andym

Interesting that they only declassified this two years ago! :shocked: Andy

Out of interest, I've just had a chat with Fuchs Lubricants, who are happy to sell genuine OMD-90 in quantities of 5 litres upwards. Unfortunately it's about half as much again as a similar "civilian" oil. Andy

Yes, but many thanks for the notes about red diesel and SORN. That could have potentially been embarrassing/expensive! :shocked: Andy

Ah, but that assumes you're honest. In an ideal bureaucratic world, the police would have time to investigate every vehicle that's registered but doesn't have a tax disc. Because they don't, SORN is intended to direct their attention to those vehicles that don't have either SORN or a tax disc and are therefore presumably running around on the road untaxed. Whether it actually achieves that aim is a matter for conjecture ... Andy

Not necessarily, because SORN is a mechanism for explaining why you haven't renewed your road tax. The DVLA website says: You must make a SORN if one of the following applies: if you don’t renew your vehicle tax and you are keeping the vehicle off the road if you are applying for a refund of vehicle tax and keeping the vehicle off the road if you buy an untaxed vehicle and do not tax it every 12 months if you continue to keep your vehicle off the road in advance if your vehicle is to be kept off the road in the UK when you are abroad For a vehicle classed as Historic, apart from the red diesel issue there's no real incentive to declare SORN as the tax is "free", so you might as well keep it off the road but accept the free tax disc every year. Andy

Hang on - is there a nasty little Gotcha hiding here? I read this as saying that a vehicle which is, or has been road registered can only use red diesel ON PRIVATE LAND if a SORN has been declared? I wonder how many people with "Historic" taxed vehicles this will bite, as there's usually no incentive to declare it SORN? Andy

I remember seeing Eagle laid up at Devonport. If you had a high enough vantage point you could see right down through her where they'd stripped stuff out to keep Ark going. Andy

If only it wasn't so true .... Andy

Welcome aboard - have you got your H licence yet? Andy

Thanks Clive - on Googling around it also appears to be semi or fully synthetic, regardless of the "M" in the name. As I don't know what's already in there (an FV432 gearbox) I'll either need a mineral-based equivalent or something that will mix with oil in the box that may be mineral. When you drain the box there's apparently five litres of oil left behind! Andy

Incidentally, I see that the current maintenance schedule for the FV430 series specifies OMD90 for the engine and gearbox. Does anyone know what the civilian equivalent of that is? Judging by the way the numbers go I'm assuming it's a detergent 20/50? Andy

Two sets of discs, both internal to the gearbox/steering unit. One set does the steering, the other both the foot brakes and the parking brake, although they have independent linkages external to the box. Unlike the CVR(T), the parking brake can be applied and released gradually. Andy

Can they do that for a tracked vehicle, though? Andy

IrfanView is another possibility if you want something more powerful than the Microsoft built-ins but less complicated than Gimp. Andy

Isn't there one at the Army Museum of Flying at Middle Wallop? Andy

The front three nipples lubricate the steering linkage, the rear two lubricate the accelerator cross-shaft. The very rearmost one should have a pipe dropping down to the right-hand bearing, the one on front of it has a long pipe crossing to the left-hand bearing. And you only found mud and general crud in the driver's footwell? I found a magazine full of blank SA80 rounds - see my post on the subject! :shocked: Andy

Unlike the FV432, I think the FV434 pump is mounted directly on the fuel tank, so the tank needs to be drained to below the level of the pump before removal. Not the world's most clever design, perhaps? Andy

Very impressive! Don't forget to keep a backup of the Excel file .... Andy

All jokes aside, there's just something "right" about the way the 433 looks. Andy

Did you ask for delivery? :-D Andy

The answer is simple. Buy something like a Chieftain or Challenger and demonstrate how practical the Ferret is in comparison! Andy

There's definitely something very satisfying about a big gun! :cool2: Andy

But on what basis would they join in, as individuals or as "official" representatives of their department? Anyone who works for the government (or most companies) is very aware of the minefield that awaits those who express their personal opinions with a departmental label attached. Andy

The Stormer Technical Description is still classified as Restricted, unfortunately. My understanding is that DVLA accept the MVT as an organisation competent to inspect vehicles for registration purposes, so ask Terry to go over it and issue an appropriate letter? Andy

The Dutch bit confused me too, but as I'm used to foreign versions of Amazon, PayPal etc it wasn't too hard - the buttons are always in the same place! :-) Andy