Sean N

Did this extraordinary creation start life as a FAT or similar? http://www.dvca.co.uk/vehicles-for-auction-view.php?classic-cars=Morris-Commercial-Recover-Lorry3990

Rick, let me know what size / style the seals are, I have a contact down here who may be able to source them (pattern not NOS though).

Examiner normally gets into the cab to check security of controls, operation of warning devices etc.

The length isn't necessarily a reflection of the filter's effectiveness. The 432 may well be made of a considerably more efficient filtration medium, or because of the way it's designed it might present as much surface area, or more, to the oil as the longer original. It's also likely that your Ferret in preservation will be better looked after, get oil changes more frequently and be used considerably more gently than in service, all of which would make filtration much less critical.

I think that's one of the points about the Bedford 500. Being a small truck engine it revs to 2800 or so - not B81 revs, but not too bad. It has been used successfully in Stalwart conversions before now.

Terry, he may not want his email posted in public.

Ukraine, apparently, according to the news.

No idea Martin, and I can't find any meaningful photos of them fitted to Gipsys. I'll bear you in mind though. Ahh. So I'm contemplating adding the cheese to my kit. Well at least if all your fuses blow you won't starve while waiting for recovery.

Not quite the same, but some years ago I went to an MoD surplus sale where there was a crated reconditioned Meteor engine, with all the dyno test sheets from the rebuild. The measured fuel consumption figures were pretty frightening. I think it only made around £500 at the time.

Anyone any good on Turner winches? I've got an engine driven one dated 1959 that I thought originally was Landrover, but the mounting feet are too low for the normal Landy one (unless Series 1 is different) and it hasn't got any fairlead rollers:

Lucas, the Prince of Darkness: http://www.mez.co.uk/lucas.html

I didn't find that reference. Obvious really, but I hadn't connected that with the braiding on the cables. I found this in a box of junk today. Obviously so old that they hadn't invented glass fuses yet!

Degsy has the wheelbase at 12'0", so that's the length from the centre of the front axle to the centre of the rear axle. The Albion's a smallish truck but 12' overall would be very small - about the size of a small family car!! My guess would be that on a 12' wheelbase, an 18' overall length might be about right. I've had a look on the net; from the few side-on photos I can find and using the wheel size to give scale, I make them around 17' - 18' overall length.

I don't know, Bernard, but I suspect not. The Tecalemit bit of the part number is different, being FG2371-201 rather than FG2351-101, and X3 is for plant and misc. IC engines rather than vehicles. I wonder whether that might be close though - given the size it's obviously from something fairly large. If it's a similar style to Explorer I wonder if it might be for the Meadows engine in the trailer mounted 27kVA generator? Just a guess though.

I suspect Leah is a she, or at least it's normally a girl's name. If I remember correctly there were some photos of it published at the time, whether here, in the Canadian classified ad, or elsewhere I can't recall. I have in mind that it was basically complete but quite tatty. I would imagine by now it will have been either cut up or will still be sitting there.

Dave, you are referring to the posts from May 2014, about 2/3 way down the page, I presume. The owner, Leah, found this forum at around the same time: http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?44556-1958-Alvis&highlight=salamander

Brilliant, thanks Trevor. I couldn't find that Googling it at all. I'm even more intrigued by it now! It appears to go with a VHF radio box type 932 and be WW2 era. I guess the two little metal tags might be to hitch it to something. Found my Explorer parts list. It's what I thought it was, the bit that stops the NATO hitch swivelling on an Explorer draw bar (and I guess other Scammells)

As I understand it, used in WW2 by the Guards Armoured Division, a similar sign having been used by its predecessor in WW1. After 1945 I understand the Division reverted to infantry units, but it seems this emblem continued in use. What unit or units used the ever open eye after 1945?

I'm not sure if you guys are finding these bits boring or baffling, but here's another fairly insignificant part that intrigues me. The Bakelite tube is brown rather than black as it looks in the photo, and it has contacts inside to take something along the lines of a jack plug:

Or the other way of doing it is just use an inertia switch to interrupt the feed as many fuel injected cars do.

Mike, the way I read the proposal, it sounds as though they're trying to bring into the testing regime vehicles which are based on type approved, mass production type vehicles; so to take road construction vehicles, a white line marker built on a truck chassis would be testable, but a road planer would be exempt. I suspect the issue with testing Ferrets and the like, apart from the fact they're classified in an exempt group, might be as much to do with the practicalities of testing as much as whether they can physically be tested - climbing in and out, testers driving them, and so on.

John's words are very sensible, and it's wise to make the vehicle as visible as possible even in daylight. What a lot of people do, if you want to keep the vehicle / trailer looking original, is fit period lighting and then use a trailer board or tail board to give high visibility.

Don't know what the situation with that particular vehicle, but there was a video posted online that showed an IS3 being fired up, allegedly by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine. Haven't seen anything to stand it up though.

I tried a few bits & pieces on there and got nothing but fake responses!

Bob Green or not, this is a very common scam, whether it's parts or complete vehicles / equipment. See it on eBay all the time, where scammers steal genuine listings and re-post them. One precaution you can take if you're unsure is ask for a photo with something with the date on in the photo, or something else that will make the image unique. If they're just using recycled photos they obviously won't be able to oblige.