Stone

My mate wants to go and look at the Desert coloured RB44, he might be interested. Is this the one your going to have a look at Stone?

There were two at Withams. One went after a week or so and we bought the other It'll make a hell of a nice demo wagon, or just somewhere to put the Birco!

Not sure of condition as my boss went while I was on leave. It had a very new respray (still wet in the engine bay...) so hopefully it wasn't tarted up too much for a quick sale. We could buy a new one every 3 years with the maintenance budget I got approved so it should be ok :cool2: Teaser pic attached. You can see the other one in the distance...

Stone

Still trying to work out horses as pets, that's a good one

I *think* we're ok here - we drive the Bedford (taxed as Private HGV) with a fitted box on the back full of test gear. Although it's owned by the company and not being used for carriage of goods, as I understand it we would need a tachograph. Luckily we fit into exemption 7 as it's built for the detection of radio or television transmitters or receivers...

If we had a workshop body on a <7.5t vehicle and only had work-related kit in it, does that make it fit in exemption 4? I guess that's the box cherry-pickers and tree surgery Unimogs would go in too...

Stone

My point was only that if you see something once and then rush off home to identify it, by the time you're looking on the Wiki you've forgotten which one it was!

I found that anyway, it could just be me...:blush:

Stone

If I'm reading some of the answers posted regarding De-acts not needing certificates, correctly.............umm, why do they ALL come with said piece of paper, then ??

If you get stopped by PC Plod and show him the certificate, he'll let you go on your way. If you get stopped and you don't have it with you, he isn't qualified to know if it's been legally deactivated or not so you'll probably be arrested and have weapon confiscated while they check the details.

You don't have to have one for it to be a legal deac (proofed = deac, in court) but it makes it a lot easier to prove it's kosher!

Stone

Out of interest Stone are these Vikings anywhere near Salisbury Plain?

Not a million miles away, but not on the training area. They also had some badly knackered Vectors and a bajillion FFR Landies...

Stone

Many have underestimated the work involved in restoring range wrecks....... Mind you, there is restoration and restoration.

There are also range wrecks and range wrecks...there's a LOT of relatively modern stuff sat about in bases after having been blown up. The reason is they have to check whether the armour works properly, so a brand new test vehicle gets towed out in a field somewhere, shot at / bombed and then after the evaluation is just left to rot. I found four and a half very U/S Vikings 'parked' in one spot which looked a lot more restorable than some of the range targets that get tackled! (then again if I told you where they were I'd have to kill you :angel:)

One of them had a brilliant list written on one side in chinagraph, it was something like

1) emplace

2) place charges

3) place dets

4) run detcord

5) start cameras

6) BOOM

Stone

Didn't sell to civvys because A) more cost to fit B) Stronger mountings required for the seats so more weight C) More weight on fittings less money making payoad= cheaper to kill pasengers.

All wrong There'd be approx 40% weight saving per seat if civvy ones faced backwards, most of the design of forward-facing ones is to stop them coming off the floor when you crash. Less material, less cost per seat, less weight so less fuel used, more seats fit in the same floor area (backwards ones can be flimsier) but they still use forward-facing ones - it's entirely down to the paying passengers wanting to face the direction of travel. The military don't get a choice so they get the cheaper ones!

(my other half designed passenger aircraft...)

Stone

Thanks for clarifying the designation, there seem to be a load of similar looking AFVs with similar reporting designations and different functions.

It's the only armour family I know anything about, mind

All Russian stuff tends to look pretty similar - it gets really confusing as they had competing requirements leading to very similar vehicles used by different groups. Compare the BMP-1 with the BMD-1 and PT-76 - they look very similar but one is an IFV, one's a lightweight airborne IFV and the other's a tank! :nut:

From your description it was Nato Designation ACRV (Armour Command and Reconnaisance Vehicle) M1974 -no doubt there is a proper Soviet/Russian designation- a huge box on the suspension of the 2S1 122mm Howitzer SPG. don't think I've seen one in captivity.

M1974 was the 2S1 designation - the 2S1's command vehicle was an MTLBu.

It's a stretched MTLB chassis, the 2S1 was a hybrid with the MTLBu running gear but MTLB-style front (on the driver's side) and a single rear door. There's a nice Iraqi one at Shrivenham, near their (very sad looking) Harrier...

Stone

Stone

Just copied this off the directgov website -

 

Category H

 

To drive a tracked vehicle you will need to hold a full category B (car) licence.

Any vehicle used for category H tests must have adequate all-round visibility to enable the driver to carry out manoeuvres and deal with junctions safely. Any vehicle requiring a second person to help with observation, such as a military vehicle, is not suitable for test purposes.

 

Is this new ?

 

Phil

That was in when I did my test - we took them in FV432s. The examiner just advised to stand up if necessary when pulling away from a stop etc to make sure you could see past the stowed driver's hatch - otherwise no problems.

