Chris Warne

For 2011. when we setup our AAF display, I want to have some background music, and for the evening when we're camping, some lights would be good I thought, so I went a bought a SIP 'Medusa' T1000 'suitcase' generator. I researched this model and it got good reviews in alot of mags/websites, and at a shade under £100 for 'as new' I am happy. It arrived this week and we fired it up yesterday to test all is ok with it - starts first time, seen little if any use, but then we came across a 'problem' - or is it?? To test AC mains output, we plugged a 300w Black & Decker power file into the socket. This has a normal mains plug on it, but the Earth pin is unused. It did nothing - not even an attempt to work. It worked on the mains socket, so the powerfile was fine. We then tried a halogen spotlight (500w) and this has a metal earth pin on its plug, earthed I guess to the metal lamp unit - this lit up fine and generator adjusted for the load on it. We tried other devices and anything that didn't have/require an 'active' earth pin would not work. We tried using a 4 way extension and same happened - earthed devices worked, no earth devices would not work. So the generator works fine (starts and makes 240v AC), but I don't understand why it appears every device must have an 'active' earth on the 3 pin plug? I mean, if you wanted to run an old fashioned lightbulb, you would only have 2 wires, so does this mean you could never use the generator to power lights? Likewise for portable music systems - most are solid state and have no earth, so unless there's something wrong with my generator, I guess you can;t use it for such devices? I had thought the 3 pin socket on the genny should behave exactly the same as a household socket, but it doesn;t on this one? Anyone know why the above happens, any work-arounds or tips to get these non-earth items working? Thanks in advance, Chris

I assume you'll have already offered it to the IWM at DX? Are there any 'conditions' around who can apply to take it off your hands; eg; must be registered museum or organisation, etc.....

Of all the vehicles I've owned (Willys MB, M3A1 Half-track, CCKW 353 and Dodge WC51) I think the Dodge, overall, has been the best. a. The jeep was too exposed at the sides and I always felt I could tip over as I went round bends, plus they're everywhere and don't really attract attention anymore. b. The Half-track was slow and heavy, physically hard to drive and expensive to run, but attracted lots of admirers at shows. c. CCKW 353 - big, comfy (ish) but still an unweildy beast to take on the road and that gearbox!!! d. Dodge WC51 - not exposed, much more solid on the road, easy to drive, easy to maintain ( compared to CCKW or Half-track - not as easy as a jeep though). Decent room in the rear for friends or to sleep in at shows. Very good looking truck - not up there with the Half-track, but it is the 'stereotypical' picture of a WW2 US truck. At this time, I can't think of anything else I'd rather be driving. No real downsides I can think of at the moment.

I have this on DVD and it's a great documentary. I think the B-25 that languished at North Weald was the Aces High camera plane (Mike Woodley) used in the Battle of Britain originally. I don't believe it was one of the Hanover flight? By coincidence, I've heard that there might be similar programme 'on the cards', but heading the other way and featuring a different US WW2 aircraft.

My vote goes for Lincon in Essex - I've used their batteries for my MB and CCKW and will buy from them again when I need to change on my Dodge. If you need something a bit heavier (I needed a huge 160Ah for my Half-track) then I'd recommend Steve at Broadway Electrical in Grays/Tilbury, Essex. Very helpful guy, and keen pricing.

Thanks for the reply. As I suspected - you get what you pay for I guess. I don't mind paying top money for tyres (the Firestones are a good tyre, no question) but many seem to have obtained Good Year tyres - I read these have been made in South America and Greece in recent years - but nobody seems to have any for sale anywhere? :-( I could probably manage with just a single Good Year for the spare, as the 'on road' tyres would likely be muddy most of the time! Where have people obtained these Good Years from?

