afvnut75

Im completely besotted by my rarden fv432 and my fv434 fitters vehicle and V8 dpv 110 ive shed both skin and blood whilst working on them and its been worth it ! My 434 is currently undergoing a refurb but i cant wait until shes all finished since i started working on my fv432 fleet ive learnt so much in the understanding and mechanical practises of gkn far more than you ever would on civi vehicles, What does it for me is that after a week or so work on these green and black beasts and have finished what you set out to do or have reached the end of a restoration and you see her on the back of a lowloader going to its first show its that feeling i cant believe ive accomplished all that, Then its having a great deal of fun driving them . Not too mention the beer tent at the end of the day .:cool2:

Hi these vehicles interest me also but as yet havent had the time to go though them at withams what exactly needs doing to them Engine rebuild, new prop shafts, chassis welding ? there would it seems be a rather large amount of vehicles out there that have rather morbid historys attached to them . For example ! On the day that i went to look at my saracen my girlfriend was with me and she stuck her head in the rear compartment and said this vehicles got a horrible feel to it one of fear and bloodshed turned out it had a suffered a fire as a result possibly a petrol bomb thrown in the back but since that it was all refurbed and worked a looked as a saracen should As far as i was concerned it was worth saving and it all adds to the character of the vehicle.

Found these ! hope none of you have fallen asleep by now, But a great mixture of british afvs you see it can be done over here ! :cool2: Something went wrong... Something went wrong...

I take it that stuff was coming home from iraq or going to ? What a shame we can have that type of delievery service to get our vehicles to shows if someone lays on transport like that one day im going to bagsy the first 5 flat cars ! :cool2:

Well you would be a man to ask then i am going to start colecting abbott parts as i will hopefully manage to acquire one this year or next can you please pm me with a list of parts that are essential that are their weight in gold, As i feel it would better to start collecting the bits before i find the vehicle then ill have enough as spares or replacements for when the day comes and what parts of the vehicle are you looking to modernise ? thanks

With this in mind does it mean that the abbott has now gone into the realm of vehicles for definate where people say yeah id love to have an abbott but just cant get hold of any spares and they ve become more expensive to restore because everything has to be remanufactured again ? And surely there must be some abbott packs out there still ? if not what has happened to all the spare parts for these vehicles have they all crossed the atlantic or have they been binned or cut up by longsighted people ?

Well i felt rather greedy this year and drew up two lists :cool2: one for me tracked vehicles one for me land rovers . Santa bought me my land rover parts in a big box which is great because ill be finishing off my wolf replica over the xmas period [ATTACH=CONFIG]38876[/ATTACH] after ive done the presents bit the xmas meal and filled the dishwasher, Misses will be contented . Then it will be peace at last, in the garage, music on and the work begins :nut:

Hi thought id ask the question on the subject of cyprus , if you move out there permantly are you allowed to have your own privately owned military vehicles ? or is this a definate no because of the tensions ! Ive been to cyprus a few times and absolutley loved the place and often think about moving out there so has anyone got any advice about whether this is possible . cheers

Absolutely right ! he obviously wanted one and well done for giving it a go ! hes just seen them on the tv and thought ill do one of those they look great no one else has got one and dived in his tool shed and hey pressto he built one to his liking... But he shouldnt say to everyone that its a genuine but a replica agreed ! Apart from the wheel and tyre issue arent snatches v8 or was it just the early ones on the streets of ni that drank petrol and made lovely throaty noises and did those v8s arrive in iraq in 2003 ? and what lump is in the later ones Just out of curiosity !

Thought id just write this thread to ask if more people are going to start up shows in middle and eastern england in 2011 As i feel that geographicaly speaking the country is lopsided with military vehicle shows with the majority of them on the south and south west coast ! Ive been to alot of military vehicle shows whilst doing military vehicles and certainly war and peace is the biggest, And it always makes me smile when arriving at the darford crossing on the evening that the show opens to see the look of come on come on ! on the faces of the owners of the various military vehicles in the queues of traffic, (no where else do you get this phenoma) (nor once you get there do you find a waf officer dancing with the member of the gestapo in one of the beer tents) not too mention the largest collection on show of military vehicles from virtually all armys , long may it continue ! But having flown up and down the A14 M11 M25 A26 for 5 consecuitive years in my various ex military vehicles i feel that the war and peace show is not really that central geographically speaking, for other parts of the country (When looking at logistics). I know there are lot of people in our hobby are in relative striking distance to war and peace and this isnt a problem for them (lucky devils ) But there are a great many of us that arent ! Ive always thought a shows success lies in the fact everyone can think yeah i can have a great ten days or so with my vehicle and my mates and not to have to get a mortgage out for the haulage/fuel then travel to the otherside of the country. This rather off putting to my mind Especialy if you want to take your prized possession of say 17 to 56 tons with you. In the last few years ive turned my attentions to gatherings with my vehicles namely local steam rallys and historic vehicle road runs And people at these events are still saying i didnt know you could own a saracen (for example ) let alone run these on the road then you get all the questions about the joys of owning them . After a few of these shows i feel that more people who own military vehicles should support their local rallys and fetes, The atmosphere at these are always very welcoming and driving your vehicles through the neighbouring villages is a very pleasureable experiance not to be missed ! My friends have said to me in the past over a beer if you won the lottery what would you do with the money my reply was buy an airfield in east anglia or somewhere like the oxfordshire buckingham area and hold shows there . "its just a dream of mine" I hope that someone whos in a better position to carry this out will do , As i feel it would give people the chance to all attend if they wanted to and have a great time at an affordable distance then its up to them if they want to do the what i call the kentish run ! But if this isnt going to happen by any other means ill try and come up with something, As they say its not what you know its who you know ! :cool2:

