Sarge

Tim, I lived in a small village called Crantock, 5 miles from Newquay. I still have a LOT of family in Cornwall and I get home every year or two. Retired GI's get lots of benefits, but one of the best is free flights. I can hop a military aircraft to anywhere in the world. The downside is that retirees are the lowest priority, so I can be thrown off the aircraft in Timbuktu. If I'm really lucky, I fly in a C5 or C17 from Texas to Ramstein, Lear jet to Lakenheath, then a small twin prop from Mildenhall to RAF St. Mawgan near Newquay. The return trip is usually the twin prop from St.Mawgan to Mildenhall then a KC10 or KC135 from Mildenhall to anywhere in the US, then a civvy flight to Austin, Texas. It's a tough life, but..... Where do you live in Cornwall? I will be over there in March/April for the one year anniversary of my son's death. I would like to sit and read 'Jungle Book' to him one more time. I hope it's not raining, yeah, right. -Sarge P.S. Anything interesting MV-related in Cornwall? I'll be staying with my sister near Helston.

Perfect! That is exactly what I was looking for. I will now have to get up and go out and find some 10W. If you could find it in Azerbaijan, I should be able to find it in Texas. Thanks again, Baz! -John

I woke up this morning and checked HMVF.... What a great bunch of guys! Tons of hello's, makes me feel right at home. Huge thunderstorm last night, I felt just like a kid in Cornwall again! One thing I really miss about living in the UK is..... the sense of humour, Americans are great but not very funny. I miss the dry wit, the sarcasm and the double meanings. A couple of you asked if I would post photo's of my toys. Sure, I'd love to. How? I'm not the world's greatest computer genius. Just a light shove in the right direction would help. I also appreciate your use of the word 'experienced' to replace the word 'ancient'. Military bicycles? No.... But I'm a member of an MVPA chapter, the Lone Star MVPA. Our website is http://www.lonestar-mvpa.org/ I am the webmaster which explains things like the rotten graphics, busted hit counters, etc. One of our members has a 1939 Colson bicycle (whatever that is) I have already asked Mr. Elliot my oil question, he truly knows his stuff. I'm blathering again, so I'll shut up now. -Sarge

Wow Clive, thank you for the speedy reply! You attached a page from a 1979 Def Stan and said that it was obsolete now. Co-incidentally my MAN truck is a 1979 model. Thank you also for the link to the current Def Stan, I am in the process of down loading it right now. Because I only have dial-up service at the ranch and the Def Stan is 8MB, it will take about another hour. Thanks to the page you scanned, I can see that I need 10W moderate duty diesel engine service oil, which is further described as a mineral oil with additives. Used in "certain types of automatic transmission and gear boxes." That describes it to a 'T'. I cannot locate an oil in the US which meets the above criteria, perhaps because it is obsolete. The reason I am bothering you so much about this subject is because I have been seeking this oil for over a year. Last night I googled O-176 and up came an excellent article about military oils written by you. I have tried asking this question on the MAN-Kat forum in Germany, but never got a definitive reply. So, to cut a long story short; Do you use an OMD-40 10W oil in any of your vehicles? If so, which civilian brand and type of oil do you use? Thank you once again for your help! -Sarge

Okay, this is my first post! (except for my new member intro) I bought a German M.A.N. Kat A1 10 ton 8x8. The transmission is a ZF WSK400. It's a bit odd, it is an automatic manual with a transfer case attached. When I say automatic manual, I mean that it has a 6 speed manual gear lever but it also has a torque converter on the front like an automatic. To start moving, you engage any one of the first 3 gears and let out the clutch whilst holding your foot on the brake. You let off the brake and push the accelerator. It drives off and you can feel the torque converter do the 'one-two' kick as it picks up speed. So why am I posting this in the 'British Military Oils' section? Because I found an article on line written by Clive Elliot. The German military maintenance books list the correct transmission oil as O-176. The torque converter, transmission and transfer case share a common oil bath/supply. When I read Clive's article, I found out that O-176 is the same thing as OMD-40 which is 10W oil. Here is my question; what do I buy and put in this transmission? 10W engine oil? 10W detergent engine oil? 10W hydraulic oil? There are many other 10W oils, but I'm afraid that if I use the incorrect civilian equivalent of O-176 (OMD-40), I could destroy a very expensive piece of kit. HELP!!!! Thank you! -Sarge

Okely-dokely, here we go.... I just read your forum rules, so I will try my hardest to abide by them; first an intro. My name is John Smith (Honestly, Officer!), but my nickname is Sarge. Born in Lincoln UK, raised in Cornwall, lived all over the world. Two years Royal Navy, 845 Wessex Squadron, 21 years USAF FACP, 4 years US Army, 9 years US IRR. You do the math, that makes me a retired old fart. I recently bought a farm (The Flying 'F' Ranch) near Austin in Central Texas. I had to buy the ranch because my collection of military vehicles outgrew the housing restrictions in my old neighbourhood. Speaking of collection, I'll list what I have at the moment. An M35, M1009, M715 (x2), M561, M1003, M1030, M416, M820, M101, M832 (x2), S250, S530 and a SEE. I guess it's obvious that I'm totally addicted to green machines. Also you'll notice that the majority are USA military vehicles, well, living in Texas, what do you expect? The M1003 and SEE are German and the M1030 is Japanese. I'm retired, I have my pension and this is my main hobby. I like weapons and also have a bunch of them. I am flabbergasted at the new draconian weapons restrictions in the UK. I remember clearly as a youngster being taught how to use a 303 in the ATC. I also remember shooting rabbits and pigeons in Cornwall with multiple weapons. What happened? Enough on that subject. I do tend to blather on, but I have an excuse. I was lightly blown up in the Gulf War which unfortunately broke most of my bones, the worst being several vertebrae. The VA (Veterans Administration) prescribes me 300 vicodin a month, which keeps me pretty well stoned all the time. That's why I blather; blah, blah, blah. I would like to tell you how I found this website.... My M1003 (MAN 8x8 10 ton) has a weird transmission which takes NATO code O-176 oil. I googled that and found a great document written by a man named Clive Elliot. That lead directly to your website. I will now try to find out how I go about asking Clive a question. What do I bring to your website? I know quite a bit about how the US military supply system works, Federal Stock Numbers and such. I know a fair amount about M-series vehicles, 1970's to present. I am by no means an expert in any subject, but I do have lots of years of experience working on this equipment. What an incredibly long introduction! Thanks for reading it! :coffee2: -Sarge