Ashcollection

Couple of pictures of ours. A replacement starter has been procured, just need a day to play!

We have one. lovely machine. later type with the ACE AV760 in it AEC axles I believe, Aveling Barford badge on the front, Leyland badge on the back, Scammell LD55 cab.  The last days of the British motor industry Leyland empire. poor thing is outside at the moment, starter motor dead and Clutch slave seals gone. 

well I've got a sentinel tug that was designed to tow the V bombers. don't think our Norfolk roads are wide enough though. because if it was  that easy we bloody would have it haha. 

glad to hear that. 

wouldn't we all love to save it! some things are just not practical though. I hope someone saves the tail at least.

7 hours ago, Tony B said:

Yes but now manufactures have to sell the new widget evry month just to keep share holders and Early Adopters happy. 

thats a political issue about keeping the great unwashed masses in work and the pension schemes going to keep paying all the retired people.  not much to do with our hobby. 

2 minutes ago, radiomike7 said:

That's called letting the customer do your R&D.

yes the best way, "user trials" the user can find ways to break things the engineers would never have thought of!. been there haha. I designed a piece of kit once that was perfect in our eyes, all high tech bells and whistles etc, it came back split in half and scratched to buggery. What the user had done was in an emergency situation he rolled the unit over and used the top heat shield as a shovel. I never in my wildest dreams thought anyone would do that. so beefed it up, extended and curved the front edge of the shield and gave him duel use. then as expected they never came across that emergency situation ever again haha. 

11 hours ago, Tony B said:

Trouble is ,  where will all the rare earths and virgin copper nessacary to make all the Green Buses come from? I'm driving a bus now with well over 760,000 km on it,  A Plaxton Bododed Volvo Low floor , known as a Pevil, 😀 I was driving them fifteen years ago when they were new.   If on my normal school run I carry an average load of 77 on an 83 capacity vehicle, consevitvly I'm replacing 35 individual car runs. So in the two trips thats 70 lesss car journeys. And!! The carbon cost of at least one new bus has been saved, and the recycling carbon cost, what is not mentioned  by the Gabbling Masses, Recycling produces carbon and other pollutants. So what is wrong with keeping older vehicles on the road? You save on the raw material of new vehicles, and cut down waste by using slavaged or recon parts.  Any way where are they going to get people to drive all these new services?

 

yes. thats why Hydrogen fuel is a better option, you can fit a motor, smaller battery and fuel cell and tanks to anything

20 hours ago, radiomike7 said:

We have 6 Scania 9litre CNG tractors on trial at work, the drivers don't like them and they are costly in maintenance as they need an oil change and expensive spark plugs every 5/6 weeks.  Until recently we had to drive them a round trip of 65 miles just to fill them up at the nearest gas station.

thats what trials are for, after a few versions they will love driving them, or at least not notice the difference

13 hours ago, johann morris said:

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/jaguar-land-rover-turning-fuel-102000547.html?

Spot on! stop turning the wind turbines off when the whole sale electricity price drops and make hydrogen instead.

17 hours ago, Simon D said:

Thank you for responding Richard, I may be “sorted” but will note that you could have a roller assembly. I have straightened and trued up my bent arms so should be ok there.

I was interested to read your response to the thread about difficulties which might be put in the way of our enjoyment of our hobby/interests. You must have a hell of a big shed to house 70 plus units ! Hence the name “ Ashcollection “ !

Best Wishes

Simon D

hi Simon, no problem, most of us on here are engineers or closely related to the "art form" so have a pretty pragmatic approach to the future, personally I see a whole load of opportunities, ok shows might be fewer and smaller, but we will still do our thing, as long as we are helpful to the changing situation and don't become a load of stick in the mud luddites, it will be ok, if we don't then the general public will turn against the hobby.

On 2/4/2020 at 9:09 PM, Simon D said:

Thank you Mr Hampton ? Nrhampton. I get confused by names which are not names ! 

Anyway, thank you for your response. I am waiting to see if RICHARD in Norfolk has found what he thinks he may have. In the meantime, what would be the cost of one of your roller assemblies ?  I have straightened  and trued up the arm so only need the rollers.

Where are you , and do you have various other spares ?

Thanks

Simon Duff

hi Simon, I've only just got round to looking at the winch and the arm and roller is bent on this one as well, looking at the other posts it looks like you have found one.  

On 2/7/2020 at 11:22 PM, ruxy said:

Almost every evening when the BBC national & local  (NE & Cumbria) news is on , my wife requests that I leave the room for  'chuntering'  about the NON-news (propaganda) content.  This evening , there was a "campaign report" for the benefit of a firm based at what was known as ICI Wilton Works - their plant is idle due to lack of demand for Bio-Ethanol (in this case produced from grain).  The commenturd  stated that if the government forced through a rise from 5% to 10% content within 'petrol'  (E5 to E10)  then that would remove the equivalent of  700,000  cars from the public highway .   MV enthusiasts + all other motoring enthusiasts have little clout in comparison to such power groups of private enterprise that demand and obtain free airing of the way they see it, on the state regulated news that I have to pay a license for  !

so are you against the Bio Ethanol or for it? I cant quite tell from the post. 

