andym

Thanks guys, I've been up in Brum today packing her up for transport down to her new home in Devon next week. One vehicle, six pallets of bits including 432 and 433 packs in pieces and two 433 heat exchangers! :cool2: Andy

Any excuse to play in the mud, Paul! :-) Andy

The basic problem with steam powered cars is that they've lost the sixty-odd years of development that internal combustion vehicles have had. Look at the recent steam car speed record to see how little we've progressed. As for multi-fuels, are we looking at a sharp rise in the price of K60s? :-) Andy

Yes, it is indeed the Pulsetech Xtreme. It's a microprocessor controlled charger and pulses all through the charging cycle. When the battery is at 100% it stops charging and continues pulsing - there are LEDs on the front that show exactly what it's doing, together with the monitored state of the battery. The only downside is that the charging current is pretty low (2.5A) so recovery of a dead battery can take a long time. For maintenance and the odd recovery it's fine. If you have a lot of batteries to recover, something with a higher output would be better. I'd be tempted to try an Optima 6 and see how it behaves? Andy

With a pulse charger you may be surprised at how many you can resuscitate. I've brought a Hawker back from 10V OCV to 100% (13V) and have another that's been on charge for a week now with the OCV rising from 12.1V to 12.5V. Fingers crossed ... Andy

VNARMY.doc (Thanks, Clive!) says 52KJ95, 53KJ92 and 54KJ58 were all BV206s, so that would be a pretty good guess. Andy

Yes, that Optimate 6 looks very similar to the Pulsetech Xtreme but with a higher output (5A against 2.5A) which could be useful. Andy

The Accumate looks like a simple regulated charger rather than a pulse type. There's no mention of it doing anything to prevent or break up sulphation. The Pulsetech ones aren't cheap, and I'm sure there are other perfectly capable similar chargers around. I just know that the Pulsetech ones work! To answer Chas' question, I suppose there's two things. Firstly each battery may have different charging requirements based on age and amount of sulphation so in an ideal world it's best to charge them as individual units. Secondly the "military" chargers are only really commercial units with an NSN stuck on and the number of commercial 12V applications probably greatly exceeds 24V ones. At least one of the bigger Pulsetech units is switchable 12/24V, IIRC. Andy

We aim to please! :-) Andy

It's USI: http:///www.usiltd.co.uk/products/battery_chargers/xtreme_charger Andy

Welcome aboard! Andy

Not silly at all - the Mk 3s have been "reverted" to Mk 2s at Boscombe Down and are now either in service or will be very shortly. Andy

That caught me out, too. I love the umbrella pic! Andy

After a false start with the 433 that was advertised on Milweb for £6k, I found myself another one thanks to Sharkey who tipped me off. The pack was removed to fix a gearbox problem but never found its way back again, so I've got an interesting jigsaw job to reassemble the pack with the guts of a 432 one. Once I've got the pack sorted I'll think about the gun, which is currently deactivated. I've heard of people holding these on a FAC and it would be nice to put blanks up the breech for shows. The company I bought this from has another 433 for sale, in roughly the same sort of state but a runner. PM me for contact details if you're interested. Andy

How come you haven't got four inches of smelly oily mud under the floor like everyone else? :cool2: Andy

I certainly couldn't see the scrapyard being in the UK, not in the last twenty years anyway. I haven't seen scrapyard piles like that since I was a boy - the last vehicle one I visited had the cars sat in a giant rack like an overgrown shoe shop! Andy

Do VOSA really mean "built before" or "first used"? The latter is the term that normally appears in legislation and for an MV is defined as the date they entered MOD service. Andy

Thanks Richard - a quick Google for MJs has thrown up a pic of 10KH71, so that sounds about right. Andy

Obviously need to be careful with this one, so here's what CND say about it: http://www.cnduk.org/index.php/campaigns/trident/nuclear-convoys.html Andy

Could one of the cognescenti tell me what sort of vehicle 10KH29 is or was? Someone took the time and trouble to write it in welding rod on the side of a solid towing bar I bought yesterday ... Andy

I was going to stop when it reached £2 a gallon! :-) Andy

Phil - Don't forget to check the governor oil level before venturing out! :-) Andy

I agree that may well have been the intention, but its inclusion ensures that any vehicle constructed before 1 January 1973 is automatically viewed as having been registered before 1 January 1973, regardless of the actual date of first registration. Accidental loophole or not, that's what the words say! Andy

I refer you to paragraph 18 of the Act quoted previously in this thread. Vehicles constructed before 1 January 1973 shall be treated as though they were first registered before that date. In other words, there is no requirement for reflective plates on a vehicle constructed (not first registered!) before 1 January 1973. Andy

There are several pictures in existence of civilian registered 430s with B&W plates, usually for prototype or other testing purposes. The law defines "registered" as the date a vehicle was first registered under the Vehicle Excise Act, so military registration doesn't count. Andy