It's about time for me to replace the Norwegian cloverleafs on my WC51. It seems there are several choices available from a couple of European vendors at the moment..... Universal Tire 'Firestone' branded NDT: I had these on my WillysMB and the same, but 'Universal Tire' branded, 8.25x20 on my Halftrack. Fine tyres, but a little expensive compared to alternatives. Omaha brand: These are made in India I think, and are less than half the price of the Firestones. From what I've read these have the 'Good Year' tread pattern, but the only picure I can find of Omaha (it was a 6.00 x 16 Jeep tyre) has huge 'OMAHA' branding around the sidewall. :-( Has anyone run on these tyres and is this branding on both sides? Would you recommend this make? Tiger brand: Made in India again I believe, but have found zero info on them - anyone come into contact with them. Any good? I have the chance to collect from Stoneleigh on Sunday, but would value the input of the esteemed members of HMVF before I decide between spending £550 and £1100+ on a set of tyres!:wow:

Didn't see that around the beer tent, but was only there on the Saturday night. One comment I heard repeatedly was that Damyns is how W&P used to be many years ago - friendly, no idiots, everyone having consideration for others, well-run, etc, etc.... I hope it stays that way as it's a great show, and a pleasure to attend.

Hi Tony, same problem with my At The Front coveralls - sizing wise. I have 2 pairs of their current HBT coveralls in 'Large' (42-44 chest) and as soon as they turned up, I got my unissued original size 42 coveralls out - about as close a match as you could ever get dimension wise. Sadly, all 3 pairs are too long in the leg for me (5' 10') so I either roll them up or fasten the ankle strap (and look like I didn't quite make it to the portaloo at Damyns!) No tips on refitting the separated 13 star buttons, but a quick call to ATF will source some new ones that you can use to replace them. I'm still trying to get ATF to start making A-3 mechanics caps, just because nobody else is! (Singapore ones are poor copies, Buzz Lightyears, sorry Ricksons (Eastman Leather), are just too expensive for what they are, and I've seen some examples with a black printed AAF logo on them).

I must have mis-understood. I'm sure I was told privately owned, but either way it's not the IWM's, so good that it was 'allowed' to attend Damyns. If costs and logistics weren't such a problem, it would be good to see some of the other IWM exhibits having a 'weekend away'.

Didn't see a Vespa, but saw a broken down Moto Guzzi 'trike'. Thought the Self propelled gun (can't recall US designation - Late ww2 but mainly Korea era) was an absolute monster of a vehicle. Pleased that permission was given by the private owner to bring it to Damyns - understand it's on loan to the IWM and not owned by them.

both superb vehicles. We had a good look at them at the weekend.

I guess they got the trailer unhitched in the end? I left around 6.15 and they were having a few problems with it. I had thought they might hook the Sherman up to the trailer to hold it down.

We had a fantastic weekend. Damyns is quickly becoming one of our 'mandatory' shows each year, having been for the past 3 years and it just gets better and better. Saturday: Early morning light rain and some heavy showers early evening didn't put a dampener on the event. A huge selection of vehicles, but importantly not all jeeps and Landrovers - there was a very varied selection on display. As always at this event, everyone friendly - re-enactors, public, officials, etc, etc... Personal Highlight of the day: BBMF Lanc display " Highlight of the evening: Sharing a bottle of 20+ year old 'Eau De Vie' (Breton Calvados) with anyone who stopped by our camp. Sunday: Weather dry, sunny and warm. The public flocked to the event in their thousands, causing long tailbacks on local roads. Had a suprising number of veterans from postwar conflicts coming up and telling stories about postwar Jimmy use. Same as the Saturday, a huge and varied selection of vehicles to see. Personal Highlight: B-17 Sally B If I was making awards for 'biggest effort of the weekend', then Gavin Copeman and his crew would get it. Not taking anything away from the other excellent displays and the MVT organisation with this, but considering Gavin brought his M-26 Dragon Wagon and Sherman to this 'local' event, requiring 3 x low-loaders (or 3 return trips), the logistical effort deserves an award by itself. It was also great to see a unique combination of Transporter and Tank at my local show. IMHO, Damyns Hall is one of the leading events on the MV calendar and next year we'll be setting up from Friday - just so we get a little more time there. Well done to everyone involved - superb weekend, thoroughly enjoyed by everyone I spoke to.

