fv1609

I am not so sure that it really needs to have one.

Agreed. I'll go to a show if it suits me whether or not it has the "National" status, the status makes no difference to me.

the rear crossmember is a civilian one that has been put on a military chassis.

Not uncommon for it to be done in service as I believe there was no demandable rear cross member other than the Rover civilian one. The military rear cross members available now are repro.

Eryk that green vinyl stuff shrinks & most I have seen no longer fits the trays or if they did fit the trays the shrinkage has caused them to be split by the tray. It is very much like the material used for vehicle CP tents & shelters. Three years ago we threw a lot away because nobody wanted it. About 5 years ago I'm sure I saw some NOS covers at a show & remembered thinking what a pity they weren't around when I had my ambulance.

I don't know if your straps & buckles are still there but be very careful. I once jumped/slithered off the roof & caught my hand on the rusted pointy bit of the buckle. It ripped some flesh out & yellow stringy stuff. To this day I still have a 2cm patch of numbness in the palm of my hand.

Do you get any water coming in through the rear roof ventilators? The problem with these is that the edges have slits to allow water to drain out if it has entered through the top slats. What stops the water entering inside is an upwards facing collar that is punched out from the lower base plate.

The trouble is that this collar rusts inside & water is free to trickle in. By now any ambulance of that age will have rims that have or must be very close to rusting out. If you keep it under cover & only go out on sunny days no worry, but you would be well advised to take the ventilators off & renew the circular collars.

About ten years ago these vents turned up on the market. I bought some & put them on a horsebox. Although I did note that they were painted with red oxide but the inside of it was bare metal.

I'm not sure why Blanchards have listed it as an FFR

Robin it still has the 5C10 screened coil, CH26 filter box & 24v battery box between the front seats.

I don't know what has been going on with FJ.

Wife's Hilux Surf (sorry) has been insured with FJ for 8 years then last year they said they were no longer interested & certain improvements were now being offered by way of being pushed onto Equity.

Of course there was a big increase in premium so went to Adrian Flux & got it insured for cheaper than the original FJ premium!

What you have to watch with Adrian Flux is that they like to sign you up on the phone & "can't guarantee to hold the quote open". So I went with that only to find a series errors on the documents when they came through in an email (they seem to save by being totally paperless)

We also have a horsebox that was insured with NFU that was getting increasingly more expensive even when we got a horsebox that cost less! Tried Adrian Flux & got a much better price. But no I did not sign up on the phone but waited to read the policy pdfs. Having spotted the errors I then rang & signed up.

Despite checking through the details on the phone, get your quote & terms etc in writing first, check it carefully & then ring up to sign on.

Just to give a balance, I am with Premium Choice & had no difficulties in communicating the differing specifications of the vehicles with them. The MV policy itself is with KGM & includes the £5 million liability required at most shows nowadays.

So three to choose from now :-D

Ah ok thanks Tim.

Clive,

 

The title of National Show has not been allocated this year.

 

Tim

Sorry just re-read that Tim. At the first reading I took it to mean that Wicksted had not been allocated the National Show title. But re-reading it perhaps you meant that no show will have that title?

On the MVT site the section for National Show just says "To be populated"

Ok thanks Tim, just wondering when or what the MVT National Show was going to be or if indeed there was going to be one.

Tim, is it designated as the MVT National Show?

Eryk fair enough, I think the owner of a new vehicle is particularly enthusiastic to embellish it all he can. Take for instance the amateurish stencilling about the shackles on this camo vehicle. I don't think I have ever seen an in-service camo ambulance where the markings have not been painted out. Originally the shackles warning was a transfer but this turned rather dull & orangey & was prone to crack with time. But the owner here has struggled with the stencilling & he also got carried away with Chalk markings that it never had originally.

Oh yes my ambulance 30 years ago :-D

PS Got that wrong amazing what you can't remember after 30 years, it was on the nearside rear!

Eryck sorry, the shackles info is above the rear off side door (adjacent to one of the shackles) I have a drawing somewhere.

Yes its your vehicle & you can paint whatever you fancy, but to many eyes it will look a bit peculiar to have a yellow bridge plate with a 1980 disruptive camo. Yellow was done away with in late 1977 in favour of grey & that was soon replaced with the plate the same colour as the surrounding paintwork with the introduction of IRR paint schemes.

Eryk for the era you are depicting the bridge plate would be the same colour as the adjacent colour. It would not have a bridge class marked if it was only in the UK. That also applies to the Union Jack decals, but if you want to use them it is front nearside & rear nearside. If you are depicting a Para unit the Chalk no marking would seem in order. But just be a bit cautious not to overdo the markings on what after all is meant to be a camouflaged vehicle, yes I know the Red Crosses!

