Stone

Make sure Withams sell you a comms-pod-RB44 to go with the comms pod. They look like they just drop onto a GS but don't!

Easy enough to register is all I know, someone else does the driving of ours :cry:

Stone

Think we may have a couple of similar ones. I'll have a poke around.

Stone

Yesterday (Sat 13th), approx 1040, M25 anticlockwise (about J24). Three lorries in convoy with 2x BV206 apiece, quite a sight! First drew my attention as it looked like they were on large rigids which seemed a bit unusual...not 100% sure though as I was going clockwise!

Off to a new home, maybe?

Stone

Red light was thought to harm one's night vision less than white light and so it was used at night just in case you needed to jump outside in a hurry and shoot someone. This is why some of the box bodies (ours included) have an interlock on the light switch unit - if the door is opened the main white lights cut out, but the red ones can stay on. (this is from memory as the switch broke long ago!)

In actual fact the colour has very little to do with it as it's more of a function of total luminance - as the eye can distinguish more shades of green than of other colours it's therefore best to use green lighting, as you can have it dimmer than other colours (i.e. less effect on vision and less likely to be spotted from afar) while still being able to make out the same amount of detail. All the maps used to be printed with special inks and carefully-arranged colour code to make all the important markings visible in red light - I suspect the cost of doing this again for green lights had something to do with the reason nobody seems to bother any more. Our most recent shelters only have white lights, in any case.

Of course in general it doesn't make a blind bit of difference, as when your squaddy nips out for a quick fag the flash of his lighter will completely f&*% his night vision up anyway! :nut:

Stone

You stirred a very vague memory here, but wasn't the Chaffee on the second series of Tank Overhaul from Vietnam? (or they ran a segment on the ?French ones there...?)

Stone

I've just snagged a copy of the Operating Manual off fleabay

I'll get it scanned in once it turns up, I can promise it'll be a lot cheaper than buying your own :cool2:

Stone

That bloke at 1:07 is bloody lucky he didn't get run over! :shocked:

I'd normally suggest a few sandbags in the back but I can't see it would help if you're going to drive it like that!

Stone

Optimus Prime :rotfl: I was once quoted £750 each for the flatracks, I think Jackson's had some. They'd be great for transporting small MVs around...

Jacksons definitely have some of the Ekalifts too which are a very cool bit of kit! [edit: they do have flatracks. Link]

Stone

Actually 'dual purpose vehicle' was to have been removed as a class this year. No idea if it has happened. (This is what all the Land Rover owners with incorrect weights in their V5s have been getting in a tizz about as they will be class 7 MoT instead of class 4 if over 3,000kg.)

Or even worse, some of them (admittedly few, the only one I can think of offhand is the Hummer H2) exceed 3500kg maximum weight and so can't be driven on a car (B) licence!

I agree with some others above that it's all gone a bit silly. Really it needs someone to take an axe to it all and start again from scratch :nut:

Stone

60 on a dual carriageway, 70 on a motorway. It's under 7.5 tonnes gross, so not an HGV just undergoes the same Ministry test as HGVs (though private HGV taxation to confuse things).

True, but if someone else is driving it you can tell them it's a max of 56 and they won't rag the engine too much

John, you're right, those having passed their car test since 1998 (I think - check it) can't drive over 3500 kg gross without passing another test.

It's 1997 - I'm a couple of years under. When I get around to retaking my C test I'll hopefully pass and get C1 and C together

Stone

Ours is registered as Private HGV (and on age-related plates, it's a J reg for 1991).

The maximum authorised mass is 5300kg so it can't fit in a Class 7 as is. If you were to modify it so it couldn't carry a load (i.e. cutting up the load bed) you may be able to get it reclassified as 3500kg as that's the approximate curb weight empty, but then you wouldn't be able to carry anything in it, ever!

I'd just plump for the HGV test and get it over with.

Stone

I'm going to bump this old thread since it has the most info in already

Does anybody know if the RB44 transfer box also includes a centre diff? The wiki claims this is how windup is prevented in reasonably modern vehicles, but then again knowing the MoD they might have asked Boughton to take it out :nut:

I wouldn't like to damage anything, especially as it's not possible to disengage 4x4 drive. If not we can just bump up on the kerb like Stollies do!

Stone

I can't be the only one to have seen this picture and marvelled at the amount of coffee you must have drunk during this project!