Id give it ago if its a potential runner ie nothing drastic to get going properly, and it looks like a late mk chieftain ? i wonder if they will get shot of it :nut:

hi im sold ! Been thinking of getting one of these trucks for a while now but never can find exactly what i want basicaly one thats in very good mech condition and is a whistler and with winch and is in the same scheme as yours , has a decent tilt and ready to go All the ones ive come across in england are needing tlc oh well one day ! :cool2:

hi yes the ranger mine laying system was put into active service on top of fv432s and delivered mines to an area by firing them up to a distance of 50 meters this was a very impressive piece of kit to see in action . regards

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yL2tSxP_mE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp2GHTbsxsM Thought this was wonderful footage

[ATTACH=CONFIG]34165[/ATTACH] Heres one of my girls sporting a peak turret ! :cool2:

Latest info concerning the dinscott chieftain now sold to a certain well known dealer in our circles from norfolk to say i feel gutted is an understatement oh well onto the next one :-(

Well if all goes to plan and dave lets me have her then then shes going to get the royal treatment from me as this is going to be my very first mbt to deal with im not expecting maintainance to be easy as its somewhat more labour intensive than a fv432 which is a vehicle im more than ofay with now but the way i look at it is that you got to cut your teeth on something someday in my case cutting ones teeth on 56 tons of british bulldog machinery. But to be honest im looking forward to a new episode of mechanised antics keeps you mentaly and pyshicaly healthy :nut:

lol lol Well what can i say to that but Thank You ! i hadnt realised cornish people had that in mind they seemed to be a little different in personality when i was involved in the flash flooding of boscastle in 2004 and saw my van that was parked in the car park float past . But shouldnt have any problems this time Just need to remember me chieftain driving lessons that i recieved in the wilds of northants Will let you know how it goes ! regards

Thanks for that ! Well misses is briefed about my potential 56 ton beast and her response was youd better let me have a go in her ! Ahhh thats the spirit i thought ! well next week its map in one had and surfboard in the other and looks like im off to the west country to look at the wee beastie if all goes well inspecting and test run i shall be scratching my head about getting it home ie haulage costs and movement orders (gulp)

Blast havent got cmv this month ! would be interesting to see what condition the vehicles are in .

Well i fitted this ignition kit to my ferret and bloody hell shes had a new lease of life but this question of polarity does bother me so i shall do something to modify it if i can :cool2: i shall also be fitting the kit to my saracen and see what happens . Fingers crossed ill hopefully have two b series vehicles that will be up for anything without anything making nasty acrid smells :nut:

Thank you timbo for this info concerning chieftian whereabouts, Personally i wouldnt pay anymore than £18,000 for a good example unless it really was exceptional and it really was the last one avaliable . i remember withams saying there will be no more fv432s and what are they now selling on mass ?????????? but if there are only corporate ones available then i think the dinscott cheiftain would be a good vehicle to deal with fingers crossed .

The majority of cheiftains from what ive heard have been shipped abroard ie usa or australia. But the ones ive looked at have all been used for corporate they are complete and everything works just covered in mud what would you advice be about taking on an ex corporated chieftian ? i took on a fv432 that had been used for corporate entertainment and the vehicle wasnt that bad to be honest just needed a steam clean , The two rear wheel arms and track adjusters replacing due to no one bothering to use a grease gun on them oh and when taking the pack out needed a shovel to remove the mud in the bottom of the engine bay now shes good as new what nightmares would lay in weight for me with a chieftian abused in the same way ?

Cheers richard for enlightning me on this matter. Well chieftain has got my vote for sounding intimidating but i think that peace and quiet in east anglia will still prevail as there dont seem to be any chieftains up for sale these days, One minute they are in lines at withams up for sale the next they re all gone ! For a 56 ton mbt they are damn well illusive and the one i did look at was an ex corporate vehicle and astronomical in asking price so do you know if we are headed for more sell offs of chieftians (via withams) mbts and arrvs or is that all we are going to see for the foreseeable future ? regards

Hi heres a question for some of you that either served on cheiftains or own them privately why is the cheiftains engine alot more noisy in its engine note when going though the gears as opposed to leopard, chally 1, t72, t55, Surely this would give the position away to the enemy as to the position of the vehicle as it advances . Whilst the noise of the engine is music to my ears but i just cant help wondering why it was designed to hear it coming 5 miles away and would you ever be able to quieten it down i bit . if so would i need to start collecting egg boxes . cheers