fv1609

Looks as it might be, but nope.

Oh well another easy one! What's this for?

Yes, well done GE You're too good for me & you got in before Richard - being a Thursday I expect he's still in the bath!

So fearsome a machine I'm sure it would yield up a confession to almost anything. But that was not the official purpose I'm after. Off topic but.... "terrorist"? We don't seem to hear about them any more, have you noticed how they are all "insurgents" nowadays? I have pondered on this for some time. After plodding through the various conventions for conducting a civilised war (whatever that is) from 1868 onwards I can now see the reason. Insurgents are specifically mentioned as not being signatories to the various conventions & therefore cannot expect to be afforded the benefits laid done in the conventions. So use of the term insurgency is deliberate & is of great lego-military significance.

What was the intended function of this contrivance in military service?

I don't know, but I think electrically it would be ok. Ask him to measure it & compare with yours. Is it shorter than this one? As far as the Gen Panel No.9 Mk4 goes I'm not familiar with the Ferret layout, do you have any ammeters? The Mk3 & earlier panels were intended to be used with a separate shunt box & 2 ammeters on the dash of the Land Rover (one for vehicle batteries & the other for radio batteries) When the Mk4 came along it was used in installations that had a single radio ammeter built into the shunt box. Both types of Gen Panel will work on your installation. (If you used a Mk3 panel on a Mk4 installation, the charge light would not work although it would still charge). With the Mk4 panel there is a transistorised regulator, it cannot be revived by cleaning any contacts!

Once you log in then there are quite a number of threads with recent posts. For those who like the protection of anonymity, be warned that although you may choose a user name on sign up, when you are registered it will be changed to a standardised name format eg I am CliveE. Not a bad idea (duck for cover)

As far as postwar convoy markings go, it should be in Paint, finishing, white. This is a high gloss finish, which make sense as mud & road gunge will be less likely to stick than if it was matt. Even if it does stick it will be easy to keep clean & visible.

There's over 200 pages of it here:

When did diff painting come in? Well in Notes on MT Administration 1954 make no mention of it. Neither do the Equipment Regulations 1959. However there is an amendment inserted & dated June 1960 where this painting seems to be first described. This amendment refers to further details in Staff Duties in the Field Appendix F. Well I have Appendix F for 1952, 1952 (amended 1956), & what became Annex F 1962. Although they cover Unit Markings, there is no mention of diff painting. Nor is there any mention in the War Department Road Transport Regulations 1963. The above refers to the history of diff painting, the white convoy plate is another matter. Anyway with a Rover 9, you’ll be fine painting your diff.

Thank you for that BA, otherwise it seem to have been a closely guarded secret given that there are no replies to any of the posts put up in mid Aug! As a FoTM I will keep my eye on it & it might be helpful in thrashing out just who & what might permitted to attend Tankfest with a MV.

Found this, I think it came from Service Pals forum.

Not quite a picture in the sense you wanted, but it is official.

Mick, I suspect the regulator contacts were stuck closed & giving the field winding too much voltage. The sparking at the contacts will be minimal if they are clean & in good condition. But you should be able to feel a slight buzz as you touch the regulator (as in a vibrating contact regulator). Be very careful as although it is low voltage, you can sometimes get a shock where inductive loads are around. Yes it is a good idea to run everything up every few weeks, at least with this later generator you don't have to pour oil into the dynamo bearings like on the original fit dynamo.

Mick it looks to be spot on now. Here is part of the Inspection Standard for the Mk3 panel from EMER POWER P 138/27 Part 2. You will see how the output voltage remains constant for loads of 10, 66 & 88 amps. But note how the revs have to understandably increase to realise full power out. Battery relay LH column = Base Standard RH column = Field Standard

There is a danger of having just too many boards. Being too sub-divided is complicated with so much overlap in vehicle role & type. As most of the British elements of the forum are under War Office (& later derivatives) auspices, perhaps we could simply have a Home Office section. This would then embrace NFS, AFS, CD, Police etc

Yes Yes What happened to the 33 volts? But if its 28-29v then that's fine leave it alone. But you should witness a buzzing & slight sparking from the regulator as it does its job. The big BCK relay on the lower right is energised by an independent output from the alternator. When that rises to the required voltage the radio & vehicle batteries are put in parallel & also are connected to the main output from the alternator. You can see the reason for insulating the radio batteries leads from each other & the chassis if you have no radio batterries connected!

Neil are you planning on sinking then? Unfortunately the document isn't dated. But it does make reference to Leslie Judd of Blue Peter wading in one of their vehicles. I searched & I think she was on the programme 1972-78. I have searched Army Code No.12123 for 1974 which is a catalogue of Army Coded publications but there is nothing that resembles VESA. Nor can I find it in British Defence Catalogues that span 1960s-80s & some of those are 3 volumes. If you google for VESA, you will get no sense at all. Yes that did run to quite a few posts, perhaps it was a record one. I thought BD was going to get it with "Submarine escape practice tank" because it was 50% or perhaps 75% correct. Just removing submarine would give it especially with the dual meaning of "tank". Then lunchtime I thought you were going to get it, but you ran out of steam!

YUP Although Instow is now used by RM, I had always assumed that it was through time FVDD/FVRDE/MVEE having started as the place to store DUKWs during the D-Day training exercises on Saunton & Woolacombe. But it was in fact the Fording Trials Branch, Technical Group REME. Recently got a nice brochure for £1, best pounds worth I've had for a while!

For final bonus points where was the location of the REME unit that developed these techniques?

YES any vehicle actually but I think we have got there. A lot of people I thought were getting very close, but we got caught up with submarines, REME & rescuers etc. The point that it is the driver of the vehicle & he is escaping - using his VESA kit. Picture & explanation to follow.

YES! But what is he doing?

Nope he is not a frogman. PS I have an apology, on quite an early response I agreed he was a frogmen, which was incorrect I got confused by all the talk of cleaning up excrement & Glen Miller.

Correct!