Bran D

I have also used a roller on several vehicles, and found that the cheaper smooth rollers worked better than than some more expensive ones by Harris. I tried some Harris smooth plain white rollers that were labelled as for use with solvent based paints and found that they broke up straight away. After lots of swearing and a quick trip out I got a pack of 10 cheap small rollers and they worked great with a satin finish. Good luck.

With a name like Branko Dragovic I had to shorten it, as I struggle with it on a Monday, or a Tuesday...... Bran on its own would confuse me with a breakfast cereal, but then Bran D confuses with strong spirit drink so I should have used Bran on its own...Oh well I'm glad its not confusing!

Hi Alaskan, i was looking at some documents earlier and the antennas are called Aerial Element 4-ft. Antennae Rod "F" Section. These are 4 ft long and there are three types, upper, lower and middle. No2 is the upper, part no (Z1/5820-99-949-0985) ZA44683), No3 is the lower, part no (Z1/5820-99-949-0995) ZA44682), the only description I found for the other section is the part no (Z1/5820-99-949-1166) ZA44684), You would normally have 2 x 4 ft sections in the base, or a least thats what I and most other people do. I think I only have 2 of the section types, I will have to check next weekend. looking at the manual, if its a vhf aerial you have a max aerial length of 8ft so would use 2 sections, if its a hf set then you would have 3 sections that gives 12 ft of aerial. the first picture is the vhf base: this is the uhf base: I'm no expert so maybe someone who has used these can confirm?

Dont forget there are other views available, not just google. For example if you use Bing then the birdseye and streetside images are very different to the google images and can be very revealing!

Hello Andy wecome aboard. Like you I enjoy boating, but MV's are the priority now. Had some wonderful holidays on the broads, you are in a great area for sure. How about this to combine both interests, I can see this motoring upto Horning! Something went wrong...

I can remember looking at crates of bevel boxes for Saladins and Saracens thinking that I could fit them to either vehicle just by swapping over the backplates and a few other small components. trouble is that was over 15 years ago and I cannot be too sure, you know what happens to your memory over time. I am still confident that the different part no's are because each station has been built up to fit a particular location, as you say with brackets etc. so should be easy to convert to fit a different corner. good luck

Power supply to the cab comes onto 2 studs located below the passenger glovebox, just to the left of it. I had several dodgy earths, so remade all these and things were a lot better. the Rev counter is run form a seperate alternator output, so may be connected with having the alternator repalced. The tacho interface is mouted below the fuses and relays. Good luck

By the time most of these got into the 1950's and beyond they had air brakes. Are there any air brake components like reservoirs, etc? some had a conversion with air over hydraulic so the towing vehicle would have air that was converted to hydraulic operation on the trailer.

I seem to remember that the detection limits for a roadside test were considered to be between 0.5% and 1% of contaminated fuel. A roadside test would not be able to detect less than 0.5% contaminated fuel. i.e. if you have less than 0.5 litres red per 100 litres white you are ok as the roadside test is unable to pickup this low concentration level. I often fill from jerry cans and am always cautious that no red has been in the cans previously. It will be interested to see what the official line is. Best to clean it as mentioned before.

Dont need to lift the cab, just lean over the front nearside tyre!

Hi Dan, I did the same on mine, (luckily not on the road), I just pumped the primer a few times and she started ok. the manual does say open the banjo on the fuel line above the pump to bleed. Good luck!

My old Foden originally had the Foden 9 speed which was overdrive top. When I fitted the 9 speed fuller I wasnt sure if it had been setup as overdrive, but it was and it was a few mph faster than the foden box. I cannot remember the ratios now and dont have the manuals anymore, I didnt think it was as much as .74, so good luck! Mind you 50 mph was fast enough for me, especially with a binner trailer behind !

To get 50 - 53 mph the gearbox needs to be overdrive in top gear, cant remember the exact ratio. If its a fuller 9 speed you can swap the gears internally so that it achives a higher ratio. You can tell if has been modified if the positions of 4/5 and 8/9 are reversed on the gear change pattern. If this is the case then the gearchange pattern is someting like this: low range left top - reverse left bottom - first/crawler middle top - second middle bottom - third right bottom - forth right top - fith high range middle top - sith middle bottom - seventh right bottom - eigth right top - ninth I gave away a gearbox manual with my old Foden so I cant look it up any more.

