Stone

By sheer coincidence (really!) I found a T-34-85 manual in a batch of stuff I was chasing up. Frustratingly none of the manuals I was looking for showed up! Just in case anybody was interested in having a look I've stuck it on my website here. Even if you can't read Cyrillic you can look at the piccies! Watch out if you're on dialup as it's nearly 60MB. Modnote: This seemed as good a thread as any to put it but feel free to shift it if you'd rather I've got some T-55/T-60/T-72 ones as well if they're of interest... Stone

I tried that one on the missus that but she said I'd 'gone a bit Ray Mears' :-D Bit worried what you'd be using the MG turret for, some emergency! My thoughts keep returning to the MTLB/variants - tons made, run off a (big) truck engine and they even made a set of track with rubber inserts! Just need somewhere to put it... Stone

Very true. Add on a couple of £k for delivery and transport permits and you might as well pay Richard Moore I reckon paulob's the the right idea, fly out and have a look and drive back with it if you like it. If you don't you've had a short city break! Stone

It says 'The Good Old Stalin' but I expect you knew that Has anybody ever catalogued the patriotic slogans that ended up on these? I assume they were added by field troops as a morale booster and not named at the factory...? Stone

Can't believe I haven't seen this thread before, lovely pics and what an inspiration! Did you ever find out any more of its history here before ending up on the range? Stone

I was about to say they're cheap for a reason! You'd want to know exactly what you were getting or you'd be pretty much guaranteed to end up with a lemon... Stone

Hello chaps, Think I might have uncovered a source of confusion - whenever I go to the main forum index (hmvf.co.uk/forumvb) it displays the homepage as if I haven't signed in (including the 'you may be new here, have you read the FAQ' text) but with the bold forum names on forums containing unread posts. If I click through into one of the forums though, it correctly shows me as signed in. Yes, I have cleared my cache/cookies. Some of the people complaining about having to sign in may actually be signed in - but the forum is incorrectly showing you the front page as if you haven't. Might be worth a try? Hopefully that narrows it down a bit... I think the mods are doing a sterling job putting up with us lot Stone

You live and learn, thanks for that Stone

Is that a windscreen in the picture outside Sankey? :??? Would have come in very handy in the mud during my H test! Not seen them on any other vehs... Stone

Whoops, forgot that one! Was the Streaker ever used for anything? I know the Shielder ended up on the larger Stallion chassis instead... Stone

+ Salamander... Stone

Exactly, my answer was 'Grab the extinguisher and empty it through the engine hatches, then bail', and he looked rather unconvinced when I responded to 'So, you'd use the extinguisher at the base of the fire then?' with '...Yes.' Grumpy sod gave me a minor as well :n00b: My first response to an engine fire in a 432 wouldn't be to open the engine bay to apply the extinguisher, I can tell you! Stone

In the UK at least that's no different to your standard consumer rights - within 6 months you can claim that a product was unfit for purpose when sold and the onus is on the supplier to prove otherwise; they have to offer a refund or replacement. After 6 months the onus is on the consumer to prove it but they still have to offer a refund or replacement! It's all in the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and Sale and Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 (both as amended) - look them up and you might be surprised Stone

Not seen that fabric stuff before - all the harnesses we make at work (military avionics) use the standard rubbery stuff, but it looks good! You can also get heatshrink pre-printed with different legends; we used to have a set of drawers containing tiny snippets each with an individual letter or numeral printed on. You would assemble them around your cable in the correct order, shrink them, then apply a slightly larger piece of clear heatshrink over the top to stop it rubbing off. Great for permanent labelling of what each section of a loom does, and withstands dirt and grime very well. Especially for military stuff where all the wires tend to be the same colour it's a lifesaver! Stone

Some of the smilies are being displayed with the wrong sizes in the new post advanced view - the ones that are bigger or smaller than average are being resized or cropped to fit a grid pattern. Earlier they were coming out massive in the post previews but that seems to have been fixed...? Can we have the 'quick reply to this thread' feature back, please? [edit: Also, maybe it's time to revisit the first group of boards being called 'The Forum' - there are now two confusing links at the top of the thread view: 'Forum' (takes you back to the forum root) and 'The Forum' (which takes you to the first group of forums). Not sure what to rename it to but 'The Forum' is definitely a bit broad for what is quite a small chunk of the total threads. Stone

