Jessie The Jeep

It was -6c yesterday.

Happy birthday Dodge! Next year for my GPW and 2024 for my Dodge. The Hotchkiss is somewhat behind the other two!!

There was one last stop towards the end of that lane, in a bit of a hollow with steep banks on either side of the road, an ideal vantage point for getting some slightly top side views. I headed back home after that, having covered about 7 miles. Of course the garden hose and tap were frozen, so I had to wash the Dodge down with a bucket of water and a brush before putting it back in the garage. I also had my "Camera-Carrzie" head-cam on for the drive and a heavily cropped version of the trip can be seen below. I would have liked a bit more snow, but I'll take what was provided.

A little further along the lane is my main spot for pictures. It was here I brought the two Jeeps for the sunset pictures in 2021.

On to the next village where there's a nice country lane that I often visit for pictures. There were a couple of places to stop for pictures along this road. With it being a quiet road, it was still mostly snow covered.

The area next to the village church gave a good view out over the fields, but once again, I was looking directly into the sun.

I wasn't going far, but there were a number of spots to pull in for pictures along the route. Several of them were move suited for shooting into the low sun, which was only around eight degrees above the horizon at that time. Blue sky, some clouds and a golden yellow light from the low sun added to the atmosphere of the pictures.

Dodge Winter Photoshoot - December 9th On the evening of December 8th, it began snowing. There was quite a lot falling, but it wasn't laying on the ground as much as the snow fall suggested. By late evening, the garden was white and there was a covering of around 3/8 inch. As I've never had the Dodge out in snow for pictures, I decided if the snow was still on the ground in the morning, I'd go for a local run around and get some pictures. Until we moved house, the Dodge always spent the winter hibernating in its shipping container with the battery out. On the morning of Friday 9th, the snow had melted a little, but there was still enough on the ground for some nice pictures. I was on the move by about 09:20hrs and got the first pictures are a layby near home by 09:30hrs.

Could be a poor earth somewhere or it could be a faulty starter switch if the starter isn't doing anything when you press it.

My alternator doesn't start charging until the revs pick up above idle, so your Jeep is probably not charging on tickover and just using the battery to power the coil.

Well, you want a load of antifreeze in the coolant system and if there isn't any currently, it needs a good strong mix and the engine running a while to run it around the whole cooling system. I like to run all my vehicles over the winter, perhaps once a month, even if they are not out driving. I give them a decent run up to operating temperature and exercise the brakes and clutch several times. You could put it up on axle stands to take the weight off the tyres to stop flat spots forming. You'll want some kind of rain cover, but I would want some kind of frame supporting it so a damp tarp isn't resing on the vehicle and you don't get water pooling inside the tub. Could you find a cheap second hand tunnel tent on Ebay to park it in? You might want to remove the battery and keep it indoors on a maintenance charger.

Remembrance Sunday - November 13th I was back out in the Jeep on Sunday morning for Remembrance Sunday. A shorter trip out this time, taking Jessie back down to St Laurence's Church for the Remembrance service. There was a half hour service inside the church, after which we finished the service with the names of those lost and the two minutes silence at the memorial. This probably marks my last event of the year, though I still want to give everything a run out before the year is over.

Not only that, but it's a Private FB Group, so only group members can see the posts!

My last stop was at St Laurence's Church at Hallgarth. The memorial was in the church yard. Fifty names across both world wars. I took a couple of pictures of the Jeep outside the church yard before heading for home. The local school had a crotcheted poppy and cross scene attached to their fence.

Several villages I passed through, had poppies and crosses fitted to lamp posts and benches. My next stop was at Sherburn Hill. The memorial was at the road side, so I stopped and chocked the Jeep and went to look. There were a lot of names on this memorial; fifty two from World War 1 and another fifteen from World War 2. In the first war, there were probably no more than two hundred houses in the village, so many of the people there would have lost family and friends. The Sherburn Village memorial was next after Sherburn Hill. Forty one names from World War 1 and twenty from World War 2. Sherburn Village was even smaller than Sherburn Hill during the first war.

Remembrance Day Tour - November 11th I didn't hear about any official commemorations for November 11th locally, so planned a trip of my own. My route took me to several local war memorials, some of which I visited last year in the Dodge. I started out at the Littletown, where they have a memorial stone and the outline of a soldier in a planter nearby. Due to the strong wind, the soldier had blown down, so I refitted it in the planter again. At each memorial, I read the names of the fallen, but it was difficult to read the full names here, as the wreath was fastened to the memorial stone with nylon line to stop it from blowing away. I planned to stop at Ludworth for 11am, but was a little early to hang around, as the memorial was outside someone's house. So I stopped a couple of times on the way there, to get some pictures of the Jeep. I got to Ludworth around seven minutes to eleven and read through the names. I held a two minutes silence at 11am before getting some pictures and then moving on.

I agree about the music. Totally out of keeping with the era and theme of the series. The first episode was slow, but it picked up for the other five episodes as they get into action. Not the greatest TV series but better than the usual reality TV and soaps!

