Jessie The Jeep

On Sunday, there was another military vehicle parade, but I decided to miss it due to the problems of the previous day. Since there were a few less vehicles there, the K2 ambulance moved over and I had a little more space to spread out my display.

Late afternoon on Saturday, it was the turn of the military vehicles to display in the arena. A couple of laps around the arena and then interviewed about the vehicles so the public could get a little more background knowledge about each one. The Dodge wasn't running very smoothly and felt like it was going to die if it remained on idle too long. I put it down to fuel vapourisation in the very hot weather. Wifey and daughter dropped by the show for a little while during the afternoon and during our wander, I lost my camera lens cap through a hole in the pocket of my HBT trousers. I was annoyed. I almost lost my phone too, but that fell out near the truck, which is when I discovered the hole. Washing up after tea, I managed to slice my left hand open on a sharp edge on the grill pan! Things weren't going well this weekend. My luck changed later in the evening when I went for a wander again, walking the same route I had with wifey. Towards the end of the walk, near the static engines, I found my lens cap!

The dioramas and re-enactors weren't all just World War 2, but across a range of time periods, many doing displays in the arena.

Being a steam rally, there were a good selection of fullsize traction engines, miniature traction engines and static engines on show. In addition, there were a wide range of classic cars and trucks. All of the vehicles and dioramas had their own areas around the 50 acre show site.

There were about 22 military vehicles there on Saturday and a few less on Sunday. Most were in a row as seen below with camping behind the vehicles. Jeeps only just outnumbered Austin Champs. A few other vehicles were displayed in dioramas elsewhere on the site. I had a quick wander around the site on Friday evening, but not everything had arrived and other stuff was under cover for the night.

Chester-le-Street Steam Fair - July 9/10th I did have a great weekend at the Chester-le-Street Steam Fair in the grounds of the Lambton Estate, however, it wasn't smooth sailing from even before I set off. It began on Friday, while assembling the Dodge roof and I caught two fingers on a sharp piece of wood and sliced two gashes across my knuckles. They've been opening up every time I used my hand. Despite the injuries, I got there mid afternoon and melted as I set up my tent in the roasting afternoon heat. My boxes and cans were emptied from the back of the Dodge while I contemplated where to put them. They'd spend the night in the tent, particularly as one of them had all my cooking gear inside. Allocated space was going to be a bit tight on Saturday due to the number of vehicles booked in, so I squeezed all my boxes and Jerrycans in front of the Dodge and trailer.

Bowes Railway 1940s Weekend - June 26th We took the Dodge and M201 to Bowes. A full report is in my Flying Control Jeep thread. See the link below.

During the day, there were firing demonstrations and at 2pm, a battle amongst the rail yard as in previous years. Despite the bright day, the strong wind pulled the temperature down, though it didn't stop a good number of public attending the event. Additional pictures can be found here - https://www.sacarr.co.uk/mymvs/events/2022/bowes.htm

There were also several dioramas and displays of weapons and equipment, each telling a small part of the World War 2 story from different perspectives.

There were fourteen military vehicles in attendance, plus a couple of classic cars elsewhere in the village. Jeeps made up the majority of vehicles, but there were also two Kubelwagons, a BSA bike, a half ton Dodge and my WC51.

The first post at the top of this page is the Bowes Railway 2021 event. Here we are a year later having just attended the 2022 show. Bowes Railway - June 26th Bowes railway was a two day event, but I only attended on Sunday due to being at a fly-in at Breighton Aerodrome on Saturday. We decided to take both the Dodge and the M201 for our first two vehicle display of the year. It was a bright morning, but quite breezy and it turned out cooler than we expected. This seems to be a theme for events this year. It was the third outing for the M201 and the fifth for the Dodge. I figured after a year on axle stands in 2020/21, "Faith the Dodge" deserved more of the limelight in 2022, especially with the new look. The "Jessie the Jeep" has generally been devoid of "Follow Me" markings since moving as the follow me light box on the roof bows, won't fit through the standard garage door height. Since the first builders we booked last year, never showed to modify the garage door openings, we haven't got around to looking for another company yet.

