Gunner

Hi Mel: I just bought the gun tractor advertised in Edmonton. As part of sorting the paperwork I need to know where the serial number is stamped on the frame. Can you advise? Cheers! Mike +1 613 489 0489

Canadian interest is high. I take these ate coning from Specialty Tire. We Canucks and Yanks banded together several years ago and had 10.50x16 track grips done. I bought 7 at the time for my C15TA and my Quad Polsten 20mm. Superb tyres! I woukd be looking for 2 or 3 sets of 5 in 9.00x16. Clearly, shipping from the US to UK and back to Canada would be ridiculous so I hope you will also have a North American distributer. Cheers! Mike

Hi Poppy: I have a 1943 LAAT and a Canadian made QF, 40mm Bofors. I have been searching for detailedphotos of the rack for the spare barrel box. Any help you can provide would be deeply appreciated. I'll likely have to make a wood spare barrel box as well. All the examples in Canada sort of rotted away!

The detective work involved in this hobby can be a lot of fun and introduce you to all sorts of interesting new friends. We HMV enthusiasts frequently comment on the charity and helpfulness of our fellow collectors. I suspect that the ROT (rusty old truck) and the creeping olive drab disease must affect us all in a similar way. I have met some very friendly and helpful folks on all sorts of military vehicle fora as I have tried to track down the ARN for my Ferret over the past month and a half. As this is an international audience please forgive me for going into lecture mode on a topic familiar to my British and Australian brethren but not so clear to Canadians, Americans and Europeans. For those not familiar with it, the ARN is the British equivalent of the CAR/CFR number used in Canada. Unlike our seven digit code (year year-type type sequential number sequential number sequential number ie 54-77321) system, the ARN is a digit digit letter letter digit digit system ie 01AA23. Up until the eighties it had some coding assigned to combinations as they were assigned in blocks to purchasing contracts and certain letter codes were reserved for specific things such as "RN" was Royal Navy. After some point in the eighties it became purely sequential as vehicles were accepted into service so you could have a firetruck have an ARN one digit different from say a new tank. Thankfully my Ferret predates the change in the system. The British Army did not record hull numbers in cross reference to ARNs so if your data plate is missing, as is mine, all you have is a hull number and, depending on when it was built, a rough date of manufacture (it seems that early Ferrets had no date on the hull number plate which is permanently welded to the hull). Adding to the confusion is that the ARNs were only painted on and not stamped anywhere permanently so if there is no ARN under the layers of paint... yer screwed! All this to say that on several sites on the 'interweb' I was able to track down the block of ARNs assigned to Ferrets produced in 1963 (mine is 8/63). Some chatting with the chap who runs the Ferret Registry, Matt Taylor, revealed that there were a few with hull numbers close to mine which might give a hint as to the ARN I was seeking. I met another great guy named Paul on HMVF who has a hull number close to mine. Then Matt sent me an email last night with some new data he tracked down from another Ferret owner. What I have so far is: Hull 3323 ARN 18EA36 is a gent named Paul on the HMVF (griff66); Hull 3327 ARN 18EA40 is a friend, Jeff, here in Ottawa. His and Paul's hull number and ARN are four apart; Hull 3343 ARN 18EA56? is me and 20 more than Paul and 16 more than Jeff making me sure I'm 18EA56!; Hull 3347 ARN 18EA60 is the info Matt tracked down yesterday; Hull 3651 ARN 18EA64 is in Matt’s registry so there must have been a break between mine and this one somewhere to account for the big change in hull numbers vs ARNs. There is also the strong chance that 3651 is actually 3351 which fits the sequence exactly. Matt is hoping to puzzle this out as the registry gains more details. I did some sanding on the rear hull plate and can make out an E and A and a 5. Without the detective work I would never have been able to recognize the symbols as the whole rear plate was painted with a layer of thick white paint at some time in the past. Paul tells me mine is likely one of 67 Mk 1/2s built to contract 6/FV/2146 in 1963. I expect the modification to Mk2/3 came later in the 60's or 70's. Interesting that Jeff's and mine are 16 apart and both ended up far from home but both are now in Ottawa. There is a chap in the USA who is planning to run off a batch of repop data plates so I hope to stamp 18EA56 and the contract number onto a new plate fairly soon. Until told otherwise, mine will be 18EA56 and I'd like to give many thumbs up to Matt Taylor and the dedicated guys who run the various registries around the world. Without their databases anyone missing bits of important info for titling and registration would be lost. I encourage us all to register any old beasties we have on the appropriate registry... it pays off! Tub thumping done... sherlock holmesing continues! Cheers! Mike

Just purchased a nice hard cab 352B1 in Bristol. It'll be shipped to its new home near Ottawa in the spring. Cheers and Ubique! Mike http://www.calnan.com/swords

Hullo Jack: I've just returned to Canada from several months military duty in Kenya and passed through the UK on my way home. While in Bristol visiting close family friends, I decided to join the CCKW crowd and purchased a nice little hard cab 352B1 which will be shipped to Ottawa in short order. My Regiment used the 352's in Korea as gun tractors for the 25 pounder, hence my interest. By the way, check out the 10.50X16 chevron tread tyres now available in USA and Canada. Good photos on the Maple Leaf Up forums. Cheers and Ubique! Mike Calnan http://www.calnan.com/swords

Hello all Polsten fans: Well, ours arrived yesterday after weeks of trucking, sailing and some more trucking, from Bristol to Ottawa via Liverpool and Halifax. Clearing customs was an anti-climax... all the paperwork was in order and we were done in seven minutes... months of work summed up in seven minutes, damn! :-D Stripping, cleaning and mechanical work to follow. I'll post regularly. I'd be interested in setting up a small 'register' for these beasties to help us all sort out numbers. There are many coats of paint on mine and I may not luck into finding the original Canadian Army Registration (CAR) the way Tyler did. Hope you're Polstens are well oiled! ;-) Cheers and Ubique! Mike

Hi R Cubed: If you are at all mechanical its not that difficullt UNLESS the tyres have 'bonded' with the rims. Follow all the safety rules in the manuals, ensure that the air is all gone (remove the valve) push the tyre down off the locking ring and and then pry the locking ring from the rim. Many big pry bars, large sledge hammers and a "devil take the dings" attitude towards your paint will all help. Once the locking ring is off, pull the tyre up off the rim. Six lads and a small dog will help. Now you have your tyre off the rim... sand blast the rim (needle gun it first if it is badly corroded), pull the inner tube protector and inner tube out of the tyre and clean them up. A carefull inspection (you will get quite black here) will tell you if you can reuse the tubes or need to buy new ones for your new tyres. Prime the rims and paint them with many many coats of shiny black anti-rust paint... matt paint is hydroscopic (it absorbs water) and then shoot a coat or two of your final colour onto the parts of the rim not covered by tyre. Cram the tubes and liners into the new tyres and check if there is a balance spot with which you must line up the valve stem. Drop the tyre onto the rim (the use of some soapy water helps) and refit the locking ring. IMPORTANT safety warning- bugger the nice paint job by passing BIG chain through every rim hole and chain the mess up like a "Soprano" going for a swim... leave enough slack in the chain to allow for the expansion of the tyre when you inflate it. A tyre cage works as well as all the chain and doesn't mar the paintwork. With no valve installed and using a clip-on inflator (no hands, arms or faces anywhere near the tyre add 10 pounds of air. Let the tyre pop up so that the bead holds the locking ring in place. Now let all the air out again... this allows the tube to sort itself out inside the tyre and seats the tyre on the rim. Now hook up your clip-on inflator again and get far away or stand behind something big like a Chieftain or 432. Still without a valve, inflate the tyre to 3/4 of its rated pressure. Wait five minutes to see if any hidden flaws in your work result in a huge KABANG and bits of rim, tyre or both flying about the yard! Let all the air out and install the valve. Go hide again (clip-on inflator, fitted of course). Fill the tyre to its rated pressure. Leave it for 5 minutes. Now remove the chain... if you didn't leave a few inches of slack in each loop you will have to start back at the "Soprano" paragraph! Fit the tyre and rim assembly to the truck and gently let the weight back down while standing inline with the tyre so you see it edge on not side on. Do this 10 times. :schocked: Plan on two hours per tyre not counting sand blasting and painting. Making sure no-one is side-on to the tyres now all fitted back on the truck, take it for a test drive around the yard. Now go out on the street and slowly work up to 30 mph paying especial attention to any wobbles, etc. Now drive to a large truck tyre place and have them balance the units for you. OR: drive to the large truck tyre place with the new tyres in the back and let them do it all which will save the trip to get the tyres balanced! :-D Good luck from an idiot who refuses to pay for something he can do himself; resulting in many unhappy hours beating on, cutting off and at times even burning off old tyres! Cheers and Ubique! Mike

Hello Tyler, Ack Ack et al.: I've just joined this forum and am looking forward to comparing notes. My Quad Polsten should be in Ottawa shortly and I hope to get started on its overhaul asap. Yes, Ack Ack... its taken almost a year to get all the paperwork sorted to get it home! I'll tell that tale after the dust settles! :evil: Cheers and Ubique! Mike http://www.calnan.com/swords