Having watched the whole series and being an astronomer, there were a number of times they were waiting for the Moon to set before attacking. They'd be waiting most of the night with a near full Moon high in the sky! Around a full Moon, they'd be waiting until dawn for it to set.

With the paperwork all sorted and the Jeep loaded onto my trailer, we were ready to head home. We set off home with the light fading and with the clocks also changing to Greenwich Mean Time that weekend, it wasn't long before it was dark. We stopped at Wetherby services for a quick bite to eat before continuing to my friend's house. The trailer ramps were set up and I went to start the Jeep - nothing. A click of the starter solenoid and that was it; batteries flat. A couple of seconds later, it dawned on me. The previous owner had left the radio power supply switched on after his attempts to operate the radio and it had drained the batteries all the way home. While the Jeep had an isolation switch wired into the batteries, the radio was connected up to the permanently live side of the isolator! We pushed the Jeep off the trailer and I managed to jump start it rolling down the street, so we could drive it into the garage. I packed up the trailer again and drove the last 30 minutes home, rather tired. The addition of this Jeep to our little group now brings the vehicle total to eleven, with six Jeeps, two Dodges, A Weasel, a bulldozer and a motorcycle. Once home, I did a little research. The Jeep suspension had been uprated by the French army, with additional reinforcing of the spring shackles and coil springs added to the rear in addition to the leaf springs. In connection with this, the replacement body tub suggested the Jeep had been one of those modified to carry an SR106, 106mm recoilless rifle. In addition to the suspension changes, the rear of the body was cut away and so this was probably the reason for the replacement tub. That had been fitted prior to the previous owner.

After a drive around the area, all seemed well with the Jeep, with no bad noises, clouds of smoke or fluids leaking out. So while my friend started on the payment and paperwok, I got the canvas roof down and started sorting the trailer ready to load. During this the owner tried to get the radio working to show it did, but there was a problem somewhere, so we gave up so we could get away. We were already a couple of hours behind where we wanted to be.

October 30th - A New Jeep It was an early start on Sunday morning, setting off from home with an empty trailer. I was heading off to Northampton to check over and potentially collect another Jeep. This time, it wasn't for me! A friend had been after a Jeep for some time and finally, he spotted one that looked promising, both within his budget and appearing to require little maintenance. The Jeep was another Hotchkiss M201, just a little younger than my own, but that had been fitted with a replacement Willys MB tub. We found out why later, but not for any bad reasons. The drive down was going well, until near Grantham, where an acident closed the motorway and we were stuck, almost stationary for an hour an and a half. Eventually we crept forwards far enough to find a small road off the motorway and cut across country, until rejoining the motorway further South where it was clear. After almost five and a half hours, we made it to the seller, got something to eat and started looking around the Jeep. There was a pause in proceedings as the Pacific Ocean descended on the area for a good 20 minutes or more before finally clearing up so we could go for a test drive.

I don't have any more pictures, but basically, a "Put-Put" petrol heater vents its exhaust through pipes in the 45 gallon drum holding the water. That heats the water. There's a separate 12 volt elecrical pump that then sucks the hot water from the drum and up to the shower head. There's a little toggle switch on the outside of one of the shower legs, just under the canvas, that operates the pump.

I shot a head-cam video of the drive, although this is just a short selection of scenes from the ride. I tried some video with the screen down to give a clearer view, but the wind noise was too loud to use it. It was a 20 mile drive with a number of stops along with way making the ride out about an hour and a quarter. For late October, it was surprisingly warm, even with the screen down. I still hope to get the vehicles out again before we start getting road salt spreading as the winter gets closer. Further pictures can be found here - https://www.sacarr.co.uk/mymvs/events/2022/autumn.htm

October 22nd - Colours of Autumn Jeep Drive After repairing the sinking fuel tank float on "Hope" this morning, I took "Jessie" out this afternoon for a 'Colours of Autumn' photoshoot drive. The last time I tried this was October 2020 and the colour was dark grey and very wet. I wanted to take both Jeeps out, but Lynne was away for a few days, so I was on my own. I think the colours may be better in a week or so, but the weather forecast doesn't look great, so the trees could be either bare or it will be raining!

October 22nd - Fuel Tank Sender Repair Back in 2015, the original cork sender float was fuel soaked and wouldn't float. I replaced it with one I made from thin brass sheet. It has done fairly well, but on my last trip out for fuel, the gauge was reading empty, despite a full tank. A quick test with a jumper cable showed the gauge was working, so I suspected either a bad earth or a sunk float. I had a feeling that the ethanol in the fuel may have attacked the brass or solder ( despite using E5 ). The jumper wire was used to create a separate earth for the sender, but the gauge still didn't move. Pulling the sender out showed my initial gut feeling was correct and I heard fuel sloshing around inside the float. Back in the workshop, I found a small split in the rolled brass body of the float. After draining the float, the split was soldered and then a thin brass patch was soldered over the top of the repair. I lowered the float into the tank filler neck and felt that it wanted to float and saw no bubbles coming from it. It was then refitted and the power turned on to check the gauge. It works, but I need to bend the sender arm as it isn't reading accurately ( it didn't before! ). I'll wait to see if it stays floating first, before making any adjustments.