Richard Farrant

a few more slats than in that picture I think, will confirm markings.

Will try and get a photo, .... if I remember :undecided:

The QL appears to have an early Bedford diesel fitted, think it must be a 4 cyl version.

I have two of these in the back of the lorry with wartime dates, not sure of precise markings now.

Hi Rob, Sorry I missed you, kept intending to go up for a chat, then got waylaid again, finally went to look and you had gone. Good show and gets better every year. The Saturday night entertainment was excellent. cheers Richard

A great weekend at the Farriers Arms 40's event, a good number of MV's turned up. On Saturday we were fortunate to have Rob Davies perform a spirited air display in the P-51 Mustang "Janie". One of those relaxing events with good entertainment both during the day and on Saturday evening.

Myself and friends have been taking our vehicles there since it started, so we will be there. No need to worry about a pitch, plenty of room. Good entertainment and excellent food. Pub brews its own beer too.

Thanks Bill, The QL looks more authentic now with the covering of dust! Actually I worked it out that Kitcheners is a shorter distance to the epicentre (Grandstand area) than if we had been in Quiet camping or one of those other areas, and a nice walk along the main straight. With grass, the field will be more hospitable, but the incessant driving around it by some, gave rise to the persistant dust clouds which entered every corner of our vehicles and tents!

No problem Wally, actually I realised that I had not mentioned where the info came from and your post reminded me to put it on. As a point of note, the B Range engines were not 100% waterproof. If the engine stopped, water can enter the sump through the rear main, I have seen it happen on several occasions.

What may have happened was that due to greater piston skirt clearances, there was an oil burning issue. This might also have been made worse with the new spec HD30 oil, although it obviously did not affect all of our MV fleet otherwise the war machine would have ground to a halt. The new rings that I mentioned would have had a stronger "springiness", no difference in clearances as far as I can see.

Hi Wally, The information I quoted is all straight from the Austin K5 workshop manual. It is not caused by wading, but due to precautions on engine building for vehicles designated to wade.

This subject has come for discussion in the past and I remember taking part. A couple of points that do not appear to have been noticed so far on the K5 engines, as follows; Piston skirt clearance was increased from .0025" - .0028" to .004" - .0045" to make engines with new pistons immediately suitable for wading through water without fear of seizure. Pistons with original smaller clearance can be used for engines of vehicles which it is known will not be called upon for wading. I would guess that vehicles built for wading with greater piston clearance could have been the ones causing the problems, this may have caused panic at the time and all K5's were considered a problem as it may not have been known how to identify which engines were wading types. Also there were modified compression and scraper rings which exerted greater pressure on the cylinder walls, these were actually marked HD30 and had to be fitted the correct way up. regards, Richard

Hi Bill, That is my Bedford QL that you photographed on post 3. The Bedford MW on post 2 belongs to a friend, I re-sprayed it for him a few weeks previous. Thanks for posting them. regards, Richard

Bill, For 200 miles that quote sounds a bit high. Ring around low loader operators to see if you can get it on a back load. Where is it coming from and to?

It rests in the valley of the bus bar

Hi Chris, No pictures readily to hand, but I seem to remember there is a pic of the blanking plate fitted in one of the drivers handbooks. Very simple to make too. Regards Richard

Hi Chris,The two loops at the rear edge are for the radiator blanking plate to strap to when in use. The others are to secure a Bren gun tripod.Regards Richard

There was no way I could not watch them. ...... if I am a bit late getting to W&P you know why, servicing on the wagon was held up.

Where I work, about 10 miles South of Ashford, there is wide open countryside, often get the RAF doing low level flying though there, but today was different. This morning a lone Spitfire flew over low, heading towards Lydd. In the afternoon I heard a drone and saw a tight formation of 3 Spitfires go by, as I watched them I was aware that they were turning back and that a helicopter was hovering above them no far away, then time and time again they would sweep by, passing under and over the helicopter from all angles. This went on for at least 30 mins ............ work had to stop. Later on I saw the helicopter had returned and that it had a large remote camera on the nose, soon the Spitfires returned only this time they were doing the works, big loops all in the same tight formation, coming over us on every pass, another 30mins or so. I seems these were The Horsemen who are making their debut as a Spitfire display team at Duxford this weekend, check out this link; http://www.airshows.org.uk/news/2013/06/airshow-news-a-worldwide-debut-an%E2%80%8Bd-some-1940s-nostalg%E2%80%8Bia-at-the-flying-leg%E2%80%8Bends-air-show%E2%80%8B/

hi Oily, I have pasted the post re EMER's on here: I am not able to scan you a picture at present, but if you look in EMER V613 Chapter 4, page 3, Figure 1 shows it in use and also Page 5, Figure 4. There is a bar across the top face of box with a rod of 1.4" diameter rounded on the end. There should be a pinch bolt on the bar to hold the rod in position when you take it out to measure the height.

Oily, The bands are unable to self adjust if the trigger on the auto adjuster does not meet the square headed bolt on the band. you can check all this out with the lid off the box and see if this is the problem. Then the bands can be reset and the bolts. Once done the procedure is to turn back the adjuster a quarter turn and pedal up again, the adjuster should stop at the previous position, if not, minor adjustments are made. It is all in the EMER section I quoted for the measuring tool. Richard

Hi Oily, I am not able to scan you a picture at present, but if you look in EMER V613 Chapter 4, page 3, Figure 1 shows it in use and also Page 5, Figure 4. There is a bar across the top face of box with a rod of 1.4" diameter rounded on the end. There should be a pinch bolt on the bar to hold the rod in position when you take it out to measure the height. regards, Richard

That's the easy one to find, there are a few more in the back lanes!

Oily, You can easily make one. Mine I have used on Dingo, Fox, Ferret and Saracen. Cannot recollect the dimensions except for the rod which was a piece of 1/4" silver steel rod, rounded at bottom end, the rod passes through a steel bar across the top of the gearbox, with a lock screw to lock the rod in place.

Wally, your description of milk chocolate, that is exactly like the original paint colour I found on the armoured car and have now had mixed for me. I am looking at a sample I painted right now, no better description. In the Military Training Pamphlet No.46 covering Camouflage, the SCC numbers were given descriptions such as; SCC 1 Brown SCC 1A Very dark brown SCC 2 Cup of coffee and milk SCC 3 Cup of tea SCC 4 Cup of weak tea and further on.. SCC 8 Mid green (rather dangerous) SCC 9 Light green (very dangerous) SCC 10 Useful dull red