cosrec

yeah i agree and how so easy they could have been laughing all the way to A&E. But it is a good video in that gives anybody with an ounce of intelligence some insight of the forces involved moreso when moving on to bigger vehicles that multiply those forces by tens of times. Lets face it it had the lot people stood over the top of flaying winch ropes. People stood within gob smacking distance of breaking nylon straps Know all spectators encouraging TOMMY with his disco to give it it some. No damage done apart from TOMMYS towbar being bent and a load of cheap easily replacable kit getting trashed. I laughed all the way through

Confess i do not know. I hope recymech66 will come along and enlighten us both. When the Fodens are demobbed they are usually robbed of all their kit first by the units operating them then by the agents who sell them on behalf of the MOD. Hence that and lack of manuals i have never seen them before. Regards which is best underlift V lifting A bar i would go for underlift every time for all uses the underlift can carry out all the functions of the lifting A bar plus many it cannot.

looks like i have wasted my money on good kit and training courses. £1.99 shackle cheap kenetic rope and ingnorance seems to be the answer to recovery problems. Did laugh at the sage advise from well meaning spectator "Stand back it'll take yer head head off" while moving in closer for a better shot.

Over the years we have had many civillian underlifts. I have also modified milatry underlifts for use on civillian vehicles. These mods are relativly simple and noway stop them being used as the milatry do.

I guess my first question about the Foden's EKA gear would be about the underlift. I see that is "dead" meaning the crane booms hydraulic cylinders is used to lift the underlift to a desired height and secured/supported with large pins. I like the idea of the pins as they are a simple and secure method of retaining height/position instead of relying on the hydraulic cylinder's and holding valves. Now the question(s)... 1.) Is the underlift boom designed to have any angular adjustment under load or is it only lowered against the steel "stops"? 2.) Related to the first... Have you ever encountered a scenario in which you wanted the boom to remain parallel to the ground during a lift tow? (for example when overall vehicle height is a problem) 3.) What is the distance approx. from retracted to extended of the underlift? (1) The boom on the Foden has no angular adjustment (tilt) provision (2) In a role as a recovery vehicle for suspend tow on modern civillian vehicles it is virtually essential to have a tilt provision. (3) From base of foot retracted approx 52" extended 72" to centre of T head. To explain further above answers. Originally all vehicles were suspend towed by lifting on a strong part of chassis then spaced apart with a bars. This was ample for earlier vehicles. In europe moreso than the US civillian vehicles developed in the fact they became lower and with increasingly more fragile body work. Army vehicles continued to be built like brick sh** houses Enter on the scene the the swedes with their underlift vehiles. Using their underlift booms and range of lifting forks modern civillian vehicles were easily handled with no damage by lifting on axles and chassis rails. They became an instant hit overnight in europe and about ten years later in the US among civillian operaters. In an attempt to increase sales demo trucks were supplyed to various armies for evaluation. They found favour with armies in europe and malaysia. The truth is i think this was more to do with the powerful main winch hydraulic rear legs and ease of set than the underlift facility. As the years have moved on civillian is almost 100% suspend towed in true form by the axles chassis. Milatry vehicles continued to be suspend tow with an underlift but using it as an A bar from strong pionts at the extreme front or rear of vehicle So how good the milatry eka is depends on which role it being used in

Looks like standard 404 mog as used in the thousands by many countries milatry. Home made crane fitted

After reading :coffee: the Scammell Crusader Wrecker User Handbook (pamphlet is more like it ) it struck me how vague and short the information was compared to a US Ops Manual. I must be spoiled rotten by US manuals. I guess you guys assume that anyone that is going to operate a medium/heavy wrecker in the services already has some prior experience in the field. The US Army etc. on the other hand, assumes that the person reading the manual has absolutely no experience in what they are studying so they contain extensive detailed descriptions/diagrams/pictures about a vehicle's/equipment's systems and operations :readbook: . I'm going to dive deeper for parts/service manuals and I realize that I'm probably going to have to purchase them in hardcopy. I find even the hard copy is very basic information. hand books are available for all vehicles and different operations they carry out but very very little seems to get published to the web. i supose this is down to crown copyright on the info ????? i dont know. I think the british forces seem to do more intensive class room training regards the vehicles they are given and the tasks they are required to do with them hence the less litriture that is published as i dont think thought is put in to the the vehicles coming into public hands. Again i dont know for sure as i have no milatry back ground. All that said what do you want to know if its as your name suggests EKA gear i may be able piont you in the right direction other people on this site will certainly be able to answer most questions you throw their way

nice one well pleased for you

I find downloading good pdf files for any ex UK MOD vehicle info virtually non existant. I did once find an aec site that had a download of a report comparing the aec militant v Volvo/EKA but i cant find it now. This site does give extracts from the Crusader/Eka user manual http://mighty-scammell.co.uk/pageID_7939539.html Apart from that i know of no others. But you see various handbooks etc for sale on E Bay

hi welcome to the forum. Any pictures of the wreckers thats where my intrests are.

have you any signs of water contamination in sump eg oil going greyer paler ?. Reason i ask is if very slight head gasket problem it will some times if vehicle is stood for long periods between use manifest its self as above symptoms after a run why i dont know although it dont seem to give problems on overheating side of things

This is only a rough guess but this is percentage of of reasons vehicles eg tractors plant commercial vehicles reported stolen where recovered by our company on request of police Stolen and used in further crime eg nicking unit to steal trailor of docks or ramming gates etc 1% joy riding 2% excuse for having accident and abandoning vehicle 4% Insurance fraud (eg claiming on insurance for some thing to raise money)10% cashed for scrap value remainder