We made a small detour to the RAF Morpeth water tower to get some photos. It wasn't far from the camp site and it could be seen above the tree line from certain parts of the site. Neil's family and us stayed at the camp site on Saturday evening and packed up to return home on Sunday morning. Additional pictures can be found here - https://www.sacarr.co.uk/mymvs/events/2022/stannington.htm

We made two laps through the village, stopping briefly after the first to swap passengers into the appropriate vehicles for lap two. The passenger swap was needed, as the convoy broke up after the second trip, for those heading straight home and those going back to the campsite. Derek and Andy headed straight home after the convoy split. Chris took some of the gang back to the camp site before heading home himself.

Around 15:30hrs, the convoy set off. Derek's GPW was in the lead, then Chris' Dodge WC51. I was next in my WC51 with the trailer in tow. Paul, who also has a WC51, brought up the rear of the military section and the vintage bus just coming into view, followed that.

There was a huge queue for the bus back, but we spotted Chris' Dodge and Derek's Jeep parked out front, so jumped in the Dodge for a lift back to the farm. By late afternoon, we were waiting around for the go-ahead to start the convoy through the village. The other Jeeps had already disappeared by this time.

One of the most interesting displays was an air raid shelter. Along side was an officer with a tablet computer connected to some loud speakers. He was playing an air raid siren, followed by the sound of bombers, a raid with the bombs falling and the all clear signal. There were a number of radio controlled model aircraft on show, most of which were the usual club sized aircraft, with a few larger scales. In the car park around the community centre were a dozen or so classic cars. Inside were more stalls and displays, including a group working an RAF plotting table, recreating the tracking of a raid on the North East of England. We've seen them before at Barnard Castle.

The public were shuttled between the two sites by two buses, one being vintage and the other with disabled access. A little while after lunch, we took the bus down to the village to have a look around. The main feature in the show field behind the community centre, were some fullsized fibreglass replicas of a Hurricane and Spitfire fighter aircraft, both in Battle of Britain camouflage. There were a number of dioramas and quite a few military vehicles. Some of those vehicles should have been at the farm, as the event was very village biased. It's a shame that both the Hurricane and Spitfire had droopy wings as it completely spoiled the look of the replicas.

Part way through the morning, Derek, Andy and Charlie headed off in Derek's Jeep to see what was going on at the village. While they were gone, I did a mini photoshoot with my daughter in her Land Army outfit at a few locations around the farm, then went indoors to look at the displays. They'd set up a vintage shop, house and school room, plus several other smaller displays inside the barn. It was clear that a great deal of effort had gone into the displays.

On Saturday morning, our three vehicle convoy set off the few miles to Stannington Village where we were then redirected to Lough Farm, about 3/4 mile up the road. We were told that all the vehicles were displaying at the farm. As it turned out, this wasn't true and only three Dodges and four Jeeps were at the farm, including ours. We later found out that all the other military vehicles and classic cars were in the main village show field. I originally parked the Dodge pointing in the same direction as the other vehicles, but when it became clear that nobody else would be joining us, I turned it and the trailer side on. These two Jeeps were parked near to my Dodge with the two other Jeeps along side the farm building.

Stannington Battle of Britain Day - June 18th The Stannington show was only a one day event. It really should have been two days, after the amount of effort that had gone into it and all the exhibits already there. We had planned to drive there and back in a day, but a few of the guys suggested we camp near by and make a weekend of it. So on Friday afternoon, we set off for the camp site at the former RAF Morpeth, where we'd all stayed during the easing of covid restrictions in August 2020. It was only a few miles from Stannington village. The drive there was a bit torturous and by trying to avoid the motorways and fast roads, it resulted in crawling through Gateshead and Newcastle during rush hour(s). The 30 mile trip took 90 minutes in the end. Neil's Jeep had a broken spring, so he was without his vehicle, but Chris had his Dodge, Derek and Andy came in Derek's Jeep and we had our Dodge and trailer. Despite being a breezy day, the campsite was sheltered and we had a nice evening with a pink/purple sunset.

