fv1609

Just make sure the truck is in better condition than this one: BTW it is for sale as it still has the front & rear axles which will fit a Pig. The front Tracta joints are the same. Now I know that Mk1 Pigs had the stronger Chobham joints, but the Army found them to be unreliable & actually retro fitted Tracta joints from GS trucks like this. Now if you have a Mk2 Pig you will say yes but they should have a Birfield joint. Not necessarily, there were 487 Mk2 Pigs, but only 383 of them had Birfield joints. They ran out of the special steel from Germany so there were 104 Mk2 Pigs with either Chobham or Tracta joints like this poor GS Truck. The cost of a pig rear axle seems to be £200 upwards. You can have the GS for £100 to include all ivy & nettles. Postage extra.

I have one of these myself it is decomposing in the garden. I just nick bits off it to keep the three armoured ones going. So a truck is quite a rarity, the most critical aspect is the bodywork. There are no spares for bodywork around. They have either rusted away or been chopped around for garage breakdown trucks. At least the rate of rusting on a pig is less! So has it been dry stored, does it have original bodywork? Does it have a hole cut in the middle of the rear floor? A few did, if it has then that would be very exciting I'll explain the significance if it has. If you have the VRN, serial no or engine number I can give you the history.

I was just looking through EMER WHEELED VEHICLES U 028 Inspection Standards for Trailers. If you want to test the brake efficiency of your trailer. Needs two runs at 20 mph with trailer & two without. Then take average. E1 = Braking efficiency of prime mover E2 = Braking efficiency of prime mover & trailer L = Weight of prime mover T = Weight of laden trailer Trailer brake efficiency = (L + T) x E2 - (L x E1) then all divided by T. L should no be greater than 3 x T L should not be less than 4/5 T Trailer brake efficiency should exceed 45% to pass.

I agree with most comments. Particularly: 1. As much optical zoom as you can. Zoom invaluable for leaning over that fence trying to snap some strange vehicle at a distance. 2. Macro very important. Say taking a picture of a serail no plate etc on equipment. Or someone has some nice pics or documents you want to copy - avoids having to try & borrow them. 3. Yes having AA cells, you can back up with if your main batteries go down. 4. Think about having the facility to take a video clip. 5. I have had a couple of Fujis I have been pleased with. 6. Make sure that if the batteries go down & you replace them that it has some memory. Mine is ok but my wifes (cheaper Fuji) seems to have no memory so that each time she uses it with a new batterry. The serial no given to the frame starts at 0000. So that she has lots of frames taken at different times that have the same serial number. Not a problem if each shoot is stored in a seperate folder on the PC. But moving images around can be a pain unless you rename the frame which is a pain as well.

Hello & welcome. Someone send me over a DVD they had taken off one of your TV programmes about a MV rally over there. I thought it was a very level headed programme which was a good bit of PR work for the MV movement. The programme was about 20 min long & it was all sensible questions & although there were some people in German uniforms & someone else had some deacs. It was not focussed on by the programme makers & the enthusiasts just explained these were of peripheral interest only but the main thing was the vehicle preservation. So were you in that programme? Trouble is over here we are fairly unlikely to get a sensible balanced programme, it has to have an angle & something to be sensationalised. So well done to your chums over there.

You have got to do this with the thing sat flat on the floor on level ground assuming you are going to be driving on level ground during the test. I had to do mine on a bit of a slope, so I set it whilst further up the slope. There are two main adjustments. The one allows the dial to spin free or spin free then lock at its highest reading. You need to first set it running totally free. The other adjustment is a wing nut that tilts the meter. Free the nut & tilt it so the meter can be nearly zeroed. Tighten the nut then do a fine adjust on the serated wheel adjacent to it. Then set the meter so it locks on maximum reading position, but is still at zero. Then off you go & brake like hell & see what the reading is, hopefully more than 25%. Keep the steering wheel with a loose hold & feel whether the steering wheel tries the pull to one side. If & it does, attend to the brakes on the side away from the pull.

I was just looking through a Defence Standard, I noticed that section 1D Mineral Oils lists compass fluid as OM-1 (NATO S-712) then it says composition as special grade of white spirit. So that's a cheap enough item. It is in that list of POLS at http://www.hmvf.co.uk/pdf/POLcompact.pdf

Ian All that sort of thing was covered in a 15-page article in Windscreen Summer 2000. I tried to paste relevant bits here but this won't cope with images. But if you wait a few weeks I hope to post the article on site. Clive

I am with Roadsure, good value £130 for 2 pigs, 2 shorlands & a hornet. But you do have to keep an eye on these people. I found out recently that unilaterally they have decided their records show that all 5 vehicles were made in 1960 & the engine capacity of each was now 200cc :evil: So I don't know what would have happened if I made a claim, I never told them that nonsense. In any dealings you have to remember the person on the phone may not be technically minded as she didn't seem to think it strange that 6 ton vehicle was powered by just a 200cc engine.

