FEC

7 stollys now! :cool2:

 

Numbers are increasing slowly.

Where and when?

Oh...........

 

My............

 

Word.................!

 

That brought a few memories flooding back!

Very interesting to see the end users of all our hard work. I often wondered who the two old Polish guys with the long white beards were. They would pitch up in Mk2 ballast with the biggest living tent on top and would drop vehicles in the yard and stay over for a while. Once they dropped a D8 Cat in the middle of the yard and we, not being equipped for tracks, used it as a traffic island for a couple of years.

its a 290 eagle and yes the air filter pipe is off

Amazing. Racing changes with a Mk2.

They were Mk4s with a half door panel in the centre to give the brass more leg room.

The inner floor was moulded with GRP as were the doors and roof. all the windows were multi plate repellent glass. I cant remember if the V engine was a six or an eight. They came to us from NI.

Very heavy.

In the haze that was Christmas and the new year, a memory popped out of the up armoured stretched Ford Zodiac's.

I don't think there were many, we only saw two for overhaul.

Dose anyone know of survivors?:undecided:

Very glad to see life in the Antar thread again.

They are like Hens teeth.

Thanks Ed That brings back memories.

The noise the smell and the hard work Antar driving could be.

Surprised the Mersey Tunnel let her through, it must have seemed like ages under water.

Another Guinness Book of records for Antar's. "The longest under water journey"

Wheels and tyres. Hard work but it saves on gym membership.............

Don't know what you are on about Paul. We never perspired, with our hydraulic grab and ram tyre striper. I can only recommend it.

Trouble is a fair amount of stuff is 'Lifed'. I was given a pile of componets, when I queired it I was told after three years the reliabilty was suspect, and would you trust the life of a man to a thrupenny component that might fail? The other problem is the bit might not fail but you keep a spare anyway, and it carries on till it is obsolete. Mind you I also got a big box of Wartime dated feild dressing that had ben stored for emergency use. :-D

The MOD will never change their daft practices. In the seventies and eighties as an outsider visiting places like Ashchurch, Lugershall and particularly Hilton Park Derby. Warehouses filled with vehicles which were so out of date they could not be of use to a modern military. Rover 110's, 1940's 1 ton Austins, Coventry Victor baggage trucks, Lewin Road Sweepers,1940 Fire pumps, Neils Cranes, Bedford QL's Humber Super Snipe staff cars and Humber Radio Trucks. Some times I would hold my breath when opening a door, expecting to find a line of Sentinel Steam wagons. I am sure this was the norm of most, if not all CVD's and stores in the UK and abroad.

The very worrying thing was that at that time you could, if you had a parts catalogue, order any of the items in storage in kit form. This was the scale of silliness that prevailed. One troubling thing I did note was that DUKW parts had all been repackaged with NATO part numbers to make them easier to locate when front line units required them?

I would like to think that things had improved.

It is a two man cab with reversible seats to carry out winch opps which is done when the drivers seat is reversed,they wallow a little when driving on the road.But the sound of the engine when under load is second to none.IHave owned mine for five years now and wouldn't part with it now even though I have a foden as well.i have recently recovered a combine stuck in quicksand after many attempts made by the owner and other recovery companies,the old girl just sat there as we winched it clear,I will post some pictures shortly,once you have played with one it is very hard to find anything better.

Amen to that. I only got to test them, but found them to be the best all round tool and faster than the Martian. Attempted to trap one some years ago for restoration but was out bid. Would have to steal one now.

'Somewhere in Scotland' late 1976.

 

John.

Early 70s. Second man. Road testing winter fleet mack. "hang on son, doing brake test". pealed myself off the windscreen.

Them there Mack's could really stop. Nearly as good as a Stalwart.

Pics as promised.

What fantastic condition.

Quite common during repair work, if only a gearbox had to be removed. If it was an early Saracen removing a trasfer box entailed pulling both centre wheel stations, so less dismantling the better.

Understood. Only worked on overhaul programs. So the later production vehicles had the same set up as the Stalwart in the centre bevel boxes?

Got the gearbox out

 

 

In a very sad state

 

 

Water had got in though missing studs in the top plate

 

Had to make that special tool, good job i have a welder.

Hi Big project. Never seen a gearbox and transfer box split in situ?

Antar 12 DM 85 heading east to its new home (see the Tales from a Big Shed thread...)

 

All the other pics are at http://s484.photobucket.com/albums/rr206/RustyTrucks/Antar%20Mk%203/

Fantastic job Paul. Looks in fine fettle, when will it be set for visitors and where? By the way what reg was your ballast tractor?