I have found that no spares factors will supply a repair kit for any air brake component these days, they will only send off the unit for a rebuild. You ,may be able to find a repair kit from a surplus dealer, if you have the part no in the parts manual. The only test equipment I have needed is a gauge like this sealey one, you can then connect it to the test points. Of course a bottle of soapy water is always usefull for leak testing! http://www.toolbox.co.uk/sealey-vs931-hgv-air-brake-6662-111045 Good luck

I had several discussions with local tacho calibration companies and vosa about tachos. Originally I was told I had to have a digital tacho installed, but I questioned this directly with VOSA and they said analogue was ok as it was built 1992. I fitted an analogue tacho, got it calibrated and all was ok, as have several other people.

There was some debate about having an analogue tacho fitted to an older ex mv vehicle, but after some discussions, including vosa, they agreed an analogue tacho was ok on my Drops (1992). just to add another point, although I still need to comply with the working hours regs, I dont need to carry any documents in the cab to prove this when using the vehicle for non profit use!

CPC is not required if you are driving for private use reasons,i.e. taking your own vehicles to shows etc. It is also not required for business use if it is not your primary job. Tacho requirements are needed for any HGV vehicle less than 25 years old. Even if its private use! There are some exemptions, but non I see that are relavent to normal use. I would also say its best to get at least some training through a recognised HGV trainig school as they know all the basics plus a lot of other facts that are usefull.

It may be worth opening up the connection plug on the end of the cable going to the generator. I have found 2 connectors with a wire that was not correctly soldered into the plug, and had come out when moving the cable about during removal or refitting. Dont know if this was bad luck or if others have seen this? Good luck, and remember its only nuts and bolts!

As Clive mentions, there are no hydraulic locks on the Drops rack, only 2 relatively small forgings that prevent the rack tipping. I have found that when loading an empty rack sometimes the rack doesnt fall under these forgings, but sits above them, requiring a part off load then load again. I always get out and double check it has engaged correctly before I move off. There is a transit warning light in the LHS control panel, but this only tells you all the arms have retracted against their relavent end stops. The only "heavy" load I have moved has been my Saladin, loaded the Daf seems very stable around bends, wallowing much less than my old Foden, and its only 8" higher at 13'. Mind you I'd prefer to come out of a bend thinking I could have taken it faster rather than thinking oh s***! I've pent £650 on chains, couplings and chain ratchets to hold the Saladin on, engineering support points at the strongest points of the rack itself. It does need care, especially as it attracts a crowd whenever you load at a show, a recipe for disaster or what! I think there are many potential pitfalls with the drops, I am always keen to learn more if the army trained guys want to share their knowledge. Theres no such thing as too much info or experience.

I think it has changed. I bought some recently and when painted it does look darker than the nato green from a few years back. It looks similar to the green you see new MANs etc, quite a bit darker than I would have liked. Trouble is its too much effort and cost to repaint so it will have to stay! I dont know which paint suppliers will work with the earlier colour or if indeed there has been a change in the spec. Good luck trying to convince the other half.

I have tried driving a ferret with a very low fluid flywheel oil level, it surged and would stop after a few seconds. Maybe these were similar symptoms? What about slipping brake bands in the gearbox before/ after an incorrect type oil fill, partially siezed brakes are very common, especially if its been standing a while? Combine all three and who knows? Good luck bran

Looks like a job for a new cable. I've used speedy cable several times for similar jobs. They do a good job and it will last!

Just make up a flasher unit using a 555 timer chip circuit and a relay. The 555 is a timer chip available at many electronic components stores and is easy to build as a usefull variable timer kit. I have found many uses for these on vehicles over the years. Use the recommended settings for an astable timer with a pulse rate of 1 second , then use the timer to drive a relay. This relay can be 12 volt or 24 volt as required and is independant on impedance, unlike a flasher unit. This means it will work well with LED'S or bulbs, including trailers if the relay has sufficient current rating. These are available from maplin and are more reliable than any old type flasher unit. You can google the components needed but remember to use it as an astable oscillator with a time of about 1 second. That way it will be legal and better than most old type flasher units you can buy. if you want to do this and need more info let me know. Good luck.

My drops does 50 Mph at 2400 rpm, thats just on the start of the red line. It is governed mechanically on the fuel pump. Does feel like it needs another gear though! Maybe your rev counter is reading high?

Any progress? Hope you have it all sorted by now.