Stone

I've got a PDF of the operating manual if you'd like a copy - drop me a PM.

Stone

He did explain that the drivers needed some practice!

To drive one perfectly you need three hands, both feet and a lot of coordination / concentration, though I dare say it gets easier the more you do it You have pedals for clutch, (common) brake and accelerator, two conventional tillers and a strange 'L'-shaped gearstick which saves you also needing a right arm like a chimpanzee due to where they put the gearbox. The gears don't engage unless you double-declutch as the first down-up motion of the clutch only disengages the current gear and you need a second one to select the next gear.

The tillers have three positions - forward (normal), middle (engages a second, lower, gear ratio in the final drive) and rearmost (engages the track brake on that track). Normally you turn by pulling one tiller back into the middle position so that track is in a different gear and slows down, yanking harder if you need to brake the track for the turn radius you want.

When you let go of the tiller it stays in the middle, so you have to push it back to the first position before you can steer in the other direction (pulling the other tiller just puts both tracks in the low ratio so it goes in a straight line!). This means a common learner mistake is not being able to exit a turn and instead plowing straight into whatever you were steering around :-D

Once you've mastered the system it seems fairly robust though - doing most turns using the low ratio in the final drives means that both tracks are driven throughout the turn and avoids wearing the brake pads down. In low ratio and first gear they'll go up or over pretty much anything, and the shape of the front means you can enter water at speed and the bow wave just gets thrown forwards, instead of landing in the driver's lap like in the 432.

The 2S1 howitzer uses the same system - it's based on the longer chassis of the MT-LBu but with the MT-LB front end - and you can go to Tanks-A-Lot if you want to play with one. I suspect driver training is the reason that (on the 2S1 at least) there's a hatch over the gearstick so an instructor riding on the top can change gear for you :cool2:

They are fantastic fun once you get over the controls, my lottery purchase would definitely be one of the variants

Stone

Hah, I wondered if anybody here would have seen the programme

It was a heavily-civilianised MT-LB - if you look closely (or at the HD stream on iPlayer) you can see where the rear superstructure was added onto the existing chassis. Looks like they removed the whole of the original roof and then butchered the front to put a truck windscreen in - I suspect off a ZIL! The two angled sides at the front had doors put in for access to the driver's compartment - it ended up a bit of a strange shape :nut: You see quite a lot of similar ones advertised on Russian sites as they get used for logging etc - usually converted to a pickup shape with an open cargo area.

Identified by the six BMP-style roadwheels and the track type - it was an MT-LBv which is the winterised one with extra-wide tracks. Ask paulob for chapter and verse as the lucky sod's got an Iraqi one

My favourite was the bit where their first instinct when it started shedding a track was to hit it with a sledgehammer! :cool2: If they'd just driven backwards at that point it may well have reseated itself.

Stone

Ask Clive (protruck) - ours were on/off until he adjusted them and now a lot better!

They all seem to have a tendency to be a lot sharper on the brakes than the accelerator (especially with the enormously wide gear ratios on an MJ) but they can be adjusted to improve it a fair bit. When it first came off the low loader the delivery driver nearly put himself through the windscreen!

Stone

See top and bottom of this pic:

The middle tube has been fired, top and bottom show the reloads as-is.

I have some closeups at work, remind me after the New Year and I'll dig them out for you.

Stone

That is a good idea, but........last year councils were warning people not to clear roads and paths in front of their properties because they would be liable for any injuries or accidents. We always used to do this outside home.

That was last year! New government now - for all their faults they are trying to reintroduce common sense on some things.

BBC News: snow code details

how hard would it be to have this law instated in Britain, at least it would help the less abled to get around easier.

If I had to smash my spine up further clearing my drive I'd not be getting around anywhere! We don't need extra laws to encourage this stuff (you can already be held liable), changing the don't-care attitude is harder than slapping some extra lines in the statute book.

