Richard Grosvenor

The Wisbech & District Historic Vehicle Club will be having it's annual Road Run on Sunday 13th August. Turn out is normally in excess of 160 vehicles, at least half of them HGV's. Last years highlights had to be Tony Knowles beautifully restored fleet of lorries aswell as the well known Davis Brothers Leyland Octopus. A really good route of about 80 miles with a tea break at Perkins Engines. It would be nice to have some more Military Vehicles this year, the last two years it's only been me and someone in a Reo ( in the past the run has clashed with Duxford's MV Show) All enquiries to , Mr Micheal Ramsden 86 Lynn Road. Wisbech Cambs PE13 3DW tel 01945 584717 Closing date for inclusion in the run programme 17th June, but are entries accepted on the day. Hope to see some of you there!! Regards Richard

Hmmm.....I don't know if I dare. If someone could tell me that they have done it with their own ZIL and it's all fine with no problems I would. Probably :wink: I must share this story. I have it on good account that this is all true. A member of our local Historic Vehicle club ( rumoured to be the chairman!) who owns a rather nice MG sports car got fed up with paying high fuel prices. He'd heard of people converting their classics to diesel and getting much better MPG and cheaper running costs. So he decided he would "convert" his MG. So, off he goes to Tesco and fills the tank up with Diesel and drives home, about 5 miles. He makes it home...just, but try as he might it will not restart. He calls a mate "who knows about these things" and asks for his advice. His mate asks " How did you convert it?" "Well, I just put diesel in it" he replied. A complete fuel system clean out followed. A job not made any easier as the car had no fuel tank drain so the tank had to be removed :lol: Regards Richard

Hello Mick, Thanks, being a HAA Gun Tractor she runs on 15.00 x 20.00's which are even harder to get. We've recently renewed the four rear ones, it was a right pig of a job to get the split rims apart and they are seriously heavy. I have actually removed a wheel and refitted it by myself but have been warned not to do it again by the Militants previous owner. He was lifting a wheel/tyre once and split a valve at the top of his stomach! (That always makes me feel funny inside :? ) So from now on I leave it to a professional tyre fitter! Regards Richard Ps Good luck with the photos.

Thanks John, Your last point about the ZIL's running on low quality petrol or a slight diesel/petrol mix has always been the most plausible to me, rather than them being a true multi-fuel engine. I read somewhere, that in Russia they sometimes have incredibly low octane petrol But I've been told so many things about what a ZIL can and can't be run on it gets hard knowing who to believe, petrol, paraffin, petrol/paraffin mix, kerosene, diesel/petrol mix...the list goes on. So, if I've got this right, it's easier for a diesel compression ignition type engine to run on petrol than it is for carburetter fed, spark plug ignition engine to run on heavy fuels such as diesel. Is that right? I think I'll keep the Old Bitch on neat petrol though, just to be on the safe side :wink: Regards Richard

Hello, I have often wondered how is an engine Multi-fueled. Reason for asking is ZIL engines are often described as being multi-fuel and able to run on any thing, petrol, diesel or parafin. The ZIL V8 looks like a normal petrol engine, it has a carburetter and spark plugs. I was talking to a chap at a show last year who has 2 Reo's, a 2.5 ton and 5 ton, which truly are multi-fuel. He was explaining that they have a device on the fuel pump which senses the "weight" of the fuel and regulates how much is supplied to the engine. I think that the Reo engine is a compression ignition engine the same as a normal diesel? The ZIL's don't have anything like this. So is it possible for a spark ignition engine to be Mutil-fueled or is this sale's talk? Cheers Richard

Hello Mick, I actually made a little mistake :oops: when I said click on the pictures name, in reality it's the one marked IMG or maybe even BB code. This is what the code might look like ( I've deliberately put an extra line in it so it won't display the picture) If I put the code correct, ta-dar!! Hope this helps a bit. Regards Richard

Yes, they've definitely got at least two Bren Gun carriers. They had them at Belvoir Castle Steam fair last year. It was one of those surreal moments, we were all tearing round the arena (abit like the White Helmets but in Military vehicles ) when I came face to face with one of them and instantly recognised the driver. If you look at any photo or video of a Bren Gun carrier taken at a recent show, it will nearly always be him driving it. And this was just like looking at a photo, except I was in a Ferret......doing 20 mph .....on very slippy mud.......heading towards a fence! :? Regards Richard

Hello Mick, What you need to do is highlight the name of the image you want to post ( on Photobucket it's the third box down) then right click it and click copy. Next go to the post you are writing on the forum, right click your mouse and click the paste button. If you preview the post , if everything worked and the planets are all properly aligned etc. the picture should be displayed. Hope that helps. Once you get used to it it's quite easy. Says me, the person who hates computers :wink: Regards Richard

