ax40

it seems like there was a lot of confusion over the booking in when i arrived on wednesday security didnt know anything and finanly rang someone who pointed out a section on their map

i moved to the position and on thursday had a couple more turn up ended up with 3 vehicles staying overnight and over the couple of days the maximum we had was 8 vehicles

site would have been better if they had put the displays between the memorial and the d day musuem instead of using that field as a car park and stretching out everyone else

Bigredone and I did what we were asked to do - which was to alert the MV and re-enactor movements to the show. We also pointed out the need for showers, security, toilets and rubbish disposal facilitiies to be available. I passed all the contacts on to Portsmouth City Council (I was not being paid for any of this or for setting up a website). The arrangements we had discussed and the area set aside for MVs seem to have been changed since my involvement with the project.

On behalf of Portsmouth City Council (with whom I have no connection) I can only apologise.

Don't hold your breath for 2014 mate , getting time to work on Daisy with paying work and a young family further up the list has made this a rather " STEADY" rebuild :angel: We'll get there one day though , as I also think she is well worth looking after ! :-D

Shame! if you had got her back up to scratch there was work all weekend at OVERLORD towing vehicles out of the ruts they had dug themselves!

I fully support Ax40 comments.

Just to give a bit of background I am a trustee of the D-Day Museum and this is the first time I have heard or seen the PCC booking in web site. I spoke to Craig just Tuesday and he never mentioned it.

Craig agreed that Ax40 would set up a site and all bookings would be made through that site, so I am a bit concerned that this has happened and I shall be speaking to Craig on this matter.

 

Much as I hate to contradict m'learned colleague I put together the temporary website without formal approval as it was obvious that PCC were way off schedule and somewhere was needed for all parties to register an interest in attending.

In all other respects BIGREDONE is correct. I fear that I am unlikely to see anyone on the beaches as my budget does not permit me to travel even the short distance to Southsea - have a good time everyone!

Just like to say thanks to all of you, living history, vehicle owners and traders, who braved the weather to attend and stayed with us for Saturday and Sunday despite the rain and mud. Without you guys there would be no show. Ideas are being floated for a mini event later in the year ...

I want to take this opportunity to publically thank a very hardworking and dedicated team of people who went beyond the normal bounds of duty to turn a potential disaster into a workable show and a financial crisis into a manageable loss. Site services, Traffic, Arena, Admin and Finance teams all did a stonking job while I just wandered around looking pretty as chairmen are supposed to.

Thanks to all the SOE members who did so much to keep the show running!

Andy much as disliked this weather it certainly put paid to any worries about hay fever & the rustic smell of wood chips I found quite enchanting & almost therapeutic.

 

I dread to think how much two large lorry loads of wood chips delivered at short notice would have cost. So well done to someone for organising that because without those deliveries it would have just wiped out the show. I stayed last night because I felt I had committed myself for 3 days I should try to stay for 3 days, but cold wetness I'm afraid got the better of me this morning.

 

Still trying to figure out why I took the fridge with me :-D

It was actually 5 30 cubic metre loads of woodchip! Just as well we didn't buy it in bags from B&Q. The tractor and driver working long shifts over the four days of towing out did a magnificent job - not cheap unfortunately as those large Fendts drink fuel. The agricultural contractors, Bailey Brothers, have been good friends to the show over the years but even at "mates rates" we are heavily in debt to them

The show is nothing to do with OVERLORD but I got targetted along with Big Red 1 to help with the MV side. The City Council website did not exist at that time so I spent an afternoon putting together a quick and dirty lash-up and running it as a sub-domain from the Solent Overlord site as, not having worked for 18 months, I couldn't afford anything better.

I have been forwarding all emails for traders, living history and vehicles to the tourism office fao Craig Willock who has told me that he has replied to all by yesterday.

The PCC site went live sometime in May, a little late in my opinion if the intention was to catch people before their own local parishes, villages, schools and organisations captured them for D Day 70.

Hence the ....solentoverlord.co.uk part of it but it never has been nor was it intended to be part of the SOE remit to organise the event. That was purely down to PCC but they were taking so long to make a point of contact for vehicle owners I felt I had to do something.

Web hosting would have cost around £80 for a decent service a sub-domain from the SOE site was £30. On an income of £72 a week the second option seemed the better ....

fully understand, and not a problem.

be there sat and more than happy to pay the entrance fee

thanks for the reply

keith

And say hello to me as well. I may be doing anyone of many jobs. I'm the streesed looking one with the broom up my a...

