fv1609

A bit of recognition practice! What are these?

Robin, I have what I think is the complete set of AESPs in the series starting 2320-H-100- Unfortunately they are on microfiche in 23 films. I can take a few pictures of any particular page you want. As there are up to 80 pages on each film I haven't got the time to do more than a few pages I'm afraid.

Adam, nice to see you're getting those wings sorted, as otherwise it immediately catches the eye as being suspect. That'll be a good job done. Am I right in thinking this is a body by Sankey rather than ROF?

That NSN does not appear as a component in any of the JSP supplements on tentage. The item was made by A B Connectors in Glamorgan. It is a Universal Member, Short & is defined as FV591717. Given that it has a FV number of course means it a design spec of the FVRDE (Fighting Vehicle Research & Development Establishment), which suggests it may be a vehicular CP tent of some sort. If it was stand alone tentage it wouldn't have a FV number as it would fall under the auspices of the SCRDE (Stores & Clothing Research & Development Establishment) I see it was also used by Australia & Turkey. So what AFVs have we sold to them?

The FV2381 Mk 3 used with Wolf wasn't actually made by Sankey, but by Reynolds Boughton, Viking Trailers & Universal Engineering. £350 is the upper limit I think. Only consider it if the tyres were very good and there is no rust in the seams of the wheel arches. These are notoriously rust prone areas, the Army treatment for such damage was to squirt in silicone sealant & cover it up with paint! That bodge is actually General Instruction No.1 in AESP 2330-C-500-821 The other thing you must check is that the brake master cylinder has not seized or rust up. To replace this would cost you more than half the cost of the trailer. The other thing to check that the orange cover plastic lid on the junction box has not cracked & allowed mud, rust, bogies & wildlife in. If you have a Viking trailer you will be ok. But the other two makes use a flimsy box made by Ruberlite I think. The 4 lid retaining screws turn through 90 degrees. But when it is all screwed down they are not in line, so it is very difficult to remove the lid without breaking the screws or the lid thinking you are releasing the screw when it may already by loosened. You can see how it all works when you have got it off & probably broken it. Consequently these lids offer little protection for the connections. It is pretty daft design of box for normal usage & its incorporation into a position that is difficult to see & difficult to reach in a piece of military equipment I find rather extraordinary.

Malcolm, 13BK07 Chassis No. 32807 Body No. S540 S540 is the serial no. of the armoured body. ‘S’ indicates Sankey, as opposed to ‘ROF’ of Royal Ordnance Factories. Something odd here can you recheck? A chassis number 32807 should correspond to 28 BK 07. This tallies as it was struck off census on 29/4/66 in Malta! Entered service on 12/1/55 as a FV1602 with engine no. 8580. Receipt Voucher CBR/R/2809 delivered to on 12/1/55 as a FV1602 with engine no. 8580. 3rd Vehicle Group HQ Church Broughton in Derbyshire: CBR - 31st B Vehicle Depot Church Broughton Contract 6/V/27455 After the Malta entry there is a number 011811 but I don’t know the significance of that. BTW I used to own the next one up 28 BK 08 13BK71 Chassis No. 21371 Body No. S545 S545 is the serial no. of the armoured body. ‘S’ indicates Sankey, as opposed to ‘ROF’ of Royal Ordnance Factories. Receipt Voucher CBR/R/4576 delivered on 14/12/53 as a FV1601 with engine no. 6344. 3rd Vehicle Group HQ Church Broughton in Derbyshire: CBR - 31st B Vehicle Depot Church Broughton Struck off MELF (Middle East Land Forces) 010188 on 29/4/66 Both would have been converted to pigs in the period 1958-60. 28 BK 07 changed from a FV1602 to a FV1612. Although the two archives I use still refer 13 BK 71 as a FV1601, rather than a Pig FV1611. You will see they were both struck off on the same day 29/4/66

Well I never! Don't think I can recall seeing a single speed on a Mk 2. I assume that it must be the original dynamo from its Mk 1 days, so it has done very well. There was no EMER that I know of for a mass upgrade, I assume on failure then individual vehicles were upgraded to having a 25A source rather than 12A.

