ArtistsRifles

If you think a knockets brakes are bad by even '70s standards - try the equivalent era Gaz..... :-) :-) Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

Thanks again Richard It was just a brainstorming session with the guys in the workshop. Obviously the need is to be as safe as possible and the Mk1's braking system wasn't designed for modern traffic densities. As you say though - for the limited mileage one would do per year keeping on top of the servicing and maintenance would be the simplest and best solution. They do mainly buses - modern and historic but they have had a Mk1 Militant and a Pig go through and have a Mk 1 Stalwart in there now with a Ferret in the museum next door. Come autumn they get to cut there teeth (hopefully not literally) on the OT-90 as I still have a problem with one of the rear doors. I had choice of two this week Chris - both around the £7K mark and in ready to go show condition with living areas in the load beds - had to pass on both as I now have to try and recover money owed to us after a cheque that was paid to us got bounced. Right now my upper limit is £3K to £3.5K.

I am happy to admit to that lack of knowledge Richard :-) :-) Although modern is not a word usually associated with Mk 1 Militants :-) Thanks for the clarification. I was up at Gt Yeldham today and spoke to the guys who run the bus repair shop next door. I asked if anything could be done to improve the Militants braking systems - they had a few ideas but until or if - I can ever get hold of one it was not worth going into details.

From dim and distant memory the brakes worked like a cars in that you needed air pressure to apply them (air on) unlike a modern system where the air pressure is needed to release them (air off). So if you lost air pressure the only way of stopping was to crank on the handbrake and hope to god the road ahead was empty enough for it to slow you down. An uphill grade was a welcome sight, a down hill one was not!! Had I been lucky enough to have the dream come true an option for later would have been to consider whether or not the system could have been converted tp air off. Turning one off - simples (in theory) - kill the power, hook the boot under the accelerator and lift then wait for the engine to die! Ah well - maybe one day!!! :-( :-(

Oh well - dream is over..... :-( I managed to persuade the wife only to be told by the bank yesterday that a cheque paid in had bounced (sold another car - it would have made up the balance from what I sold the Stalwart for), Now we have to try and get the money back from the people involved and I guess both Mk1's will be long sold by the time we can do this. Unbelievable though - you never see Mk1's for dale and two come along together, both exactly what I would have been looking for - pre 1960 GS models with the backs adapted to live in.!!! Feeling totally pee'd right now - first I have to sell the Stolly then have to lose out on a Mk1. :-( :-(

Just to confuse the issue!

You just swap the pub for the petrol station :-) Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

The general consensus is that it IS to do with the charging system and should go out. Question was asked - how does the ammeter read? If the batteries remain good it might just be a fault on the circuit that illuminates the light.....,

Must be your blood to appease the gods of mechanics and electrics - not kids :-) Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

Heh - thats what you think!! Series Landies demand human sacrifice!! 😀 Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

Oops - forgot this is an FFR one :-) Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

Needle?? You have an SU or Stromberg fitted in place of the Zenith??? If not and you have the ZEnith or the Weber conversion - take a look at the idle screw on the carb or the throttle linkage - either could have been "played with" in the past. Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

Nice old bus - I like the Praga, slow and noisy by modern standards but will go anywhere :-) Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

Whereabouts on the dash? I know some bods who own them so will ask the question :-) Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

What does the label by the light say (if there is one)? Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

Sleeping in the cab - hey - I was just the delivery driver cum fuel pouring person. 6 to 9 hours driving a Mk1 and 4 hours refuelling on average meant I crashed and those in receipt of the fuel got to do the warry thing :-) Never got to play with Mk 3's alas and even if I did back then - I could not get one now as they are well and truly post 1 Jan 1960. As for 3rd Shock Army - the average speed of a Mk 1 was reckoned on being 18 to 20 mph with a top speed of 30 mph give or take a couple of MPH - we used to reckon if the Russians had rolled we would have perfect views of their exhausts as they raced past.... :-) Did have one troop sergeant who, as a HGV fitter by trade, thought they might be "encouraged" to go a tad faster so he modified the governor, I think and yes we got one up to 40 on the straight. Not only did it take an age to slow down again but on a tight corner the lead wheel of the inside bogey decided to burst into flame. Cue panicky moments with a fire extinguisher and some creative store-keeping to account for the new tyre..... :wow: Oh yes - one other thing they were good for - was removing the roof's off MGB's on Salisbury plain. We had an exercise which involved running on convoy lights only so two of us were posted as sentries at the entrances of all the public roads into the exercise area.. I was with a guy called Paddy Hart (guess where this is going..) and we opted to take it in turns to slow each incoming driver down with the red torch and warm them to exercise care as heavy vehicles were likely to be crossing the roads unlit. Stopped the first guy OK around midnight and a while later no 2 comes along. Paddy waves the red light and the guy slowed to a stop, Paddy ambles up to the drivers window, bends down and, with SLR in hands say in a deep Irish accent "Excuse me sir" - halfway through the "sir" the driver cured his constipation and floored it. Paddy comes back and asks was it something he said which was followed by an almighty crash from down the road. We legged it to the source of the noise and found that the guy who booted it had met a Mk 1 GS crossing the road and gone under almost in the middle of the gap between the fuel tank and the leading axle... Shaken and very stirred was probably the best description of the driver and write off the best description of the MGB......

