fadedsun

The quality of the pics isn't that bad at all.

Would love to see the dolphins, they do like to play don't they?

We throw them MRE food and they throw it back :idea:!

I know my imagination is warped but: Better a Dolphin than a love sick whale! :-DMust be great as you'd be almost at their level. (And 'es getting paid!!:argh:)

We travel in packs too, and our bite is a little worse than the whale's

(but :rofl: at your comment!)

I have a line on several canadian ferrets in S. florida, 5000-7500 range. Projects, but all there.

Please post the pics of the jordanian ferrets though, my interest is peaked.

slimjim,

Where in Florida do you live?

I'll be in Pensacola here in a few months after AT. I can help you find one..I know a guy with 3 canadian mk1 ferrets in Florida, projects, that would only be too happy to let them go..5-7000$ range.

What is it you are driving then :???

26 ton AAV or a 4 ton ferret.

Yep, great digits! No complaints...good to see something like this. If you get a chance to do some snaps with your digi camera that would be brill. But don't get yourself in bother with the management.

 

Cheers!

 

Mark

My camera was wrecked on the job Wedsnday, so no pictures for a while! .

Nice thumb! :-D And you got paid for that? :argh: That water shot, watch it Catweazle (our resident Old Man of the Sea) will be wanting one, and he is spending to much time withe NO2 at the moment.

Sometimes dolphins come up next to you and splash you/jump around.

There's an LVT-7 on some armor junkie's page that's stripped and missing a fair amount of gear..I wish I coudl find the link to it.

Bidding on items in MoD tender sales from the USA is a very VERY bad idea! You definitley need to view what you are bidding on. People have been badly caught out in this country doing this, never mind from several thousand miles away! AFVs sold through tender are rarely in running condition, they always have flat batteries, often the engine is missing etc. If you win the bid, you have 7 days to pay. They do not take credit cards. You then have 7 days to remove the item before they start charging you daily storage charges. Though this isn't really applicable right now since the MoD are not releasing any armour at the moment.

 

Chris

Always the cruel hand of fate Chris!

:-(

A 432 is easy to maintain, you can lift the pack in 20 mins and everything you need to service is right there. The only problem is you need a crane! Wheels/tracks etc are no more hard work than any tracked vehicle, keep the nuts tight and eveything full of oil or grease.

 

The 'dog bone' you mention is a jacking strut, there is one for the 432, but here's one at work on a CVRT.

 

Chris

We have the same thing on the AAV.

The biggest problem on the aav is that it takes two Marines to do anything engine related..you need 2 to lift the front 'hood' (called plenums, they hold the hydraulic system that shuts the air intake for water ops and the air cooling system) which weighs close to 2000 lbs. It has a spring to assist in opening though, so it's not THAT bad.

Camp Pendleton, California. 13-08 class. Pictures are really lousy because it's a cheap, disposable camera, it got very wet and sandy, and I was not willing to risk my very good digital camera.

Randall,

 

Not really in the Biz, just crazy enough to bid on things in MoD tender sales! The first one was going to be a project, but was sold to someone who started doing tank driving days. He was looking for a backup vehicle, so I bought another which was a non runner and got it going before selling it on. Certainly with the Mk 2 diesels mostly they were non runners due to electrical faults, bad earths or dodgy fuel solenoids etc.

 

I have no idea what they go for in the USA, but $16000 probably sounds about right for one on your side of the pond, I imagine shipping one over would be quite costly. You have to ask why 'some hoses are off' and hope that it's nothing serious!

16000 seems pretty low, most are going 22k and up.

I'd bid on MOD tender sales...

OK mate! So leave an AAAV'EFF as well! We can supply bolt cutters. The joy you have is you breack it, you don't have to pay for repairs. :-D LOOOOOTS of pictures please!

I have a ton of pictures from my formal MOS schooling I will post in another thread.

No, aavp7a1. It would eat an m113 for lunch! Specifically intended to drive off the backs of LHS/LHA other amphib assault ships fully loaded with 23 Marines on board and drive to shore amid enemy fire and get them there safely. It entered US inventory in 1972 and has been continuosly upgraded...550 HP cummins vt903. Has the suspension, engine, and transmission off of the US army bradley. Usually mounts a 40mm and 50 cal HMG.

 

 

 

damn ! i wan't one !:shocked:

 

23 ? just wow

It's pushing 30 tons loaded with add on armor...very heavy!

In iraq onetime one broke down. SO what did they do? Load 40 Marines into the one aav and tow the other one back to base.

This is what launching from a shoreline looks from the Troop commander's station.

Watching from the driver's station, another track going into the water.

You might possibly leave it near the fence one night, with the keys in? :flowers:

They don't have keys other than the easily cut padlock that keeps the drivers' hatch locked. Starts up when you turn on the fuel, electrical, and push the red START button.

The aavp7a1 is old and needs to be phased out..the new vehicle, the AAAV/EFV, eats the AAV for lunch. 3000HP engine (in the water) from the German Leopard, capable of flying over the water like a boat at 25+ knots, much better armor, a REAL cannon on it-30mm bushmaster, better electronics suite, and can protect the troops inside better than the current AAV will. It can keep up with the abrams. It's a Western style BMP on steroids.

It is possible to use a civi jag engine, however the installation is very different from a car. I think the water pump is the same, but the electrics are completely different. It's all 24 volt and screened for radio interference. The alternator is mounted directly to the hull, as is the fan. There is an engine/gearbox heat exchanger too. It's much easier to fit the real thing than try and adapt something else. Vince (grasshopper) has used a jag engine from a fire engine before.

 

Are they road legal in your state?

