RattlesnakeBob

hello Jerry........any room for truck passengers this time?:-) PS: tis a grand amble around some very interesting bits of the Forest of Dean for anyone that maybe out there considering whether to venture down amongst the trees for a day out!

fairplay boys !I admit to never having heard of that reasoning before!...... ...must admit I've always fitted them the 'right' way..or as I know now:undecided:...(if the axle is non driven)...then I've been fitting them the 'wrong' way all this time!.. ..but........... seeing as I've only ever fitted them to Landrovers that do a lot of off roading in 4x4 mode ...I guess I've been fitting them the 'right' way after all ! (I'll go and have a rest now )

the man you are talking about is Dave Coates and he is an absolute 100% Landrover guru/fanatic/source of all knowledge/spares/advice etc etc!.. ...if Dave doesn't know the answer to a problem you have regarding Landrovers than that problem has not been invented yet and doesn't exist. ! hahahah! If you PM me I'll introduce you/give you his tel number or whatever. PS: He does have a beautiful Jeep and a cracking collection of his own Ladnrovers plus a few ol Caterpillar crawlers and a brace of old agricultural trators........but I don't know about much specifically 'military' gear........For many years he specialised in ex-military Landrovers espeically Lightweights, and does still have a lot of various models in his 'stock yard' so that maybe where the rumours have come from.....:-D cheers Bob

dunno mate...grand ol' photos though! thanks !:laugh: PS: Gonna stick my neck out a little now..:undecided: ..on all the vehicles, the front tyres are on 'backwards' except for the vehicle on the left in the second photo.which does have one tyre on the 'right' way.... .Now... I don't suppose Army vehicle maintenance chaps were shoddy in their tyre fitting so..is it a possibilty that the tyres were deliberately fitted 'backwards'?....perhaps an agressive mud type pattern like that maybe works better in sand (cos it does look more like a desert in the background, certainly more than 'jungly' anyways!) when ran 'backwards'????... ..only speculating ...hazarding a wild guess..etc...! or... ...... it could be of course that maybe the tyre fitters really didn't give a monkies and stuck them on any old how & willynilly!

fair play mate that is what I would call proper impressive!.. ..as a kid I was often bought Airfix models..........and ....you know they always used to have a gorgeous picture on the front of whatever was inside the box?...... ....you know..........like a Lancaster zooming over a city with the ack ack bursting and all the turrets firing away and the bombs dropping and everything ???.......... well..........I can tell you............. none of my models looked anything like those pictures

yep yer right I can understand the maintenance issue could be a bit of a problem but not enough of a problem to stop me having it..........cos it's still a nice looking little truck.... .............and very, dependant on the price.....I'd have it anyways!:-D I guess it all comes down to.. how 'fussy' you choose to be over whether it is actually a 'genuine' WW2 Jeep ? .and....as it has been said, before many times on this forum.. ........there are an awful lot of Jeeps out there that are not 'genuine' in that they're actually Hotchkiss Jeeps or CJ2s or whatever that have often been built long after the war was over...... but, that doesn't stop many many folk from displaying them around the country as a 'wartime Jeep' and...the main issue is.......it doesn't stop them enjoying owning a great little vehicle that still looks grand even if it isn't (ahem!).....'the real thing' :-) I'd love to own a Jeep one day... but there'd need to be some serious lowering of the price before I'd be getting the lock off my wallet ! heheheh! and sincere apologies....... I didn't read all that closely how the guy was describing it... fair enough..if the fella IS advertising it as a 'genuine WW2' then yes you're dead right...... ..thats not on...but folks should always rememeber the saying 'buyer beware'........... ....but I'd still have it.....hahah!.. .............and about £3000 grand would seem fair to me !hahahahahah!:cool2: (and PS: he could paint it pink and call it a disguised ex-SAS Sherman tank exactly as used in the Boer War for all I'd care at that price:D)

Cripes! this is one restoration that'll be worth watching for sure! ..hahahah! only joking mate... Seriously now.... Well done for rescuing it/her but what you're gonna do with it now is anyone guess:) ...............and best of luck with identifying what it once was too!!

Personally I wouldn't give a monkies what the horn was ...nor the cylinder head ....nor the radiator ....nor the springs etc etc etc .. Iit looks pretty good to me and to 99.999% of folk out there on the street it'll look just like what it is.... a very nice old WW2 Jeep....So! if you like it... and you got the money in yer pocket and it's more or less the right price ,(and what you pay for her is entirely up to you to decide)............get on and buy it As to the price .......I dunno.. .....anyone can have a stab at the old conundrum of "what it's worth versus what is someone willing to pay....." ...Look on Milweb and elsewhere and you could be forgiven for assuming that anywhere between 8000 and 15000 grand is about right for a WW2 Jeep ..... .....but then again some folk seem to think the same prices apply to a Hotchkiss or anything else built anywhwere between 1946 and 1960 or thereabouts..... .....myself I'd say anywhere between 6 and 10 grand for any such Jeep thats is tidy and running and it'd be a good un...and I guess most folk would say if you got her for that, then you had her 'cheap'........ Personally I wouldn't even entertain the vaguest notion of paying 12 or 14 grand for a Jeep but thats up to you of course......and..........what the hell do I know about it all anyways ! ! hahahaha!

