TooTallMike

She's probably right but don't tell her or I'll never hear the last of it...

- MG

Please note that I do not want tootall to sell the ward. I like it too much and know that he will only regret it once it's gone.

I'm happy for him to buy other vehicles as long as the Ward stays.

Mrs Knees

(aka Mrs Tootallmike)

I was at the MoT station this morning with MarkHeliops' Chevy when I received a call from our neighbour, the owner of the riding school and livery yard, to say that one of the truck bodies they use for storing horse bedding had collapsed and asking if we could stablise it for them. According to the supplier the body contained 5 tonnes of wood shavings but the truck barely noticed the load. It was good to get the truck out of hiberation and once again proved I shouldn't sell it when it's so useful!

Happy New Year and fun MV-ing to all - MG

Little and often...

I get around an hour each evening on the truck and this evening's job was to repair the air filter bracket. Maybe not my highest priority but one more tick on the jobs list.

Before:

After:

- MG

Thanks Jamie,

It looks like your Grandad's truck has received the same abbreviation treatment as mine :embarrassed:. I had hoped to copy his truck when I re-extend the chassis on mine next month but sadly I won't be able to. I have the dimensions but I had hoped to be able to copy some of the crossmembers. Oh well!

Many thanks for taking these photos as they have saved me a trip.

PM to be sent.

Regards - Mike

You don't want to be feeding the dash wiring in through the grommet plate hole in the bulkhead so, as you say, you would be best off starting at the dash and working out from there. Don't connect anything until the whole loom is in place as you may not get it right first time...

- MG

...The photograph was taken at Waddington in 1976.

I'd dispute the claimed date of that photo. The 8-legger in the background looks much more modern than 1976, especially given that it says '...gate.com' on the side.

- MG

i reply PM

i will have infos for parts and radiators next week

best regards

willy

Thank you Willy,

Myself, Tony (NOS), Roy and Antony are all helping each other locate parts to complete our projects and there are a large number of parts we are looking for. We would be very interested to know what other parts you or your friend have available.

Merci d'avance - Mike

hello

 

very very nice job

 

for radiators there is a guy here who have some NOS for near than £400

i will see him next week,if you interested i can ask him if he have still some availaible

 

nice autocar !! congratulation

willy

I would be interested in one of these if they are available.

Where are you/they?

Thanks - Mike

I believe people like Jeepparts or Dallas Autos do these types of decals.

- MG

have u had any experience of general grabbers at2?

I have a set of these on my Disco and they've been very impressive in the recent white stuff. I've been towing vans and all sorts.

- MG

It's in Vietnam war transport truck colours. There's lots of info on the internet about these and the gun trucks. The truck is the right era for this but only the owner will be able to tell you whether those markings were found during restoration or whether they were added.

- MG

HI Mike,

 

sorry Im Tomas, not Radek,, I search about this "Army film unit" vehicle,

 

this pictures with Ward laFrance is from Pilsen town ,main Republic square,

 

18.may 1945, after liberation by US Army,

 

and in this time was in Pilsen many, many US Army vecles from 3rd US Army,

 

18.may back home Czechoslovak brigade from Dunkirk battlefield and

 

on Pilsen main square was stirred American, Canadian and British vehicles,

 

think this Ward was from US Army or from Canadian heavy transport unit,

 

becouse transport all Czechoslovak Cromwell tanks from Dunkirk make Canadian heavy trucks with trailers.

 

If you want? sent to you more pic ,this Ward(think are),

 

Tomas

Thanks Tomas (:blush:),

Any photos you can send me would be much appreciated as wartime colour photos of WLFs seem to be rare. If you don't want to post them on here you could email me on tootallmike<at>hotmail.com

Thanks - Mike

It's been a while so here's a bit of an update.

The chassis is almost completely stripped for blasting and painting. Fuel tanks are off, all propshafts and handbrake assembly removed, air tanks and all accessible pipework removed. I already have well over 200 photos of parts prior to removal and during disassembly but these wouldn't make very interesting viewing here. This evening I removed one of the rear hubs and was pleased to find the brake shoes are almost new. Hub bearings are also fine. My concern is the other side as that was seized when the truck was first recovered. I'll find out over the next few evenings. Once the hubs and brakes are back together the truck can come out of the shed to remove the 'box, engine and transfer box.

Rear right axle end, hub and drum.

- MG

Hi Radek,

Off thread, but bottom left of your first photo is a Ward Lafrance M1A1 towing what looks like a QL. Are there any more photos showing these two vehicles?

Thanks - Mike

Many thanks guys,

I've been in Belgium land for two days so didn't see your kind messages.

