MilitantGraham

I just bought a brand new boxed 24v boiling vessel and a couple of second hand leads at War Wheels, Oswestry, today. I intend to fit it in the Militant, which never had one as standard, so I need to know the wiring connections. I am aware that it draws 50 amps so I can only use it with the engine running, the Militant is fitted with the 90 amp charging system so will keep up with it easily. The four pin plug has got pins marked A,B,C,D. Can someone tell me please how they should be connected ? Are there any special instructions for its use ? Is it simply a matter of filling the outer container with water, putting the food in the inner container and switching on ?

Take the drive belts with you when you get the bulbs from a commercial vehicle parts supplier, they may be able to match them. Failing that, try an agricultural supplier. Farm machinery uses all sorts of odd types of belt. Bearing stockists are another good source, most of them can get any seal, chain or belt to order.

A friend of mine hired his Unimog 404 to the Doctor Who makers recently. He did tell me when the episode featuring his truck was on, but as I haven't got a TV, I missed it. :roll:

Neil, don't plan on buying bulbs at Beltring. For some reason, autojumblers think that 24v bulbs are extremely rare and valuable. Only last weekend at Bromyard Gala, someone was selling 24v 21w bulbs for £1 each. I queried the price, thinking it must be £1 per box of ten. He wasn't very happy when I told him I had recently bought a box of ten 24v 5w bulbs from my local truck spares dealer for £1.40+VAT.

They're all on this page already. http://www.mvt.org.uk/links.htm

Does anyone else remember this, http://p210.ezboard.com/bmvtforums Only 31 messages and they have all disappeared now anyway. I don't think it matters if this becomes the official MVT forum or not, although it would be helpful if there was a link from the MVT site naming it as the preferred (only) unofficial forum. One possible objection might come from those with no internet access not wanting their subs spent on something they get no benefit from. I run the website for the AEC Matador & Militant Owners Club (www.aecmilitant.co.uk/ since you ask) and get free membership in return. If this does become the official MVT forum, I would advise against setting up an exclusive members only section like the EMLRA have done. It's not too difficult for someone who is not a member to find someone who is, to download the top secret stuff on their behalf. :wink:

What ? Like a 1970 AEC Militant ? Just to pick something at random. :-P

Hey, how come they're all american trucks on the header.  How about a picture of an AEC up there. :wink:

I can't remember the price, it's 6 years since I sold the Matador, but I think a 205l drum of OC600 worked out cheaper per litre than a 25l drum of EP90.

I'll be towing a friends Samson on a trailer behind my Militant. We will be camped either with the Twickenham off Road Club by the off road course or with the NLBA.

The towing eye looks much too small. At a guess It looks like it's for a 1" or 1.5" pin, the NATO eye is 3" diameter. The two most common bolt on NATO hitches are the same size, it's the bolt hole pattern that's different. The Land Rover type one has got four bolts in a roughly 4" by 3" rectangle pattern, the Bedford type a roughly 5" square. (I can't remember the exact dimensions).

I got the OC600 for my Matador from Forest Lubricants in Gloucestershire. http://www.forestlubricants.co.uk/ OC600 is thicker than EP90 and probably is about equivalent to EP140, but I think the main difference is its stickiness. Once it has been splashed around the inside of a diff or gearbox it will stay on the surface of all the internal parts for ever. Ordinary gear oil will slowly run down so that if the vehicle is stored for a long time without moving, those parts above the oil level may go rusty.

There's an example of a Land Rover one here. http://www.aecmilitant.co.uk/downloads/tum-ces.pdf

Looks more like the sort of thing that got towed behind a council lorry and left on site as a portable tool store before the days of private contractors. That would explain the 24v lights. The towing eye is not military. Any sign of a convoy light, 12 core electric cable or military chassis plate ? What's under the cabbage & black paint ? Red oxide primer or Council yellow ? :wink:

Does the Heavy recovery service include trailers ? I normally tow a drawbar trailer at 34t GTW and 55' overall length. No problem if the recovery operator is using one of those sliding bogie trailers, they're designed to carry a 44t artic, but what if they turn up with an underlift expecting to do a suspended tow ?

