Stone

The cigar is a nice touch! :cool2: Stone

Reliability might be a bit off, some bright spark put the oil filter in the back-left wheel arch, right in the firing line of the first brick you drive over :nut: They are awesome bits of kit though. The UK version is called Panther. Stone

I think we need a few failed prosecutions to show us where the line is...driving isn't the main part of my job (I do electronics) but we have a bunch of kit in a radio shelter on the back of an MJ. Grey area? yes, a lot! Stone

Iveco LMV maybe? Stone

On Tuesday I spotted a convoy of 4 new-spec desert sand FFR Landies about J2 of the M40 and a car transporter carrying 10-15 green ones about J8 Stone

Gotcha, had only ever seen the non-batwing version...(so that one's a Saxon Patrol?) They look pretty spiffy in sand! What happened to the Alvis Simba? Stone

Those are some seriously ugly modifications :rofl: Are those 'batwings' like the NI Pig ones? EOD maybe? Stone

They look good fun but are apparently a bit underpowered (and carting 7000kg around on a PETROL V8, thirsty too!) Maybe if you do an engine transplant for a nice Cummins or something... Stone

Yep, just fill in a V112G, 'historic' class. Might also get free road tax if it was old enough (can't remember the date on that, 1971 rings a bell faintly?) B+E is technically just for a vehicle up to 3500kg with a trailer above 750kg, but it might conceivably allow you to persuade the angry VOSA man if you got caught with a bigger trailer on! It would only be checked if you'd been stopped for something else (everyone would just assume you had cat C) but you'd technically need C+E to carry any load in either. Not sure if there's a limitation on trailer size under INF52 but I wouldn't want to be trying it on, I wouldn't want to get caught and forfeit the vehicle. Tony: You can do all the tests for under £1000 but that assumes you pass first time! When I tried it was £50 for the medical, then send the licence off to get provisional for C and D (valid until 45 years of age), £35 for the multiple choice theory test, £15 for the hazard perception video test and £115 for the practical. I didn't do the CPC as it hadn't come in when I was tested but that's another £30 for theory and £55 for practical, so I make it £250 now to get tested. The training place I used was £750 for a week so it'd be relatively very cheap if you could persuade someone to lend you a truck and drive around in it with you with your L-plates on! :-D Quite a few people taking the test just need the qualification but already know how to drive one so as long as you'd got a test-spec vehicle for the day to take your test in you'd be home free. Stone

You could just go for the Russian approach and forbid any crew from being over 5'4"! :cool2: Not sure which tank that started on but making the short crewman assumption allowed them to shave a couple of inches off the silhouette... Stone

Bit of a tangent but are you able to register MVs with their original plate number over there? Couldn't spot the numberplate...or did you take it off for the display? Stone

It's all in [iNF52]. You fit into 2.1 L: You'd be fine driving a Matador, but you can't have ANY load on it (and if the guy who stops you wants to be clever I think the unladen trailer you're allowed to pull must weigh under 750kg as otherwise I think you'd need B+E). As long as you're very careful not to have anything considered 'a load' on board (this includes a vehicle toolkit, spares etc) you're OK - but for the avoidance of doubt it's always better to have cat C. Stone

Are car engines really that rare that you'd have to break up an MV pack? I would have thought the car variants were mass-produced in much greater volumes so it's a bit of a strange idea to me. He can do what he wants though, obviously :-D Stone

It actually happens quite a lot which is worrying! this one was particularly bad... :shake: The vehicle graveyard is here if anybody fancies a quick peek. Stone

Ah, right, I thought they were under 8250. In that case you'll need a C unless you fit into one of the special arrangements in INF52 as above. Simplest route is to get cat C and cat H and you're covered for anything we're likely to want Stone

Some dodgy assumptions in here, 'It's not an HGV' doesn't mean you wouldn't need a C or C1 licence! As you passed your test before 1997 your main entitlements should be B (car), B1 (quad bike), B+E (car + trailer), C1 (small LGV), C1E (small LGV + trailer), D1 (minibus) and D1E (minibus + trailer), plus A if you ride a motorbike. The combination of B, B1 and B+E allows you to drive anything up to 3500kg with a trailer more than 750kg (train weight limits apply). C1 is the magic one as on its own it allows you to drive anything with a Maximum Authorised Mass up to 7500kg - as you have an older licence you should have information code 107 on it which allows you to drive up to 8250kg. It's the MAM as per the V5 that makes the difference, not whether or not it's a goods vehicle - per the rules our Bedford isn't a goods vehicle due to the permanently mounted engineering equipment, but you still need category C as the MAM is 9650kg. It's very much worth making the distinction as some of us aren't lucky enough to have passed before 1997 so we only got B and B1 when we passed our car tests! :police: There's absolutely no grey area as the licence categories are very rigidly defined - PC Plod will be looking at the V5 details to tell if you're in the right or not. Answer: I can't drive a Saracen on my licence, but you can. Tony B will be along in a minute to fill in anything I got wrong Stone

Yep, I got to crawl over one early on too (our lot did one of the other systems). I loved all the 'NOT A HANDHOLD' stickers on ours, looks like it failed one of the early squaddie tests! :cool2: Stone

Still got your sense of humour, looks like you'll need it! :-D Good on you for saving it, look forward to the restoration pics Stone

Yep, you were right, sorry. If it's under 3500kg unladen it should be a car IIRC, a Ferret scrapes over. I suppose technically you couldn't drive it on a Cat B either! Stone

A couple of new ones have popped up for me: 1) The 'reply to thread' button only appears at the top of each page now - it used to appear top and bottom so now you have to scroll up and I'm lazy :-D 2) The tweaks to the HMVF theme have rendered links invisible (unclicked links are the same colour as normal text and the underline only appears when you mouseover a link, but you have to know it's there!) 3) The smiley size thing has recurred: when editing a post with a smiley in it comes out massive, and the sizes are wrong in the smilies box shown in the advanced edit / new post view. Keep up the good work Stone

NATO Green is BS381C, Shade #285 (or RAL #6014). The Marcus Glenn stuff is pretty good - slightly lighter than the original shade but you can only really see it with the light against it. If the whole vehicle was done in the same colour it'd look a very close match. Stone

I take it all back! Bless them, sometimes it's a spade and sometimes it's a portable handraulic soil manipulation device! Stone

Nope, it's a V112 - V112G is 'Apply for exemption from goods vehicle testing'. As it's not a goods vehicle you use the other form. Also worth taking rubbings of the chassis number if applicable - they can and have got funny about verifying them. They wanted me to trailer a Bedford MJ 60 miles to the local office so beware! Stone

They've got some beautiful 2S1s but they're £30k! :shocked: Stone

You need a V55/5 (have to pick up in person from DVLA local office as they're serial-numbered...or I think they can post one to you if you can get your way through their phone system). Then the rest is on here: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/BuyingAndSellingAVehicle/RegisteringAVehicle/DG_4022316 It helps a lot if you have some form of former registration (gold-standard is MOD Form 654) - where did it come from? Has it been road-registered before? You'll also need a V112 for MOT exemption if it's old enough to be 'historic'. Top tip is to pick two forms up at the same time as you're pretty much guaranteed to mess one up Stone