Over the years as company we have recovered many thousands of SMVs ranging from motorbikes trucks farm equipment and plant on behalf of various police forces, insurance companys private individuals etc. We have recovered the vehicles from every place you can think of from in ponds ditches lockups down ten foot alleyways country mansions warehouses in containers back kitchens garages you name it. conditions ranged from flatened by 380 digger to still ticking over when found. Some had had resprays but the bulk around 90% were dismantled. The tractors and plant usually were complete and had only false plates on and minor mods to disguise them cars seemed to be the ones that had the most work done to diguise them. Commercials were nearly always dismantaled unless caught in the act. One job we did involved a warehouse down a farm track here it was virtually a production line. Youths would go out and steal vehicles and park them up in out of the way places for a couple or three days. This was to see if they had trackers on.then a transit full of guys would go out and collect them at the warehouse door they were assessed as to make or model some with no export market where chopped crushed and loaded in to bulkers. others where chopped into "sets" eg front half of chassis with radiator engine and box with maybe an axle steel banded to it and put straight into containers. Ally tanks tipper body etc where chopped with still saws the whole process from start to finish took about an hour. All vehicles where on their way to other storage pionts and scrap yards by daylight the next morning. Virtually all commercial vehcles stolen end up this way although may be not in such a organised method. Oftence find rubbish and burnt patches around the back of hedges in out of the way fields. If you think about it it fairly profitable a standard artic unit could yield £400 diesel £1400 scrap maybe another £400 tyres and rims to a bent tyre house all for a nights work. Also the police told us a few stories about trackers. the theives of commercials soon got used to were fitted and wrap with lead foil or less sopisticated ones were ripped out and throw in the back of tippers. One copper told me about a going to a house and getting a guy to unlock his car a tracker was found in the passenger footwell presumably it had been put through a slightly open window while he had been buying fish and chips. copper was tracking an eight wheeler cement mixer. As for micro dots they are only any good if police find a vehicle and can be bothered to look at suspect vehicle. it is also getting confusing as people are buying parts legit at scrap yards breakers eg alloy rims and getting vehicles taken off them for months. the little sticker saying a vehicle has been micro dotted may put an honest person off taking a vehicle

Call me an idiot if you want but i think every body is getting into this to deep. Forget interpol,shipping to the southern hemisphere, teams of drivers running back to back to ex soviet countries, booking RoRo's to the states. This was not a planned job it was oppurtunist. Reason i say this is what was vehicle worth £8,000??? i dont know whats it worth. To who ever stole its scrap value. Unless of course somebody with a bit of money has paid someone to steal it for them. but why if you can afford to pay somebody to steal a £8.000 motor why not go out and buy one. Once the rich man has it whats he going to do with it. Who could be bothered to ring a £8,000 motor. Remember a stolen motor is worth only scrap till its disposed of So that leaves someone who wants spares eg engine for one. so steal it and then cash in the remains. Having said that i cannot see any enthusiast finding any body daft enough to steal a motor to order for the price they could buy one for. No this truck was stolen for its scrap value by an oppertunist Start looking for olive drab in a breakers /scrap yard somewere and not to far away or hidden ready to be cut. there is another explanation but this is to daft to consider. if this all sounds a bit mercenry sorry but that the way it is. there is one other thing that might have big kick back on the whole hobby are there to be insurance claims on this theft

Now you might think i am being nieve here but are you honestly suggesting that there are gangs of well organised criminals who are planning raids to pinch a GMC truck from a show in the uk and spirit it away to to an ex eastern block country I will stick to the idea it was someone who chanced it knowing its scrap value was a grand. One other thing just because it was transported there dont mean it couldnt drive out under its own steam. also as far as i know belgium has boarders with 4 countries france holland germany and luxumberg so are you suggesting these countries are lawless and and all hope is gone . (Although apart from a sign i dont know were the borders are)

Just a thought every body seems to think it was stolen because it was a rareish ww11 vehicle hows about it been stolen for what it it was worth as scrap eg some brazen chancer who saw 5x £200 i think local gipsy camps scrap yard more likley place to look.

The guy i was thinking of was Albert Carter and is shown in the two pics while working for Bill jackon

Coincedence then bill jacksons main driver and forman at Chaside and wreckers international was also called Albert Carter

64 million dollar question put a price on it that you would pay (No excuseses about lack of room etc). and i will open this up to every body on this forum this way we will get some idea of the vehicles worth so we can then give the original question a rough idea of price dont think it will be as much as imagined and this is from a forum that is dedicated to this sort of thing

reading your posting again is your friend happy to take £5500 for it if so why has he not sold it. if he dont think its enough and he wants to sell it why dont he put it on milweb and see what he is offered. end of day he is the one in charge he is the one who knows its worth he is the one who makes the final disision. Not all the people who stand in the wings commenting on the price. The worth of an item is the price realised on sale not the the estimated price from onlookers. one other observation an item is worthless to any buyer and also to the owner until money actually changes hands

Vulcan bomber very low flew directly over head as i crossed over the M62 ouse bridge. billowing lots of smoke from one engine

tend to agree with what you have said but i will go a little further and put an exact price on it prospective seller will get exactly what prospective buyer pays

Had another look believe it is actually two different wrecks. thats twice as much hard work

With the tackle those guys had available to them that job looks like many hours of hard labour.

As i said is it a standard switch eg simple on of putting a light on off Or is it vairable working a guage through vairable resistance in the switch. If its the first any oil pressure switch with two terminals can be used eg lucas Delco reme etc as long as the thread the same.