MOD have specialist firms such as Conway Packaging to do this for them. A re-con distribution box for my Abbot was equally well wrapped except these days they have plastic bags too!

 

Andy

As a young apprentice mech working on Stolly and Antar overhauls, unpacking of hundreds of disaster packed items. It seemed that the more the packaging the smaller the item. They said it was character building?

Mike,

 

This is a Light Mobile Digger, known as LMD. Built on a Thornycroft Nubian chassis with B81 engine. Fascinating piece of kit, but troublesome, another gem from ROF :-D. They were used to dig slit trenches, gun emplacements, etc. Not loved by the troops, who done there level best to wreck them..........we then had to fix 'em

Yup nightmares.

I think it's worth starting a new thread for this as there are a number of photos to show. All of these were taken in autumn '95 and autumn '96 as the yard was closing. I also have photos of the lorries, buses and other assorted stuff that was there if people are interested? I've posted some of these elsewhere on HMVF but I'll put them all here as well for completeness. Apologies for the porr quality but the scanner isn't that great :-(. I've tried to caption them but any corrections are more than welcome. Enjoy!

 

Antar:

 

Explorer cab:

 

Matador:

 

Unidentified logger:

 

Unidentified Gulf War 1 truck:

 

Other view of same truck:

God knows how a Mk3 Antar ended up in this condition. also interesting is the National Health Chest Mobile X-ray Unit behind the chopped Explorer.

:-d:-d:-d:-d

It us-est to be with the old Triangle brake testers at the Testing stations, tester could counter rotate the the wheels to overcome the linked double drive. This would enable each wheel to be tested holding the prop shaft in neutral.

I know this because during my training in the Ministry at Hendon in the early 80s. I was tasked with testing a Bedford double drive. This required that minimum brake efforts were achieved, whilst rotating the axle both ways.

I forgot this and went for maximum efforts. This was OK for the foot brake but when testing the parking brake, out of the corner of my eye I could see the the vehicle launching out of the rollers, with the load simulator on the back, heading for the gate.

The new/10year old brake testers in use don't have the facility of counter rotation. So deceleromiter is the only option. But no!

The Deceleromiter is the same as a "London Glazed Brick". It has been widely accepted that if you stand said brick on the cab floor, long way up and narrowest face forward, achieve 20MPH and brake gently, the point at which the brick topples is 50%.

Do that with the hand brake and life is good.

Wow... reminds me of how mine operated just before I completely replaced the drive-train and modernized it. Best of luck finding the problem.

 

I can tell you my mechanic said the worst thing for any vehicle is to not be used. Perhaps you could get lucky and find that it is a worn thermostat causing your temps to get too high and cause/contribute to the other problems.

Had lots of fuel lock problems with the original fuel taps when they were stood for a long time. Not linked the the smoke or heat.

Its going to be done as one from A Troop 3 Tank Transporter Squadron Royal Corps of Transport..............:-)

You have been busy.

boeing 777 main wheels pumped up to 220 psi always taught to stand at side of tire whilst inflating, if one of those went and it would be wheel not tire letting go it would be a big mess!!!

Going back to the 60s. There was a poster showing a guy killed by an exploding tyre. He was imprinted in blood on the upper wall of the tyre bay. Soon after that inflation cages were produced.

As apprentices we were shown this by our training officer on a regular basis, along with the perils of welding fuel tanks and of course being Pratt's.

Its been a while - but in my defence I have been a tad busy. But today saw Antar No 1 dragged out and pointed in the directction of the sandblasters.

 

I have made most of the cosmetic (if you can use such a word) panels now, mudguards and so on, then stripped them all of again so that the Antar can get blasted and primed in its underpants. I will then be putting all the tinwork back on over the next few weeks.

 

Luckily grandaughter was on hand to do a little filming, and the result (please forgive the shaky bits - she is only 9) is here

 

 

 

Oh and obviously when that Antar is done, the other one takes its place in the Big Shed...

 

The crawler by the way is an ex military 1941 Allis Chalmers Model M, one of a pair that followed me home one day.

What a team!

mine is the 623 and they dip a lot with the crane, i suppose with the 6 ton load she is pretty level but I bet scary too...

Scary

I performance tested Stalwarts in Carr Mill reservoir off the A580 in the late 70ts. One of the 623 had a three ton concrete test weight strapped to the load platform while testing out new style side board seal sets for central stores, as replacements.

The water was licking around the fuel cap. Never did that again.