eddy8men

it's funny looking back but all the iraqi armour had instructions in english or russian so it's no wonder the poor buggars lost, they didn't know how to use the kit steve you're right it was the acrv, i've attached a youtube vid of bovvies i wonder if this is the old gate guardian from bulford. eddy

we had the same thing in the reme using landrovers for demonstrations at shows, can't remember how fast we were but it was quick. eddy

that might well be the same 2s3 although we did recover a full battery of them so it's anyone's guess, steve the command vehicle isn't the same type, the one i recovered was very long and quite tall, although i did see the type you posted as an ambulance with large red crescent markings on the side and it had been shot up by an a10, which is against the geneva convention i believe but then again the iraqi's had been using it to move ammo around so they got what they deserved ! eddy

anyway, as i was saying earlier anyone got any good gate guardian pics they want to put on. during the first gulf war i had driven and recovered a few gate guardians from around kuwait city, i remember seeing a pic of an mtlb being unloaded at bovvy with 26 fd ra painted on the side which i recovered from under the pylon line north of kuwait city, also at bulford camp there was a tracked command vehicle that i also dragged off. pic of me and daz bibby recovering a 2s3 ready to be dragged off to the equipment collection point. the 2s3 was a great wagon to drive plenty of power and easy to start and the russians very kindly put the instructions in english eddy

i think he meant the ram gun tank wasn't used but the ram kangaroo (early apc) was, it was basically a ram with the turret removed so infantry could fit inside. eddy

better job than ABRO eddy

lol, i remember being on soltau on exercise under cam nets and the bratty wagon turned up, how he never got bogged down i'll never know but i remember thinking they were the best frikadelle and fries i'd ever had. eddy was his name wolfgang ?

john, i've got to be honest i had the same idea about swiping the sheffield churchill but my plan was to swap it for a cosmetically restored range wreck and restore the sheffield churchill to running condition, apparently it was driven onto the plinth under it's own steam and then left with the engine running with no oil to sieze it and so make it immobile but other than that it was good to go. i might have missed my chance with that one but there's still plenty more fish in the sea/ranges. eddy

i think there's 5 valentines off the moray firth and 2 centaurs in brecklesham bay but i doubt they'd be salvageable now, but you never know til you try i suppose eddy

very nice looking truck. i take my hat off to you guys working on this ww1 gear, it's hard enough trying to source spares for ww2 stuff never mind something that's coming up to 100 years old. good luck to you all eddy

tanks in lakes, now that's my kind of thing, anyone got a snorkel i could borrow eddy

i thought the sheffield churchill fell into a legal loophole as it was owned by a family business with links to the old churchill factory and placed on the plinth by them, the company was then dissolved and the churchill was not counted as an asset and so it had no legal owner but you'd probably have to be some kind of lawyer to figure all that out :cool2: eddy

the million dollar question we all want answered is there a chance for us mere mortals to obtain/swap a gate guardian or is it an avenue that has been well and truly travelled to no avail by others and also does anyone know of a previous gate guardian that has been obtained this way. the sheffield churchill comes to mind although that was more of a smash and grab affair and it wasn't a military site. which raises another point are there any non military ww2 guardians about, a £50 reward will be given by me for every tank you can get for me eddy

welcome to the forum, i'm sure you'll enjoy it here all the best eddy

hi fella's i had a look round the valentine at beltring but at £75k i thought it was a bit on the expensive side for me, (i'm just a poor working lad from manchester) . my original idea was to import one of the agri tractor vals then go on senybridge to find the missing bits and put them back on. there was a valentine on oz ebay for £7.5k a couple of years back that had been converted to a kind of monster truck but i didn't hear about it til last year and it's long gone now but i'll keep my eyes open for one, you never know :cool2: eddy ps. adrian how's the achilles coming on ?

i'd love a matilda 2 or a valentine from oz eddy

welcome to the forum tam, hope you get your gensets up and running, if you want anymore just let me know as i bought 4 3kw gensets from withams auction recently thinking they were 240v ac but when i picked them up they were 28v dc. doh ! you can't win'em all eddy

hi clive welcome to the forum, the explorer's a nice truck and they do come up for sale quite often so you're in with a good chance of finding one. your best bet is ebay, www.milweb.net or a forum member on here might be able to find one for you. all the best eddy

how does that work then ? if they aren't putting a mark up on, then is it withams who are trying it on

the cheeky beggars are selling withams saxons for £25k but if you go thru withams direct they're £15k, that's a nice little mark up ! wouldn't mind a profit margin like that myself eddy

the army's a big company it can afford it eddy

hi fella's did a bit of work on the carrier the other day so i thought i would put up a few pics of the job so far well to be fair i actually stood around chatting or as i like to call it "networking" and colin did most of the work but my time will come as it should be ready to drag back home next week. so i was thinking the other day just how much have i spent so far. buy it £5500 ship it £3700 blast & prime £210 welding & fab £600 engine rebiuld £800 steering box £200 gear box £100 misc £225 total £11335 so that's where all my money went, it's no wonder i'm skint but then again it's only money :-D all the best eddy

hi alastair i'm not sure what colour to paint the engine and box, i'm ok with black but my dad say's it should be green, anyone else got any ideas eddy

the gearbox was bought from george and harry sanders in urmston who own a t16 aswell as a few other vehicles and are easy guys to deal with. before i bought the box i was told it was in great condition and had been saved for their own carrier should they need it, so i was expecting something in a crate wrapped in grease proof paper (bit optimistic) so when they turned up with a dirty oily lump i was a bit disappointed but true to their word it was in great condition after a bit of a clean. the box came with a hydraulic pump which was removed along with the other fittings i didn't need, it was then stripped down and cleaned which was very simple as these old gearboxes have no baulk rings or cones just simple crash gears. once it was cleaned i reassembled it and fitted the flanged dish at the output side and the correct gear selector mechanism and it's now ready for a coat of paint and fitting eddy

hi fella's just thought i'd post a few pics of the engine and a few other bits. the engine is the ford flathead v8 which delivers 85bhp from just under 4L capacity, not great by modern standards but enough to get the old girl from A to B. this particular engine came from my fordson wot6 along with another scrap block and was refurbed by another carrier owner, martyn tasker eddy