38 BA 15 is my vehicle reg, 1954 Ferret. What's your vehicle?

can you still get into this show free, if your a member of the m. v. t

keith

Hi Keith, let me expand on that answer - we withdrew that concession some years after ourselves withdrawing from the MVT. We felt that the concession was not needed as the MVT had introduced a show of their own on the same weekend as ours therefore all MVT members would be attending that one.

We have to spend around £25,000 to stage the show before opening the doors to the public. Given three days of good weather we can make that back and make enough surplus to augment the money we have already pledged to our headline charity (this year the Fire Fighters) and to all the other charities and cadet forces we support.

One day of bad weather is enough to turn a surplus into, at best, a break-even situation or, as in recent years of troubled weather, a substantial loss. This is a slightly worrying situation for a club of around 70 members.

We already offer exhibitors free camping, free showers, clean toilets, decent on-site catering and free evening entertainment on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Many MVT members take us up on that offer and enjoy a relaxed three day event in the pleasant Hampshire countryside.

But we do need to try and break even, averaged out over the years else OVERLORD will be no more - hence the £10 public admission charge which we ask MVT members to pay (as SOE members have had to pay at MVT events) in order to continue our charitable giving.

I hope you will understand.

yes paul parking between the 2 shows

as from eastbourne its still a 50 quid fuel round trip and i can get a bus back and i will have the cookhouse dispay running for hmvf members who want a coffee during the show

We can offer parking on a military base, in the open, 10 miles from OVERLORD and then 10 miles to Southsea - so you will be doing 20 miles rather than 120. I would need your vehicle reg. and make and you would need some photo id - driving licence is fine - to show at the gatehouse.

As for buses there is the 700 Coastliner from Portsmouth to Brighton or the rail station at Emsworth which is served by Southern so easy enough for travel to Eastbourne - one change at Brighton, £24.00 with ticket booked in advance.

Only hassle is getting to either station or to bus stop, you are welcome to stay at OVERLORD until Tuesday 27th and someone should be taking stuff down that way (we have our own store on the base) and can then take you to bus or train, would have to negotiate a deal on coffees and teas with that person to get picked up several days later

Several things re the Southsea Common Show:

Though the main public showing will be logically over the weekend of 7-8 there are events throughout the week, from the 3rd onwards.

Free camping is available from 2 to 9 June with security on site - good chance to relax before the main event and no need to rush home.

If you want to get involved there will be plenty of veterans who would be delighted to get alift in your vehicle for the parades on the 3rd and 5th

I've put together a quick website with as much detail as is available at the moment, applications forms for living history, vehicle exhibits and traders are on there. http://www.ddaysouthsea.solentoverlord.co.uk

I've just emailed as many MVT area secretaries as I could find addresses for with details - can anyone give me contacts for IOW, Hertfordshire, North London, Shropshire and Border Counties, South Cumbria and North Lancashire and Suffolk please?

Those of you who are coming to OVERLORD (all welcome!) and wish to attend Southsea without the hassle of driving a thirsty military vehicle home for the intervening few days are welcome to leave them in secure storage. We have negotiated parking on the disused runways at Thorney Island which is an active, fenced and patrolled military base about 8 miles from both OVERLORD and Southsea. It is home to 12 and 47 regiments RA

Questions arising from this are best handled by using the enquiry form at http://www.ddaysouthsea.solentoverlord.co.uk/?page_id=66

OVERLORD general enquiries at http://www.solentoverlord.co.uk/blog/contact-us/everything-else/ for specific show enquiries use one of the options on the "Contact Us" tab

Hope to see you at one or the other of the shows - preferably both!

Yes - odd on the site, Wordpress normally delivers pretty good code.

I left a comment last night on the developers site, he's in NZ. About ten minutes after me leaving the comment he was looking at my site. Impressive!

Now the bad news -

I note that it is just Chrome which has this issue. Everything looks fine in Firefox and IE11. It is the visual form builder which controls the styling of the form, and apparently clashes with the theme styles in some way that impacts display in Chrome. We could spend some time to help, but this is beyond the level of free support we can provide here in the comments

So for anyone who is running Chrome and wants to fill out a traders form please PM me via HMVF and I'll send you one you can use. The tick box on the vehicles and living history applications has been removed and replaced with a probably ungrammatical statement.

