eddy8men

great stuff. just what the thread was started for! so who is actually going to do something about it.

just copied this off wikipedia A single Covenanter gun–tank is preserved at The Tank Museum, Bovington, in the United Kingdom. It is displayed in the markings it had during the War when it served with the 13th/18th Royal Hussars, part of the 9th Armoured Division. For unknown reasons, it was buried after the war on a farm near Dorking. In the early 1980s it was discovered, recovered, restored and put on display at the Bovington museum.[2] The Tank Museum also has the turret from an early Covenanter pilot model.[15] The partially buried, wrecked hulls of two other tanks may be seen at Titchwell Marsh in Norfolk, UK.[16] Now a Royal Society for the Protection of Birds nature reserve, the area was formerly a tank gunnery range and the Covenanters were likely used as targets.[17]

thanks tony. as long as we know where they are they will be recovered one day :thumbsup:

bob had posted some covenanter pics in the valentine resto thread and i thought i would continue the discussion here. a covenanter was recovered from otterburn in the nineties which eventually ended up in NZ with andrew rowe. another forum member danny 152 had recovered several wrecked covenanters from a range in devon but owing to their poor condition nobody wanted them and they ended up getting scrapped. which is a real shame for such a rare tank. anyway i had heard there is still a covenanter buried in an orchard where the tank museum example came from. apparently it was dug up with the other on but reburied. i don't doubt this but do any of the great and good have any pics of it

that's what danny told me. shame there are few around as they are a handsome tank. let's not ruin andrews resto thread with idle covenanter chit chat. i'll post in the abandoned tanks thread. sorry andrew

one of the forum members, danny152 dug up the remains of 6 covenanters from an old range in north devon a few years back but nobody wanted them and they all got scrapped. pretty sad state of affairs the way we treat our ww2 armour. i can't imagine 6 tigers getting scrapped !

lol i don't think of restoring centurions as being even mildly difficult, i suppose compared to the churchill anything would be easy

i have found a gun to put the clean cent back as a test bed and will do a full resto on the early hull to bring it back to gun tank

thanks for your input mark. luckily i have all the track i need so it's somebody else's problem to solve :-D

is that our czech friend

very interesting and about time someone started getting a few more cromwells on the road

john that sounds like a good idea. :thumbsup:

loosing a track on the road is about as bad as it could get, not many crumple zones when you mount the pavement !

thanks david, i think tom might be in a better position to find out what composition of steel modern track is made from. unless of course it's a state secret

by the way am i right in assuming the track is manganese steel

thanks for enlightening me david, i had read on mlu that the machining was expensive but by the sounds of it they were wrong. which means it is more affordable than i thought. all we need to do now is find someone willing to run around and do the leg work and we can all have new track

there have been guys that have chased up track manufacturing as far a field as china and to cast new links is fairly cheap, it's the machining that ends up making it expensive and when you combine that with the fact that there are 176 links each side and pins then it works out too expensive, (i would guess at £5k). there will soon come a day when people have no choice but to make new, it's just a matter of time

i have to agree with everything paul (hoseman) has said but remember to choose your projects carefully! you might end up spending 5+ years looking for parts and working on it before it gets on the road. that's 5 years you can never get back. the plus side is once you get the carrier you'll find the community worldwide is easily the most helpful bunch of enthusiasts you could ever hope to meet, (although as ever there are a few rogues). carriers are great and you will enjoy owning one guaranteed

hi john i don't know of any chieftain bazooka plates knocking around but if i do come across them i will let you know.

thanks lance might be worth a trip down to bicester to see what else is laying around

tom carriers are great fun to drive and there are quite a few owners in the uk who will help you out in any way they can, (myself included). there aren't many pitfalls as parts are plentiful, although track is getting hard to find. the engine and gearbox is ford so lots about for not a lot of money. it all depends what you want. are you looking to do a full resto, if so then £6k might get you a project. if you don't want a basket case to restore then you are looking at £30k plus. transport is tricky as they are too heavy to tow on a 3500kg trailer so you'd have to get it moved on a beavertail. i'll pm you my mob number if you see something and want some advice. regards rick

yes i was thinking old bit of truck or plant trailer. here's a cruiser wheel that was dug up in devon in the last few days, i'd had my eye on it for a while but was beaten to it by this lot

i'll take you up on that offer as i do need another, infact i need 3. both cents have them missing and my chev has the spring but no hook. cheers rick

when i first saw it i thought t34 but the gap between the wheels looks too narrow for the track horns so i would say it's truck wheel

i'd like to buy the hook. pm sent