Sean N

Excellent.

Ah, OK. So perhaps chopped about long before this programme was dreamed of then. Not saying it wasn't a MkII - I only saw a short clip on YouTube and couldn't tell. And they all look and sound OK on camera! Maybe irrelevant if Chris' comment is right though. When I was supplying stuff to TV to be blown up they used to do exactly that, lots of fuel to make a big fireball, lots of light stuff to make convincing debris / shrapnel but very little actual explosive. The stuff used to come back pretty charred and not exactly pretty but without any real mechanical damage. Incidentally, Neil, did you see the Artists Rifles silver bowl on Antiques Roadshow the other day?

Robin, guesswork only but the string top left looks like the asset code. The block below it starting Cl. 1 - Class 1 repair and date etc? The string starting FSO appears to be associated with Vancouver, so part of the same shipping (or whatever) details? Is BATUS stuff (which I assume it is) really shipped via Vancouver? Seems like the long way round!

Last year, when this programme was probably made, there were a fair few Stalwarts for sale. Most were Mk1s, most were in poor condition or had significant major faults. TV can make a very average vehicle look a million dollars with a bit of slap. It doesn't necessarily follow that a good vehicle was wasted. I can't speak to what actually happened, but my guess is it's likely a lot of parts were stripped out in the conversion, a lot more before it was blown up, and the bang probably rigged to look very spectacular using as little actual explosive as possible.

Research into pedal effort and line pressures shows a huge variation; for example, pedal efforts as low as 30 lb and as high as 500 lb. However my understanding is that typical line pressures are in the range of 800 to 2000 psi depending on system and pedal pressure, and typical design pedal pressures are in the 20 - 120 lb range for an assisted system (maybe at the higher end for trucks). As Richard says, on an assisted system you are likely to be reliant on the servo to attain full line pressure, and if you are measuring output pressure at the master cylinder, fluid is not bypassing the master cylinder pressure seals and you have no trapped air in your test set up it's difficult to see what could be wrong hydraulically; so if your pressure is low you are looking at a mechanical fault with linkage, servo or master cylinder. Hydraulic pressure must be equal throughout the system, so if you are measuring line pressure by tee-ing into the system at a joint (and therefore testing the whole system pressure) low pressure might be due to a leak or failing seal anywhere in the system, so your test may not be very helpful unless you can selectively exclude different parts of the system. You haven't mentioned what the actual problems with the brakes are - is this more of a point of interest?

Ian, why split it all up, or are these extra bits over and above the truck under restoration?

Chris, I guess you've already seen this web page which has some detail on the technical differences, some of which will be visible: http://olive-drab.com/idphoto/id_photos_ward_lafrance.php Possible Mike Gillman might be able to shed more light if he sees this.

Welcome. Something that always intrigues me is why US heavy truck manufacturers stuck with chain drive long after makers outside the US had abandoned it. Any ideas?

Indeed, and that's an entirely reasonable assumption, no criticism intended - I just thought I'd dig a bit further. It's not the first time I've noticed you could see images others can't so it may well be your super mod status. Anyway, I at least can see them on your post.

That ST66 looks relatively close if you want to keep an original look & feel. Go 10.00 x 20 and you wouldn't have the spare wheel size issue mentioned, though the gearing will be a touch lower. TT505 looks more like an earthmover tyre.

I don't think it is. I've tried in two different versions of Firefox and in Edge and they're not visible. I don't have Internet Exploder so can't try it. Viewing the page source code in Firefox shows the URLs of the images; however searching for them or attempting to go direct to the album brings up the message that the album is not valid or is not publicly accessible. The album also doesn't show on bcoycqms' profile, although the coding seems to point to an HMVF album. I wonder if the album they're in is set to private and Richard can see it because of his super mod status, or something like that?

At £23k, without up to date photos and needing batteries, repairs to the cab and paintwork I suspect you'll be seeing it for sale quite a lot more!