I can't help myself Jeff!.. ..whenever I go past an out of the way junkyard that looks a bit overgrown...or the sight of an obviously WW2 type building hidden away somewhere off the beaten track....a barn thats obviously not seen any attention nor use...or the merest mention ever so slightly overheard in a pub of something along the lines of.. "of course the Yanks abandoned a load of gear down there after the war".........etc etc! one day mate I'm gonna find me something!!!....:cool2:.(probably another rusty Morris 1000)

down here in the Forest of Dean there were many many US camps during the war.....and ..if I had a quid for the number of times I have heard something along the lines of "I know where there's the remains... of a jeep/tank/ammo/guns / airplane etc etc etc".....I'd be proper rich.. ....I'd also have saved myself some kinda miles and some kinda hours of vainly stomping through forests/brambles/nettles from the age of about 10 pretty much up to date......only to find said 'Jeep'/ Tank etc etc was the remains of a Morris 1000 or a very early Ford Transit or something similar......... I remember one particular occasion going on an 'expedition' at about 13 years old with a lad I'd met who swore he'd found an old Jeep in a disused railway cutting..... ....after a mighty long walk during the summer holidays I found myself looking at the very mangled remains of an Austin Somerset with no body left at all except for a couple of dead giveaways....the very rusty bonnet and radiator grill complete with the Austin badge still in place......the steering column still in place on the right hand side.....and the fact that it very visibly had only 2 wheel drive ..... " well I thought it looked a bit like a Jeep" said my mate...... tsk! .............. the search continues though! hahahahah!

the badge is very faded and all I can make out is what I put above sorry! and no, the collar does not have horizontal stitche through it.. any ideas? many thanks anyways!

gotta agree with the above...I got a mate that did about 2 years or so many years ago in the RAF and has had some proper trouble over the last few years and the BL have been incredible with him...they really have helped him out and not just once either... Really hope things pick up for you mate.....but please don't sell them and especially not your beret, that little 'red hat' really does mean something very special mate..... All the best Bob

I had a similar one was whilst watching the first Jurassic Park movie one Xmas with my then very elderly old Nan and all the family........I turned to Nan during the adverts and said " its quite a good idea for a film really Nan because if a scientist really wanted to, he could actually after an awful lot of work actually recreate a dinosaur from DNA" Nan turned to look at me with a paternal look that suggested 'Oh you poor silly boy' and said "Well if dinosaurs had ever really existed I suppose they could ...." priceless. :cheesy:

I know this is off topic and must stress that I certainly do not mean any offence nor disrespect to Withams..but......... can anyone explain to me how the whole Withams system works????? by this I am asking .... .....are Withams an actual government funded/ran agency specifically set up to dispose of MoD kit????? or!......... are they a private company that somehow wound up getting the contract to sell stuff for the government????? or!....... if it is a 'contract'.....how often is it offered out to other companies to 'tender' for the business????? and!....... do Withams sell the item for whatever they can get and give a percentage back to the government for the vehicle? or!....... does Withams just get 'given' the vehicles and are then at liberty to sell them for as much as possible?..then keeping a percentage for themselves for their work in selling it and the rest going to the government????? I'm very confused over this business because how does this current system get a better price than an open public auction like in the old days of Ruddington and Aston Down???? it baffles me as to how they 'aquire' a Challenger tank and set the price required so high??... ....did the government say something like " here have this one that's got no engine but don't let it go cheap mind!...we want at least a 100 grand for it and if you can get some sucker to pay that much, you can keep 20 grand for yourself!" as I said ............off topic so apologies in advance !

know what you mean with everything being a 'Jeep' but I had a slightly differant variation once. .for many years I owned a 1955 series one Landrover heavily modified for AWDC trials.....I'd done a really tidy job of cutting the front wings off so that only the flat 'tops' were left meaning that especially from the front, she did far more resemble a 'Jeep' than a Landrover.... .despite her having a serious suspension lift and competition springs and awesome mud tyres on wide rims and a full rolll cage....and ignoring the fact that she was plastered in mud.... I was asked in all innocence "does it have four wheel drive mate?"......... ........but the best one was probably a 'knowledgable' fella telling me that it was an early Austin Scamp and that the army had them designed especially for them.... ......I muttered summat like "no mate its a series one landrover" but he wasn't having it .....and replied "no they didn't make many of them and people often mistake them for Landrovers but I can assure you its a Scamp" .......now... I've heard of a Champ but a Scamp? My dad would have said "leave it son...you can't educate pork"

.........they're asking for offers of over 100 grand!!!!!!!! and with no engine and gearbox!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????? thanks all the same but........not for me cheers!

hehehehno not a trick question !....I'd just like to know what it is to answer: yep.... its double lined and the colour is I guess more or about olive green maybe a bit lighter a shade of green ???....all pockets are closed by buttons...and the collar is a separate piece stitched on..and yeah its what I'd call proper streaky messy green /black/ muddy brown / kharki camo colour!...also its got an inside pocket on the left as yer wearing it.... It's super warm but does, as someone said above, get very heavy when wet.. and please excuse me but ...whats 'the NSN'?