I became a licensed radio amateur in 1964 as G8ADP, with an inevitable interest in UHF & microwaves. Results were much better being on top of a hill to squirt a signal to someone on another hilltop. A minivan had its limitations but by 1977 I was able to afford a Land Rover to take me to mountains rather than just hilltops. The functionality of the Land Rover appealed but over the years I was bugged by the problem of nosey parkers reporting me to the police. In those days microwave dishes were quite unusual things & one has to remember the anxiety that I might have been a member of the IRA or a communist. But I am sure such people had more subtle ways of communicating, than doing in public. But public spirited busybodies were a curse. It occured to me that a military Land Rover would look more official so I bought a LightWeight. The noseyparkerism dropped dramatically! A few persistant ones would draw up at some distance & monitor me through binnoculars which I found most irritating, if someone came up nicely & said "Excuse me this looks fascinating what's it all about?" I would have be happy to explain. BTW the best treatment for nosey parkers is to carry a clipboard walk up to their car & write their registration number down, they will be off like a shot. If not write down the details of the tax disc or even "Excuse me sir is this your vehicle?" They do not like that! Anyway Land Rovers came & went, then Humbers took hold. Then I took an interest in the documentation that authorised modification. Then a whole new hobby appeared on the collecting technical documents of the British Army. The document collection currently is over 100ft high. The trouble is I am often asked to do a copy of the manuals for a Humber well so far I have 346 different publications that relate to the FV1600. Its just not practical proposition! So when I should be out there in the cold & damp doing mods etc I stay indoors hooked on this thing either doing articles on strange things like tents or the current one on the supply of water in the Army since 1840 or talking to you lot .

It's good to see someone take the trouble to illustrate British AFVs and that is to be applauded. Some of the drawings appear to be based on privately owned vehicles which incorporate some non-service fittings. So I don't think you can take it as gospel that anything depicted is necessarily an official fitting.

There were 17 in that batch from 77 FL 07 to 77 FL 23. I have a picture of 77 FL 07 & 77 FL 09 but not yours!

Richard We don't have a slope at my MOT place, so it doesn't seem to get tested then. Just before the GD Steam Fair I found the Hornet hand brake wouldn't hold it even a slight slope before I connected the trailer even. Anyway I have verified that I have now got that up to the 25% level by charging around the field & ramming on the handbrake, but at least the Humbers has "proper brakes". As you know it also has a proper clutch mechanism, no risk of leaking fluid here, just a chain from the pedal to the clutch mechanism.

Same as on a Land Rover. Thinking about it he never puts the handbrake on when its on the rollers so it doesn't get tested in action. I have to pull the handbrake on when its static and he observes the linkage move & hears it click. But thinking about it there is no verification of the handbrake actually functioning. Even if I had no shoes in the transmission brake it could still pass! So perhaps the Taply brake meter isn't so primitive! I note the one on ebay is approaching the price I paid. But it is very heavy, to stop it sliding when you brake, but look at the postage! One thing amazes me about people selling things on ebay why are the photos so awful? They are out of focus & poorly illuminated. In this digital day & age it is quite difficult to take a duff photo, or you can take so many shots at least one will be reasonably decent... or is it deliberate :roll:

They were very common in 1950/ 60s for testing the braking efficiency of cars for MOTs before, rolling testing was avaivable. The are about 4 in x 6 in on a heavy metal base with two handles & on top a meter that has a scale that pivots & spins aided by an internal weight. If you shake it you can see the scale go sliding around. You put it on the floor of the vehicle to be tested. Level the meter, set it to lock when it is spun. Drive down your flat track (I use a field not the road) Then get up to 20-30 mph & stop as hard as you can. The meter will spin & lock giving a % braking efficiency. On the Wolf it is 70% on the Pig it is just over 25%. keep the steering wheel free during this, if the wheels pulled into to one side check the efficiency of the cylinders on the other side. I believe 25% was the MOT pass line. Repeat this for the handbrake which should be about the same. I looked round Beallieau auto jumble & they varied from £20 - £75. But I got mine for £23, it should come with a test certificate & a nice wooden carrying box. Even a box I saw was £12. The problem is at these sort of events you are competing with people who are collecting this sort of stuff for memrobelia/ nostalgia purposes I just want to use the thing for the purpose intended, not to keep it on the mantlepiece & polish the damn thing! My Pig friend having seen mine bought a nice one at a Land Rover Newbury event for £25. So they are around. If you want to know what to look for I can take a pic tomorrow. I wish I had bought one years ago. If you do a google for them you get hits for memrobelia sales & they go for quite a lot of money sometimes even if broken so you can just to look at them.