Obviously if you're not convinced you can drive safely on your own you shouldn't be testing in it! We also took ours off-road, incidentally, as the vehicle used wasn't road-registered.

Stone

The MJ has handbrake off, 2 chocked wheels, and the chocks chained together so the local wildlife can't nick them and watch it roll away! We run the engine every few weeks too.

Stone

Lovely!

Is this the yard in Prague?

Stone

I think I have one of the chargers for these - it's a solid steel lump which claims to take 240V 13A in and put 24V 60A out (I think). The cables that came with it were 3-pin round ones for the inlet and a strange keyed 5-pin connector for the outlet - sadly I don't have any cables for that end, but I did find out the type and pinout from the manufacturer :-)

Stone

Very chuffed to spot this in this thread today:

as I work on 87KD11, which was also a Ptarmigan Radio Relay Ours was from 22 Sigs, can't spot the windscreen sticker on that one though. It does share a layer of desert paint under the green though!

Stone

You can do it on CVR(T) also - see the pic of a Samson doing it, near the bottom of page 1 of plainmilitary's excellent pictures thread.

Stone

My mate wants to go and look at the Desert coloured RB44, he might be interested. Is this the one your going to have a look at Stone?

Yep, started filling in the budget requisition today. Hope he doesn't pip us to it! Do share the pics if you take any...

Stone

Response to my (detailed) email from the local Firearms Licensing dept:

Dear Mr [stone],

Your request for information about the requirements for deactivating a missile and launcher.

This is not a matter I am asked about every day and cannot answer it straight away. I will let you know as soon as possible when I have competed my enquiries.

Regards,

So at least they are confused as well! :-D Hopefully their eventual answer will be of use to people, I've certainly seen a lot of missiles over the years so I wonder how many of them have been done to spec...! With any luck a proper FFE cert for each article will suffice, I can keep it with the deac cert for the inevitable future argument!

Stone

Surely they wouldn't gate guardian something unless it was beyond economical repair...would they?

I'd expect there to be something disastrously wrong with it, anyway. :???

Stone

However remember the professional £14-25 insulated connectors tool does not work on the bare connectors and visa -versa -for people who don't need both tools professionally the cheap multi-tools are probably a better buy -although they certainly don't do the job as well (or as brutally) as the expensive ratchet models.

Correct, sorry, I forget to mention it as I only ever use the insulated ones! A short piece of heatshrink for insurance is a good idea also, whether the connector is insulated or not.

Stone

432 twin 7.62 GPMG SCAT mounting (mainly intended for Anti Aircraft use SCAT apparently refers to the mounting which "Should Cost A Tenner)

I think I saw one of these at Tanks A Lot. Try giving Nick Mead a ring. (it was a 432 with flimsy sheet metal bracketry over the commander's hatch, Nick said it was an AA mount...)

Stone

The standard American ones are the shape of two cuboids glued together so it's probably like that. Pics when I go

Stone ok I was able to do that, but I couldn't find my Pig clips at all. For the moment I've put it back to the mobile view mode as I think it helps minimise download costs when using it on the phone network

 

[...]

 

Given there are so many applications in the Android market, it seems just anybody can put up stuff for the unwitting to download.

Both these points completely true, sorry I didn't mention the former, I forgot as I'm on an unlimited data plan!

The latter is also true - beware the Chinese apps that don't actually do anything but hide from you and aren't easily uninstalled. AppRemover is good for swiftly ejecting such nasties.

Stone

Looks like a fairly standard circular 'bullet' crimp - if it was me I'd just grab some standard ones and either nip them in with pliers or expand them slightly to fit the terminals. A decent car parts shop should have a good selection, if not I'd try Farnell/CPC, RS and Maplin in that order.

Worth pointing out that you should definitely invest in a decent crimp tool (spend £20-30 on a proper parallel-jaws model, don't just get a single-hinge one for a fiver) with appropriate size jaws for the connectors you choose. Stranded wire crimped correctly with the right tool gives the best connection (don't add solder, it weakens it!) - if not then a correctly soldered stranded or solid wire is acceptable for slightly less mechanical strength. Don't be tempted to use pliers or a bench vice, it's just a recipe for frustration, mangled fingers and future dodgy electrical connections that are a pig to track down later.

Hope that helps :angel:

Stone

Hopefully we'll be up next week to have a peek :drive: :clap:

The box bodies are removable NATO-standard ones (not sure if it's a flatbed underneath, or just a chassis) so hopefully we can mix and match. Not sure how many they have, and their descriptions are clear as mud as usual so probably best to just go and see!

Stone

Short term is about right. They spend 20 years sitting in a field before being scrapped because the owner wants a bajillion pounds for it!

The irony is of course that they'd usually be worth a lot more than scrap value when they first arrive anyway :-|

Stone