You can always reach us at the SOE group on Facebook or via the contact form on the SOE website

Well it was running by War & Peace but not quite right so has been having some loving care over winter, picking up on Sunday and we are going for a little convoy with a REO, Jeep and my Dodge

 

Yes - odd on the site, Wordpress normally delivers pretty good code. Its my business area so happy to get my head of dev to have a quick look if you want. Just PM me

Hi Paul, application shows in logs as received February 4, 2014 18:57. It should have generated an auto-reply and then our Paul, Paul Beauchamp who has taken over from Gary Lamsdale (thanks for five years hard slog Gary!) will sort out documents and get back to you.

Looks like there is a problem between the theme I have revamped the site with and the form builder plugin. I have mailed the developers of each to try and find a work around - j query is involved in there somewhere. I have no coding skills whatsoever so I'm somewhat reliant on various bits of software playing nicely together, when they don't and I shout at them to behave they take no notice

Hope the weather is good for Sunday, I had an hour in the sun today and it was extremely pleasant, makes me look forward to Spring and, of course, the late May Bank holiday.

Just entered online. I did notice a lot of the check boxes didn't work on my Mac, tried Safari and Chrome. I assume I will be contacted to clarify anything :-D

 

Loved the show last year (even though my truck blew its engine on the way home...)

Hi Paul, sorry to hear about the truck engine, hope all is well now.

Website runs on Wordpress with a reasonably standard set of plugins, I'm surprised that the forms don't work too well on a Mac. It's put together on a Linux PC running Chrome as a main browser with Firefox as an alternate. I also view it from time to time on my Win 7 laptop (Chrome and IE) and viewed on my Android phone (Chrome and native browser) to check the correct working of the switcher for mobile sites

Give me an hour and check the site - I'll implement a quick and dirty workaround for the check box issue.

Hi Peeps -

 

What's the score with heavy armour attending the show?

 

Markheliops

Hi Mark - all and any vehicle attending the show can be either static display - owner sat in deckchair snoozing in sun - or displayed in the arena - owner enjoying putting on a display for the crowd who are informed by the notes on the vehicle given to the commentator

Heavy armour is fine, and very welcome, no restrictions on weight. The only problem we have is that the land isn't ours and the landowner is not prepared to widen the entrance gates in case it makes the site easier for travellers to get into.

So the restriction is on width rather than on weight from memory we are looking at around 9 feet and a bit between posts on the main entrance - if you can wait a couple of days we will get up there and measure all three gateways to see which is widest and what the exact width is.

David, Clive - thanks for filling in the forms, sitting in my inbox when I work this morning - able to read them on my phone from the warmth of my bed!

I hope the process was no more painful than filling out a paper form, it's something I am developing so that we spend less on postage - quite an amount these days - and also have documents, both electronic and printed out, that are legible for the booking-in guys and for the arena team.

And we look forward to seeing you in May 2014!

You can now fill in your vehicle application form without any unpleasant printing out of documents or going to the post box.

For application online just click on this link

The show info isn't normally released until the club has decided on the charity for the following year that will receive the surplus from the show.

But OVERLORD is always the late May Bank Holiday - even if, as in 2012, that holiday is in June.

So virtually always the last weekend in May.

Sorry to come into this late - I knew Daisy back in 2000 - 2001 when I was attempting to sell classic cars online and on a commission basis. At that time she was slightly better condition than she was when you got her but had a blown head gasket.

Sold for £1500.

I contacted Vicarys and spoke to a guy there who remembered her as a very useful piece of kit. About 4mpg on the way out to a recovery, a lot worse on the way back. Was often used for pulling artics that had left icy roads and once was involved in the rescue of a stolen mobile crane that had been driven into a lake.

At that time I wasn't involved with military vehicles but even I could see that she was a beast well worth preserving. Bought a Ferret in 2004 after selling a Bristol 410 but that is another story ...

Will Daisy make it to OVERLORD 2014? I'd love to see her again!

It would be useful to know the approximate years of manufacture of towing vehicle and artillery piece. The older they are the fewer regs apply.

 

Note most of the advice you get on here will be regarding the legality of towing this, not whether it is advisable!

 

- MG

Thanks Mike - I may not have posted much but I have read extensively in here and am aware of some of the answers I may expect!

Gun and vehicle 1978. Vehicle designed specifically for towing this gun so no problems of mismatch of weights, brakes etc. (unless the designers cocked it up in the first place.)

The pair will attend MV shows and potentially schools, poppy day appeals and village fetes along with the gun crew. Gun will be detached and deployed in firing configuration at show, vehicle will carry display boards and items of kit to further illustrate usage in service of both gun and truck.