It's not 'graded' so much as two seperate systems. For example in a left turn you pull the left tiller back from the fully-forward position to halfway back (it goes clunk and stops in a detent) - this changes the final drive ratio and you start to steer left. Pulling the tiller even further back into the second detent allows the brake band on that side to be engaged, just like a 432 (the harder you pull the more the turn tightens because you're slowing the track more). The thing to watch is that when you straighten up or want to turn the other way you have to push the tiller fully forward, otherwise when you pull the other tiller you have both tracks in the lower gear and you go straight on instead of turning! I expect being good on snow was a major design criteria for all Soviet gear - but they have very different snow conditions to us! If you have multiple feet of snow before hitting ice at the bottom you'll always do better... Stone

I wouldn't worry too much, PC Plod doesn't know about it either Stone

Heatshrink is absolutely brilliant stuff! I use it all the time. Always use a hot air gun to shrink it (it leaves a plasticky residue on soldering irons which is a pig to clean off) - you can use a cigarette lighter if you're careful but beware of flammable stuff nearby; it will also leave a sooty burn mark on lighter colours of heatshrink. If you overheat it the strength is seriously diminished and it will usually split - once split it never lasts long. Keep the heat moving and you'll be fine. Pick the right diameter for what you're doing (you can build it up in layers if you have several smaller sizes) - it makes fantastic strain relief, but I usually use it to cover the gap between cable and connector. You can get a type lined with a layer of hot-melt glue which melts and conforms when you shrink the sleeving, this is good for light-duty waterproofing. Lastly don't forget to put the sleeving on before soldering up the connectors! Stone

That's looking really nice, good stuff! Stone

I was going to suggest the Russian APCs but then I saw this :shake: http://rutube.ru/tracks/1976981.html?v=e0d2f1a27964b37728eb013d6b1ecf5d Terrifying doesn't even begin to cover it... I think you'd need a pretty aggressive track profile to properly deal with the relatively thin snow-over-ice we're getting here - even cars just smash the snow flat and then slide on the ice. The Russian vehicles I've driven have an arrangement where each track has a high/low ratio selectable in the final drive, and pulling each tiller first selects the low ratio in that final drive and then applies a track brake on that side when pulled further. Might help a bit if both tracks are still actively driven but with one going faster...? Stone

I've my fair share of those, but if you keep seeing the same things up for sale you think they'll always be available and have no idea the supply will suddenly dry up and the prices rocket :cry: Ouch, that is dear. Nice vehicles though More to the point, what's it doing on the south coast? Bit far west for the Red Army to have managed, and the Solent's in the way Did any get brought over immediately after the war or are they all from individual importation? Stone

Might go and have a spy at that, my parents have a house in Camber How much would a T34 be worth these days? I don't imagine the sea air is doing it a lot of good... [edit: it's just visible on Bing maps (Google Maps don't zoom in far enough). Pic attached, you can see the turret shadow!] Stone

When registering our Bedford at the local office I was told that the age-related plate they had issued was non-transferable, but they never mentioned anything about being unable to transfer a cherished plate to it. We also operate under an MOT exemption (not historic class though) so I would have thought they'd have mentioned it... Can't really see on what grounds they'd argue, the vehicle doesn't get any younger by putting a different plate on it! I can understand their reluctance with the age-related plates (they might issue you a valuable one that appears to spell something, I guess) but it does sound like someone's got confused. BRDM's are lovely vehicles, why not start a thread in the restoration section? Would love to see some pics Stone

Ah, ok, I get you now. How I see it: Say you need to deliver a set amount of work to get the crankshaft turning (which will vary on how big the engine is, how viscous the oil is, clearances etc etc) and so you need to deliver a set amount of power to the starter to get things going depending on its efficiency. Power delivered as DC is by V=I*R and P=I*V. When you turn the key you get at least the CCA-rating amps flowing, at a steadily decreasing voltage depending on the battery capacity, so the power delivered to the motor is also decreasing. A higher CCA just means it can deliver that current (I'm assuming into a purely resistive load) for at least 30 seconds at 0F - or phrased differently that it will take longer for it to discharge until the starter stops delivering enough power to spin the motor because the friction's too powerful for it to overcome. What I'm saying is that since you've got an approximately static load on the starter and you're delivering less and less power to the starter the longer you crank for, if the motor hasn't quite caught then you can crank for longer in a single burst with a higher-CCA battery than with a lower one, because you're delivering enough power to overcome friction for longer. Does that make sense? Stone

You have to be careful - much engineering plant can be driven on a Cat B (car). That was why they said it wouldn't entitle me to drive a 360 on the road...can't see why not but that's what the examiner said! There's a lot of stuff in INF52 which explains, basically any engineering plant doesn't need a cat H even if it's tracked, so you can't take your test in one as you don't need one to drive it. I think. It's confusing! Stone