Yes John, I know what you mean about some other authority verifying roadworthiness (at least at the time of examination). I have recently invested in a Taply/Ferodo Brake Efficiency Meter & that was quite illuminating driving up & down the field then braking. The Pig was only half as good as the Wolf & initially the Hornet was only half as good as the Pig. But I have done some work to improve . It has also encouraged one other pig owner to go & get one of these meters.

Perhaps you were mistaken for a road gritter or even a registered playbus :oops:

I expect many of us claim exemption from MOT under Regulation 30 on Form V112G (not to be confused with Form V112). Post Offices have very few of these or prefer not to look for something out of the ordinary & say go & retax it at a LVLO because they have targets for the number of customers seen per hour & I suspect this may have an effect on the earnings. Well I stumbled acros this: http://www.dvla.gov.uk/forms/pdf/V112G.pdf Which makes life easier. I think the Reg 30 applies if the vehicle is used unladen, built before 1960 & over 3 tons. Another interesting DLA place fo nosey parkers is: http://www.vehiclelicence.gov.uk/EvlPortalApp/index.jsp Follow "Vehicle Enquiry" then put in VRN & make of vehicle & see what comes up!

Jack Its not defined really, they talk about "open mesh fishing net". Given the diagrams & the hessian strip being 2in I would guess 2.5in mesh. Available in: 35ft x 35ft 24ft x 24ft 35ft x 17ft But some applications required "shrimp nets", which was either 1cm knotted or 0.5cm woven these were available in brown or green. They were 25ft x 12ft or 35ft x 15ft were carried on AFVs for intense blocking of detail.

2 inches according to: Camouflage, Military Training Pamphlet No. 46 Part 1, General Principles, Equipment & Materials (all Arms) Chapter 2, Section 13, Subsection 4 (1) 26/GS Publications/50, 1941. But what are you trying to cover up? Because that will influence not just the overall dimensions of the net, but the size of the mesh, the density of the strips, their pattern, & ratio of the colours AND the type of knots you use! Although it does describe other things like netting with wire wool & even mesh with chickens feathers or manes from cows & horses woven into the mesh. So next year your GMC could come disguised as a chicken with a pony tail! BTW I am not fooling this book really does say all this stuff!

They got sold off real cheap. Champs, Land Rovers & Humbers would sell in late 1960s for about £80 at auction then sold on: Then they ended up like this appaling derelict seen 2 years ago I have to admit it, but that is in my garden, I've been nicking bits out of it for the other 3 humbers. It looks a bit worse now the roof has caved in. But the axles are still there, just the thing for someone with a broken pig axle, going very cheap!

I used to have part(!) of one of Keith Moons drums. :evil:

Provided you log in there is no problem. Then just see what is flagged up as new & go to it if it is in a category of interest. It all is done very quickly. I belong to some Yahoo forums & they can get swamped with just one subject & it is a bore having to sift through all the stuff to get to another subject. Usually it seems the off-topic subjects become very busy & jokey & dominate the site for days on end. At least on here there are places for people to go off & be off-topic & jokey etc as needed.

For me it would be a Commer Water Cannon as built for the RUC in 1950s then modified for Army use in 1970. There are box-like, ugly, crude, improvised yet wonderful & fascinating. When the Army had them they were modified from 2 squirt to single squirt. There were two Triton 1 & Triton 2. Triton was the mythical son of Neptune & Aphrodite, he distinguished himself making funny noises by blowing water through sea shells. (The boy seems to have been easily amused).

The basic vehicle as supplied by Land Rover was generally grey or white. The official regime for British post war AFVs was red oxide primer, Dark Admiralty Gret undercoat then 2 coats of high gloss DBG. The primer is easy enough to get & the undercoat is usually for sale at shows for £10 or so a tin. I don't know what colour finish green Shorts would have supplied to the Army. Mine was painted Rustoleum Green (Satin) but that was supplied to the Ministry of Home Affairs not the Army. But yours would have NATO IRR Green exterior sometimes with disruptive black sometimes not.