Stone

Is it just faster because of the reduced weight of metal tracks, or is there less 'rolling' resistance too?

Looks pretty quick! Seems to be doing 60 (I assume kph in Holland) so what, nearly 40mph? :shocked:

Stone

I think I agree with the spirit of the last few posts here - if it's original then I'm definitely all for preserving the history, but if it's just something 'vanilla' then why not do something a bit more out of the ordinary? So long as you're not trying to deceive people as to its genuine history I see no reason why you can't do what you like to it. If it's an enclosed armoured vehicle, who would know if you put a more comfy driver's seat in it? Why stick to green or desert sand if more interesting paint schemes were used? I reckon 'Because I wanted to' is a perfectly valid answer to a perfectionist asking why, so long as you know what you're up to

Stone

Most american import winebagos are over the limit....the 432's tracks are under the legal width limit, its load isnt...

That's the point, the width limit is for the whole vehicle (excluding mirrors). Stuff permanently attached doesn't count as a load! (that's how I got our O-license exemption...)

The Army is a bit of a special case - they're exempt from most of the rules anyway, they just choose to comply with the spirit of the law as a consideration thing. I don't think they're under any compulsion to actually obey them...their military needs will always have higher priority than the civvie requirements.

I take your points, but they've just no interest in changing the rules to make our lives easier, we have to fit in with them :banghead:

Stone

Any idea what the latest model 3.5kVA Onan gennies are worth? (the ones that used to be on Ptarmigan Bedfords before they replaced them with the square-block newer ones). Might have a couple surplus to requirements in the not-too-distant, are they worth anything or shall I ring the scrappy?

I assume they'd work but I'm not sure all the wiring harnesses are present so I don't want to try firing them up...

Stone

You don't technically need rubber pads (unversal carriers are road legal on steel track) and you definitley don't need a reversing camera.

You're correct about the camera, but your other point is worth clarifying...

The rules set limits on ground pressure. They also set limits on what type of track you can have (no part that touches the ground can be less than 13mm wide, for example), so you're right, you don't need pads IF your track meets the spec. Many Russian vehicles don't! All the rules are in the Road Vehicles (Construction & Use) Act 1986 - the flaw in this is that the online database of Acts (opsi.gov) only goes back to 1987 so you have to order a printed copy at ridiculous expense and then mentally apply all the later amendments, which you can find online, in your head. Stupid situation really, which the planned legal database is supposed to fix by providing the up-to-date text of all the laws...but unsurprisingly it's not been finished yet!

I don't understand all this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's not just you

So you can not get a reg doc for the OT90 to use it on the road because VOSA say so, but is it not the DVLA who issue the docs

No, Neil can't get the DVLA to issue the document. DVLA follow rules set by VOSA - Neil thought he'd followed all their requirements but the DVLA won't play ball because they neglected to mention the detail of the width thing. His only mistake was not getting it in writing because they are now denying all knowledge! (my experience of VOSA is that you get 5 different answers to the same question in 5 different phone calls, so I'm not really surprised. None of them want to give information that can be classed as 'legal advice' so they're very reluctant to make any kind of logical leap and tend to be very conservative if you ask their advice)

but you can get a low loader put the OT90 on it and you have no problems !!!!!!!!!!!!

Correct - different rules apply to loads and vehicles. Loads can be up to 2.95m (I think...I can never remember) wide before you need to inform people / have an attendant, but the vehicle it's carried on still has to be 2.55m wide or under.

The artic low loader is as wide if not wider and a lot longer so what's the difference ?

The difference is the low loader vehicle is under 2.55m wide, so they'll register it. The load can be as wide as you want up to 3.2ish metres as long as you follow the rules about attendants and notifying police etc.

What is VOSA to do with the DVLA and if you have an escort each time can they stop you ?

If the DVLA don't think you've followed their interpretation of VOSA's rules, they can just refuse to license the vehicle. You can't drive it on the road without a V5C (because that means it's untaxed) so they can in theory seize it if they can find a way of dragging it away :cool2:

Its my human right to drive my OT90 on the road :-D

Hold that thought

I'm wondering if it would have been possible to manufacture a new set of tracks for it (with no features under 13mm wide) so it could have been driven without resilient material, or at least so the original track could be put on again in future. I think at least part of the reason Neil's so aggrieved is that he can't undo all the work that's been done, and to be honest I don't blame him!

Fundamentally the problem is that the system is really not equipped for dealing with 'odd' vehicles and if it makes life easier for VOSA/DVLA it's far easier for them to just flat-out refuse to help. Even though all the FV432s now on the road are over the width limit. What can you do? :noyay:

Stone

However - we have wandered rather a long way away from the topic of a Stalwarts braking and hydraulic systems etc..... :rofl: :rofl:

Correct. Sorry!

Stone

Ah, gotcha. I hadn't seen it from the end but this pic makes it a bit more obvious. (Actually, isn't that your one? ) I'd assumed it was roughly the same pitch as normal vehicle tyres, those tracks are really skinny!

Stone

You want to be careful shipping vehicles. Some chaps at work shipped a Pinzgauer back from abroad and some careless Arab chaps stacked a container on top of it! :nut:

The vehicle was mostly fine but the roof is a different height on one side to the other :rofl:

Stone

At 12t and 6.8ish metres long, wouldn't it fit on a rigid like this one?

I've never seen anything similar being shifted like that though...can someone tell me why it's a bad idea? (CofG too high, maybe?) There are tons of places that have them to move agricultural plant around so should be easier to get hold of (plus you only need C, not C+E).