 

Chris

Chris,

No, not road legal. They can be if they are "farm equipment" and marked as such however, and operated outside of city limits.

(be sure to put a block of hay somewhere though!)

Yes matey, you'll have to tell us more now. Have never seen one, let alone considered the chance to have a ride in one. I think that buying one or two would sink the defence budget, but knowing our lot they'd stick a flatbed of chipboard on top and call them aircraft carriers.

 

MB

They are still current issue to the fleet Marine forces..once they are done, they will be scrapped. New they cost around 900,000 back in the 80s (Mine is an 88 year model, refurbed in 2006 to RAM/RS standards). I saw one for sale in Australia or some other far off country that was stripped and an old non-ram/rs model..I would have bought it at the drop of a hat.

Driving one of these off the back of an LHS is a thrill. The ENTIRE vehicle goes nose under water for a few meters then bobs up. If the guys in the back are new they will freak out because water is coming in from every square inch. Going from ship to shore is an awesome experiance I can't relate. It's like driving a really slow, ungainly boat in the water, and on land, a go-anywhere go cart.

wow i never seen this vehicle before:) m113 chassis ?

looks special :cool2:

No, aavp7a1. It would eat an m113 for lunch! Specifically intended to drive off the backs of LHS/LHA other amphib assault ships fully loaded with 23 Marines on board and drive to shore amid enemy fire and get them there safely. It entered US inventory in 1972 and has been continuosly upgraded...550 HP cummins vt903. Has the suspension, engine, and transmission off of the US army bradley. Usually mounts a 40mm and 50 cal HMG.

So when do we get a ride in it?

I don't own it, I drive it. And as of now it's in the southern US at Marine corps facility under lock and key. My baby . I doubt they'd let me fire it up for some friends!

You CAN fit a ferret in the back btw :-D, or a jeep.

One reason I love being an Amtrack Marine..I can bring tons of poguey bait (Candy, soda, beef jerky etc) to the field to supplement or replace my MREs and live a rather comfortable existence while the infantry guys can only bring what fits in their pack and what they can carry.

Yes they are easy enough to restore, but it's hard enough finding some of the parts here in the UK where they've been in service for nearly 40 years. Remember they are also in service in approx 18 other countries. When it comes to selling spares these other countries will pay much more than a private owner and the dealers will price spares accordingly. Over here in the UK it's possible to find bits at shows, on ebay or through contacts who are breaking them. That will be impossible to do from 3000 miles away.

 

I've had 3 CVRT restoration projects, I also looked at Darrel's Strikers. They are fairly easy to work on, but don't under estimate the ammount of work required to make a nice one. Especially those Belgian Scorpions and Scimitars, which have been standing outside filling up with water for 10 years.

I'm not interested in making a nice one, just running for now. What will probably happen is I'll get the ferret now and start putting up parts for the CVRT...like a new engine.

Are the jaguar j60s straight from a jag car the same as the AFV version? (I think the alternator is bigger, maybe coolant pump?).

Thanks for the help! British vehicles are different than American ones. Much, much smaller and tighter. I'm 5-11...tight fit!

Love the ferrets all..good looking vehicles.

Ferret, that paint scheme looks a lot like the one I've seen on BRDM2s in combloc countries.

How/where would you get a paint like that?

I find that when driving CVRT on the road, every other driver stops to gawk! Particularly advantageous at roundabouts!

Here in Texas when out in another Ferret owner's ferret people stop, gawk, take pictures "Dude! WHere did you get that? That's so AWESOME!"

Ever get hassled by the police?

On our last field op we drove through the city of Gulfport, Mississippi..cops actually stopped traffic for us. We were warned to avoid crashes with civilian vehicles "Even though you will win, no doubt..." :-D

It's pretty funny to be driving past civvy vehicles and the tracks are as high as the top of their car. They just look and gaze in amazement as 300 tons of armor and 4400 horse power rolls by

My favorite..because it's the vehicle I drive. Will go anywhere, floats, great engine, decent armor, good weapons system, and can carry a lot of portable pain in the back.

What will kill you is the cost of shipping over all the bits. You won't know what you really need untill you get in to it. I can help with NOS engines, wheels, tracks etc. If you have the money it will be worth filling the container with everything you might need. There is a guy over in the US who bid on all the CVRTs in a tender sale once, and won them all. He didn't realise they were all partially stripped, needing engines etc. As for restoring a CVRT, they are fairly easy, have a look at my website.

 

Chris

I'm an AAV crewman for the USMC so I have somewhat of an understanding about tracked vehicles. A CVRT would be more manageable than an fv432.

Another guy told me between 4-5 thousand USD for shipping. Not sure if that's accurate or not hough.

Darrel over at Milbiz told me he has some project CVRTs coming in.

What all is involved with restoring a CVRT from the US?

There is the cost of the vehicle

Shipping-Not sure how much, between 4000 and 5000 usd? Anyone have an idea?

And a new J60 will be needed, guaranteed.

Any ideas on what I"m getting myself into cost wise?

So why is the market not loaded with them?

They are still in use! The US military is the largest user of the m113. When ours are done they are scrapped, not resold to the private market like Britain ( sigh :cry: )

Nearly every single nation in the world that has armoured vehicles has an m113. Jordan, Pakistan, Israel, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Georgia, Turkey....

m113.

80,000 plus made

Better weapons suite (Adaptable from heavy cannons to machine guns to mortars etc), better engine, and floats.

Boyes has foxes for 12000.

What's wrong with boyes?

How do you like yours?

I've heard they're lots of trouble, no fun. Hulls crack, etc.

I've seen quite a few for sale at reasonable prices, and my mind is wondering.