eddy8men

really nice job and a very practical vehicle to own aswell, the only trouble is once people know you've got a wagon with a crane you might find that you're services will be in demand

got any pics for us to have a butchers at, i'd quite like to see the acid dipped parts. cheers rick

i was initially worried about the tracks on my cromwell tearing up the road but a few people have said steel tracks will only leave a white "chalk" line on the tarmac the way a carrier does and besides if it meets the regs for weight versus ground pressure then it's legit and road legal, however having said that i will do some tests of my own when it's on the road and if it starts eating tarmac then obviously i'll have to have a rethink, i could always put 432 track on if push comes to shove but that would be a last resort. rick

best keep me head down then

i wonder has anyone ever done a full scale battle re-enactment in a purpose built village before, it is going to be something to remember i'm sure. rick

lol :-D you know me so well, i'm at this moment down in bournemouth for tankfest and i'm looking at getting at the valentines in studland bay, rang the guy who's dived it today but got his answer phone so i'll try again tomorrow. nothing ventured, nothing gained. rick

andy i don't think it was a dumping ground, more like a good hunting ground for the u-boats who knew the convoys from the states would be passing round the top of ireland to get to the west coast ports, the ship was sunk by u-482. in a cruel twist it was already carrying survivors from another earlier torpedoed ship when it got the "good news" and then the ship that picked them up also got sunk, so some of those poor buggars got sunk 3 times on one atlantic crossing :-(.

16 miles off malin head, so they might be in international waters and as such i think the wreck may not have been claimed by anyone so it could be feasible, i'm sure the local bsac club would assist if you came up with a reasonable suggestion as to what to do with the tank once you recovered it, garden ornament probably won't cut it but parts for a restoration or monument would. the people to speak to are the nearest bsac club as obviously they will the ones who dive it most and are your best bet to achieving something. in my honest opinion i say go for it, don't listen to any nay sayers unless they've experience of recovering tanks from the empire heritage (the wreck) but there probably aren't many of those so it's upto you. i'm doing something similar at the moment and i'll let you know how i get on. these things are better on the surface than 200ft under the sea. good luck rick

look forward to them :thumbsup:

andy you do realise that like most of us you will hit 40 like a brick wall and want to go and do something a bit midlife-ish, cocaine and prostitutes would only annoy the missus so how about a tank instead :cool2: hey it worked for me. happy birthday mate (the card is in the post along with your cheque:-D) rick

cheers, all i've got to do now is get it finished

well done mate, i don't know how you found a new R975 but that's a fair chunk of the restoration in itself all the best rick

if it's ready by then, (which is not unrealistic) i'd like to bring the cromwell or if for whatever reason i can't then definately the mk1 carrier, (there's always room for a carrier) rick

whoever they are they seem to be enjoying themselves, that might have something to do with the girl in the middle of them all i always thought rhyl was the chav's choice, i spent a week's adventure training there and it was like beirut rick

it's a british mk1, you can tell it's a mk1 from the fold down side armour just behind the guy sitting on the front fender, i have exactly the same carrier but mines canadian. rick

think this is it

you've just refreshed my memory, i think the stainburn churchill is a gate guardian at bovvy and has a dummy howitzer stuck in the besa mount to make it look like a mk1. i'll have a look and see if i can get a pic. rick

it was bloody cold wandering around those woods i can tell you :-). the story goes that while the churchill was being recovered a couple of kids came over and asked if the other tank with the little turret was also going to be recovered aswell, so a couple of ta bods went over and found it but no further action was taken so it's still there. we searched the woods to the east for a few hours but came out with nothing other than cold feet, the good news is that the forest is in bad condition and should be felled quite soon so it might well be found by the forestry guys when the clearance is done. time will tell rick

nice work, i look forward to seeing it down at w&p rick

don't worry guys i'll make sure the crane guy is gentle with the old girl and i'll put some timber baulking down so the bogies aren't bent when it's righted, when/if it arrives at my workshop (still only half built) the plan is to ignore it until the carrier and wot6 are sorted only then will the restoration begin, first task is get the karcher on it and give it a good blast with water then i'll be able to see what i'm dealing with, the hull will be stripped of ancillaries inside and out and the holes/damage will be filled and welded then i'll get it sand blasted and primed after that's done it's a case of finding missing or broken parts and assemblies which will take years, not even i think it will be ready in 5 years time so a&e 2012 is out, someone will have to tell jack:-D this will definately be more of a marathon than a sprint but i'll get there in the end. rick

so adrian now it's all coming together can i ask what were the lows and the highs for you and would you do another :-D

lol it does look a bit like a giant upturned pram :-D as for the load carrying capacity of the bogies i'd be lying if i said i was absolutely sure it is going to be alright and i must admit i'm a little worried but sometimes you've just got to go for it and hope the gods are with you, nobody ever got anywhere by pussyfooting around and besides if it does go pear shaped it'll give us all something to discuss on the forum.

saxon offroad ability was absolutely dire, for some reason they only had diff locks on the rear axle and not the front, luckily the reme variant had both which gave us a little more traction but it was still bobbins. when i was in bosnia they kept falling off the edge of mountains, by shear luck no one was killed but the next mob after us lost 3 guys killed in the first week of the tour when one went over the edge, you needed a lot of luck and skill to get a saxon back down a mountain track, to give you an idea how bad it was a new set of shoes would last 200 miles before they were on the rivets ! rick

the ongoing saga that is the recovery and transportation of my churchill is nearing to an end, due to the wheels being shot to hell and the fact that i could not get a crane to lift it into my garden i've had to fabricate a tracked sled for the 18 ton hull to ride on, this was done using some carrier track and bogies i found last year. the sled is now fitted to the hull(although it does need a bit more welding) and the crane and flatbed will be ordered for pick up on the 1st july and i for one will be relieved when it gets back up to manchester as it's a right ballache sorting it all out but these things must be done if it's to be restored and saved from the gas axe !

good point, adjust the shoes up til they lock the drum then back em off til it spins freely.