fv1609

Right here we are Equipment Regulations Pamphlet No.9 (1959) Marking & painting of vehicles, Army aircraft & equipment. Amendment No.15 Nov. 1967 * just says allocation should be made & recorded under theatre arrangements.

Well I have two vehicles given these ERMs 27BT68 & 27BT95 these were previously civilian registered. I have the official chapter & verse of the BT allocation that I'll scan when I can find it. I think that other document is probably based on observations of the Fleet Transport Data Society.

I thought it best to scan it Tony so you could see for yourself. I'm dyslexic & didn't lose anything in the translation. Didn't want you to end up with a locker for the wrong side!

Tony here you are. No NSN quoted but B16293 matches to 2540-99-904-3814

Tony I have got the parts book 2320-H-104-711 Trouble is that it is on fiche & my fiche reader won't light up, so bear with me.

Nope Wally normally Humber 1 Ton, but the Australian Humbers had contract plates marked Commer. Although they still got referred to as Humbers!

As an aside I see in the manual for the Commer FV1601 used by the Australians that the B60 is black with just Sky Blue (I assume) for the generator & filter box.

Thank you for sharing those. They look much more real than the images we are used to seeing with the newsprint type image in War Illustrated etc. That prickly truncheon looks quite sobering.

Nick provided you rig things up carefully & use pointed electrodes for maximum spark length I expect you could get about an inch spark. I got this from a standard ignition coil recently. I could get a bit more but it started to get a bit inconsistent.

I think you are correct Simon the earlier the literature be it UHB or EMER on B Series engines the more likely they are to be black & then with overhaul, repair or preservation the Sky Blue creeps in.

There are pictures around of airfield Rovers that did tow trailers with missiles to fit. Or perhaps this was just to carry the chaps to fit the missiles given that there are windows for passenger benefit I assume. The window on the near side of course was particularly useful at otherwise blind junctions. The greatest annoyance (apart from "nice Jeep" & "nice Sankey (from those who assume all trailers were made by Sankey) was "pity you fitted the side windows & destroyed the originality" - That was where the contract plate got a good airing :-D

Nick confirmation indeed C2TS4 and the BTH logo :-D Are you going to try it out? One N.Ireland veteran I was talking to described how he was stood near his vehicle & he hadn't realised the thing had been turned on. The end of his rifle touched the vehicle he heard a hell of a crack & he felt a hell of a shock. Later he noticed a small arc weld mark on the end of his rifle. So rubber boots & non-sweaty hands then!

That would explain that Richard I nothing about tanks. In the days when it was very difficult to buy ex-MOD armour. I know when the first Ferrets came into the UK they were ex-Hong Kong Police & they were fitted with electrification. The earthing chain was fitted to the readily available drain plug. Are there drain plugs in Saracens & do they match in with the positions that Andy & Nick have observed?

Andy it is indeed an ignition booster coil. It seemed to lend itself well to vehicle electrification projects. You can see an identical one fitted to this Rover. The part is identified as LV6MT8/2920-99-806-4049 cross relating it to VAOS it comes up as LV6MT8/THC2TS4 So Nick can you see the maker's part number on it ie C2TS4? It seems not to have had a FV number as I assume it was an off the shelf component. The maker was not Lucas but British Thompson Houston Ltd The booster coil delivers 13kV how this is felt on the human body all depends on surface resistance of the skin (sweaty or dry) and the footwear (damp leather soled shoes or rubber boots). So in a wet environment going over these puddles the standing on the ground the touching the vehicle could be fatal. 13kV may not be fatal as such but the current that flows is the significant factor, which of course depends on the resistance presented. Vehicles Branch Technical Group REME produced these figures. So depending on load resistance the current in milliamps (one thousandth of an amp) 1-8 Perceptible shock 8-15 Painful 20-50 Respiratory inhibition 100-200 Ventricular fibrillation 200 Severe burns Descriptions of the workings of the booster coil remain elusive. It clearly is not a simple transformer as you cannot “transform” DC. The alternative electrification system used a normal ignition coil switched by a vibrator of the type that was widely used in WW2 radios. The booster coil is quoted as having a turns ratio of 250:10,000 it must have some switching/pulsing system to drive it. It must be electromechanical; I have not idea if it is a rotary system or a relay switching. I suspect it is the later. I would envisage that this is an autotransformer such that the 250 (primary) winding is in series (& in phase) with the 10,000 turns of the secondary but with the primary energising relay contacts. So that on switch on the circuit is completed the iron core within these windings builds up magnetism, in so doing the relay contacts open so that the magnetic field collapses & 13kV flows out of the secondary. Once this happens the relay contacts close again switching the thing on & charging up & so on. From my own experiments with a coil testing machine working on a similar principle the load presented has an effect with impedance (there are all the inductive effects & the capacitive effects of load plus the basic resistive load) this is all reflected back into the coil so that the load will change the frequency so that the relay buzz become more obviously audible. It’s a pity you aren’t closer Andy as it would be fun to take some measurements. Ah well there is always W&P.:-D Incidentally the idea of using a Centurion booster coil in this way I believe was first tried in Palestine by the EME of an Airborne Workshop who explained to me how he dreamt up the idea.

Yes indeed Richard & also Land Rover Installation Instruction N0.15 June 1972. Below here it is in action on Saracen.

Andy that's an interesting application for the mod. But surely your water detecting chain is just the earthing chain that should be trailing on the ground before some of it snapped off? The EMER applied to "Saracen APC, Saladin AC, Ferret SC, All Marks. Electrification for internal security duties. Installation Instruction No.1 Oct 1968"

Interestingly the EMER was issued in Oct 1968 pre-dating Op Banner by about 10 months.

Here are the axletree & wheel specs for X & X* I take it that the Royal Carriage Dept number is a design spec reference [ATTACH=CONFIG]85355[/ATTACH]

Mal I think it is 10' 8" right up to the next measurement of 19". Below is attributed to Mk X & Mk X* Somewhere I have got wheel sizes & types if you need those.

Nearside front & rear

Martin welcome. I just wonder with a registration like that it might be Home Office, Civil Defence perhaps?

Like this:

Ah well done, nice & cheap outcome. Appreciate you letting us know. Apart from me there are many who watch & like to see how things pan out. Just seen your post about documents. The AESPs have very scant information. A few very basic tests, removing it & fitting it plus I think some bearing info. Pretty feeble on the electrical detail I'm afraid, nobody needs to know these days. Chuck it away & fit another.

I'm sure you wouldn't doubt me Mal. But I believe carpenters say, measure twice, cut once!

Mal yes it is to the back of the tool box. I have an original drawing here in a 1909 ASC manual. With a magnifier I can see the length arrowhead goes to the back of the box & is point to point with another arrow head. This is labelled 19" & meets that perpendicular dropped from the top of the box. I'll scan it for you.