Tankman

we had a ferret it spent so long waiting for restoration we sold it rather than let it rust anylonger they deserve better than rusting untouched

with only a few working prototypes the chances of getting behind the sticks of a chally are looking far off for a good many years until they declassify chobham looking at those photos brings back the stark differences between challenger one and two i remember two had hydrogas suspension on the photo it looks like its fitted with chieftain style spring packs, the hydrogas was always interesting when the attached infantry tried camping under our wagon after a days flying about salisbury plain they didnt realise as the suspension cooled the ride height got lower so they crawled nice and easy under at night but were very nearly stuck in the morning needing pulling out by their dos bags, only then did the horror stories start and no one ever slept under or near the tracks of a wagon again, my favorite spot was a dip in the armour on the right hand side of the gun sponson where the gunners sight was that dip was made for sleeping in, on exercise we had a guy come off radio stag and walk off the back of the turret expecting a metre or so drop onto the engine deck, the guy completely forgot we had the gun over the side and landed on the stumpy sa80 cocking handle right in his ribs. silly bugger

hi all does anyone know how to remove the gearbox from a fv432 done it once with our reme guy but ive got to do one on my own now and want to check what i can remember first

civvies dont realise how comfy issued boots are after a bit of bedding and 95's are plus i work with people who have gone out and spend hundreds on posh gear from yeomans etc. and when we all get ditched i get the last laugh cos 95's dry out fast. the armys gear was selected for its practical qualities the colour was an afterthought plus try and get some boots that can out perform army issue for the same price its never going to happen.

god i love nick we call him the guru at work he knows everything and gets the customers chatting really well

everyone has a particular mv that pulls the old heart strings shame theres no chance of owning mine privately yet

i believe the going rate is around 15-20,000 depending on condition or five good 432's sillyness

you are the radiator sits vertically at the front and is very different to the 432 one while the fans are at the rear its one of the nice rare 433 items that doesnt seem to go but is expensive to replace my advice find someone who repairs air-conditioning and get him to re braze it if he can then pressure test it but not too high

that chally looks so right but yet so wrong

our abbot looked as tidy as yours two years ago but letting people drive them soon saw to that we still have the skirts and bins they were getting beaten so we took them off and the headlights died due to an over enthusiastic customer ploughing into three inch ice on our track

they were storing them when i left in 2007 they usually move storage vehicles in groups of five they might have been en route to a range somewhere or as repalcements

theres plenty of packs availiable but there being held onto and are priced very highly its possible to rebuild a 432 pack to fit a 433 but some parts are special and worth their weight on gold ive been looking been looking at replacing these parts with similar more modern replacements and am still searching as usual with all 43 vehicles the engines and drive are fairly sturdy but the associated plumbing lets it down

will do if i can find them and dig though the dust :-)

the 432 bars will fit we have two 433's and two 432's and have been running 433's on 432 bars for a year now regular off road driving with no problems the MAJOR and i mean MAJOR problem with 433's is there are no packs availiable for normal money so you have to adapt from 432 parts the wiring looms,radiators and heat exchangers are very different as well as one of the fan drive motors.

god i miss my chally as far as i know they cant be released into civi hands untill the armour is declassified the only public owned ones are steel test bed ones mine unfortunately went to storage with the rest of the regiments when we re-roled to cvrt they took our challys and gave us tonka toys we were not happy the only good thing is that because we were used to heavy maintenance keeping us busy the tiny cvrt's were done in a quarter of the time leaving the pt staff to keep us busy the rest of the time. we used to have squadron competitions to change all the pads on 2 wagons by the old sledge hammer and mk 1 arm