Jamie it sounds as if you are getting well stuck. Fan belts shouldn't be too difficult as long as you get the dynamo really pulled in close to the engine. As yours is a Mk 2 you will have the 2-speed 25A dynamo. The dynamo gearbox is fed oil from the engine. If the engine has stood idle for more than 3 weeks it needs to be primed with 1/4 pint of engine oil, this is to protect the bearings until the engine starts pumping oil. This priming point is under a brass bolt on the top of the dynamo near the pulley, do not put oil down the meshed hole which is the air vent! Failure to oil will not be immediately catastrophic, but regular abuse will cause the gearbox to fail & it will not charge on low revs but above appx 1200 rpm will still be ok. Be wary of the choke, fully out is too far for our climate, halfway is adequate. I have actually disconnected my choke cable as I don't find it is needed & there is no worry that the choke cable being fully returned in. The technique I use is to pedal the accelerator twice. Leave it alone, leave the choke off. Then start up, but keep your foot off the accelerator or at most depress it only about a tenth of its travel.

Yup, always have. It was there first, see no reason to change to anything else.

I think this curious weapon was basically a multi-role delivery system depending on how beastly you wanted to be to your enemy and whether you had enough gunpowder, turps, broken glass etc available with the option to improvise. What particularly intrigued me was loading it with pistol barrels. Whatever payload was chosen certainly a versatile & perhaps unpredictable device.

Right then, I'll pack it in with delivery from the pharmacy.

I know there is somebody who has widely stated this. But XG is a miscellaneous grease. A calcium (lime) based grease would be prefixed LG.

You'll find the more common ones here: http://www.hmvf.co.uk/pdf/POLcompact.pdf

23 BK 53 was struck off on 14/6/67 & sold for £75. It was used as an ACV as can be hinted at by the table. Although it was FFW you can see from the antenna bases it was never converted to FFR. In the link some of the museum commentaries were interesting. It was good to see pigs being dated from 1956 which is correct, so often pigs are claimed to date from 1952/3/4/5 which is nonsense. I would disagree that pigs were retired in 1963. Although a lot were disposed of in the late 1960s, EMERs were still being issued up until the end of 1969.

If it was NATO Command with two or more countries, STANAG 2027 required the country flag/emblem marking to be displayed on the nearside front wing. That is not present in the picture. The UK was acting as a guarantor of the treaty set up by UK, Greece & Turkey to maintain the independence of Cyprus. The treaty referred to as the London-Zurich Agreements was finalised in Feb 1959, with independence from the UK in August 1960. As far as UN markings go if the picture is actually 1963. The Security Council only adopted Resolution SC 5/5575 on 4 March 1964. UNFICYP only became fully operational by the end of June 1964.

30 BK 09 became a Mk 2 & was struck off to Beverley on 24/2/83 but loaned to the Grange Cavern Museum. 30 BK 08 in mid 1980s was credited as donated to Bovington but still on census. But I see in Dec 1987 it was struck off census at DVD Hilton. I have no idea whether 30 BK 08 was actually in Cyprus. Bear in mind it was a FV1612 not an APC (ie FV1611) & I would have thought APCs would be the back bone of patrols rather than a FFW with a single chair in the back. Having said that 30 BK 09 was definitely in Cyprus as we can see & it only sports one antenna whip. I note that 08 is marked identically to 09 in some pics in terms of Bridge class, Unit marking & 'S'. So it is possible that this was a legitimate copy of the markings to put it in Cyprus role. (Bellerophon seemed to appear later on 09)

If you let me know the ERM of the pig, I can give you a brief history.

Jamie there is no dimensional definition of it. The Rolls Royce no. is RE 20863 which I think you will find is close to a Ferodo V250D, so that might be a starting point. Officially a matched pair is required, but I assume with modern manufacturing techniques they are of pretty similar characteristics. I remember the Hornet required 2 belts for the coolant pump & 3 for the alternator. When I asked for them to be matched I was laughed out of the trade counter.

or carefully going through Jack's bush?..........:shake: :shake:

? The baked beans?

I believe you. The incidence of peeping has greatly reduced as a number of famous names have fallen prey to that but if you click on the properties of I think all the mystery objects there are descriptions that are there for the unwary.

Yup & full picture is below, those baked beans must good for the IQ.

Ah if I had known what a peel was I would wiped that off! Oh what a giveaway!

Stinker! Yes you are right. Same book as the biology class wheat came from. I thought interspersing it with the perforated ball would cloud the memory. I'm just amazed the ball went on for so long.

Someone's been peeping!