It would all have to be about weights, lighting, and signage I think.

 

If it is over 750 Kg it has to be braked, various complex regulations as to types of braking, but 750Kg absolute.

It would need to have lights and reflectors, and numberplate.

If the barrel sticks out the back it would have to be signed and/or lit to make sure public didn't run into it.

 

Size and weight of towing vehicle would have to be suitable and depending on your age you might need license category to cover.

It is 9.45 metres long - nearly 31 feet, it weighs nine tonnes of which one tonne is nose weight. Lighting is by means of dedicated board, brakes are from vehicle air supply.

My question is due to being unable to find anything in C&U regs for two wheeled trailer it seems to assume trailer of that weight and length will be four wheeled and possibly drawbar. A two wheeled articulated trailer would be fine but this is drwn via a towing eye in a NATO style pintle

Hi,

I'm working my way through the minefield of construction and use regulations and am wondering about the legality of towing a gun, overall length in towed configuration 9.45 metres. It has only two wheels in contact with the ground when being towed, all the regs seem to talk about 4 wheel trailers.

Is towing this gun behind any suitable vehicle legal?

I would like to see more evening fun. Not just a pub and band, good as they were...maybe a dance hall...so people with partners can enjoy the evenings...

We were a touch constrained in the finance department this year. Speaking to some of the re-enactors who go to 40's type shows - they aren't the best dancers so get excluded from the dancefloor when the fanatical 40's dancers are there. Looking at a jive tutor or 40's dancing lessons for one evening with a 40s disco ...

I think the driver area needs a big hill in the middle, a do it if you dare type of hill..not too high that if the truck fails it is in danger but steep enough to make the trucks/cars think a bit....it would be the weekend fun and it would be good to see vehicles attempt the hill....it would make the show ground more interesting. just dig a deeper trench, mount all the soil on the exit and bobs your uncle you have a great hole and hill to drive up...

Great hole to fall in too! We have to reinstate the field after use as it is the site of car boot sales for the rest of the year. I need a word with our ag. contractors, Matt the Digger and our arena manager to see what we can do.

I like the dog shows and things.

Dog shows go down well with many of the public. Never seen it or the jeep race - only in photos. Wow, I must be working at the show not just wandering around looking pretty Some ideas being generated about further attractions

What about a tug of war between two vehicles, only for fun, no breaking things...lets see what can pull what...or maybe a heavy load tug....it would be good to see some more pyro work, maybe a striker firing dummy missiles a few feet...or similar

Nothing there without the bounds of possibility - need to find two vehicle owners willing to use their prides and joy as tug-o'-war machines. We had an impromptu wrecker demo one year when a Bedford failed, maybe a more formal demo of heavy recovery? More pyro's leads to more annoyed neighbours and also more expense though if anyone wants to donate a gas powered Browning for my Ferret ...

With a clearer arena (no bl**dy grat hills or holes ) A ferret firing smoke grenades, firing through the smoke then accelerating backwards through the gears could look good ...

still a great show...could do with a few more big or unusual vehicles though...

Who do I know with a large collection of post war trucks and unusual vehicles? Names on the tip of my tongue ...

I shall put the word out as the group who helped organised to put that tank in place, the then Solent area of MVT now SOE (as in Overlord show). i remember the dedication ceremony well as it poured with rain! Our eldest son, Jack, was a babe in arms, he's now 13 (and a half!!)

She doesn't hang about! Word is already out in our Facebook group. I'm happy to get a group together - joint SOE and MVT members, to spend a few days doing the job properly so that the tank is good for both the 70th and the 75th anniversaries.

PM Rosie or myself if this is something you would like to get involved in - we will have a messy few days with compressors, needle guns, paint and stencils

Great show again well done all who were involved,,We will be back next year if we are allowed,,!!

Rumours of any badness you got up to have yet to reach my ears so for sure you are welcome next year !

Seriously - of course you are welcome, it is the fantastic support from all our exhibitors, traders and re-enactors that makes the show. OVERLORD 2014 is already being planned!

Please feel free to PM me with ideas, criticism (constructive preferred) and comments and we will see what we can get up to in 12 months time. Already it looks that I can get free high speed WiFi around the field so next year's show reports can be made immediately !

Great pic and yes it is good to see them in action

Not my picture but from a new member of our club - Ted Clegg. I'm the driver of the Ferret