1 hour ago, Pete Ashby said:

Having just re read this thread I'm aware that I have gone off on something of a tangent from the original question posed by DFC1943Fl Lt which was as follows:

 My question is what will happen to all our military vehicles. Will this mean the end of our rallies to shows and the enjoyment of showing them off to the general public. Will we have to transport the vehicles everywhere. Will there be a concession brought in to allow us to still drive the MV's on the road. If not, there will be an awful lot of military vehicles for sale 

Fair question and one that is more complex to answer than at first glance I think having thought about it a bit I'll give my perspective bearing in mind it is from observations and information available at this point in time,  as others have noted the situation is now moving faster than anticipated.

So to break your question down into digestible chunks :

My question is what will happen to all our military vehicles?, I'm not sure,  it is wholly dependent on the individuals motivation for owning them I suspect.  People come in all shapes and sizes and so too are the reasons for owning and collecting MV's,  is it  a social thing?  is it the historical aspect?  could it be a family connection?  or is it just for the pleasure of driving them or for the majority I suspect  a combination of all those factors. So it will depend on the individuals primary motivation as to whether they sell up at a knock down price  and move onto to something new or stick with it.

Will this mean the end of our rallies to shows and the enjoyment of showing them off to the general public? Will there be a concession brought in to allow us to still drive the MV's on the road. .  The point to bear in mind here is this impacts on all forms of classic and vintage road  transport that uses the internal combustion engine it's not just us in the MV world it's the rows of shiny cars, vintage tractors, classic commercials and the motor bikes.  Taken at face value the answer would have to be... 'yes that's it boys pack up and go home'.....  but I think the movement as a whole is large enough to warrant small scale commercial interest in supplying fuel  although for various reasons not necessarily in it's current form.  Vintage transport shows still seem as popular with the ice cream licking public as ever they were so I would hope any Government would  not take the unpopular step of turning it's back on this countries motoring history, although we live in strange time politically and perhaps the public would just slump onto the sofa and reach for the game boy or mobile phone instead. 

Will we have to transport the vehicles everywhere? That predisposes that you have an electric transport vehicle able to carry them which currently (pun not intended ) does not exist.

If not, there will be an awful lot of military vehicles for sale , Yes and no,  back really to my point at the top of this answer to you where I pose the question about the individuals motivation some will sell and move on others will convert to other forms of fuel and still others will shut the doors on their workshops and go in occasionally to sit in their beloved vehicle and smell the smells of canvas, oil  and rubber and dream of the good old days.  Will it impact the market values probably I think is the answer to that one,  does it matter? I suppose it does if your motivation is just to keep it as an appreciating asset.

So there you go that's my take after 47 years of collecting and restoring MV's for what it's worth.  A good thought provoking question that will effect younger collectors significantly and to which I don't think there are any definite answers currently, which neatly ties in with some of the other discussion I and several others have had at the expense of your original question. 

Pete

 

. 

Yes we have strayed from the point, it was a simple question but there are a whole range of things that will affect the future once you get into how we can keep them running and that unfortunately includes politics.

As for show, I think there will be less and smaller in the future, on any given weekend in the summer there are hundreds and several clash badly, but it is what it is, I would personally only exhibit at more local ones, down to cost and time.

Probably a lot of the people who own something just as an investment with no historical, family or emotional attachment will disappear from the "hobby" that may be good? not sure. Those of us who love them will keep then weather we can use them or not.

Transport to shows, well electric heavy goods are dam close already. again here we can go into the electric V hydrogen debate, also why not fit a nice new electric drive from a bus to your truck. there is a perfect unit that would drop right in the middle pair of bevel boxes on any Alvis 6 wheeler right now. and the tech is moving fast, all the parts we need will be available 2nd hand in 10 years from breakers yards, we just need to learn electronics and control systems.

awful lot of military vehicles for sale? well the ones no one want will end up in the scrap pile, the rest will be cheaper for idiots like me who already have too many!

Our younger collectors will probably come into the hobby thinking nothing of stripping a crashed Tesla and using the parts in another vehicle, the same as our grandfathers did with steam and we do with those dam new fangled internal combustion engines.

The hobby won't die it will just change.

minor point. energy saving will play a big role too. just did a quick calc. over the last 3 years we have replaced all the strip light bulbs in the factory with led ones as the old ones went wrong. that saves me 4.2kw/h on a 12 hour day so 50.5kw. thats enough to fully recharge my electric car. and yes the led ones do last longer so far the 3 year old ones are still good. never had a standard one last that long in a machine shop before.

1 minute ago, Mk3iain said:

There are technical issues and challenges with all the options and all are evolving.  Its all down too where the research money goes and what is driven by government.

None should be dismissed as perhaps the future is a mix of all.