Stone

I've got an RC hovercraft

Tamiya do a tank range that come with decent reviews, not sure about how watertight they are though. linky

Stone

The reason engines get adicted to either is because too much is normally injected into the engine where it detonates and damages the rings or lifts heads or washes the ring of carbon deposit away at the top of the cylinder which has built up over the years and helps to seal the compression. It when people used to de-carbonize a top end you were never to clean the top of the cylinder for this reason. It could lead to oil burning loss of compression ect. The ring of carbon was only removed in a major rebuild. There must be some time served engineers who remember being told this? I learnt it from my old man:D

There's lots of dire warnings about cold-starting in the RB44 manual! Worth pointing out that the instruction is to only pump in ether while cranking. I suspect a few over-enthusiastic strokes of the pump before starting would be enough to cause detonation and the problems above! A little goes a long way.

That said, we only ever have starting problems with dodgy batteries. It got down to -12 here and no problems so far...

Stone

The bottom pic is a Titan mid-bridge launch. linky

Penultimate pic shows Titan at the back, Chally2 in the middle and a Warrior at the front.

Had the fortune to watch an AS90 demo at Larkhill many years ago on a bigwigs+cadets day. Seeing a battery of four firing at different elevations with time-of-flight calculated to give simultaneous impact still sticks in the mind! Also a very nifty demo of Shielder dispersing mines - seem to recall they use inert ones to practice with (similar to clay pigeons) which gradually decompose so the training areas don't get too full

Stone

Seats?

H&S...better safety when braking. sliding or generally in a accident.

That's the one. They're even fitted to Bedford MJs now, it reduces the number of pax you can get in the back to about 8!

Also stops the squaddies voicing their discontent with the driver by crowding towards the tailgate and jumping up and down to lift the front wheels

Stone

Erm, you didn't paint the black rubber, did you? It's meant to be unpainted. Earthing the transmitted signal and stuff.

That was why I replaced it, Withams got a bit slap happy when repainting the veh and it was half-desert sand and half 'can't be arsed to walk round the other side to get decent coverage'.

All looks spiffy now, cheers chaps

Stone

Hopefully last question

I now have a base antenna element (stripped, cleaned and repainted in Desert Sand), and a new base antenna support n.31 mk 7, along with some nice new stainless bolts to attach base to base and assembly to vehicle.

Which antenna elements will fit? The ones designed for manpacks have a bayonet-style pin at the bottom, but can I fit one anyway? Was hoping to use something like this(Clansman Flexible whip Antenna 0.6m 5985-99-661-6417) to keep the overall height down a bit and make it look more like a normal car radio

Cheers,

Stone

Looks like a British image-intensifier tube / night sight - probably Gen1 - on an AFV periscope mount, that narrows it down a lot! Probably not Warrior, so 432 or CVR(T)? (guess: the latter)

A clearer shot of the NSN would let someone look it up...

Stone

Erik reckons you guys will be game to try the rolling deployment!!

Note they cut away before they showed the last guy out chasing after it trying to get the door shut

Looks like an NVA logo on the turret. So confirmed DDR.

The goose-stepping and '40 years of the DDR' logos didn't give it away, then?

Some nice amphibious Gecko action at 3:00, one day...!

Stone

Sure thing, do you want both sets? Just happy they will get used and not hide in my manager's garage forever!

Had a bit of a weird situation come up so thought I'd ask!

I bought a CO2 pistol last week as I fancied something to do a bit of plinking with. It's made as a (very close) replica of a standard 9mm pistol - a Walther P99 - but fires .177 pellets with a CO2 charge. It's finished as black all over, and this is apparently fine. I bought it face-to-face from an RFD.

You can get a different version which uses CO2 to fire .177 BBs instead of pellets. Apparently because of the VCR this has to be brightly coloured unless you're an airsoft group member. Why does a BB gun need to be half orange but the same gun firing pellets doesn't? I'm so confused! :nut:

Stone

Found them stashed away We have two of each. Body cutout approx 2.5", flange 3.25".

Stone

David Crouch is offering a flatrack for £1k on milweb...

Stone

So it looks like it not an outright no its a case of prooving it meets the requirements.

Now the problem is working out what they are and what they mean in real terms.

I notice you cannot get the C&U online (at least I cannot find it) or the nice leagal document that cost £1K. O wonder if the local library has a copy?

You can get a copy of C&U 1986 from The Stationery Office - in fact given that I think this is the only place where you can get it, £26 doesn't seem at all bad!

link

I've mislaid my copy but it's very useful so you can tell what the basic pre-amendment spec is/was. You can't get an 'as amended' version anywhere except as interpreted by the legal textbooks previously mentioned, but it's very easy to just do your own research.

