johnwardle

A Westland Wasp helicopter has just flown over our house heading west, probably the Army Air Corps Historic Flight unless anyone knows of a privately owned one.

First check the gearbox oil level, get the temperature up to 80 degrees in neutral then check the level on the dipstick. The 'cold' mark on the dipstick is the absolute minimum to prevent damage to the gearbox, don't be surprised if you need more than a gallon to bring it to the correct level.

Are you sure that they are Penman covers and not Sankey wide track ones? All the Penman covers that I have seen are a vinyl material like Land Rover Wolf canopies.

Nothing has fallen off any Challenger 2s that have been on display at shows that I have been involved with. I find it a bit odd that someone with little experience of military vehicles is involved in a project on a Challenger 2 I am also surprised that there are decommissioned Challenger 2s out there.

The frame is definitely for a Warrior CV8 powerpack I see them every day at work. The semi circular bits on the uprights are where the transmission output shafts are located when the powerpack is being transported or worked on. Not a lot of use in the civvy world I'm afraid.

Will we see it at Heddington in a fortnights time Sam?

As area secretary of the West Wiltshire MVT I was asked to inspect a Ford Jeep that had been registered as a Willys in 1976, the owner and myself hunted high and low for the chassis number which was not in the usual place on top of the left hand chassis rail but couldn't find anything. As the chassis was definitely Ford with the square crossmember, we were rather confused. The owner rang the person who had done the restoration of the Jeep and was told that on this particular Jeep the chassis number is on the outside of the left hand chassis rail behind the bumper. The stamping seems original and suggests a build date of May 1944. Has anyone seen a Ford Jeep chassis number in the same place or can anyone suggest why it isn't in the usual place?

No, the 'Lost Gold of World War 2' is set in the Philippines and is on Mondays.

I'm sure this is the same Green Goddess that was in series 3 episode 1 of Supertrucker on television, collected in Somerset and delivered to Harome in North Yorkshire, the village I grew up in and where my mother still lives.

The British Forces removed the rear seats from the Land Rover fleet as they could not be fitted with seat belts. The only Land Rovers currently in service with a rear seat are FFR and RWMIK versions, the FFR seat is removable and not used when on the road, the RWMIK seat has an attached seat belt. As far as I understand all seats must have seat belts, which must be used. If you don't have seat belts for all seats then your vehicle will not pass the MoT test.

The auxiliary air pressure gauge is the lower one on the right hand side of the instrument panel, the nominal working pressure is between 7 & 8.4 bar, the warning buzzer should sound when the pressure drops below 5 bar. It appears that you have an air leak somewhere.

The length of the meeting will depend on the questions asked by the attendees, the last one that I attended ran for about 2 hours. I would suggest getting there early so that you can have a look around the museum, they have a very good display of military vehicles including Montgomery's Humber staff car which was built in Coventry.

One phrase in current use is 'Gucci' used to describe any desirable piece of kit, for example Snap On tools or any other quality items.

The diff lock on a T244 works on the centre diff, like Range Rover, to convert it to rear diff locking would mean a complete new diff with locking mechanism, which would cost megabucks as the axles were specific to T244 and made by Albion which no longer exists. Regards chassis flexing, they were designed to flex just like the Bedford.

They were all made of aluminium, some had the silver edge but most did not, I remember seeing CL (civvy spec) Land Rover with white front and yellow rear reflective civvy style plates in the early 70s.

You don't need any documents for show plates, I have even bought regular plates for my car from mobile number plate traders without being asked for documents.

You quite often see a trailer selling number plates at larger steam fairs and classic car shows, they make them while you wait and are usually reasonably priced. I have even had military trailer number plates made with 3 rows of 2 digits.

I like the 70s/80s menu, a choice of 4!, nowadays there are 20 different menus, 2 of which ( menu 1 & menu 11) are vegetarian, although it is quite common to get a veggie main meal in other menus. I display a current ration pack at shows and I can't believe the amount of people who tell their children that all the meals are dehydrated even though I have a sign as part of the display explaining that all meals are pre cooked and can be eaten hot or cold.

I have had more than one person recognise the Military registration on my Leyland Daf and informed me that they drove it in Germany/Bosnia Bakabeyond or wherever and then commented on how handy the box body on it was for slkeeping in. And what a great truck it was. I don't have the heart to tell them that AT 47 AA spent its service life as a UBRE (Unit Bulk Refuelling Equipment) with 103 Bn REME. And as far as I know never left this country. The box body may have seen UN service as every time some paint gets chipped there is white paint underneath. According to the MERLIN report the box body was used for repairing FACE (Field Artillery Computer Equipment) for 3 RAH between 01/12/1982 and 22/07/1994 when it was used for repairing BATES (Battlefield Artillery Target Engagement System) for 19 RA from 22/07/1994 until 11/12/2007. So the body had a more interesting life than the truck it is now fitted to.

The tyre inflation valve on the Leyland Daf is a simple tap if the handle is in line with the outlet it is on, if it is at 90 degrees to the outlet it is off. It is that simple just remember to have the engine running to keep the air pressure up.

Spotted on Brightwells Live auction site, New seats, New drivers door, prop shafts and various other parts for Bedford MK & MJ, look for DMC 7BD in their descriptions.

It isn't a twin trailer but a Jeep Dolly that attaches to the fifth wheel of the tractor unit and has another fifth wheel on the dolly that the trailer attaches to. Jeep Dollies are quite commonly used in heavy haulage. Their main purpose is to spread the weight over more axles therefore reducing the load on each wheel.

The one with the canvas tilt and lowish headlights in the darker photo is a GMC M-135 from the early 50s which was a replacement for the GMC CCKW.

Who have you contacted? The verification officer of the MVT holds the position voluntarily, as do all MVT officials and may not be available to reply to you immediately.