croc

Time to start the rebuild. Some of mine playing in the snow.

Sh*t, as they say, happens. I can only sympathise with the admin team, who must spend hours of their time to look after this site and keep us lot under some sort of "control". If we had all payed a subscription to the site we might be entitled to a whinge, but as a free site we should thank the guys for getting it back up so quickly in as good a state as it is. Yes, it's a pity so much was lost, but lets get over it and start posting again. Steve.

these may be of interest, one made me laugh.... :-D http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/PMClarkson/ http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/remembermonday/ http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Classic-Cars/ http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/reducefuelduty/ http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ClassicRoadTax/

As promised, pictures of army gipsys... 20 mark4 Gipsys (15 SWB, 5 LWB) were supplied to the army for evaluation. There were various modifications from the civilian version such as heavier gauge steel for both the body and chassis and military wiring, lights etc. The final report was very favorable but came too late as the Gipsy became a casualty of British Leyland :angry: As far as I know there are only 2 complete ones left, and another chassis with a standard body. First up, Mike Gilberts SWB (The second picture is at the Kemble MVT show in 2004. The Champ Club had invited the Gipsy club to the rally.) http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/944/img0623nz8.jpg[/img] http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/9899/1050600imggb7.jpg[/img] Mike has also got this very original LWB which he is "helping" his grandson Shawn to restore. http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/3088/img0619gk7.jpg[/img] http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/6227/img0620xm3.jpg[/img] finally, Roger Crawshaw owns this one which has a military chassis. http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/2449/8320060624097oa0.jpg[/img]

It is a mistake to think in terms of military and civvie here, they are imperial or metric. When you are deciding which tyres to use you need to decide what you expect of them. An imperial sized tyre has a 100% sidewall to tread ratio so you get a tall tyre for the width, this has advantages off road like clearance, cutting through mud or snow and having a decent steering lock. On the road you will have a smaller contact area on the road than the same height metric tyre, this makes steering slightly lighter and rolling resistance slightly less, in theory this would give better economy but probably not noticable in practice. On the downside the tall sidewall gives less stability when cornering and the narrow contact area gives less grip in the wet. Metric tyres have the lower profile which helps on the road but off road the wider lower tyres don't work as well. As most people spend most of there time on the road metric has become the standard fitment, however, Land Rover still list 7.50x16 as an option on new Defenders and they are available if you look for them. A last point, when you get your tyre the rim it is mounted on affects its inflated shape. For example, the swb landrover rim is narrower than the lwb landrover rim so the same tyre would appear wider on the wider rim. http://www.landrover.com/gb/en/Vehicles/Defender07/Specifications/Defender_features_and_options.htm?route=_gb_en_Vehicles_overview@__link__ContextLink_4_4#tableheading1 http://www.colwaytyres.co.uk/ctraxat.htm

If you want one I can let you know if any come up, I have got enough now.... http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/6822/img0246qn5.jpg[/img]

It is indeed a LEYLAND 0680 POWER PLUS why keep quiet about it :-D can't be doing with petrol economy and whilst it is off the road it can run on the red stuff! That gipsy is petrol but the one I run as a daily motor is a 2.5 BMC which is the logical upgrade from the 2.2 BMC original engine.

Then we went off roading.... http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/434/img0758og5.jpg[/img] http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/3716/img0756id7.jpg[/img] http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/2271/img0754ut4.jpg[/img]

Adam brought the pig up to my house yesterday, so I hung it on the back of the Scammell..... Hung Bacon http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/5641/img0747gw1.jpg[/img] Adam and Pig http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/8186/img0750gg8.jpg[/img] Pigs bottom http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/3867/img0752mk6.jpg[/img]

Steve Adamson ere, Adam Elsdon got me to join the forum, so blame him, I can also see a couple of names I recognise from the GDSF forum. I have been into Austin Gipsys for many years, and do a few of the military shows up here in Scotland. Whilst not really a military vehicle I have a few ex home office Gipsys so I recon they are as military as a Bedford Green Goddess! http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/1391/img0254ey9.jpg[/img] I have also wanted a Scammell Explorer for years, finally managed to get one a couple of months ago.

Almost, ;-) the one in the picture is a G4M10 FL (flexi) if you look it has the suspension unit below the front bumper. the leaf sprung version would be 'SE' (semi eliptic)

The Gipsy was produced from '58 to '68 with production running to just over 22000. The mark 1 was produced as a 90" wheelbase with 'Flexitor' independent suspension. The mark 2 was introduced in 1960 and added a LWB 111" to the range with Flexitor front suspension and leaf springs at the back. For some reason there was never a mark 3 but the mark 4 was introduced in 1963 with leaf springs all round, however the Flexitor suspension was an option until 1965. They were built as a civilian vehicle but the Home Office did buy them in large numbers. A special version was trialled for the army. The results were favorable but too late to save them from British Leyland cuts in 1968. I know of 2 remaining complete Army Gipsys, a SWB (of 15 made) and a LWB (of 5 made) I will post pictures when I work out how...

I think that means me......