Bran D

There are some very good points raised in this thread. If I look at the Saladin I am selling, then I consider this a premium vehicle. I.e. Something armoured, different and gains a lot of interest amongst the public, so I would have imagined it would sell at near to the price I was asking. I have been in this hobby since 1977, only as an ethusiast, not a dealer, but have a lot of experience as to what sells at what price. I have owned the Saladin since 1985, so am in no hurry to sell it, I am sure the price accurately reflects its worth, so lets see what happens. Regarding the Daf Drops, I will advertise it on eBay soon, but will start it at a much lower price of around £8500, with no reserve, it's a good vehicle, but does not have the attachment that armour does. I did not want to sell at a really low price as I think it then lowers the value of the drops for other owners who have already gone to the trouble of registering and using these on the road already. But I guess that the market dictates the price, not me!

All very good points made above. I think I will test the market with the Drops on ebay to see what the going price is. With the Saladin I have some interest from other countries so will see what happens there.

This is not a plug for advertising but a question as I am very surprised at the low level of response from UK vehicle buyers. I have just renewed adverts for 2 of my vehicles, a Saladin and a Drops, which I am sure are competitively priced and in good condition, but have received a low level of interest from the UK. We often see vehicles advertised for silly money as people try it on, but I have genuinely tried to be reasonable with the prices quoted in the adverts. It has amazed me that there is so little response from buyers in the UK, or is there really that little money around for post war vehicles? What do you think?

I've this several times and its ok if you take your time, don't rush, clean everything properly and don't overheat the ally. Repairs have lasted well.-

Looking forward to the show, I should be there early Saturday with Drops, Saladin and living van. Hopefully it will be nice to see more than one Saladin on the move, don't seem to see that very often these days, then again I don't get let out too often! Hopefully some sunshine will make the beer taste even better.

You should have been there Sunday, almost every big vehicle coupled up being pulled by Micks Drops conversion, over 300 tons! Sorry I couldn't take a picture but I was being towed around in the "train". He is braver than me with that auto gearbox, I wouldn't have liked to try it.

I didn't have an engine with my saladin, and could only get an engine from a sarry. I remember it was so much simpler sticking with the sarry pulley setup for the 25 amp generator. Its interesting that if you look in the early user handbook for the saladin, some photos show the mark 6a engine with a 25 amp generator. It states that the first few Saladins were fitted wih the mark 6 a engine, and would be upgraded to the 6d that was fitted with the 75 amp generator. Any one got a later book to see if its the same? My user handbook is dated 1958.

When I re engined my saladin back in the mid1980's, I could not find a 75 amp generator for any where near sensible money, so I fitted the 25 amp generator from the Saracen. I also fitted the Saracens hydraulic pump, and then modified the cooling fans to suit. I don't remember any mods to the timing cover, but I did keep the sarry pulleys and belt arrangement. But it was a long time ago and I don't seem to remember a lot these days.

I fitted a Saracen engine to my Saladin. The differences are down to the generator being larger and using different drive belts, so the pulleys are also different. Everything else should be ok from memory.

Good luck with the crossing, I remember Mario and others doing it many years ago. I think they broke down and beached at Beaulieu estate, which caused a few issues! No certificates are required by law to take any vessel like this to sea, but you may need to check what your insurance requires. I've navigated many time in boats ranging from 4 knots to 40 knots speed, it can be very busy and especially if at the slower speed you need to keep an eye open for bigger vessels coming in and out as they dont alter direction too quick, if at all for a small vessel. You need to have good weather and arrange a suitable launching and landing spot. Apart from that its plain sailing! Let me know if you need any more help

Use engine oil for the gearbox. 10/30 is equivalent to OMD 90. Originally the zf auto box was spected with an ATF oil, but the military respecified it to engine oil to reduce the number of oils used.

Just looked at a manual, the throttle position sensor you mention is the load sensor for the gearbox. To adjust, make sure that with no throttle it lines up with the mark on the sensor labelled low. Then check at full throttle that it lines up with the high mark. At full throttle the kick down sensor should also operate.

Hi, mine is very smooth, not harsh at all and I've been very suprised how smooth and quick it changes. To me it always seems to be in too low a gear compared to where I would change, but saying that it does it all ok. I'm not sure of any reset or recal procedures, but will look through my documentation to see if anything is mentioned.