Stone

Ah, thanks for that.

"The SPG 75/18 was a successful design, and despite the modest quality of Italian armoured vehicles, performed well in service." :rofl:

Stone

It doesn't show up on the free ISO Group NSN search - if you're sure you've got the number right then it might just look like an NSN...

Stone

Italian rather than German, but I saw this one at (free public militaria show put on by the government, they do things a bit differently there!) was a runner.

No idea what it is though...possibly a M15/42 with no turret?

Stone

You don't feel other road users may have been slightly intimidated?

Can't have been, nothing will faze some of these people! I had another HGV lesson today, pulled out onto an (empty) roundabout to turn left, at which point a lady to my right screamed up to her stop line, glanced left and tried to drive into me, still halfway around the bend! Naturally it was all my fault and I got a shaken fist and beeped for my trouble :argh:

To be quite honest I'd be terrified taking armour out on the roads with the number of idiots cruising around, all power to you for being so brave!

Stone

The classic I heard was a very distraught 'The Rover's over, over!' :-D

Recorded for posterity by one of our chaps last year: [from memory, so made-up callsigns]

Charlie 4, this is Charlie 0, come in, over.

Charlie 0, Charlie 4, go ahead over.

[C0] Fetch Sunray over.

...loong pause...

[C4] Section right, out. (C4 misheard 'fetch the commanding officer' as 'realign mortar section 90 degrees'...not a good mistake to make!)

[C0] NO FETCH SUNRAY YOU DAFT BRUMMIE WEST MIDLANDS CONEHEAD IDIOT

[C4] Fetch Sunray, roger, out.

:rofl:

Stone

Here we go:

[someone else's pictures]

'Boss' was the tank of LtCol D. G. Worthington, who commanded the British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own) until he was KIA in August 1944, in what seems to have been a terrible mess of an operation in which they lost 48 out of 52 tanks!

Stone

It has a 'made out of VW Beetle bits' look about it though so it may be a kit car- but good looking and with the right wheels could be good for film work.

They'd have to take the bike rack off the back first :cool2:

Well done Stone! Keep it up!

There's a tidy pair of what look like Shermans (I'm not so hot on the yank stuff...) outside the Drill Hall as well - only got a pic of one (to follow) though, the other was hidden behind some parked cars...

Stone

The DVLA are funny about everything

The best advice I can offer is to take as much documentation as you can. If they can see it's a mistake they might let you off - we had to get an official confirmation letter from D&ES first though (they hadn't noticed the error and the chassis number was just wrong). Maybe you could take a rubbing of the plate with you as well?

I think they just get the most junior, most bored desk officers to fill as many of them in as fast as they can - you must have to do something pretty serious to get landed with their job!

Stone

Is anyone going to own up to this rather nice Kubelwagen?

(I'm on holiday, funny how there's always something to be spotter-ish about!)

Stone

Yes, I know it's off topic, but:

I'm sorry to say but the shoddy state of this repair means the orginal re-builders should be prosecuted and prevented from leaving someone else with a death trap. I think trading standards would be interested to hear about the company involved.

Seconded. I think you should be counting your lucky stars that with all the different things that've been left in a dangerous state that you haven't been killed, or seriously injured an unlucky road user. If it's too much to ask that they even use the right size / thread bolts (!) then I wouldn't let them within a million miles of my brakes! :shake:

It certainly sounds like they should be prevented from working anything more complicated than a spoon. I'm glad you're finally finding all these flaws before they bite you!

Stone

I've probably got more manuals than you do If you want them drop me a PM...

Stone

My MJ and the MK before both came as standard with a locking (of sorts) cap. The device was on the neck of the filler and prevented the cap being pressed inwards to turn. Not sure what persuasion it would need to overcome (I suspect not a lot) but you locked the sliding bar upwards with a padlock and it seemed to work OK.

Ours is like this too - you sure you haven't just missed it? There's a bar that slides upwards, with a hole cutout that lines up with two holes in the frame - you can stick a small padlock through it, which as Mark says prevents the cap being pressed inwards.

Bear in mind, all you have to do is make it harder to steal your fuel than your neighbours'...there's precious little you can do against a determined thief who isn't bothered how much damage they cause.

Stone

It doesn't mention how hard it is to get the pouches onto the belt with your feeble cadet fingers though :rofl:

Stone

I haven't seen any restriction on headroom for trucks in the UK in the regs. So I should be OK even though I have bought the smaller comms body out of the two different heights available.

The extra streamlining will come in useful when you want to do more than 52mph :rofl:

Didn't stall at all in today's lesson, I might be improving! Did do 3rd to 1st instead of 3rd to 5th a couple of times though!

Stone

Cheers for that. I might actually qualify under '• Not being used to carry passengers or goods for commercial purposes.' since under VOSA rules any equipment permanently or semi-permanently attached to your vehicle isn't classed as goods but as part of the vehicle...

I think I'd better give them a ring though!

Stone

Think you'll find it's something reasonably modern, you're not allowed to take a test in a truck without ABS now!

You're right, it's a DAF 65CF240; W reg so 2000ish. Spent three hours crawling around this morning, my control of the range change box is frankly woeful so I spent quite a lot of the time looking like this :sweat:!

If you were driving around Leighton Buzzard this morning and got held up by the incompetent numpty driving the big yellow lorry stalling on roundabouts, I can only apologise :cry:

I've hired a car with a manual gearbox so I can practise between lessons, otherwise I'm going to have an accident!

Stone