Grasshopper

But I don't need to take the final drive casing off to change the hub sea, do I?

Correct. It can be quite a job to get the hub drive flange off, so be prepared for a fight.

Try Bannisters but I think it may also be a commercially available one. I know the Quill shaft seal is special as I had a few sets made up some years ago.

I carried out this work in a grassy/muddy field. I found a magnetic parts tray very useful for catching and retaining all the needle rollers in!

If it'd the internal Quill shaft seals, you either have to remove the gearbox or final drive to get the shaft out. The seal replacement is straightforward. Personally I'd probably remove the final drive as while a heavy job, means you don't have to drain coolant, bleed steering and strip half the vehicle. If it's the outer drive hub seal, break track, remove sprockets and strip as per an epicyclic reduction hub (like a normal hub but with gears). I've done both, and got a final drive in and out using only a couple of pry bars and walking the final drive carefully down bits of wood. Not too difficult jobs either way, just heavy bits of kit.

Helicopters?

 

That sounds like a nightmare version of the Beltring of old. I don't remember ever seeing/hearing a favourable comment about the infamous Beltring helicopter.... ;-)

 

Current (and ex) MOD ones. They have their own field (adjacent to the show sight) to take off and land in which is closed off for those operations. They had a Chinook, Merlin and Wasp in this year. MOD ground crews on-site to oversee too. I recall the infamous Beltring incident, as one of our groups trucks was parked directly opposite!

Capel?

 

Never heard of it, where/what/when please?

https://www.capel-military-vehicle-show.com/

Very enjoyable show, as a bonus it has helicopters which come in and can then be viewed.

All these are due for removal from the range. It will start with the ones in the "dead vehicle park" and eventually include all the rest. Hard targets like these just cause to much environmental damage.

Just curious, what would replace the hard targets, or is the plan just to use soft targets? I guess that bits of armour degrading in the ground is now frowned upon.

I think if the organisers tried to turn away everybody with a caravan or camper, they would soon find they didn't have much of a show left... I fail to see how they could police the number of civy camping once people have set up. They can ask nicely for people to "cam up", but they can't forcibly de-camp them without moving into decidedly dodgy legal ground (I suspect).

I recall seeing the Goldeneye Saracen at the old East of England Tank museum site. It was a very interesting piece of work, and clearly would have cost a lot to make.

"at the back of beyond" Not a lot of the public ventured down our way

Steve, that's exactly the reason we like camping down that end of the show site! We do make an effort to cam up our gazebo and caravan, but given that we camp with a brightly coloured truck on display it is almost pointless. More to appease the organisers and other exhibitors. Unfortunately you'll never get away from having "civvy" stuff on site, and its nigh on impossible to police at a show that size.

There are also trends in the MV market, which push prices up. In the build up to 60th or 65th D day anniversary (I forget which), the prices of WW2 vehicles seemed to jump. More recent trends have been Ferrets, and Land Rover Wolfs (with resultant price rises). British post-war stuff doesn't seem to have much of a following, nor value (I accept that there are exceptions) when compared with similar vehicles from elsewhere . I use Beford RLs with US M35s as an example.

Years back we had a few as the ends are the same as CVRT oil cooler hose threads. We had those ends re-made into CVRT spec hoses. Might be a way forward to make CVRT ones into Cheiftain? I recall they are a unique thread...

To tie this back to the original thread, some people currently re-engine old MVs, so whats to say we won't be doing the same in future with electric or hybrid power plants instead of infernal combustion ones? What may they be worth? With larger MVs (which are typically prime candidates for re-engining), a modern engine doesn't seem to affect the price too much as they (in some cases) become more usable and driveable. Originality will always bump up the value a bit, but usability also adds value.

Petrol and diesel will always be produced as long as crude oil is being refined. Crude oil supplies base stock for many industries and manufacturers and petrol and diesel are usable by-products. Whether we can buy and use it is another thing!