Hi Iain, the ISO viscosity is 13 for OM13, Currently there is only ISO 10 or 15 available. I have been using ISO 15 for the last 20 years or so in my Saladin and other vehicles with no issues. The difference in viscosity is very slight, and makes no difference, I went for the slightly higher grade , but in reality its not so sensitive. OM13 was originally speced as a normal mineral hydraulic oil with stearic acid added. I remember talking to a technical adviser at Silkolene backin the 1980's, as they then had the MOD contract for OM13, and he said that it was used as to improve its lubrication properties for some projects that used a long hydraulic ram. He suggested Derwent 15, an ISO 15 grade oil. I've used several other makes over the years as well with no issues.

I've had similar problems, I disconnected the fuel feed to the carb and made a seperate gravity feed to the carb, started the engine and ran it fairly fast for 30 seconds or so and that seemed to get the fuel moving through the pump into a can. Good luck

Welcome, I had one several years ago and really enjoyed it. All you need is a trailer full of weetabix so you have the energy to turn the steering wheel! I may still have some manuals for it if you need any, just let me know,but dont forget the swedish language lessons so you can read the info. best of luck

Well done everyone, you even made an article in Mondays Times newspaper.

Hello Mike, yes I did notice the discrepancy, I guess that is the way it is measured on the rollers. To work it out accurately I gues I would need to use 8 individual weight pads, and thats not going to happen! For the purpose of testing the brakes the roller system only wants to know the axle weight so it can calculate the efficiency, as opposed to accurately calculating the overall vehicle weight. At least it gives me some idea, I dont want to turning up for an mot with an overloaded truck!

Thanks Paul , I seem to remember seeing 13 tons on the bridge plate for one of the variants. Reversing on is a good option. Thanks

Took my truck for an MOT this morning, the hardest bit was opening the workshop door without taking off! Blimey it feels like november!

Is it used as a warning bell on a firing range?

After entering the second year of Drops owning/ driving, and looking at earlier posts on weights etc. I thought it would be interesting to show the individual axle weights as recorded during the brake test. Plated weights: all in Kg Axle 1: 7500 axle 2:5500 axle 3:9000 axle 4:9000 Empty: No rack or load Axle 1: 5600 axle 2:4040 axle 3:5020 axle 4:5360 With rack and Saladin: axle 1:6800 axle 2:5160 axle 3:7820 axle 4:7600 from the Saladin manual weights are: front wheel 3353, centre 3759, rear 4165 all in Kg Maximum all up weight. Just shows that with an 11000 kg vehicle there is not much weight left to play with. The Saladin is mounted centrally on the rack so there is room for adjustment I guess. I am looking for something different to replace the saladin, i supose a cvrt variant is the obvious choice, but what else? Anone got any accurate weights for stormer variants? I may like one in place of the saladin.

That is a really good model, well done. Not only is the model very good but you have also photographed it very well. You are talented, well done.

I had one leaky vent in the front axle, it dripped out all the time after correctly topping up the oil. I swapped the two vents over, the problem was with the vent valve. I managed to get 2 new vent valves with the correct NSN so I assume they were they correct rating, the new ones were just as bad! Fixed it by a very small smear of hylomar on the inside of the vent. If the pressure gets too high it will soon blow off the excess. Mine only holds a bit of air overnight and is slow to build up pressure, I had loads of small leaks from the small 1/4" push fits around the vehicle and have slowly replaced them, the orings inside the pushfits were very hard and just crumbled so I have had to source new ones. More leak finding will follow, I use a garden weedkiller spray and fill it with soapy water, then spray over things and look for the bubbles! Good luck

As an owner of post war British I am amazed at anyone stating with 6 volts on a large-ish petrol engine. 24Volt does even more than 12volt...! Seriously though, as in the first post vulture said he was considering a multimeter to check the resistance of the wiring, this would not prove anything. A modern mulimeter is such a high impedance that it does not help with this type of reading. What you can do is check the voltage drop between the battery earth and the engine starter earth whilst cranking the engine over. Anything over 0.5 volts can be enough to cause an issue. Just measuring the resistance does not tell what is happening when the starter is drawing lots of amps. Check the voltage drop across several of the starter cables whilst cranking and you might see where the problem is. At high cranking current a high voltage is equivalent ( more or less) to a high resistance across a cable or connector. The trouble is cheap modern multimeters do not help with fault finding on high current drawing systems, or systems when a lot of spikes or interference is present.... just as happens on old vehicles. With a cheap multimeter I’ve seen 400 v dc recorded on a healthy 12 volt charging system, just down to the spikes on the charging circuit. An old fashioned moving coil meter would not show this problem, it’s very difficult to work with modern high impedance multimeters on old, electrically noisy systems so some interpretation and experience is needed. So I guess in the case of this slow turning engine, don’t rely on new multimeters but follow the tips suggested earlier.