It's the late (so not correct for the age of the truck sadly) bolted together steel composite. I've never seen another one and had thought I had a 'botched' rear cargo body until I saw the picture in the Tankograd book. It's not as 'tidy' as the welded bodies as you have bolts everywhere, but it has its dataplate and above all, it's original. Truck may have sold now anyway - had a couple of people all over it on Sunday at Damyns, one almost got his money out! :shocked:

Always good to see a b-17 in flight. Sad to hear that they've grounded Pink Lady. She'll remain in airworthy status, as far as possible, but they have no plans to fly her again. That leaves Sally B as the only B-17 on the European airshow circuit.

I think the vehicle entry criteria is to produce your certificate of insurance on arrival. I'll be there from 'oh my god it's early o'clock' on Saturday with my Dodge, along with Mark Payne (MP Restorations) in the GMC 353 and Ken Clay, who is filming/photographing the entire weekends event (Ken's a TV camerman). Mark and I will be putting on the 9th USAAF Armorer and Aviation Mechanics display - hence why we need a Dodge and GMC to haul everything. In truth, this is our first year, so whilst we have a lot of equipment and aircraft parts, panels, etc.... it's still work in progress. However, we have borrowed a C-47 (minus outer main wings) and this arrived by low-loader this morning....

I have an original GMC pressed steel logo for sale if you're interested? Unfortunately it's welded to the guard of my just restored 1942 GMC 353 closed cab cargo, with ultra-rare steel composite rear cargo body, so you'll have to buy the truck aswell - £7000 ono. :D

Hi Jim, good to see you here instead of the G. On your point above, I perhaps should have left out 'colours' from my statement as you're quite correct in what you say. There was only 1 govt specified colour for application to vehicles and all manufacturers had to adhere to it. However, as anyone who's ever restored or painted a MV will confirm, you can spray (we'll refer to this method of application as this was the factory process) paint from the exact same can of fully stirred paint, and get a different 'colour'. When I say colour, of course the true colour is the same, but the perceived/viewed colour can appear different. There are many factors that affect the perceived/viewed colour - the paint finish (reflected light), temperature, humidity, skill of the person spraying, amount of thinners used, etc... All these things can make different vehicles, or just individual parts/panels look different from eachother, even if painted from the exact same can of paint. The colour (in the technical sense) is undoubtedly the same, but to the human eye they may appear different. From a technical viewpoint, every US produced vehicle in WW2 should be identical in colour, regardless of where it was painted, by whom, when or where the paint was manufactured, etc... but this wasn't reality. There are many pictures of vehicles being prepped for overseas shipment, where it can be seen the shade (b&W photos) are close, but in the example I'm thinking of, the Chevy 1.5ton trucks appear a little lighter than the K50 panel vans - when all parked alongside eachother. I would struggle to agree with anyone who claimed every vehicle produced in the US in WW2 was the same colour when painted with OD Lustreless. On paper, according to govt specs, that may have been the goal, but if all the vehicles ever produced (2 million +) had been parked next to eachother, there would have been many hue, shade, and dare I say it 'colour' variations. All close to eachother I'm sure, but not the same. I guess much of this is how you use the word colour - a human eye 'as viewed' or a technical make-up of paint. Of course, the 'colour' is only the light reflected from the surface of the object being viewed, so constantly changing........:shocked:

Ah, the 'holy grail' US WW2 OD is what you seek? It doesn't exist. Let me explain........ Around 2006, whilst restoring my first MV (1945 Willys MB) I too wanted the correct colour OD. On another forum (g503.com) a 20+ page topic started up, courtesy of myself, to try and find the right colour. To cut a very long story short, spray painted samples of all the main OD paints (3-4 of the most commonly used US paints, Tony Sudds/Gustav Desmet Mat1, Batistis OD, Jeep club of New Zealand OD, reconstituted original ww2 OD marked USAAF, etc, etc....)were sent to a guy in Australia, well known for his jeep and speedo restorations. He (Sean) had 30+ original NOS parts, many never having seen the light of day (still in dated wrapping) and he proceeded to photograph the samples and NOS items alongside eachother. This is the only way to get a like for like comparison to see the differences, mainly due to computer monitor colouration differences. In short, the NOS parts showed alot of variation and it was collectively agreed that the Jeep Owners Clud of New Zealand OD was the closest 'average' shade across all samples and NOS items. The president of that club, Al Brass, made up samples of their locally moxed paint and sent them off to a load of people, so they could get it matched locally. I managed to do this easily, taking the best true flat paint on the UK market (Mat1) and a local paint mixing specialist re-tinted it to match. That was 2006. Since then, I have aquired NOS toolboxes and other items and the inside OD is as fresh and unmarked as the day it was painted. The colour, hue, tint, flatness etc.... of these items is so close as makes no difference of the paint I had re-tinted. I recently finished restoring my 1944 Dodge wc51 and went and purchased another batch of Mat1. The retint formula didn't work on this 2009 made paint (although supposedly identical?) as the paint was a slightly different shade and a little lighter. We easily matched it to the JOCoNZ sample and cross checked it to my 2006 paint, but it shows how different batches vary. In summary, there were many different shades/hues/colours of OD, all dependant on the manufacturer, how it was painted on, temperature, amount of thinners used, etc, etc.... My goal was to imagine if I time warped back to 194x my truck wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb on any airfield or beach, etc... but the absolute bottom line is paint your vehicle the colour YOU like.

