought and died there in WW1, it also carries the markings of 22nd Armoured division of the RGH which fought in the dessert campaign in WW2 .

Is this for the Drops ?- think if u search daf in military vehicle parts on eBay there is a new one there Martin

As of today Thursday 12th Nov the ferret is gone from its stand in TA yard . Hopefully for restoration and not disposal . martin

Yep,no other words than terrible , Good show but in a awful part of the country to get too especially if you ain't in a modern car !. We left at 3.30 after 3days around Folkestone area and took 4 1/2 hours to get home 176miles . All was going well looking at operation stack on other side until we reached M25 and then from junction 7 all the way up to Junction 12 at the M3 was stop start stationary and the m25 on up past junction 12 was still solid when we got off . The whole m25 anti-clockwise down from junc12 down to operation stack was a bumper to bumper car park. Saw one guy with a GMC 6x6 in it and he must of been thinking why am I doing this !. . .it was- Accidents, operation stack and simply too many vehicles on the road

Hi, blast mines 90KH13 unfortunately but that's a magic item and interesting to reunite with a vehicle/owner , brilliant of you to try to do it . Would be a bit of luck if the trucks still going and is out there somewhere .

Hi, I had a Cummins 14litre NHC 250 non turbo in a M816 U.S wrecker weighing 16 plus tons which even though they had got rid of the under powered multi fuel motors it still had the earlier engined gearbox and the ratios weren't good for the lower revving cummins , If you started off in low range and drove right through to high it was fine but it was an effort really and a proper drivers truck to drive getting everything right every time , I fitted from a ERF 325 cummins tractor unit the turbo /manifold /oil supply etc to the 250 which then performed great with I guess only another 25/30 hp increase, Admittedly the 250 didn't have piston oil coolers like the 325 which may of been a prob if worked hard over a period of time but for my use it transformed the truck .. martin

Pic of a MLRS rack

Hi Paul, There is a specific MLRS rack which had no wooden floor to it and it was only skeletal frame outriggers specific for carrying the rocket pods with very limited tie down points on side rails unlike the heavier GS racks . Unless modified with a floor you cant put or carry any thing on them . A lot of us with drops seem to have them in various modified forms (are a lot cheaper to buy )with a makeshift floor added , i had one of these racks from Dave Crouch which he made into a GS looking type rack and put a wooden floor on cutting off some of the specific fittings to do so . They are not as heavy duty metalwork as the normal GS flat rack . Problem is that none of us use them in there original skeletal form as they are useless so after mods they now look very similar to the std GS racks you are referring too but they definately are not the same design/strength/metal frame as the GS racks . 15 ton on one would definately make it cry . If I remember over weekend I will try take some pics . Funnily enough you are not the first person in the know who doesn't remember or seen them , on numerous occasions at shows ex and current serving guys have looked and said not seen a racks like that ,even suggesting they must be experimental as they'd not seen them . Martin

My 2x MLRS type racks(usually made by Boughton) I have are no way as heavy duty as my ISO twist lock rack(Marshalls) , The MLRS racks are made up of open U channel type frame out riggers where as my ISO twist lock is a lot chunkier and proper full box section outriggers and definately heavier in weight and a lot stronger . ? Think Paul is talking about the std wooden floored GS Marshall made racks and not including the all metal framed MLRS specific racks which a lot of us seem to have which had a specific use/job and not for general service use . So guess there were 3 types of racks then .

One thing in life that counts massively is experience and time spent over many years doing a particular thing , Don't think credit Is being given to the guys with specific drops knowledge on this subject , no questioning really as they know and seen what they are talking about after many years using the drops . Whether people are already carrying 432s with no problems to date isn't a argument to say it no problem to do so , good sensible driving may getting by and may be ok and we worrying about nothing but maybe if a emergency situation arises with another vehicle then a border line load like a 432 may show the trucks unsuitability and weakness to carry it . For me a 432 on a Daf drops don't look comfortable sat up there and if it don't look right then usually it ain't right , I personally and again only my opinion would not be at ease with one on my drops on the road especially relying on stupid car drivers not to ruin my journey . You do have to to give the army some credit and if they didn't do it then maybe there really was a reason not too . But most important is that for anyone using a drops like this please be careful and remember that no matter how safe and good a driver you think you are being other road users can change that in a split second and with a truck that's border line and close to its capabilities then it's more likely to be a bad ending . martin

Hi, yep you really need to read through the other active thread on exactly this subject , The MLRS rack is too light weight as standard and would definately complain /flex and probably bend and not be safe picking up a 432 . The drops rack load bed is already 5ft off the floor and that's before you put anything on top of it so heavy tall objects could be unsafe to carry . Regardless of whether people are saying it's ok extreme care and luck would be reqd and possibly hope no one in authority takes a interest in you . As with most things it's fine until it goes wrong and for me and my drops if the army didn't do it with the drops then reckon I dont need to try it . Be careful . Martin

Brake pedal if pushed hard will go to floor -mind does that . I'd look more along lines of the load sensor valve or the air pressure side of things . ?you don't say if secondary/handbrake passed - if so then as u know they use same shoes /adjustments so they can't be that wrong .

Hi Mike, I looked at a dingo with terrible rough running , It excess visible fuel around the lower carb etc - turned out the carb float was porous and partially full of fuel flooding it , tho oddly enough it too ran better with more choke which is the opposite to the obvious . Drilled a hole in it and emptied out and soldered all seams back up . Was ok martin

? Tony , I have been trying to find out as really not sure and it does seem a bit odd ,perhaps someone on here may of come across it before . It's typed by itself on a period piece of paper and was in with the rest of stuff , it obviously meant something for him to of kept it , it reads almost like a poem . I would love to find out what its relevance is . His son John tells me Trenchard was well liked by the men and his dad on many occasions flew as a passenger with him ?. Martin

? No pics of a bike ,here's a couple of him in his kit looking very serious . His record of clothing issued card etc martin

I've recently been given to look after a elderly friends fathers WW1 remaining paperwork, Harry Trow grew up in what is now Royal Wootton Bassett and joined the RFC in 1916 , he became a motorcyclist with them and along with various original papers (probably a dozen or so) there are a routine orders of the day , postcards, ration voucher for a troop ship back to Weston -super- mare of all places !, Really interesting tho is a small envelope with the word Richtofen wrote on it and inside is a small dark red canvas fabric square again with word Richtofen wrote on the reverse . John his son now in his late eighties says his father got it from a Australian soldier whilst on his bike? . The fabric square certainly smells and feels correct and along with the other original papers its a really nice bit of history . Martin