Amphibi boy

morale booster! :yay: Naked Recovery! crane op "au naturel"

yes radio mike! unless the b.v. was full of water to counterbalance things! obviously mine was low from all the brews! :-D

sorry guys, you can thank gritineye! :-D but im on a roll now, (stop me if you want) this one was after the gulf, the yanks were giving us "avgas" aviation fuel, they were using it in everything, but its not got the lubrification as normal diesel. :nono: so daf 4 tonners, ran sort of ok, but if stalled seemed to take forever to restart! i was taking a drops to workshops, when i came to the bottom of the hill at markham moor roundabout, there was a daf 4t, with the now weak hazzards flashing, (he had been trying to start it after stalling and the battery was fading, he was half way out onto the roundabout, and it was starting to get dark) i pulled up alongside, my oppo shouted accross, whats up, they were a couple of commandoes, "it wont start" :shake: as he wirred it over again, so i shouted hold on, i will go round the roundabout, my oppo (bless him) jumped out, stopped the traffic, we straight barred him behind the drops into the next services, and away from the immenent danger he was in, yes illeagal, but now he was safer and could await his unit recovery. :cool2: sorry the photo is dark and smokey, but you can just see daf behind the drops!

we had one call out, i was away, they other reccymech was my student so only a pot r.m. they had a drops go over a crossroad and hit another truck! so they called our unit out! "no reccymechs" so one of the v.m's was told to take it by the c.o, :idea: yes he had a h.g.v. but what else could he do!!! he said he couldnt operate it, but the c.o. said it will only need towing! yeh its never that simple is it! stupidly he went to the site, stoped up the hill, put on the park brake! jumped out, then obviously thought, hell why is the foden moving? you guessed it, he didnt apply the brake correctly, she ran away. so it ended up being a drops and a foden written off! :argh: but it wasnt mine! so i was not as angry as i would have been!

Hey chaps, a photo of me and my girl! (not sure about quality, just scanned it) these pictures are pre digi camera's! :-D i have lots more! will look for some good ones!

that looked fun richard! :-D i onced changed the turbo at the side of a shooting range in catterick, just hooked up a drops and she blew! what fun! my ASM said it was good training, :idea: the annoying thing was the main workshops was only 7 or 8 miles down the road!

a bad design on the foden! all the reccymechs reading this will agree! the spare wheel divot for taking off the reserve wheel! time consuming design, why they didnt make it just a swivelling arm with a little hand winch i dont know, instead of the cable system used! :argh:

we were on excercise in thetford, and a reccymech (no name mentioned, so he can buy me a beer) went off to do a recovery job! what should have taken no more than an hour, we were getting a little concerned after 3! so off i went looking for him, i found him, up to his bumper in soft marsh! "hold on mate, i'll give you a hand" "NO" im fine! :stop: wouldnt let me, and any of the other reccymechs will know, its not stupidity or pity, its pride! he got out after another couple of hours! but i did keep him in brews! god bless the Boiling vessel! :-D

thats it, your fault gritineye! :-D we had one reccymech, driving down the motorway, may be just above the limit of the tyres, but anyway cut a long story short he crashed! ripped off the front axle! he swore it wasnt his fault, the truck lurched then swerved and crashed! :shocked: investigations carried out, it was found that after repair the sring u bolts were not tightened/fatigued and they led to the axle coming loose on one side with the devestating results! :nono: i've not got the photos in my collection, but i will ask me old reccymech pals if they have, someone has as i see them!