As usual, a nice drive through the villages for us from Bishops Stortford/Stansted, but I thought the show was poorly attended this year, compared to previous years. Admittedly I wasn't there in 2009, but it appeared much busier in 2007 & 2008, for example. During the course of the day, there seemed to be two main 'complaints' that I heard voiced several times... 1. Organisation of the exhibitors vehicle parking. Vehicle entries are given a 'classificiation' which identifies the type/period they fall into, eg C1/nn would be pre-1945 Softskin, C2/nn would be pre-1945 Armour, etc... but the vehicles are parked in order of arrival. I heard several comments from WW2 and postwar owners why each 'type' wasn't parked in its own area instead of randomly mixed. Perhaps an extreme view, but I heard one vehicle owner call it the 'Duxford Landrover show'! 2. Entry Price. £18.50 per adult is too expensive. A friend who came along in my Dodge, later told me his mate & family had abandoned their planned attendance at the entry gate - they simply couldn't afford it. I think, if the majority wanted a change, then 1. could be addressed easily. There were plenty of marshalls there, so it's just a matter of organisation on the day - plus a few direction signs to each area. For the second comment, this is a DAS event (the main organisers are the MV section of the DAS) but the IWM have overall control and, I believe, set the pricing. Admittedly visitors get full museum access included, but £18.50 is alot to swallow, especially as it can be a challenge to see the museum, the MV's, Cavalcade, model tent, Tank runs, etc, etc... in one day. If anything, it would be preferable to have a standard admission price on the MV show day, as visitors would get an additional attraction and more inclined to attend. Finally, i've heard a couple of rumours about IWM selling off unique aircraft examples and a funding shortfall of £6m. Sadly, it's not a cheap business running a museum and, especially, conserving/restoring aircraft and as with all 'luxury' items, they are first off the spending lists. Not good news if the rumours are correct.

There should be quite a few of us coming from the Bishops Stortford/Stansted area. All being well, I'll be taking my Dodge WC51 and GMC 353 (friend driving this one) and we usually meet at 8am in Stansted village, before taking the back roads to DX.

Cheers for the suggestion. Problem is sorted now.... after a quick measure, and further searching, it turns out these French Marchal bulbs are easily available and are a P45t (old R2) fitting, with 6 volt 45/45w being easy to find at around £2.50 a go! :-D

Not used them myself, but a good friend who's restored numerous jeeps says you can get the dome head bolts and shear nuts from screwfix. Withthese ones, you need to fill/weld the hex key recess and smooth it over. At Stoneleigh, I thing Jeepparts had the same items, but the heads had been domed smooth on a lathe, so only needed to be tightened.

Has anyone got a source for the French army replacement bulbs as fitted to many of their US vehicles? I'm close to finishing my 1942 GMC CCKW 353, and the headlights have yellow Marchal bulbs with a 3 x spade terminals on the base of the bulb, similar to a jeep sealed beam unit, if that helps visualise? One of these has blown, but ideally I'd like a pair in white - 6 volt. Rex hasn't got any of these "strange French things" - my first port of call - and I've drawn a blank on the usualy classic auto electric sites...:cry: