da bomb

Its still on there (22 Sep 22:30) so asked the following to lure him in! "I am very interested in your jeep, i have been after one for a while and would be happy to give you a bit more than your asking price if you are willing to hold onto it. Just one question, does it have the original Willys Ford flathead v8, or is it the hotchkiss 6 cylinder engine. regards"

An article in this months (October issue 77) goes on about the lack of british softskin vehicles and the author gives a number of reasons, in brief they are: 1. Kent, too far away. 2. The owners, like the vehicles are getting on a bit. 3. They are disappearing overseas to cash rich collectors. Now i may be going to get a bit controversial here (I say what i like and i like what i say!, but this is the way i see it. 1. Most owners of Brit kit are really dedicated to preserving and keeping running their vehicle, facing a harder time doing so compared to some other allies kit, and are probably more interested in that, than running around looking like Private Ryan. 2. I live in Scotland, however, if it was a D-Day anniversary i would feel compelled to turn out if i owned a vehicle of the period, the historical significance im sure most people can understand. Turning up at an event miles away with a group of SS stormtroopers that managed to get in the news and bring the whole scene into a bad light.......mmmm, not so sure. 3. I own up to never been to W&P, but when you see how vehicles change hands for silly money prior to the show and then come up for sale immediately after, you have got to wonder.......and its not really helping those die hard enthusiasts who are in it for the love of it and not for the "Investment" Pin pulled from the social handgrenade, i will now throw it and retire to a safe distance :whistle:

This is an excellent link for Postwar vehicle junkies! stacks of pics of vehicles in service in the British protectorate, Aden. Done by regiment. http://www.britains-smallwars.com/AVA/gallery.htm My particular favourite is the Scammell Explorer recovering a Ferret with its front wheel station blown off!

You noticed that as well! i like the aerial farm on a pole put there to obstruct the traverse!

Would of thought it would be Royal Flying Corp rather than RAF, not impossible though, RAF was formed 1 April 1918 so the war had a few months to run. See attached link PDF Page 6 shows an RFC leyland http://85.232.36.76/rafcms/mediafiles/F21BE44E_EE18_2A21_DE9200FADAA9DB6E.pdf

The US army convoy SatNav system wasn't really as user friendly as he expected. :-D

Never understood why people gut the 24v gear out of the FFR Land Rovers, the parts are cheap and easy to get and its a much better system........

Had the front number plate off of the pope-mobile! Made a cup of tea for Kate Adie (TV Journalist), she turned up off an RAF aircraft late at night and was waiting for the C.O., had a natter then told her to bugger off as she attracts incoming fire! Made Sir Nicholas Soames the then secretary to the minister for defence, make a fast exit when he asked me about how i felt about the deployment i was on... i told him that he had asked me a very similar question on two other visits to deployments at other locations/theatres prior to this one! His rather nice P.A. who was following on told me "Your a very naughty boy" raised my morale! phwoar!!

Remembrance day, the only time of year where our leaders have to turn up together at the Cenotaph and face the realisation of the consequences of their decision process, historical and the present, in front of the armed forces. Given that most politicians now have no military experience, anything that promotes self humility has to be important. To "dumb down" remembrance day because it offends some minority groups sensitivities is ridiculous, they might as well re-write the history books, and we all know where that leads... Im ex-services and there are few things that really infuriate me more than the fluffy touchy feely brigade trying to make it a bad thing to remember!

Its either a gaiter for a gear/brake lever.....or it goes around the barrel of a weapon at the point it pokes out of a vehicle. But then again, maybe its not!! :-D

You can run older diesel vehicles on SVO or Straight Vegetable Oil, most people (Civvie vehicle applications) usually run a mix of 40% diesel to 60% vegetable oil (Oil Seed Rape is the best as it doesnt cloud at low temperatures) without resorting to fuel heating systems. The government got sick of trying to keep up with the administration of loads of 4x4 enthusiasts requesting excise paperwork (C&E Form 103) so they could run on Bio SVO and then pay the reduced rate of Bio fuel tax per litre on the SVO they used. So Customs and Excise made it legal to use SVO up to a quantity of 2500 litres a year for each individual vehicle. You can run on straight SVO, but on smaller engined cars there can be a problem with lift pumps being able to handle the higher viscosity, but most military diesel donks wouldnt think twice about it. Another way of ensuring the viscosity is kept "Runny" is to add between 2 and 5% white spirit to the SVO and let sit for a week, it breaks the chains within the vegetable oil and makes it more useable in colder weather, the only downside is white spirit isn,t exempt from fuel tax, but i believe petrol has the same effect and is already taxed. Apparently the cheapest method of purchase is via a Vegetable oil distributor in 1000 Litre containers, although on the Mitsubishi shogun forum i am also on, people buy cheap 1 litre bottles on offer and bung it straight in their motor!. For those who are thinking "Thats going to bugger the engine" some owners have been running their vehicles for over 2 years doing high mileages solely on SVO and report a slight increase in performance (better Cetane values in SVO) quieter running (higher lubrication properties in the pumps), with no fouling problems. Some of these owners are using their vehicles under heavy towing loads etc. For military vehicles designed to run multifuel i shouldnt think SVO would be of any concern at all. The only fly in the ointment can be the initial use of SVO, as the viscosity is higher, it picks up particles in the fuel tank and passes them straight through to the injectors, so make sure the tank is clean prior to use. The exhaust emissions are better as there is no mineral content in the fumes, just smells like you are cooking! There is a number of websites dedicated to this sort of stuff, be aware the law only changed in April, alot of sites still mention the old Form 103 system, and there are the jump on the bandwagon make a fast buck sites that insist you should buy their oil pre-heating systems etc. I know of a Leyland 680 powered vehicle that runs SVO exactly the same as diesel with no problems, so personally im sold. Just need a Diesel powered Military Vehicle now!!

Thats an excellent photograph, nothing better than seeing vehicles in theatre to get an accurate picture of how they were used. And even better if you can find a picture of your own particular vehicle!! Keep them coming, after all there was more to "Post war" than Northern Ireland.

Yes please :thankyou:

Don't know if anybody has spotted it yet, but the lights on the front wings are all over the place!! Thanks to Clive for the observation!!

I haven't had the chance to drive it yet, but if it has heavy steering, 4wd that works, brakes that just about stop it and wallowy handling it should be alright!! The engine sounds sweet as a nut etc so looking forward to it. Anybody got some decent pictures of the front and rear wings, complete with lockers??

The winch is missing it's propshaft, although a mate of mine has one....dont ask! we think it may have had a problem with the overload cut off switch killing the engine, but can overcome it, and it also has the compressor, which appears to be working fine, although my mate has spares....again dont ask he just seems to have loads of bits that also happen to fit other stuff! The front wings have been replaced and dont have the lockers, the rear wings look like the cut down N.I. versions with no lockers, so bad people couldnt fill them with IED's.

The Humber Pig that i am looking at is a MK1 APC (with winch!) and escaped from service in the latter part of 1968. It is in good condition, but has had a number of modifications, mainly to the front wings and the rear arches which will need sorting out to return it to spec. I intend to find out the history of it and put it back to the correct period scheme, or failing that put it in a relevant scheme for its age i.e BAOR, Cyprus or Aden theatre in an as used working look, rather than overly shiney Queens birthday parade. I also am not a great fan of vehicles portrayed as something they are not! WW2 Yank.....for those who watch to many Private Ryan type movies, i prefer brit stuff, we had enough interesting actions of our own without further promoting the American armed forces!! (Is that controversial! ooh and me being a newbie!)

Be the most....Heavily armoured over engineered and expensive to run bogs in the world!

Ahh yes Portaloos, i find the best cleaning results are obtained when using Thunderflashes! Failing that, wait for an American serviceman, tie a chain around said portabog and pull it over using your Land Rover! (Incirlik Airbase, Turkey, i had nowt to do with it guv! :whistle:)

Hello! Stereotypical, ive been on posting before reading the instructions! So here i am new to the forum, the main reason is that i am in the process of buying a Humber Pig and am trying to find out some more in service information about them. I am ex RAF, and was a "Signaller" on the Tactical Communications Wing, having attended a number of parties courtesy of the Queen, most noticeably Gulf War 1, Bosnia (UNPROFOR), Kosovo and a few other dust ups involving Somalia and Albania, plus more exercises than you can shake a stick at! The MV addiction started with buying a Series 3 landrover, it was intended for hauling logs and rocks, but it was an FFR vehicle and hadn't been hacked around, so i started to put it back to the way it should of been when i was in the forces, took it to a Land Rover show parked it up and walked away with best Series Landrover....i nearly fell over. Circumstances changed and i sold it on, and regretted it, however it does mean i can get something else to play with, and Pigs have always held an interest, mainly because they are post war and a bit forgotten about. By the way, if you know anything about Pigs in service in Aden i would be interested!!

Here is an interesting link detailing a particularly nasty action in Crater, Aden 20th June 1967. Vehicles mentioned are 3 tonner (RL?) Landrover, Humber Pig, Ferret, Saracen and Saladin. http://www.britains-smallwars.com/Aden/mutiny.html

Found this link while looking for pictures of vehicles in Aden. It is mainly of 16/5 Lancers tour in theatre with Bahrain as a staging post and features black and white and colour pictures of Centurions, BARV, Ferrets, RL's and Landrovers amongst others. Interesting as Aden tends to be almost a forgotten post war conflict and certainly not one that springs to most peoples minds. http://news.webshots.com/album/209684866ijMtqE?start=0 Anybody have other vehicle pictures from this theatre??