OOPS! sorry antarmike, didnt want to tread over someone else's, but i have just started up another thread! military films :incorrect vehicles/uniforms appologies all round! :-D (thats my sorry little boy grin) lol

Firstly, thanks Graeme for letting me hijack your idea! :iloveyou: SO after reading his thread "battle of the bulge" about using post war american armour to represent war time german armour, i thought lets start a thread about all the military films out there! :idea: a quick recap, it is so frustrating when they use the wrong vehicles, (mostly era) to depict another, for example a pershing tank portraying a panther! but lets keep this light hearted, dont get all serious on me now, (film budgets, rarety of the vehicles etc) its just to note the various oddities! :cool2: i think off the top of my head, im sure its in "633 squadron" but i will have to dig it out and check, there is a saracen desquised as a german amoured car! and i remember in "the eagle has landed" a german officer arrives in a (hughes 500 i think) helicopter!!! so lets see what else we can all come up with! :-D thanks all!

Also about withams, there are more leylands being released than fodens at the moment, but if you do want one please :stop: "VIEWING IS ESSENTIAL" as photos can lie! we looked at one, it had just come from refurb, done a few miles, them ended up in a ditch, just a bent cab! it worked as i tested it!:-D but im sure crouch had that one, we were just out bid! we have one now though, but its a rare one, with extra mountings, radio points and internal armour! (i've not seen one the same before) :shocked: but if you do get one, make sure you have a good recovery plan/cover, as they wernt the most reliable, i was allways getting called out, mostly gearboxes, propshafts and another favourite, engine top hoses seemed to blow! and another problem we allways had on excercise, was the right hand mirror!!! we ran out of stock once, so many getting broken, slapping other trucks! but i think loggy driver will agree, they were fun to drive, once repaired, if they were short manned or the vermin (oops sorry, "vehicle mechanic" ) didnt have a H.G.V. i would take them out to test, and they do shift! at the lights you would beat most things up to 50! it was great to pull up in the second lane at lights, the car to the left looking at you as some ignorant army driver, than to leave them sat there when the lights go green! :-D

yes loggy driver you are correct! unless they were hooked up to my foden! :-D then they were quicker, once they was i was "free running" so could shoot off to where ever they had to be taken, i didnt have to sit behind the convy!

i had a look at the fodens at withams last tender, only good for spares, they were completely damaged and raped!:argh: as for the foden wreckers, they were a great beast but also had many shortcomings, and some stupid design features! (im ex REME reccymech) i can tell you many a story! (if you ask nicely i will):cool2:

i have to agree with ferret fixer, it gets my goat when they dont use the correct vehicles or uniforms, i dont mind say if its a hotchkiss instead of a whillys, but to use american post war tanks instead of german war tanks, aaarrrggghhhh! :argh: now youve got me started, im going to dust off the dvd collection and start looking, :-D but one i can think of, off top of my head is in the eagle has landed, when a german officer arrives in a hughes helicopter!!! but its not just restricted to military movies, it annoys me with any period movie, like vehicles in the 60's era movies etc this could be a good thread, wrong vehicles and uniforms in military movies!

Hi to you all, So a little about me, i have always been crazy about green machines! my father and his friend restored a champ when i was a toddler, and i think the green paint spilt onto my clothes and hands must have seeped into my bloodstream and thats it, no turning back once your affected! :-D I am ex british REME, i now live in belgium, i love anything amphibious, but my all time "WOW" machine (quite often features in my day dreams) or is that fantasies!!!! :wow: is the "stally"! mmmm one day!!!:sleep: I am with a group of friends who also are mad about the post war british vehicles and equipment, in the group we have lots of c.v.r.t.'s, a fox, 432, l.r's including, lightweight, carawagen, 110's, artilerry pieces, supacat, leyland drops, daf 4t, equipment and guns, also some ww2 25 pdr, willys jeeps.(one is a member on here "sabre", great guy,as they all are) we do the shows over here and some in uk, and are now trying to venture into re-enacting, to liven things up a bit! Sorry im waffling on now, (its nice to as the wife wont let me! :-D ) anyway, if you ever plan to come over to any of the shows just let us know, we always have a brew on, and a beer in the evening! but most of all, Fun! Fellow enthusiasts (or is that nutters! oh no sorry thats just the other half's translation) are always welcome! cheers Shaun