Just had a look at the workshop. I have cans in several sizes, including the square oil can and the more rectangular one. I had mentioned them before, in the 'What's Sean got now?' topic. Both are around 11 3/8" (288 mm) high plus handle and lid. The squarer ones are about 5" x 6" square and the narrower ones are 4 3/8" x 6 1/2" square. None are mint, but all are pretty good and all have 1950s dates. Most of the square ones are embossed WD & broad arrow. Also have some small one quart cans as you can see from the last photo.

Is the dust really carbon, or carbonised friction material from the clutch driven plate? If the latter, and it's older, be careful of asbestos. Given it's a Rover V8 and parts are easily obtained I'd be inclined just to replace the flywheel with a good second-hand one. It might skim, but once they're cooked like that they're not all that easy to bring back and the chances are the cracks run quite deep, even assuming there's no distortion. It sounds as though the situation with the release bearing and clips was precipitated by the clutch failure not the other way round.

That makes more sense. Apart from anything else, Hutch has two readings in the 10 - 12 kN range, which implies the rest are low and efforts of that order at least should be achievable all round. Having said that, another quick calculation says that a true pass should be about 15 kN all round... Upright on end or upright on one long side?

Well, a pass. Given a 40% minimum and a reasonable expectation of 66%, I wouldn't say 43% was comfortable; under 25% considerably less so. Well, you, Neil and Richard have considerably more experience of the dark and oily bits of Militants than I, so had you said those were typical figures I'd have deferred; but they don't seem adequate to me.

Indeed. as Richard suggests, inspecting everything means inspecting everything. I know it's heavy work, but whip the drums off and have a look.

Hutch, to add a little to Rob's comments, for a pre-1983 vehicle you do not need the low air warning buzzer, just a visual warning. If the examiner did the brake test they will have kept an eye on air pressure. If you were in the driver's seat, I'd expect you would have automatically kept an eye on the gauge? Often in a large vehicle you will not notice a substantial brake imbalance when driving as the vehicle's momentum keeps it in a straight line, but it'll get you into trouble in an emergency situation. Rob is the Militant expert and may know how these figures compare to other Militants, but I think I'd definitely be going right through the brakes inspecting and adjusting everything. You have the significant imbalance on axle 3 and across the axles as Rob suggests, but on a typical vehicle I'd also like to see that front axle imbalance below 10%. Your service brake effort is also very low overall, only 3% above the minimum requirement; and unless I'm miscalculating, the tester has based the braking efficiency on your current all up weight rather than the design gross weight. By my calculation on a design gross weight basis those figures equate to an efficiency of under 25% - not great.

Fair cop! I'd forgotten that was even posted, it was so long ago now. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then, not all smooth. Anyway, I refer the honourable gentleman to my previous answer - I'd hope to be able to sort some stuff out, one way or another.

I hope the weather is a bit better for it than here, Steve. We have freezing fog, and I'm looking at the head gasket job I have to do outside and not feeling enthusiastic!

Geir, Issah, the Karriers are really for sale complete - we hadn't intended to break them, and there is interest in them complete. However, there may be a way of making some spares available; I'll investigate and keep you posted.

Website has 19 - 20 August. Simon, would be a good idea as a matter of routine to post the dates, location etc. wherever you're posting about this - the less people have to jump through hoops the better.

Looks as though you have the RL brake master cylinder and air pressure servo as well.

I'd agree with Richard - AFS / Home Office body. A nice body and increasingly difficult to find, so find someone for it rather than destroying it, but at the same time probably fitted relatively recently in civvy life and no reason to worry about changing it if you want authenticity.

Those who have been involved in the hobby longer than I might have a perspective on this, but for me, back in the '90s there was a lot of British softskin, at least, about; but there seemed to be a big change when large quantities of Scandinavian etc. reserve stock, pretty much all US built, was released. I think there's also a Hollywood-isation of things - I don't think you're far off when you refer to 'more glamorous'. A lot of the British built stuff must still be around, somewhere - I find it difficult to believe that vehicles that made it into preservation and survived until the mid to late '90s have been scrapped since. Hence the aim of some of us to change things ... but that's for Rick to fill in the details, I think.