A few years ago I bought a cracking jacket which looks like bang on the same as the one in the first photo from Nettley Marsh Motorcycle/Auto Jumble which I paid £5.00 quid for... ..the chap had at least 100 of them all the same price...pick through til you found one that fitted. They'd all been repaired at some point in their life but all very well done...mine has about a 12" of obviously newer material stitched into the middle of the back and a couple of very well done patches on the sleeves about 2" square.... .It's an absolutely great jacket and still worn more or less every other day.....the badge stitched inside the shoulder in the centre is very faded and says: Size 2 NATO Size 6070/9500 (or 9509?) then there's summat else that I can't read cos its so faded.... ...Button cuffs not velcro and it's got a 'bum flap' thing, draw string through the bottom hem and through the waist.........and the top pockets are on a slight 'angle' to the jacket.... so..........................whats mine then?

hahaha ! you , me and at least another couple of thousand folk I reckons! .........having said that.....there's a little Museum just along the road heading west from the big US cemetary at Omaha that the fella has some staggering exhibits in ....if you get him chatting you'll find many of them have been found in Normandy... in sheds, barns, lying under hedges etc.....got me quite fuelled when he show me a BAR that was more or less in working order which he very coyly admitted was found 'locally' hidden away in a farm shed only a few years before.....outside the musuem he also had a ramp off a landing craft which had been lying only a mile or so away from his museum til he ...ahem...'saved it'........ ....so the morale of the story is ...none of us know exactly what may still be lying out there somewhere.. maybe not a Tiger ?....but...who knows?.......

Crikey!!!! ..... I'm glad you fellas know what you're looking at when you find stuff like that under a hedge... cos I'd have walked straight by it muttering summat to myself such as... "uh huh....rusted out cattle trough....mmmm...nothing of interest to you there smiffy......move swiftly along now, come on... keep looking for all those Tiger Tanks that must be around here somewhere... nothing to see here...."

thats not the National Guard ....that the Submariners Service I reckon! crikey now that is a bit impressive. ...can't work out how the fellas managed to drive them though, the water must have been up to the cab roof !!

loving the recollections of old bike tests.. ..mine was a bit of laugh too....At the test station I went to the examiner usually followed you around a route on his own motorcycle observing your riding etc....but.....on the day I turned up for my test his bike had broke down.... so.... the tester fella asked if I had any objections to him following me in a car? if so, you could re-arrange your test for another day but ...seeing as I didn't wanna hang about anymore waiting to 'get legal' ....I said "no thats fine by me" and we set off ..... I followed a route that he told me to ....."up to the next roundabout straight over turn, left at the T junction" etc..........and as the traffic was really heavy in that part of town I very easily (and legally and safely) left him way behind after less than a couple of minutes............ I did as he'd asked though and waited for him about 3 miles up the road and sat on the bike having a fag whilst he took another 15 minutes or so to appear.....when he eventually arrived he said something along the lines of... "this is bloody useless son...you seem pretty sensible....do me a U turn here and get the emergency stop done and we'll head on back...." He arrived back at the test station once again at least 10 or 15 minutes or more behind me and said " lovely riding young man ..keep it up and you shouldn't have any problems" Befire he told you if you'd passed or not he always tried the same old trick though... I'd been advised by mates that he'd always ask the same question to every person before finally passing them..." what is sensible clothing to wear on a motorcycle?" and you had no chance of a 'pass' if you remembered everything you could think of but failed to mention "a helmet" ! I made sure I did and replied "well ..I think a helmet is the most important item of all !" ... ...to which the wily old fella gave a subtle little smile and handed over my pass !

fair play mate.... .............by the look of the photos that is some kinda proper restoration going down there....... .......in fact it's not a restoration..it's an absolute and entirely complete reconstruction... and to a way higher standard than it ever came out of Soilihull with...... ..respect !

ooof! fair play ... I consider myself corrected!....after watching that video I'm not doubting it at all & I won't be doing it again.....but.. ..can anyone answer ....how come a bit of heat on the wheel could have that effect ........but... during heavy or prolonged braking when wheels will often get very hot.... .. you don't have the same disaterous results?... hang fire....apparantly it can happen from braking too...............crikey...proper frightened by that video..many thanks for showing it.... I reckon I should do the lottery more cos I must have cut up a couple of hundred lorries in my time and we usually always lamped the wheel nuts off and never had a wheel explode ..but...I won't ever be doing that again I can assure you................ Thanks for the info!

well if they aren't LH thread I wouldn't heap abuse on them with all manner of extended bars etc...cos thats a good way to end up with a snapped wheel stud or a rounded off nut..... .....personally I'd far rather warm them up with a cutting lamp....a bit of heat never fails to work.. mind you..............if they are left hand thread ........you'll be there a while trying to turn em the wrong way..heheheh!