Richard Farrant

:shake::shake::shake::shake::shake: Ahhh, recollect one of those , MF130, belonging to a golf club, damned Frenchie, got the 4 cylinder Perkins 108, nothing like the 3 cylinder engine. Is this now turned into a transport forum? boats, planes, tractors, what next?

Pioneer Weston list seals near to those sizes, in metal case with leather seal ; 5.625 x 6.875 x 0.562 WL665 6.5 x 7.500 x 0.500 WL1078 ( and WRT672, rubber encase seal with dirt lip)

mf 20 ?

:tup:: Cheers Degsy, I've not lost me marbles yet then :-D

Hi Radek, That looks like a Canadian can.

Not sure about TruBlu blue grease, but according to the lable on the blue grease I have from BPW, it should not be mixed with other types of grease. I forget the specific wording.

:-D I was waiting for Catweazle to spot that......no, I meant the termite mound was bigger than a man. Bloody hell, can you imagine a 6 foot termite, bad enough looking out for crocodiles :shake: Yes the airfields, I was surprised how far inland the Japs ventured on bombing raids, Katherine was also hit and of course the port of Darwin suffered badly. It was not until after the war, that people in the rest of the country were made aware of this, apparantly it was kept quiet to keep moral up.

:tup:: Nice one Dave. Industrial version of the 135, memory not so hot, a 2135 I think. Is it yours?

Belarus is a Russian tractor. These MF35 replicas were licence made in Belgrade, Yugoslavia and were known as the IMT539, the engine was a licence built Perkins 3.152 as in the final models of the original ones.

I did my apprenticeship on Massey equipment, back in the Sixties, so am quite familiar with them. The front axle with radius rods was only fitted to 35 and the bonnet is correct to. Only difference is the flat top mudguards.

Reckon that might be one of those licence built Massey Fergie 35 tractors from Yugoslavia, there were a lot seen on the news in the early days of the conflict.

or re-located air tanks ?

That is a good idea Degsy, for those of us not tied to a strict working time :tup:: also saves on electric for lighting

Bernard, Got mine from local factors, it is marketed by BPW, the German trailer axle manufacturer, but I suspect now, that it is TruBlu. Off hand I think I paid about £35 for a tin same size as 5 litre paint can, should last me a while.

That spade was fitted by the Experimental Beach Recovery Section, REME. This section also designed the Hollebone drawbar.

Reading that link, it seemed they experimented with opening it up and inserting a magnet, this confused them :confused: :-D Most of them are taller than a man, incredible stuff, not sure how long it took them to build though.

Mike, Most probably 417th Night Fighter Sqn. They were posted to North Africa. There is a book realting the squadrons history, called "Beaufighters in the night".

:-D:-D:-D Ah....these are no ordinary termite, they are Magnetic ones ! These mounds are accurately aligned North to South, in order to keep a uniform temperature throught out the year, of 30 degs C Check this link; www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s721104.htm

I will go back for another look, trouble is, my Polish is not good, so having trouble navigating the site Thanks Nick :tup::

From Katherine, our next stopover was to be Adelaide River. As normal, my friend Dave, was to be frst away, well in advance of the convoy packets, in order to recce the location of the first stop. As we got back on the Stuart Highway and left Katherine, I could see a rocky outcrop ahead just off the road.......but something did not appear right, to my eyes I could see wheels, lots of them :confused:. As we drew closer, a man was seen sitting on the side of the road.........it all became clear as we pulled up! A road train had gone off the road and overturned, its load was a new Western Star tractor unit and another semi-trailer. The driver told us it had happened a few hours before and "something had run across the road in front of him". As we spoke, a small truck arrived to assist, so we carried on. After about 90 kms, we reached Pine Creek and whilst in a service station refuelling, an Australian Army vehicle pulled in, with four British MP's, apparantly observing the K95 exercise. I finally got my breakfast in the Hard Rock Cafe in Pine Creek......not an official Hard Rock establishment I think, although the logo was a replica! The lunch stop was at the local school, always enjoyable, with the reaction from the kids in these remote places. On of our group, Warren Brown, entertained the kids by drawing cartoons of them. He is a cartoonist for the Daily Telegraph in Sydney, doing the daily cartoon, there would be no politician who had not suffered under his pen! On having our lunch, Dave and I left the school in advance, to check out a remote airfield about 80 kms North. Fenton Airfield was a bomber base during WW2, now part of a large cattle station, permission to visit had been made in advance. Initially the USAAF were based there with B-17 Fortresses in late 1942. Then they had B-24 Liberators there. The Japanese bombed the field on several occasions. The RAAF took over from the USAAF in August 1944 and brought their B-24 aircraft in. Operations from here were aimed at Japanese occupied islands north of Australia. Although the site is now overgrown with trees and vegitation, the runway is still in good order. Signs had been erected to show the locations of varios parts of the airfield. There was an emergency crash strip where damaged aircraft had to land so not to block the main runway, when we located it, some substantial lumps of wrecked Liberators were still there bearing paintwork and markings. Kicking through the dirt found all kinds of items, from radio bits, etc. On leaving the airfield, we had arranged to check in any other convoy vehicles that wanted to visit, to ensure no one got left behind. Whilst stopped on the side of the road, just by a working silver mine, as it happened, we were treated with suspicion by the occupants of a ute, probably locals who had been warned of an infiltration of "Orangelander" forces duing K95. Apparantly, we were reported as the "enemy"! :-D From here we headed off for the night stop at Adelaide Creek, more to follow on that. * As a postscript on my friend, Warren Brown, mentioned earlier, he was one of the organisers of Back To The Track. He came over to England and joined me for the MVT Normandy Tour in 2004. Here he met another Australian, Lang Kidby, they formed a plan there and then to re-enact the famous Peking to Paris Race of 1907. Within a year it was done, with cars as used originally. He is now one of the presenters on Top Gear Australia, which started this month. You never know who you might meet on these sort of events. Photos ; 1. Part of the convoy, at Pine Creek school 2 and 3. Remains of B-24 at Fenton Airfield 4. Magnetic ant hills found in abundance in this area

Time to catch up again, first, two photos to go with the last account, from Mataranka to Katherine. 1. A Fargo truck, from our convoy, crossing the Low Level Bridge near Katherine. The scenery is now changing from desert to more tropical. 2. Our Land Rover in front of a sign warning of Kangaroo 95 exercise movements. Somewhere near Katherine. Click on photos to enlarge

Hi Nick, I think all the photos of the Dingo are one and same vehicle, unless you found something else on the site. At equivalent to £5,184, without engine, gearbox, radiator, engine cover, rear armour and much more, it is unlikely to sell over here, especially when you add the transport costs on. But you never know..........

Bernard, Is that one of those special greases used on HGV trailer hubs? I have come across this being used on the semi-trailers in the yard where I work from, it is made by a German axle manufacturer and is blue coloured, no residual oil in it and a very high melting point. I am now using it on older vehicles which do not have seals adequate for normal modern grease, such as felts, etc.

I find it worse than jetlag, going to be messed up for the week now

I was refering to the tractor units that Jack might be interested in