I agree, the Government's want us all to forget that wars ever happened. Take the present Gulf War, whether you agree with it or not, 100 soldiers that have been killed already. Killed serving this country! While their families will never forget the sacrifice they made, in time the general public will. In ,say, 10 years time what will there be to remind them. Only the vehicles from the war which would then be in private ownership will remain. Hopefully if we can still own and use Military Vehicles the soldiers who used them will never been forgotten. Regards Richard

Hello Mick, Hmmm...don't know :? Regards Richard

To quote Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean "That'll be the French!" :wink: Cheers Richard

Hello Sue, Yes that must be it. Why I said about the ZIL was ages ago I had an email from someone asking about ZIL spares and their company name was very similar to yours and it stuck in my head. Cheers Richard

Hello Sue, Welcome to the forum. I looked at your website and the name Charlesworth and Son rings a bell but I can't remember why. Have you ever owned a ZIL? Regards Richard

Oh yeah, Thanks Degsy Richard :lol:

Very strange!! Jaaaaaack why can Matt type cock but I can't? Dammit!! it did it again!! :lol: Richard :?

I've just noticed that you can't type cock up on here. Look it just done it again, I typed cock and it put hen. "The opposite of a hen bird is a cock bird." Dammit. If you don't believe me try typing the name of a male bird and see what it displays when you preview the post. Is there any other words (not swear ones) that you can't type ? Regards Richard

Thanks Mark, So it's one of those sorts of bans! It's a bit like the horse passports that where introduced a few years ago. It's now illegal to own a horse if it hasn't got a passport, failure to do so will result in fines of up to something stupid into the £1000's! But the powers that be didn't ( and still don't) know who has or hasn't got a horse so it's up to the owner to forward the details and apply for a passport. It was a right cock up and the time limit had to be extended by nearly a year because no-one knew about the new law coming in. I'm guessing that this ban will be the same, it is up to the owner to register the vehicle but it's not the government's job to find the vehicle's and register it. Regards Richard

Hello Folks, Isn't there any members on here who are MV owning solicitors who could put all the legal stuff into simple speak for thickos like myself :? ? :oops: Richard

Hello, A few days ago we were driving through a large, new housing development, where the houses are crammed in, and the driveway is only just big enough to park a push bike on, and was saying how terrible it would be to live somewhere like that if you were in to Military Vehicles. We're lucky, we have several acres and good neighbours who like ( or rather don't mind) our "toys". Our only limiting factor on how many vehicles we have is the funds to buy them in the first place :cry: . If money was no option we'd love to build a massive "shed" so we could store other peoples MV's at sensible rates. On the point of taxing and SORN, I was surprised at this years War & Peace how many vehicles that had tax disc's well out of date even though the were "NIL Duty". I love to go and get my :lol: FREE :lol: tax disc ( it's the only free thing you'll get off this government) and I wonder why some people don't bother to get theirs? :? Regards Richard

Hello, I can't see any justification for this ban. It just seems completely senseless. So France will ban anyone from owning a MV, even Jeeps and the like? I presume an Ex-Military Land Rover will also be banned but a civilian LR, would be OK? Will the next step be to ban the ownership of old cars and lorries? And then, what next, old buildings!? I can just about see the logic in banning the use (on public Highways) of track laying vehicles, but to destroy historically important vehicles that fought to ensure future generations freedom's, that is totally wrong! Wars (and history) happened. I've heard that in schools WW2 is only touched on, as if it didn't really happen. I suppose because we now have a unified Europe (not!) What about museum piece's, will they also be banned and destroyed? There is one possible reason for this; "How many Frenchman does it take to defend Paris from invasion? " " No-one knows, no Frenchman has ever tried to defend Paris!!!" Regards Richard

Hello Neil, I would definitely get a quote from Footman James. We have the ZIL, Militant, Ferret, FH70, Land Rover and two trailers insured with them for a grand TOTAL price of £150, fully comp! Remember, Roadsure are doing a hell of a lot of advertising at the moment and it's the customer who pays for it in the end. Interesting news about HCR Ltd. I don't know what to make of them really. Regards Richard

I bet Rex Cadman is worried! :lol: Mind you, even he had to start somewhere! Hi Tyler and Mick, Thanks for the the complements on the logo. Good idea with the tyre tracks, I'll see what I can find. Regards Richard

Hello Tyler and Mick, This is the sort of thing I've thought of; Simple (and probably a bit boring :roll: ) but very easy to reproduce, on T-shirts and the like, for instance :shock: Regards Richard

On reflection, that was a deliberate mistake, in order to hint at the mistake on the front cover! :wink: :lol: Richard

Oops :oops: That serve's me right for being a smart arse! :lol: Richard