I'd say given the mechanical complexity, voracious appetite for fuel and the likely lack of heavy-lifting equipment on an Island, prospects for keeping one going are slim... saying that being off road should be kinder to wheel stations, but the salty environment would have its effect. I remember travelling in one at Caldey Island and seeing the remnants of the other Stollies there. Amazed even that one was still running at all given the state of them!

^{I know where, I know where!}

You'll be lucky if you can find a company that doesn't have a long waiting time. My local company Southern Carburettors (at Gatwick) do a great job but the waiting list is 3-4 months.

Vince, the price of Series Land Rovers is now astronomical.

Just a year and a half ago I couldn't sell a very reasonable one at £3.5k. Prices may be up, but I don't think the demand was there. Given how everything else is going up, they now seem more attractive (although not to me!).

It got buried in the mud at the Hop farm, and got left behind when the show moved to Folkstone.

Here’s a scenario I’ve seen played out on the internet many times in the last year or two: Lets say it’s a Bren Gun Carrier just to pick on a slightly unusual, not main stream and niche vehicle (but great and we would all want one) Seller 1 has a fully restored one recently finished that he has put life and sole into getting it perfect ‘new out of the box’, he quite fairly puts it up for a top price for buyers who want no work. A few months later seller 2 looks at seller 1’s ad and adds £5-10K more as ‘prices must have gone up’ he states his is ‘restored’ but a closer look finds it’s ‘an older restoration’ meaning it was done 30 years ago, has been to Normandy every year since, raced up and down the beach and generally used so it needs work and most likely another full restoration. Move forward a couple of months and seller 3 has another nice, recently finished one, he looks at seller 2’s ad and says mine is so much better and adds another £10-15k. So now we have an expectation that they are worth approaching £45k and double the price of seller 1’s nice one, you can then add seller 4 with the basket case as a shell with no wheels who thinks it has to be worth £25k as a nice one is ‘selling’ for £50k and puts in his ad, “a bargain at £25k, very rare, restored ones are selling for over £50k”. All these increases seemed to have worked in the past to a point as there were I believe a number of buyers with cash in their pockets but they don’t seem to be selling now. If you don’t think that’s true look at the final bid price on eBay for the last two nice one’s I’ve spotted as that’s the reality of what people will pay.

Andy, I think you've hit the nail on the head with your observation. When I think of some of the kit my friends and I have owned and still do own, no way could we afford them at todays quoted purchase prices. With more modern vehicles it is possible to get bargains as prices do fluctuate a bit; my recent observation was that Land Rover Wolf prices seem to fluctuate depending on how many Withams are releasing at the time. Unfortunately not the case for WW2 era and 1950s armour era vehicles as the supply is finite. The American market for Ferrets definitely seems to have played a part in the rise in value of those vehicles.

I think one of the few vehicles till available at "entry level" prices are Land Rover Series 3s, but most sane people wouldn't want one as they're more worse not as nice as a newer Land Rover (Defender), nor as iconic as a Jeep.

Vince

It's not unknown to have to "wet the pump" on some of these old pumps. One of our trucks does this from time to time, so we have to remove a flexible hose and tip some fuel down the line. Messy, but gets her going. Pretty sure I had to do this on a Ferret too.

Is the fuel actually running freely from the tank? Not unknown for the banjo bolt to become blocked with debris/asphaltines. There is a mod to extend the bolt above the lowest point of the fuel tank.

To my knowledge the UK diesel CVRT gearboxes have a different input gear ratio, strengthened(!) gear box internals and uprated final drives. Not all carried out at the same time though...

There have been several 're-powers' of cvrts in the UK, most using alternative diesel units, but the most impressive was with a later (late 80's/early 90's) Jag straight 6 fuel injected. This was a straightforward swap, and gave a significant improvement in acceleration and top speed.

 

Terry

Now that must have been a lively drive! I doubt it had the required longevity in army drivers hands though. The phrase "built like a tank" doesn't seem to apply to army drivers from some of the damage I've seen...

Bent beam nuts would probably be the best option over nylock.

Nice collection!