My instructor at the time I was learning summed them up as "anyone can drive an RL but the knockers don't suffer fools gladly" :cheesy: That said the guy who got in after me had never driven anything in his life and proceeded to take one around the training course we had set up at North Weald (before the M11 existed) changing up and down the box as though it had full synchro..... Just goes to show. :cheesy: Good point about brakes - and braking generally - much forethought was required as they were not particularly fast to stop. Nowhere near as bad as a Pig I suspect but bad enough in their own way if you forget that little trait. If possible I'd rumble around the vehicle park a couple of times (a) to remind myself of the heavy steering and slow braking compared to the RL and (b) to get a feel for that particular vehicles abilities. I still used to love them though - it was always a challenge driving one and if you could roll along happily going up and down the box without any horrible grinding noises you got out with a sense of accomplishment. The tippers had the hand throttle on the floor beside the drivers seat and on long empty stretches of road (yes - we had them back then!!) the usual dodge was to set the hand throttle and use it as a form of cruise control. IIRC - one particularly nasty vice - from the co-drivers point of view was a tendency to blow a top hose - which then dumped boiling hot coolant in the co-drivers lap threatening to cook his favourite genitalia !! Cab fuel gauges varied from wildly optimistic to wildly pessimistic and the only accurate one was on the tank itself. And if you wanted a normal conversation within an hour of driving any distance ear defenders were a must! :cheesy: Don't recall a fold-down step on the GS models - just a hole/holes for the boots so the method I used to use for empties when operating solo was to drop one side completely, push as many cans on as I could then climb up and stack them across the vehicle string a rope through the handles to keep the upper tier from falling in transit - we used to leave about 2 can widths free at the back so that the empties could be stacked against the tail gate and then forwards thus segregating empties from full - useful on dark nights in woods and so that we could actually have somewhere to get in and out whilst loading. During the refuelling process we would drop a side gate for access. Or somewhere for the despatch riders to put the bits that fell of their B40's whenever there where enough of us to form a convoy:cheesy: Full cans were put on in a row along both sides then the "climb up and stack" process was repeated until all the full cans were on board. Never once had assistance from a POL point "attendant". :cheesy: For preference I would volunteer for the diesel runs as then you carried your own fuel supply on board. I remember a couple of guys on the petrol run getting stranded when they ran out of diesel.... Not long after that the decision was made to use RL's for the petrol runs even though it meant two RL's for 1 knocker. UBRE's were coming just just as I transfered out of 215 to 21. 420 cans... I honestly cannot remember now what it was other than they were stacked across the load bed in two tiers and there was a bloody lot of them. I think it was 6 or 8 cans across and that's it. :-( Old age is a terrible thing!! I do remember quite well that falling out the back on slippery diesel hurt quite a bit and if some had leant their SLR against the back of the vehicle as you kicked the tailgate down they wound up with an SLR that would shoot around corners... :shocked: The other red flag run - ammo - was a lot simpler as invariably it was palletised and loaded/off-loaded by Eager Beavers. :cheesy: Did you sleep on top of the engine cowling to keep warm on exercise??

And - if I recall correctly from last year - incredibly BIG smiles as well !! :cool2:

You'd be surprised - stick it up for sale and see what you get. If funds are tight then every little extra will help!! :cheesy:

Will be there alternating between Kitcheners and Living History fields. :cheesy: Series Landy likely will be on the EMLRA plot again as requested.

There were also long and short wheelbase versions as well as 6x4 and 6x6! I took my Class 2 test in 6x4 3 way tippers - these were the short wheel base - as C Troop of 215 Sqn RCT ® was tasked as an Engineer support unit. Not that we ever did that. On exercise the tippers stayed home at Mile End Road in London and we drew what ever was allocated from the vehicle depots in Germany. Last trip out with them I wound up as a POL driver and was issued a 6x6 GS and a stores voucher for more jerry cans than I ever want to see again. As PaulBrook says - they really were a joy to load and unload - not!! Took me about 15 minutes to get back into the rhythm of double declutching after a spell of RL driving and then it was a breeze. IIRC the vehicle I had was 08 ET 10 - and she was RHD... Being as I came from a TA Unit and given the antipathy between Regular and TA units back in those days it may come as no surprise that the storemen took the voucher then sat back and counted me fill the back of the Militant with hundreds of cans stacked 2 deep. Then I had to drive to the POL point, hand over another voucher then enjoy entertaining the regulars there by hand balling the whole lot off again, filling them with the allotted 20 litres each and then hand balling the whole lot back on. And thank to illness just prior to StartEx my co-driver had failed to show so I was operating solo... That said - the rest of the time was one of the best I had - roll into a laagerpoint at a map ref and report to the command tent who organised the vehicles needing fuel and the crews would lend a hand refuelling. Once done the empty cans were tallied up and reported back to exercise HQ whereupon I would get another map ref and toddle off - either to refuel another unit or - worst - another POL point to replenish the cans after getting a meal and numerous mugs of tea. Did this for the fortnight, basically just me and the knocker roaming all over the Hartz Gap. Some people hated the Militants for the noise, lack of power steering and synchro but I loved them.

Hope you didn't just scrap the radio stuff - inc. the battery trays - these are getting hard to get hold of and can get some nice money on the likes of eBay or on here or on the EMLRA forum. :cool2:

Interesting - PM sent

Having just sold my Stalwart in part due to lack of storage and in more part because I found I could not legally drive her on the road as I only have a B license I've been feeling pretty gutted - even though I know the old girl has gone to a good home with a forum member. So it came as a nice surprise when another member sent me the link to a MilWeb advert for a Mk 1 Militant for sale. First act was to e-mail the seller asking the build date - answer was 1958 so it fits the driving bill quite nicely. Fitted in the back for living so saving a job I had planned if I could have found something. http://www.milweb.net/classifieds/large_image.php?ad=73031&cat=4 Now to attempt persuading the wife it is a good idea - and then overcome the 7,000 other problems

When I looked at them in 2007 before buying the OT I was told the price was £1,500 for a set of tracks - which lasted 1,500 miles....... I suspect the cost is much higher now......