 

Iain

Yes and evolving fast. trouble is everyone is hung up on electric. bit like a few years back the government pushed Diesel to reduce Co2 emissions totally forgetting about all the other stuff in diesel. The future will defiantly be a mix, as things will become more localised. 8-10 years ago round me all we had was the national grid. now we ourselves have 70KW generation, there are 4 large digesters within 10 miles, about 150 acres of solar and 2 straw/chicken shit power stations. and god know how many Mw off the coast 40 miles away. all we need are 100 odd medium size bio diesel plants, farmers co-ops could do that, and a couple of dozen hydrogen big plants round the coast. job done. 

7 minutes ago, Pete Ashby said:

Hydrogen is without doubt the answer there is a limitless supply all around us and it is a truly renewable energy source,  burn it in air and it produces water plus perhaps a few compounds of Nitrogen and some pollutants from the lubrication system of course.

The key is getting the whole highly explosive mass safely contained in a fuel cell that will not breach in an accident it should not be that hard to do I would suggest and would have the added bonus of not having to relay on other countries fora  primary energy source in the form of Li.  

Pete

Exactly. we can make it here in the uk and it's limitless. I'd happily have a big fuel cell generator to run my machine shop, (not a hobby shop) I mean a proper one. we currently have 50kw of solar and 20kw of wind and I still spend £15-20k a year on electricity. the fuel containers for vehicles for hydrogen have been tested, burnt, dropped, run over impacted and its all good. The biggest problem to over come in everyday use is people being idiots. but maybe we let Darwin take over there haha.

no it doesn't have to be fuel cells tech, running a conventional engine of pure hydrogen would bring a whole new load of issues though. as I mentioned earlier Bio fuels will cover out diesel engines.

its seems we all prefer the use of hydrogen over full electric. there is still time for that to happen. fuel cells are getting better as well as batteries, they just aren't getting the press they deserve. 

yes there is a big problem with the subsidy system at the moment, the government don't understand business and the greed factor at all! only got to look at the grants for first time house buyers and the massive profits that permission homes made for building shit houses! big business has different driving factors to most of us! lots of turbines get turned off as the rate they get paid for the electricity goes up and down, due to demand as well, thats why I like hydrogen. all the excess electricity could be used in hydrogen production, then you can just go to a filling station and run you "electric" car on hydrogen, fill time no different than filling with diesel, and still get your 4-500miles per tank.

Same here Ruxy, east of England all the village stations went years ago, the mid placed ones and lots of the town ones are now "hand car wash establishments" you just have the super markets in towns and the big boys on the A roads. Wales must be lucky, like being here in the 1970's but more hills. and I agree Johann Morris. lots has to be sorted out, and right now electric does not suit many people. I have an electric car but my vans are all diesel and I have a bigger diesel estate car as well, it's horses for courses. but if you had grabbed the government grant for solar and had a load  fitted at yours, then bought a tesla which has a good a mileage as any diesel, taken the time to spread the word so that tesla sold more cars then they gave you a free power wall, that would run you house all night and re-charge you car, than you'd find you hadn't been bent over and shafted, but you'd have saved thousands over time, but if you do nothing until you are forced to you will feel shafted. 

you got a Steyr 1500a? lucky man.

there will always be a solution, bit it will cost us more, I've got over 70 pieces of kit in my collection and I'm well aware of the fact that some I will never drive, and they will go down in value. but thats not why I do it. I'm into green tech. I studied it in the mid 90's. Yes bio diesel as a cottage industry will cover us for diesel, but it will be regulated and have to be carbon offset I'd guess. but I have no problem with that, LNG will be used for a long time to come as its safer for the environment to burn it than let into the atmosphere. As for electric, I agree that we should be using the excess electricity in the grid to make hydrogen and push fuel cell tech in cars rather than full electric. The lithium should be used for household power cells and solar on new houses compulsory. And with the new battery tech that should be on the market in the next few years the problems should solve themselves, as long as the big boys and vested interests in oil and lithium don't F'k it up. long term my petrol lorries can be converted to diesel and run bio, my smaller petrol vehicles can be LNG or some can convert to electric. We spent thousands and years restoring these old beauties (in our eyes) whats a bit more cash and a another year at the end of the day. no worries. Don't fear change, embrace it, enjoy it and make money out of it.

Yes its a ban on production of new petrol and diesel cars, and I have no problem with that, the thing that might affect many people is towns and cities banning or taxing them off the roads in certain areas, in principle again a good idea. What will hurt us long term is the reduction in the availability of fuel and its predictable massive increase in price. in our hobby we also need to be thinking of alternatives to fossil fuels, there's bio diesel and bio ethanol, it just needs a few tweak's to suit our old pumps and carbs, or we need to look at new seals and modifying our engines. We need to start thinking about being proactive before we become seen as part of the problem, bearing in mind a lot of people think we are odd before we start. 

hi Simon

I'm right the other side of the country in Norfolk. I will have a look on the winch and see if that part is ok. 

yours

Richard

put up a picture of the head stamp, that will have all the info on it to identify it.