fv1609

Oh sorry, I misunderstood. I agree that would give an overview of who's got what for general interest. I construed it was to be used for then contacting an individual for help. Being a bit touchy I suppose but I get lots of emails & phone calls which is about all I can cater for at the moment. But perhaps I will feel less paranoid when I have come back from seeing Wallace & Grommet tonight.

BTW did you get Tabby article no3, although it is only the 2nd one I have sent you (confusing as Tabby no.2 is still being worked on)

On the other hand you could end up with too many sections to trawl through.

At present when someone comes on with a problem they have with their vehicle, anybody who thinks they can help will pop up irrespective of current vehicle ownership. eg I have never owned a Ferret but have helped Ferret owners because I have experience with the same engine or I have poked my nose in about Carawagons, I don't own one but used to.

None of these things would be evident from a list of vehicles currently owned.

The other thing is if someone had a particular problem the idea as I see it is to target that one person for help. The problem is that, as it is I get a large amount of genuine well meaning mail, asking for help this sometimes takes hours each day to sort out. Not always easy at the end of an exhausting day.

On occasions I can't attend to it for a few days. Whereas the present general appeal for help catches a wider audience & it will still reach the person who may know a thing or to because they own the vehicle. I quite enjoy seeing a diagnosis & treatment plan unfurl as enthusiasts try to help each other.

Sometimes it starts public then people go off & continue with private emails. I try to keep it public because there may be others "following the story" who may just be interested or picking up tips to avoid the same problems.

So sorry I don't want that to sound grumpy but if you're not careful it could swamp an individual & then put them off helping at all if the get snowed under. So I think keep it public & as wide an audience as possible.

Can you post a picture of it?

There are two data plates:

1. Put your head between the nearside wheel & the front wing. In front of you will be a chassis plate giving the serial number, model, & military registration. The registration will be **BK**. The four numbers that make this up are the same as the last four numbers of the five digit serial number.

2. The body plate is smaller & is on the passenger side below the front window. It will have a S serial number indicating a Sanky body or ROF indicatinfg Royal Ordnance Factories. Often the Mk bit has not been stamped. But even if it says Mk2 it may still be a Mk 1 in the excepted sense.

Because the real Mk 1 is the FV1609. The production vehicle FV1611 & FV1612 (& later FV1613) which we all know as Mk 1, is really the Mk 2. Unforunately the Army forgot this when the uparmoured most of the pigs in 1973. They should have called them Mk 3, but they didn't & called them Mk 2. (It was a bit like Series 1 Land Rovers & then the Army calling the Series 2a lightweight the Rover Mk 1)

So look at the rear doors. Are they just in two pieces or is there a horizontal flap on the top with a thick vision block? If it has this fap it is a Mk 2.

The windscreens do they have flaps with a slot for a No 17 Periscope ( as in Mk1) or thick vision blocks that are so heavy they are raised by hydraulic rams (as in Mk 2) those are the most obvious clues.

Other features which will NOT define the Mk which often get stated that they do: Barrackade ram, double servo, birfield joints, front wings supports diagonal of straight, cutaway rear lockers. Any of these could be found on either model.

Unless you have seen it driven recently using both fuel tanks, I would drain the fuel & chuck it away. Fill with fresh (should be ok on unleaded RR say) fuel. Disconnect the banjo at the carb & prime through until you get fresh fuel. I had one tank with old fuel, it ran so badly that it shattered an exhaust valve tappet, so that was a sod to sort odd.

Well done, its down hill for you from now on! So what is it Mk 1 or Mk 2, what is its military reg? Then I can give you some history.

Good idea, but perhaps only do it on the understanding that there is reciprocal linking. I went on several forums last night mentioning what was on hmvf & Jack said he then had 5 new people join up last night.

Hello. yes it looks a lott better than when I last saw it. I have posted a few interior shots of a nice one I saw at Kemble in the summer it is on http://www.warwheels.net/HumberPigSquirtElliott.html

but you may have already found it.

So did you come here via my "bait" on the Yahoo Humber page?

I had a look at a piece you did for an Australian site, the colour looks ok given that even the real stuff is subject to quite a lot of change with sun & rain etc. At least with Rustoleum it will stay that colour.

So what finishes are available in Rustoleum. Is yours dead matt or satin. I ask because my RUC pig was painted in "Rustoleom green" in 1969 & I have been trying to find what type of green. All this was stripped back once the army got it & it was DBG then NATO green. But my RUC Shorland was also the same colour deep down & I have managed to rip off 4in square of army paint without damaging the underneath stuff to reveal crisp new satin? rustoleum green.

How many greens do Rustoleum do in what I take to be satin finish, so I can narrow down my guesses?

