fv1609

Probably worth trawling through here: http://www.karkeeweb.com/index.html#home

With such a long arm it could be from an aircraft. For instance Champ & Humber arms are considerably shorter. The cork float with mechanism of a cog driving a spindle to Desyn sender is virtually identical for aircraft & standardised vehicles alike. A couple of years ago I saw a nice aircraft one complete with Desyn, which I thought I would buy to cannibalise. I was staggered to find it was priced at over £200. The seller pointed to the original vocabulary label with a prefix I think 26AJ which is Spitfire.

At one stage they seemed to be painted brown with disruptive black (poss DBG). Was that during your time? Seemed an odd scheme for an urban vehicle. Thank you for posting the pictures. Do you have any more or of the Mercedes? I have the EMER but the picture is not very good.

There is one in private ownership in NI, one restored by the RUC Historical Society, there was one at Beverley & some ended up at Otterburn. PS I have in the past referred to the comment about the pump operator having to wear a respirator. That was from a SITREP that was clearly slanted against the design of the vehicle. Did you get the 17/21 Lancers Triton tie? I once saw someone with one who was working for Anchor must have been 10-15 years ago.

Well its the other way around here. I find bits from bridles & other horsey accoutrements in our dishwasher. :-(

Worth buying for those wing mirrors :nut:

Wayne your eyes do not deceive you. Andy F told me about this a few weeks ago on e bay. What you saw was none other than a "Humber Pig APV Military Tank Armoured Car Riot Security SWAT Police" :-X http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270911453458&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:GB:1123

Drew I wouldn't have thought the small amount of desiccant you could get in there would do much good for very long. That volume would be alright inside some sealed electronic equipment. But with a flow of air through it I would have thought it would become saturated pretty quickly. The thing to watch with these valves is to clean them out from time to time, they can get clogged up by nesting spiders. I have seen one Ferret run for a while then conk out because the valve was strangled by spider debris.

Paul 26/GS Publications/505 20th June 1941

Hello Old Git, I'm not sure if I'm getting you mixed up with another OG. Do you have an interest in infra-red systems? Some years ago I was in contact with an OG called "The Old Git" & we tried to identify an unusual IR viewer. I've since lost contact, was that you by any chance?

The Colour Code 76 is just Green IRR. I think it has been incorrectly coded, as the second digit is the finish & 6 is IRR. But 6 can only be used with the first character colour of 5 (Black) or A (NATO Green) So if it was Green I think it should have been recorded as A6 not 76. (If it was disruptive pattern IRR it would have been A7)

Welcome Jim I expect you have seen quite a few military Rovers over the years given your location. My favourites are Shorlands, there are several in private hands over with you, but only one I think in UMVC?

At one stage there were 298 Saracens & yes unwieldy things but the large numbers were deployed as a stop-gap whilst the Pigs were being up-armoured. The additional Pigs came from as near as Belfast, to as far away as Libya. Op Marble was to determine the time taken to bring them into service. The actual time needed to make a Pig serviceable was double what had been estimated. Although there were 10 already there since 1958 (for I have one of these) which had been run on a regular basis & automotively up together. The original problem with seals to the Tracta joint housing was that they could blow when injecting the oil in. An instruction was issued to reposition the lubricator further from the seal & blank over the original hole. Unfortunately large numbers of Pigs were found to have never been modified in this manner & this then had to be carried out. The story of the joints themselves is covered in: http://www.hmvf.co.uk/pdf/PIGINAPOKE.pdf

Pigs in BAOR predate the 1976 EMER.

Wayne yes although one was fitted by the Army, I removed it to put it into it,s 1960s MoHA role.

Sorry NI = Northern Ireland

Drew did it have a NI history? There was an EMER issued for fitting these to Pigs in Feb 1976. It was a blue paper EMER so was for immediate implementation.

The earliest change I can find from High Gloss DBG to Matt IRR NATO Green is in the May 1980 publication of DGFVE Spec 341 for Rover 0.5 Tonne Series 3 which required two coats applied wet on wet.

Curious Stock No. only 12 digits not a NSN

Hanno in answer to your original question about the paint finish for Lightweights. MVEE Design Spec No.574 issued 1st May 1972 gives the definitive answer, although it seems to have been written by a person who is gifted with dyslexia. It states that the colour is to be "Gloss Bronze Green BSC 244" Not very helpful as there are three "Bronze Greens" Light, Middle & Deep & there is no colour allocation for 244 A characteristic of someone with dyslexia when confronted with a two letters or numbers is that they often double the adjacent character instead. I think most people's observations would feel that the original colour of Lightweights was Deep Bronze Green which is 224 but the dyslexic author or typist doubled up on the wrong digit.

Ian would like to see your Shorland model please.

Yes bit of a blunder, that NIIN 99-973-3842 was allocated to Cable assembly, special not quite the same as a pair of trousers :wow:

Welcome Terry, so will you be making it to Overlord? What sort of Pig did you have & what happened to it?

Me too! Welcome Michael