Also in white above the door on the offside "SHACKLES TO BE USED FOR LASHING PURPOSES ONLY"

If you are depicting an IRR paint scheme. You should expect to see a stencil mark around a lower sill "IRR JUNE 1980" for example, being the date the paint was applied as the IRR pigment had a fairly short life.

You can't doodle in an e-book!

The doodle below is of a young lady who looks contemporary to the publication & brings the reading experience alive that an e-book never can. You can't recreate the feel of the well thumbed paged, the rusting paper clip, the patch of old mildew, the smell of musty paper etc. What a shame I no longer have any proper second-hand book shops in Salisbury. We have one bookshop of a major charity that only seems interested in sanitised modern books, saturated with Gulf War fantasy novels & the THREE second-hand bookshops are no longer there.

Anyway from Queens Regulations 1859 this soldier's delightful dream lady.

Well 2 years ago I bought my wife an e-book reader from the well known chain of newsagents. The promise was 5 million free books (plus new releases that you would have to pay for).

In reality it meant there were 50 or so classics like Dickens that were complete. Other "free" books were only bits of books & that only became after discovering the missing chapters had to be paid for. So some very underhand marketing there. So now it just gets used for youtube clips & a few solitaire games.

The MOD is well into e-AESPs, e-JSPs etc rather than the printed form, now doing what they thought fiche was once going to achieve. Electronic is obviously cheaper to produce and logistically instant. Not so good if you like collecting these documents.

As far as convenience goes, I thought having pdfs of lists of my books, EMERs etc would avoid having to carry round a large file at shows to cross check to see if I had a particular book in my collection or check a parts list. It has not really worked because on most occasions the sun is too bright to read the screen & it can take a long time to search an electronic document & in the hustle & bustle of bargain hunting it is far easier to flick through the pages of my printed files.

The only benefit is if, on some unexpected occasion, I spot a book of interest or a MV part I always have the phone with me that I can search through when I wouldn't be expecting to carry the big index around..

The sight works off day light , I don't think they were ever fitted with a illuminating unit

The same periscope & gun linkage was used on the Shorland, in that they overcame the problem by having a linkage to a spotlight.

Does anyone know where the relays are for the 24volt dashboard light.

There are two:

24v ignition warning light relay

24v ignition warning light black out relay

(Ignore the top arrow which is the ammeter of course)

They are both under here:

Is there anyway I can check whats coming out of the Alternator?

I would have thought stick a voltmeter across B1 & B2

When you established which is -ve (B2 I think) then put the +ve prod on WL the warning light terminal.

Yes both working now. Well it did have a name its just that it wasn't being made public in 1957! Preceding Malkara it was known as Project J in direct opposition the the British weapon of the time Project 6 that became Orange William (which is my avatar).

There were two launch trailers both based on the intended FV4010 Heavy Tank Destroyer. One was in the UK the other arrived in Australia August 1956. It wasn't formally adopted until 1959, when the plug was pulled on Orange William although the Secretary of State for War admitted was a more advanced weapon.

David, Clive - thanks for filling in the forms, sitting in my inbox when I work this morning - able to read them on my phone from the warmth of my bed!

 

I hope the process was no more painful than filling out a paper form, it's something I am developing so that we spend less on postage - quite an amount these days - and also have documents, both electronic and printed out, that are legible for the booking-in guys and for the arena team.

 

And we look forward to seeing you in May 2014!

That worked well. Although it took longer than I had expected because I filled out the form then realised I hadn't checked the Code of Conduct. I clicked on that, came back & my info had gone. But I'll get it right next year!

Done it

Was it being launched from a white AFV with loads of aerials & wind speed indicators etc?

If its the clip I think it is you can see that it is a Mk 1 missile as it has pyrotechnic flares. Of which only one of the two ignites.

Have you checked the 50A fuse between the shunt box & the alternator?

WL warning light

B1 +ve

B2 -ve I think

If you have a go at the regulator

Black -ve

Red +ve

Yellow WL

Green Field

Iain I'm afraid neither link is opening for me.

Clive what was FV1609 - Shorland or Pig with Malkara?

The original Mk 1 Pig.

What are called Mk 1 are really Mk 2 & those that have the contract plates that show a Mk confirm them as being Mk 2. But the Army forgot this detail & in Op Bracelet Sept 1972 - June 1973 those upgraded Pigs were designated Mk 2 which was error, they should have been designated Mk 3