Chris. I'll get Darren to contact you. Clive

I'm afraid small things like two-wheeled trailers should not be painted in disruptive black. They should be left just NATO IRR Green as laid down in Materiel Regulations for the Army Vol 2, Vehicles & Technical Equipment Pamphlet No.3, Painting of Army Veicles, Aircraft & Equipment. Army Code No.60503. Appendix 1 to Annex B.

Yes I know sometimes they do it but they shouldn't! Nearly 50% of in service vehicles have theUnion sticker on the wrong side. And you see wheel nuts painted white, regulations specifically forbid this but they still do it!

I am afraid the only comms it would have had was a telephone which fed out through your 2 terminals at the rear of the vehicle.

Your vehicle was for a senior commander in the field to sleep & plan, but radios etc would all be somewhere else. So you will have to get a FFR!

So yours is KB were there any others in that sequence that you know of? When I bought mine 16GN06 it was the only released one of the 34 in the GN sequence, there was a prototype with a 'BT' then there was 62GF86 which seemed to be well photographed.

I have already scanned the User Handbook but you may already have this. Any good I could always put it in the files section.

Colin. Yes thank you that is interesting. Unfortunately the sale has ended so I doubt if the seller wants to answer any questions about it now. I wish the pics were better & there were some dimensions given as the was only one size of converter tube made during the war. Although there were different types, they were all the same & given a designation according to how well they performed on test.

Tabby is often used as a generic name, so I am not sure if it wartime as such. It strikes me odd that having such a thing that it remains untested. I have never seen one like that before it is surprisingly small for wartime. It would have been interesting to see what the other numbers were. Type CX is odd, there was a small simple monocular Tabby Type C but when that was improved it became Type D.

I have 4 IR articles here. I have nearly updated the British article & about to put it into pdf. When you see it you will see how bulky even the Type K monocular was.

Yes it could just be a financial thing. I just wondered when looking at some other sites listed that were closed down, looked a bit subversive. But that is nothing if they haven't paid up!

It was a very big forum, I'm not particularl into WW1 but there are some issus that interest me. I was appealing for a decent picture of a Cart, Water, Mk I & IIA or IIB. But I was pushing my luck also looking for the Cart, Water Barrel, that went out of service in 1891. But you never know!

Does anyone belong to this forum on http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com

There is now just a message that says "This account has been suspended". When I do a search it turns out there are many subversive sites that are closed with "This account has been suspended". But I can't see what the problem might have been with this. It was all very respectful & gentlemanly.

The only problems seemed to be was when someone would post a link to ebay for some item. More often than not there assembled experts would suggest the item offered was of dubious authenticity. I see a few posts have been censored by the moderator who felt they could be libelous against the vendor.

Anyone use this forum & got any ideas about what the problem is?

Andy

"Along with DUKW's, also trained drivers on Alligators.Buffalo's,Weasels and Terrapins"

Does your dad have any recollections of use Tabby IR system on Buffalo's? Tabby was fitted to them for crossing the Rhine, but they didn't then use it. Instead they did DF from a 19 set. When you next speak to him ask if he trained with Tabby on any of his vehicles. (BTW there will be a Tabby article to be posted soon, I have more archive material on this subject than the Tank Museum!)

The official answer (although it may not be the best answer!) is in the Servicing Schedule for Rover 1/4 to 3/4 Ton Army Code No.60957, which says it should be OMD 75. It will need 8 litres if you have an oil cooler or 6.8 litres without the cooler.

OMD 75 is equivalent to SAE 10W/30

There should be a listing of military oils & their equivalents coming soon. Isn't that right Jack?

I did reply an hour ago put, it went woosh & didn't arrive it seems. Anyway.

I don't know about army service but those Tommy helmets were still in use with a UK police force up until early 1969.

Yes nice set of pictures. You were lucky to have a RHD.

BTW I hope you tie down your stuff on the top rack. I had some stuff up there on mine once including a large wood/fibre box & I did a sudden brake/turn at a roundabout & it all jumped out & landed on the road in front of me. Lucky there was no car in front, but I was amazed how easily it jumped up & out. But maybe you're a better driver!

CO2 saved my life at Kemble!

I was shut down for the night in the back of the pig. It was a bit chilly so I had a small gas fire laid it on the floor & connected it to the cylinder. The regulator must have become loose & there was gas at high pressure coming out. I only discovered this once I lit the fire, then the flames shot back to the cylinder which started belching flames to the roof. I was then unable to reach the rear door handle to escape.

Luckily a few weeks earlier I bought a CO2 extinguisher at Denmead. The trouble is it had a silly plastic cord to stop the pin falling out & in the panic it seemed like an eternity before I could get the blasted pin to come out at all. I was able to blast it on the burning cylinder, open the door kick the cylinder out & then I just unloaded most of the CO2 until I was certain it had gone out. The bloke next door said the flames went as high as his MKs roof. So I am not sure whether it would have exploded or I would have been severly burnt.

So that was a bit scarry, the closest to death I have ever felt. When I went to the Yeovil show, I bought another four CO2 extinguishers which I have around the place.

