fv1609

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!

Thanks both for your kind comments. I never know whether they get read or are even wanted. But I try to write about something that I would have liked to have read about myself & that hasn't been covered before. I do get carried away with trivia that I unearth in official documents. This will be well illustrated in the next one on British tentage. Not an exciting subject you may think but there should be little read-bites to catch the eye. eg Question for the group: when do you think the first circular tent was used? All the articles are in Word & I can easily convert to pdf. There are some which (I think) have particular reference value eg; oils etc, understanding part numbers, marking vehicles, fault finding in 90amp charging systems etc Although MVT members would have seen them the articles go back 15 years & members come & go & its not always easy to dig out an old mag to find an article. I'll perhaps do the oils one first & send it to Jack. Clive

QLD Ah yes thats used in Striker. Thers one not far from here, he is having some troubles in the ignition department & trying modules, so that won't be a cheaper option unfotunately. Clive

What about a files section? This would be for reference info/articles. Perhaps only added to by you. I have over 250 A4 pages of MV related articles that I have written, which I would like to share. Once published, after a short they get forgotten about. As many of these took about 60 hours per article it is effort that I might as well benefit others. Amount of time excludes the time taken working with images, things perhaps are bit more difficult as I am dyslexic.

As far as British postwar markings go, I did a 15 page article in Windscreen about 5 years ago. It is my copyright so the fact that it appeared in a mag doesn't matter. If you had a files section I could post it as a pdf. Then perhaps others could send in reference stuff that could be accessed as I am sure like the GMC markings would get buried in post in the passing of time.

Ah I just emailed you but was caught mid message with a long phone call. Yes I built a home electronic ignition into the filter box on my LtWt, no optical chopper or clever stuff like that - this was 20 years ago. I just used the points to swich a power transistor. Although there would be no sparking at the points there is still mechanical wear of the contacts & the heels. But as you realise there is the question of synchronising both sets of points to content with unless one chops. But even a simple transistor will give a more rapid switching off & more rapid collapse of the field in the coil & therefore better spark. The only people who do a kit AFAIK are in Malvern. It seems to be £175 for what ever vehicle you have. They seem familiar with B60s. But doing a search they seem to be the only ones & they were at "Malvern" last time but it was all bits of paper & talk. I would like to have seen what the module(s) is like for my money & how it went into the distributor. Or at least some nice piccies of an installation. Clive

Has anyone fitted electronic ignition to a B60? I can see the advantage, no points to wear, not having to align two sets of points, better spark giving better economy & more power. reliability etc But the only firm who seems to do a conversion kit charges £175. It is for a vehicle I intend to keep a while & of course I can alwatys transfer it to another vehicle. So I am looking longterm over a ten year period. So has anyone forked out & done the conversion. Was it worthwhile or look as if it will be given the price of fuel will go up & up? The other thought has anyone done a LPG conversion with a B60?

I claim exemption annually under Regulation 30 on form V112G/R that it was first used before 1/1/60 being used unladen weighing over 3 tonnes (or is it 3.5?). They will not put it on the V5 as the use may change. Use V112G/R not V112G. Or you could go for Reg 36 & be a registered playbus or Reg 21 as a vehicle used solely for funerals.

Right here's the rest of them. This is what the army did to 2996OI in 1973 made it into a Mk 2. I had to take all that stuff off, it's 6 years & still not finished. There are about 60 diffrences between 2996OI & a standard Mk 1 pig. My other pig, note where this one is parked. I believe the only driveable one in the world, well there were only 24 production vehicles. It fires Malkara, but it is not widely known that it was originally conceived to fire Orange William. Yes my Avtar is an Orange William. This GS probably beyond it now! My day to day vehicle. Shorland Mk 1 Serial No. 9 . 1965. This is the mother of all the Land Rover based APCs, prototype for Shorts SB301. Janes states first protype was made 1973. This was made in Belfast in 1968. BTW It is for sale. This was 2996OI last year which seemed to confuse some people.

Kewelde? OK, go on then who are you really? Jack. Right here goes. My mistake was pasting the URL not the image tag If that came out, this is the oldest pig in the world! Many pig owners say their pig was made in 1953 or so. But that only refers to the date the chassis was made, production pigs (FV1611 & FV1612) started in 1958. My baby here was made in 1956, it was one of 20 prototypes being a FV1609. It was later made into a hard roof in 1960 for police duties. In 1962-63 it was painted grey, so thats what I painted it last year. But at shows it seemed to confuse people or trigger mirth (or anger curiosly). It went back to the army in 1970. So it's in its 1963-69 colour scheme, which makes life easier for everyone.

Yes hello everyone. Condenser testing fetish is still going strong, I managed to test a number at Beltring for several people 90% failure rate! Including some that had just been bought on a stall. The other fetish is British army technical documents the collection is over 100ft high now, the oldest one I found was at Beltring dated 1884. I've been trying to post pics of my vehicles here, but fortunately only tried one & that failed. I have some pics on photobucket, I copied the URL then pasted on here having clicked the image button. What should I be doing? The FAQ advice on posting images was vague for someone who doesn't know what they are doing. On another site on a similar set up I couldn't post but the URL link was clickable in my message & in a few seconds people could go over to it, but here the thing doesn't want to do it. Yes I am really grateful for a UK basesd forum, the MVT forum seems not to have any postings for 2 years, once they changed the format I could never get in, perhaps others had the same problem? Seems an opportunity missed there.

Nice to have a UK based MV site for people who use & play with them. Most sites on MV & AFVs seem to be for modellers (bless them) & an obsession with German AFVs in particular. May I draw the group to these links: http://www.shorland.info/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shorland/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HUMBER-FV1600/ Thanks ' alt='>'>