If the Stormer has the right kind of braking system as described in C&U then your first recourse is to write to the DVLA and say so. I'm sure photocopies of the relevant manuals would illustrate the point adequately - bearing in mind you will need to remove all ambiguity by saying '(1) in the attached diagram shows the service brake shoes, (2) is the separate steering brake, (3) is the parking brake' etc. Refute their points one by one and if it meets the regs you will be able to register it. If you need to modify it to meet the regs then do so, and tell them what you've done to make it comply. Personally I'd be most worried about elements you can't do anything about (width, viewing angles) than stuff you can.

BAE won't help you unless you're under contract with them, or you happen to find the single employee in the right department who's interested in MVs and wants to help. Why would they when all the info is available to do it yourself?

Stone

That's looking a lot smarter! Nothing like a bit of fresh paint

Our apprentice passed his C test yesterday so we had the Bedford out on a trip to the weighbridge A nice-looking 101 that appeared to be in green/navy blue (faded IRR black?) camo followed us for a short way in Dunstable, was it you?

Stone

i tried to get my head round the regs but gave up after the third paragraph and owing to the fact that it's 10 ft wide i don't think it would get past the dvla so is there a way to get it on the road for a & e.

See this link - if you get an individual vehicle special authorisation you're OK. They issue them for carnival floats, might be worth a try?

Stone

Have you got the Operating Information (AESP 2320-R301-201)? Might be a clue in there.

If not, shout and you can have a copy of mine.

Stone

The advantages of using nitrogen in specialist applications are clear

 

• Planes fly at heights where temperatures may be as low as -40C. Any moisture in the tyres can freeze causing vibration and balance problems when landing. Pure nitrogen is dry so eliminates this problem (as would using dried compressed air)

Passenger car applications the main claims seem to be

 

• Reduced corrosion – because unlike air there's no moisture in pure nitrogen

Just to add to Lee's post - these two points about moisture are only valid when filling with DRY nitrogen. As it cost approx 3x as much as regular nitrogen when I was last involved with it the fitters are quite unlikely to be wasting it on your tyres! (we used it for backfilling underwater vehicles after servicing - and then the corrosion-reducing qualities are very desirable as it also keeps the seawater out!)

I can't see how any regular source of compressed air with a working dessicator would be in any way inferior to nitrogen-filling. The only possible advantage would be if it helped stop pyrolysis (see here) and thus tyre explosions - but I was under the impression that they were catalysed by the rubber's breakdown products...

On regular road-going tyres: a con.

Stone

Update to my above: I've now got a copy of AESP 2320-E-200-201 (Oct '90) - there's a bloke selling them on eBay. It's titled 'TRUCK UTILITY HEAVY (T.U.H) 4 x 4, REYNOLDS BOUGHTON ALL VARIANTS' and describes the types: GS Cargo (with or without winch), FFR (Soft Top), FFR (Hard Top) and FFR (TCB Carrier).

I think the TCB Carrier is the one with a pod on the back (the AESP just says

'Provision can be made for TCB fixing to the vehicle.'). The FFRs are supposed to be distinguished by the bracket for an antenna base sticking out of the bonnet, though I strongly suspect bonnets were swapped around to suit. According to the AESP the FFRs should have a manual throttle on the passenger side, an exhaust extension for use under camo nets (thoughtful!) and 'A screened 24V dc electrical system is fitted for radio power supply requirements. Suppression is fitted to the heater and windscreen wiper motors and radio suppression bonding leads are fitted in the rear of the vehicle. 4x12V batteries, an extra 24V alternator and 12V alternator suppression kit are fitted.' The later chapters go on to show that an extra battery isolator and charge indicator are fitted alongside the 24V battery in the side compartment.

The hard top version intrigues me, as I think it would look particularly awesome.

A hard top canopy with a rear entry door is fitted to the vehicle body. The hard top incorporates radio antenna mounts on the roof. A radio table and an additional radio operator's seat are provided inside the canopy. Four radio batteries are housed in the forward storage area which replaces the standard dropside.

Have Withams got any of these still? Seem to be very scarce from the lack of pics!

Stone