Cheers - MG :tup::

If anyone on here is using red in their vehicles illegally I would expect the full force of the law to be brought against them, whether at a show, on the road or wherever C&E deem appropriate. The rules are clear and there are no excuses. For the mileage our vehicles do the extra cost of white is all but irrelevant when compared with the costs of maintenance, storage etc.

- MG

Brighton DVLA representatives have been to us several times to inspect vehicles. They seem to enjoy the jolly - lots of tea and buscuits help the process :-). Well worth seeing if you can talk to someone more helpful.

- MG

Still no answer on my braking system question...

Lee and Mike, stop talking in code and tell us what info was released :-)

- MG

OK. I dont know about that one. Maybe other Richard knows about it?

Richard F is quite right. It was yellow and believed an ex-tar sprayer as the back end of the chassis was covered in sticky black gunge. If I remember correctly the rear half of the chassis was heavily reinforced with what appeared to be a subframe on top. The rear spring packs were about a foot thick above the axle and the rear crossmember would have stopped a tank. It never ran in the time it was at the yard although it didn't look like it would have needed a lot of work. I think I know who it was sold to but I'll leave that person to respond here.

- MG

Disagree completely Mike. This whole subject has bugged and annoyed for some time. My biggest fear is that this is a one way ticket for the hobby. Since we signed the Lisbon Treaty (which not many folks are aware of) we have lost so many civil rights and continuing to do so at an alarming rate...

 

I'm not sure why A&E is being mentioned so I'll leave that to one side.

Your discussion is a fair counterpoint to mine and I appreciate your point of view, however the natural conclusion of what you say is that we should initiate some sort of anarchic situation where people blatantly disregard laws they think are out-dated or unfair. Maybe we do require some major changes to bring some common sense back into the way our lives are run but I would suggest this requires a top-down change to the whole mindset of society, not just a bunch of HMV enthusiasts running riot. Perhaps I'm missing your point?

It infuriates me too that in our hobby we are required to obey rules which are at best confusing and at worst outright contradictory, and that can only be clarified at great expense in court. But what is the solution? By remaining citizens of this country we consent to live by the laws of the land. That does not mean you cannot challenge them or campaign to have them changed but all the time they are on the statute books they are to be obeyed as best possible. I believe it is acceptable to have healthy and polite debate about our different interpretations of law. If DfT, VOSA etc read our debates they will see that they largely arise because the law is not clear. If it was clear we would not need to be discussing it. I do not see it puts HMVF in a bad light even if occasionally people get upset - this is human nature and just shows their strength of feeling.

Just my opinion.

- MG

I believe that what was to be removed was the specific exemption to the MOT testing regulations that permitted dual purpose vehicles to be exempt from Class 7 testing under certain circumstances.

 

As far as I am aware (which may not be very far!) there was no change to the C&U regulations, and therefore the definition of a DPV is unchanged. (

 

I've just re-read the info sheet and I see they do only talk directly in relation to testing, not to the disappearance from C&U of the class. That's even more farcical than I already thought!

- MG

True but it's quite easy to convince yourself that you are within the law by some interpretation of the regs!

I for one would not like to see these discussions disappear. It is important for us to be able to freely discuss contradictions and grey areas within the law. It is important both because there are loopholes which help us, and because there are pitfalls of which we should be aware. To supress this kind of discussion is to deny its relevance to our hobby. I believe this would be completely irresponsible, especially as it seems so few people are prepared to carry out their own research - at least an archive of well-argued threads here might encourage people to research further.

I am actually pleased to hear that DfT, VOSA etc. are researching in places like HMVF to see what people are actually doing with their vehicles rather than just sitting in offices blindly assuming the regs will only ever be applied to Ford Escorts. I am pleased they are taking their jobs seriously and are trying to work with us and understand what we do.

- MG

60 on a dual carriageway, 70 on a motorway. It's under 7.5 tonnes gross, so not an HGV just undergoes the same Ministry test as HGVs (though private HGV taxation to confuse things).

 

Quite right, sorry. I forgot it was on weight not class. :blush:

- MG

Xtreme,

Does your Stormer have the following 'normal' CVRT braking and steering systems:

Hand brake: ratcheting hand brake lever in the driver's compartment tensioning a band around the circumference of one disc on each side of the vehicle, inboard of the final drives.

Foot brake: foot pedal in the driver's compartment operating one caliper on each side of the vehicle acting on discs inboard of the final drives, these discs not being the discs used by the steering system.

Steering: tillers in the driver's compartment each operating one caliper, one on each side of the vehicle, acting on discs inboard of the final drives, these discs not being the discs used by the braking system.

?

- MG