Craftsmanx

I was a vehicle inspector in Hong Kong and we always considered this model to be a Scammell Constructor.

I saw quite a few of these around the cupolas of Bedford RL gun tractors in the 1960 but never saw them in use or saw anything that would fit them although I did hear that they were for a anti aircraft MG.

The AB562, which is the Vehicle Record Book was not kept in the document wallet. The unit would hold this and if the vehicle went to workshops, then the 562 would go with it.

 

My memory says there was an accident form in the wallet, but I forget the number.

FMT3 , that's a blast from the past as I've been out since 1973.

sorry recovery vehicle is the body type im after.

 

20 Ton, i see, i had read it as 40t single line strait pull..

 

is the hydraulic system all off the shelf?

im guessing with a bespoke transfer box and it being a problem at road speeds [35-40mph] im guessing you need to low loader the Truck if you going any great distance?

what's your experience?

None of them look like the ones we used on exercise in Libya in the early 60s , ours looked much more robust as I remember.

Was it a wrecker before the civvy recovery gear was put on as far as I remember an RLW was just a GS Bedford RL with a winch, we usually had one in RA regiments to pull guns out of holes without calling for REME.

You may well be right, but all the pictures of Martian gun tractors that I could find were while they were equipped with 5.5s. Towing a 25 pounder with a Martian would definitely be overkill; 25 pounders were towed by Quads or Bedford RLs. Incidentally the picture of the Priest in the 'Guns used by the regiment' section is a Sexton.

 

Chris

We're at cross purposes here. With 25pdrs we had Bedford RL gun tractor sand and then got 5.5s on returning to the UK and had Matadors followed by Martians gun tractors.. I then moved to 5 Regt RA LAD and we had 1 ton Land Rovers towing 105mm light guns.

or like the squaddies did with the Rolls engines, wedge a matchstick in the weight, then you can eliminate the cut out! Came across this a lot when working in REME workshops.

I learned this sort of trick when attached to the Royal Horse Guards who were running dingoes and Daimler Armoured cars at the time. It's a long time ago now and I've forgotten a lot of things but this one stuck.

Clive,

It is a "governed" rotor arm, with a centrifugal cut out set for the RPM stamped on it. They were fitted to all the military Lucas screened distributors, different part numbers for different engines due to rpm settings. You could use a conventional rotor arm as I am sure you will not be over-speeding the engine. I do not have a number for any other standard type rotor arms that would fit.

And if it's cutting in too son file a little off the weight and if too late lay some solder on it.

It seems to have been an interesting place to visit. While Googling looking for any other pictures of this expedition I found details of another that Cambridge University did in 1957. I suppose this is all a no-go area now.

You'll find some excellent photos of the regiment on http://www.42regt.com including lots of them when they had 25pdrs in Plymouth , Cyprus and Libya.

sorry recovery vehicle is the body type im after.

 

20 Ton, i see, i had read it as 40t single line strait pull..

 

is the hydraulic system all off the shelf?

im guessing with a bespoke transfer box and it being a problem at road speeds [35-40mph] im guessing you need to low loader the Truck if you going any great distance?

what's your experience?

We drove a Leyland Martian Recy and 18 gun tractors from Pembroke Dock to Soltau in about 1962 an dthe only real problems we had were with ignition cables that had perished and consequently broke up.

The Tibesti Expedition looks like a re-run of "Ice Cold in Alex"!

I was on that expedition along with another REME VM , George Rodgers Temple . The regiment was stationed in Cyprus at the time and tagged this onto the end of an exercise in Libya. The one incident that sticks in my mind is the transfer box falling of a Bedford Rl because the mounting bolts sheared , this was before the strengthening modification was carried out, we ended up using cylinder head bolts of a scrapped American car in Sabba , when we left Cyprus 18 months later the box had still not been modified and still had the same bolts in it.

I also did another smaller trip later from Tobruk to Giarabub when we really did master the use of sand channels.

very nice! Don't suppose you came across any Militant gun tractor pictures?

In my time with the regiment we never had Militant gun tractors only ammo trucks , the tractors that the Leylands replaced were Matadors.

Hi Howard, Not sure if these are of any help. Firstly some images of the 5.5

 

http://www.42regt.com/guns/55.html

 

And secondly some images of the Leyland Martian tractor that pulled it which I just put up.

 

http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?29704-Gallery-Leyland-Martian-Artillery-Tractor-%28FV1103%29-in-service-with-42nd-Regiment-RA&p=303259#post303259

 

Cheers, Duncan

These take me back a bit. I was a member of 42 Regt LAD (94 Bty Fitter) during it's time at Pembroke Dock and recognise lots of faces. The pic of the men manhandling a 5.5 is taken when they were taking it into the LAD workshop.

Of course Chris, come & see me at work at W&P!

I didn't think armourers came out of their workshops in daylight.

Arte et Marte

We used an International half track with boom on FRT in Libya in the early 60 , ours didn't have the covered top and was a pig to drivein the rough desert, not the sandy bit.

No vehicles but as an ex REME VM I worked on lots of what are now museum pieces. First job after training was to replace fan belts on a DAC Mk 2.