CO2 saved my life at Kemble!

I was shut down for the night in the back of the pig. It was a bit chilly so I had a small gas fire laid it on the floor & connected it to the cylinder. The regulator must have become loose & there was gas at high pressure coming out. I only discovered this once I lit the fire, then the flames shot back to the cylinder which started belching flames to the roof. I was then unable to reach the rear door handle to escape.

Luckily a few weeks earlier I bought a CO2 extinguisher at Denmead. The trouble is it had a silly plastic cord to stop the pin falling out & in the panic it seemed like an eternity before I could get the blasted pin to come out at all. I was able to blast it on the burning cylinder, open the door kick the cylinder out & then I just unloaded most of the CO2 until I was certain it had gone out. The bloke next door said the flames went as high as his MKs roof. So I am not sure whether it would have exploded or I would have been severly burnt.

So that was a bit scarry, the closest to death I have ever felt. When I went to the Yeovil show, I bought another four CO2 extinguishers which I have around the place.

Your Carawagon, can we see a pic of it & what was its reg? I used to have 16GN06. This was the first privately owned one & people didn't understand what it was & gave it a wide berth, on the basis that it was something I had knocked up as a pretend MV. But now people seem to know what they are & even are collectable.

But are you really sure that it is black not green & black? Always very difficult to tell with B&W particularly with the reflections. If you look at the top section of the ladder, would you say to the right of it is a column of darker paint? If its darker its black, suggesting what's around it is presumably green. I suppose the real test is to go scratching paint of it in various places! But I don't suppose you want to do that?

Thanks for the kind comments. I am glad somebody reads them, I never really know. One of those 2 monthly mags once ran article on buying a pig & one bit of advice I found extraordinary. Look for a pig with no oil underneath. I disagree if the is no oil underneath then there is probably none left in it. In general people are not very good at looking after their Humbers. There can be up to 9 lubrication points on each wheel station & these are usually ignored. The greatest error is to fail to lubricate the tracta joints. Even when they are serviced, grease is pushed in through the nipples, but they are not grease points, they are lubrication points for OEP220! This must be injected with some force through the seals. Failure to do so is a significant cause of joint failure. I'm sorry I'm getting upset but I feel sorry for the pig & the next owner!

Point taken if it's welded well then it sounds more official. Is the ladder of the same quality? I have the greatest admiration for anybody who can make a good job out of welding!

Totally matt black? Never seen that before, although there were Land Rovers in some places in NI that were totally black & only came out for special functions after dark. So one is unlikely to see a picture of these either!

Hello QLD

I have seen about 8 pigs with turrets, all a bit different some had quite a substantial box for the turret other more modest. The other point is that the turrent ring cannot just be dropped on the pig roof as that sloped to an apex & the Shorland roof was flat. I notice the donor Shorlands had totally new roof. How many conversions do you think were done?

Richard. Yes its always difficult to know whats real & what has been done as an embellishment by a previous owner. There are strange things around I grant you. For instance I have in service pictures of a Saracen with a Pig type barricade ram, Pigs with Shorland turrets & even a Hornet fitted with a Thunderbird SAGW!

I have got a lot REME SITREPs for the early NI days which lists all the mods & security gadgets they made but nothing about an 'Ulster Bumper' for Ferret. It doesn't look substantial enough to do anything tough, it looks as if it would bend. As I understand it fittings at the front were either to bash through barricades or prevent objects being hurled under the vehicle to get it to wedge underneath causing the vehicle to flounder on its belly. This gadget is far too high off the ground to do either.

Well you better not give too much away about your contact bearing in mind this is a very public place! But I have spoken to a former CREME General who seemed to be unaware of what a Humber Pig actually was, even though it was in service when he was!

Richard. I have doubts about the front bumper I took pics of a large number of Mk 1/2s in a scrapyard in Essex after the Gulf War. Didn't see any bumpers like that. (BTW these were for cutting but AFAIK they all escaped into the market).

As for NI never seen any pics of Mk 1/2. There were some Mk 1s with add-on see through "pram hoods" like the RUC used on their Dingos. But most Ferrrets were 2/3, although in 1966 the RUC had a numberof Mk 2/4 but these were not liked & within a few moths were abandoned. But never seen a bumper like that before.

Yes ok I'll look at the maplin site, I suppose one could get away with just one unit being fed with 2 inputs. Thanks for the offer of help, but wires & things are ok for me - have been a radio amateur since 1964 (G8ADP then G4MBS). At least electrical things you can stick a meter or scope on & see & measure whats happening. But I find the subtleties of engine/carb noises are black art that escapes me!

What I really need is one of these from a J60

This one is defective the opto part (the top unit) has failed, I'm going to get the whole thing x-rayed & see whether the opto bit can be repaired. Just that little bit of it is £200 I believe!