There's no problem with the dog being frightened by the noise of aircraft, she's an Industrial Alsation and used to coming to work with me in a quarry or transport yard. I phoned the RIAT office to check if there were any exceptions to the rule and was told no, it's a military establishment and the only dogs on site are police dogs. I can't remember who told me they had seen pet dogs there last year, I must have got it wrong. Anyway, it's all irrelevant now. I've just found out that the friend who's Samson I was going to tow to Fairford then on down to Beltring has already entered Much Marcle steam rally on the same weekend so I'll be going there with him instead.

I want to enter the military vehicle display at the Air Tattoo. According to the FAQs on http://www.airtattoo.com/, no dogs are allowed on site. I think I can remember being told that there were in fact several pet dogs with display vehicles last year. Should I contact the organisers to get special permission or should I just keep quite and sneak her in in the cab ? What did other people do last year ?

My series One parts book confirms Degsy's reply. The numbers for that model start at 170600001 so they have presumably got the 2376th 86" Home Market Land Rover built in 1955.

When I was a kid I could never understand why a 1/72nd scale model of a railway locomotive that weighed 72 tons didn't weigh 1 ton. It all became clear when I experimented with my Lego and found that if I built a 2x2x2 block it was twice the size of a single block but contained 8 blocks. Therefore a 1/72 model is 1/72x72x72 the volume of the original. There are all sorts of scales when it comes to models. As well as the simple fractions, 1/35, 1/72 etc. there are something to the foot scales like 4mm and 7mm where 4mm or 7mm on the model represents 1 foot on the original. Model railways use letters, Guage 1 = 10mm to the foot, Guage O = 7mm to the foot, HO (Half O) = 3.5mm to the foot etc. Model soldiers use the height of the figures from ground to eye level. 25mm and 54mm are common ones. So a single model could be described as 25mm, 4mm, 1/72nd or OO. They are all very nearly the same.

7.5 tonnes I don't suppose they'd let me count one axle at a time would they ?

Don't believe everything you read on the internet. http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/golf.htm http://www.snopes.com/history/world/cardking.htm http://www.snopes.com/military/statue.htm

Going back to the original Tiger question, I think there is too much emphasis on this one tank too. However, I live near the Severn Valley Railway and I know that no matter how much the true railway enthusiasts complain complain about having stupid faces stuck on the front of the locomotives, the "Thomas Weekends" are some of the busiest of the year. Not quite the same thing I know, but any museum or attraction has to balance its historic aims with simply getting as many paying visitors through the door as it can. For every one like me who wants to crawl under the AEC armoured car to see how the transmission compares to a Matador, there are probably several hundred who just want to see a Tiger tank running. If only the tank museum was a bit closer to Worcestershire. They could count on at least one more volunteer.

I've got most of the publications relating to the AEC Militant Recovery and have never heard of a special tool carried for the Alvis 600 range. It is a common practice for civilian recovery drivers to chain up a damaged axle to keep it clear of the ground when towing a 6 or 8 wheel lorry though. As Kewelde says, I would imagine a REME recovery driver would do the same to avoid having to remove and stow two 14.00/20 wheels and tyres. Specific recovery data for all British military vehicles in service in 1986 is included in REME Recovery Manual available for download at http://www.aecmilitant.co.uk/downloads/recoverymanual.pdf For the Stalwart it says "Remove sunwheels from hubs of wheels in contact with the ground"

I've got several torches. It was always difficult to get them to do any work until I appointed a Head Torch. :roll:

There's a couple of drawings which might be of use here, click on "Drawings" on the left. I was going to go through my various manuals and parts books and put some more stuff like that on the site anyway. I'll try and move it a bit nearer the top of my "To do" list.