The amount of talent and effort that has gone in is astounding. Will it not feel a bit strange when it's all 'finished'?

Stone

Some lovely pics there - I've always thought the Pinz diffs were a really beautiful design. Are the gears on the stub axles actually curved inwards towards the planet gears in the middle, or is that just a trick of the camera angles? I dread to think how long they spent designing them! :nut:

Stone

I'm quite impressed they came to see you; when I was arguing with the DVLA over our MJ (the MOD Form 654 had a mistake in the chassis number) they told me to put it on a low loader so they could inspect it at the local office! I declined :cool2:

I guess they've changed their policy now then...

Stone

saracen APC has 8 passenger seats, and 3 'Crew' seats.... crew seats are not classed as passenger seats.

The 'Seating Capacity' field on the V5C includes the driver's seat...so how can this be true? :undecided:

Stone

Certainly no problem for me - or was I lucky?

Not from my experience. As long as you're not trying to obviously game the system they've been very helpful.

The only problem I had with ours was the insurance certificate - it covers any vehicles owned / leased / rented by the company, so in addition I had to prove that the company owned the vehicle to render the insurance valid. Otherwise it was all fairly smooth...?

Stone

There's a guide for BFG drivers here which you may find helpful.

For our vehicles (an RB44 and a Bedford MJ) I filled in the following:

Taxation Class (I knew what this was for ours, you may want to ask the DVLA)

Period of License (whether you pay for 6 or 12 months of tax)

Make

Model

Type of body / vehicle ('truck' is adequate)

Wheelplan (two axle rigid)

Colour

Length (from user manual)

Unladen weight

Seating Capacity

Technical permissable maximum trailer mass (from VIN plate, train weight - revenue weight)

Width

Revenue weight (from VIN plate)

Date of Original Registration (use the MVT info, or a Form 654 if you have one)

Type of fuel (heavy oil = diesel)

VIN number

Cylinder capacity

Year of Manufacture

Then just sign and date the declaration in the bottom bit. You don't need to fill in all the boxes, and if you leave one blank the DVLA will help you fill it in anyway, so don't worry about it too much

Stone

Tax disc arrived yesterday Just waiting for plates to come now.

We also swapped the military mains inlet for a 32A Ceeform. All the interior lights and sockets and the aircon work! Colour me amazed.

Stone

One at Withams, and one in Andy's field...

 

I don't think it's done much, the interior of the cab is like new, even has the clear plastic bit on the plate for the light switch. It has the 81mm mortar kit in the back too.

I thought it was close to ours, we have 94KJ53 Glad to know someone here has its baby brother...

Ours doesn't have the antenna bracket on the bonnet but seems otherwise equally well looked after. The Form 654 called it 'RB44 with container of COMSEC equipment' so we may have missed out on some exciting goodies!

DVLA say our tax disc is in the post so fingers crossed all is well...

Stone

That is a bit weird. There's not much side clearance at all! (I'd be more worried about someone getting wedged under the front)

Clive will probably have the most up to date info as he did the bars on our MJ...

Stone

That's looking very nice :cool2: There's a bloke on eBay selling the stickers for the grill if you feel like putting one back on.

Stone

Perfecr, thanks for that! I did suspect the spacer was used to ground the input side to the vehicle body but wasn't sure. I'll grab a spacer and see what works :-)

Stone

Did you need to fit side and rear impact protection and a tacho?

You'd be hard pressed to get anything underneath it at the side and rear - it has a very different profile from the sides compared to, say, a Bedford. It's an excellent idea getting side and rear bars fitted to a Bedford (as otherwise you have pretty much unrestricted access to the propshafts from ground level to shoulder height!) but you'd struggle to physically fit them to an RB as the bodywork hangs down comparatively low and shields everything. I don't recall the exact requirements but I'd be amazed if you fell foul of the regs on this one!

Any pictures?

Yes please! Congrats on getting it through the MOT.

Stone

I think it looks nicer without them fitted at all - you lose the amphibious drive (not that you use it anyway) but then the track sheds soft mud much more easily and doesn't end up compressing it all into an impossible lump if you take a wrong turn into the boggy stuff

Would the insurance cover it anyway? I always see this sort of thing as wear and tear rather than something I'd even think to try running through the insurance company, especially knowing how hard most of them are to talk to. You wouldn't have been on site (or driving the Zil) if not for the fact that film work was taking place but does that make it their fault? No idea.

Can you tell us what film it is?