I needed to order some aluminium angle for my observatory construction, but while I was on, I ordered some galvanised steel sheet for the garage wall. This was collected yesterday. When I get around to it, it will be hung on the wall and can store many of my magnetic Jeep markings. When I first got the magnetic plastic, I read that it was better to keep it stored attached to a flat metal surface. I don't know if it looses magnetism if stored loose? Either way, it keeps them flat and out of the way when not needed. It's not big enough for everything, so the other RAF markings are still on Jessie from the Jubilee day. Metal ( like many things ) is expensive these days, so 1.5 x 1 metres was a good compromise on storage verses price. If I need all the vehicles out without these markings, I can always stick some on the back as a temporary measure. With that in mind, I may try to mount it on hooks on the wall, so it can be lifted down to use both sides. My RAF roundels are looking quite faded now after four years and could do with the blue repainted in a darker shade.

I had a bit of a swap around this morning, to make the trailer more easily available to pack the camping gear for the next trip. It is usually parked sideways across the back of the garage with the Jeep in front. It used to live in the old garage as seen below, with the trailer tipped up and the hitch over the hood of the Jeep. Usually, the hood was open so I could access the batteries and fuel pump. I tried backing the Jeep into the new garage, but the aerial and spare wheel wouldn't clear the wall shelving, wasting around two feet of garage length. Instead I had to drive in forwards. The back of the Jeep is of course higher than the hood, making it a little harder to get the hitch between the spare wheel and aerial and over the back seat rest as the back of the trailer body was touching the ground. Fortunately, there was just enough length before the door to squeeze the trailer in.

Are you spraying or brushing? I got Cromadex for the Dodge repaint. Because of the various seams in the Dodge body, I decided to brush paint it to get into all the corners. I was also painting in the garage where the other two Jeeps were and didn't want to overspray everything. A panel was brushed out, then followed by rollering with a 4 inch glossing roller to take out the brush strokes. It was fairly quick and has given a finish that looks sprayed. I did four coats in total.

On a hunch, I suspected a poor earth was causing the trouble. The jump leads were pulled from the locker and clamped onto the Dodge tow hitch and the trailer towing eye, creating a new earth connection. The lights were turned on again and instantly, nice bright lights! The wires in the trailer plug and socket were connected as they should be, so I cleaned all the earth terminals on the trailer, but it gave no improvement. On the Dodge, the earth wire from the socket disappeared into the Dodge wiring harness and I've no idea where it went from there or where it was connected to the chassis. Rather than waste hours trying to chase where it went to, I made a temporary jumper wire from the white trailer socket wire to the Dodge chassis to make a new earth. The lights then worked as they should. This is the tail light and indicator. With the problem sorted, I made a permanent connection from the Dodge chassis to the trailer socket earth wire and checked everything once more. The last picture is the tail and brake lights. All the lights were working properly so everything was packed away in the garage again.

The first job was to change the registration. The registrations are very similar, with only four digits between the M201 and Dodge. I just have the numbers to alter with a bolt on plate. Next, all the 24 volt bulbs were removed and some 6 volt bulbs were fitted. It was connected up to the Dodge, but with very little glow resulting from the bulbs. The other bulbs in the Dodge are LEDs, as the original 6 volt tail, brake and indicators were very dim for modern roads. I didn't know whether having the mix of bulbs was causing resistance issues, so I ordered some additional 6v LEDs. June 9th On the 7th and 8th, the new LED bulb replacements arrived, so later on the 9th, I got the Jeep back out, followed by the trailer. That was pulled around to the back of the Dodge once more. The new LEDs were fitted and the trailer plug connected to the Dodge and the lights turned on - which were dim and flickering. Hmmm?