gritineye

Yes please GPS, could you post them all in the Explorer gallery, so they go in the index when I get round to updating it. I'm sure there is a Quo Vardis still around somewhere, but it may be a pioneer, anyone know? Second Explorer has Quo Vardis on the cab, not very clear in this copy, maybe a popular name at the time, this pic is Korea.

You can buy this pic on ebay if you want to, they're not really rare beasts, they just disguise themselves as traffic cones and park amongst them so becoming invisible! http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380121457536&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:GB:1123

Don't forget the beauty of the whole contraption, Scammell owners have a good eye for the perfect mechanical form! Those air actuators are so ugly! :-D

Never looked at one of those Mike, any pix? I think air was a bit of a new thing in 1927, and buyers where a conservative lot then. The single air servo is up on the chassis, the bent rod you are looking at is a cable, the fulcrum that looks crooked is a compensator of which there are two, it moves to even out the pull. Never heard of anyone ripping any bits off (in peacetime at least!) PS. don't forget the beauty of the whole contraption, Scammell owners have a good eye for the perfect mechanical form! :-D

No offense Jimh, but I feel that I have to stick up for Oliver North here, he designed a rod and cable braking system in 1927, made it work on a bogey axle where any of the four wheels can be 2ft above the other diagonally, rotating in a 2ft radius around the axle center line, and where the wheels rise and fall in a vertical plane, with a diff casting in the way, and all this without any sign of the brakes dragging or applying unevenly. Gets my vote as a pretty good sort of bloke to have in a design team, no computers then either, pencil, paper and a good brain! This is a proven design that saw service from the first prototype right through till now, probably badly maintained in latter years too, nothing is wrong with it, if it wasn't so good some one would have started modifying them by now, any ideas how it could be improved would be of interest...................................:coffee:

This K2 doing the London to Brighton run on Sunday Something went wrong...

Found a little bit more about these bugs, the top pic in my last post is not one of these, it is another failed prototype by another manufacturer. The fourth one down is in fact a Standard Beverette, after the body had been hacked off a bit, can't remember where I found those pix but the info with them was wrong, it is a much bigger thing altogether! That Beverette was later restored to it's original appearance by Cyril Groombridge, no doubt beavering away in the dingy Nissen hut he had for a workshop then! The bottom two pix are of the very first two wheel drive prototype, hence grippy tyres on the rear only. Here are a couple more pix, first and third with the proposed "Farmers General Purpose" :shocked: bodywork, looks like wood by the way the door hinges are screwed on? But registered for the road, and looks longer wheel base The second looks like actual military testing, are they grinning or gritting their teeth? One of the six made had a Triumph Mayflower engine fitted and a bench front seat, the tyres are 7.50 x 10 smooth aero type that have been re-cut.

Well done Tim, we waited just above Clayton to get a video of you all but decided you must have broken down beyond repair, by then the traffic was backed up to Pycombe so we didn't think it was worth the effort to go in! Big mistake! :-( would have loved to cheer you in. Here's one I did manage to catch, you may know it. Something went wrong...

I was sure you would have thought of all that Chris, but as this can be read by the uninitiated I felt a word of caution wouldn't go amiss.

Just a word of caution chaps, very few re-engine jobs I have seen have the locating arms in place. It's probably ok to have the fan that close if the Explorer has a Meadows diesel fitted as the original engine locating arms have most likely been refitted to stop fore and aft engine movement. These not only make the clutch linkage more precise they will stop the forward motion of the engine tearing the couplings apart in the case of a sudden stop like a cross rut. Most off road vehicles have a space and a cowl to avoid fan into rad problems. Just trying to help, people often don't think of the off road aspect as they have no intention of going there...........................but we have ways of making you :-D

Come and say Hi, I was going to take Forceful but his force is somewhat diminished somewhat after a hard days turret totty luring today on Eastbourne seafront:sweat:

33mm??...:shocked: wash your mouth out, this is a British restoration you're doing Will!

Usually south of Hassocks, Clayton hill area, depends on parking.

Good work Andy, glad you're still smiling!

We'll be about, silver Ducato campervan, somewhere along the route..............kettle will be on:coffee:

Here's one you may remember Andy, had a Rover V8 in it, the front axle kept knocking the filter off so he (sorry name escapes me, it's not Batman, even if the passenger is obviously Robin) just wiped the sand off it on his jeans and screwed it bock on! As you say those were the days.........:banana:

Hi Andy, still waiting for my LWB rims, must be 100 years ago!!......................................................:banghead: Bernard (Team Muddler)

I don't know the definition of a caravan, but a 'living van' is considered to be an unladen trailer as long as it contains only personal effects, and nothing else. I researched this to confirm it many years ago but don't have the sources to hand now. "living van" means a vehicle whether mechanically propelled or not which is used as living accommodation by one or more persons, and which is also used for the carriage of goods or burden which are not needed by such one or more persons for the purpose of their residence in the vehicle. some good info here, not specific to us but possibly makes things clearer?? http://www.ukmotorhomes.net/motorhome-mot.shtml

Your local agricultural engineers may keep the vintage 140 gear oil for their stubborn old customers who won't give up their Fordson Majors etc. I get mine there.

It's one of those bumpers again! Pushing its way out should be no problem...............:coffee:

Last I heard of mine was it was going to Scandinavia with a team of competitive sled dogs aboard, as good a use as any, it would be well suited to the job!

I was just about to send a link to a thread on this forum to a friend, and then realized that unless he registered to join he would not have been able to see the directly uploaded pix, only the Photobucket ones. Maybe this is why a lot join but do not post at all.

I have a magazine somewhere with an article telling how it was used to recover a dredger that was sinking due to the owners not wanting to sacrifice the suction hose, while they were waiting for 1/2 a mile of rope to arrive and got rigged up, it sank over night as predicted but it was pulled off the bottom by this Scammell and another wrecker, can't remember what though.

Quite right Richard, it is one of 6 evaluation builds, They didn't fair too well, from what I remember only one was reckoned to have survived unscathed, one had a bent chassis (a downwards kink just behind the cab) one had transmission problems, one was robbed to repair the others, mine seemed Ok but the starter motor packed up due to being full of wet sand, replaced from the donor. After I sold it I heard the transfer box chains and sprockets gave up and had to be replaced (£300 + in parts) most had worn out tyres and I had to haggle for a good set off the donor. http://www.lrm.co.uk/Archive%20Index/Military/Singin%27%20the%20Blues/singintheblues.html The ambiance :rofl:inside was well suited to a camper and I still regret selling it but, but as my wife would have had to use it for work sometimes visiting and running clients about, (she works in a solicitors office), it was sold to finance a more conventional camper van.

This was our plan too, :-( Are you sure? see below Well then I'm a vandal too, took it all out, but I still have the hydraulics to raise an lower the top stretchers in a clever parallelogram sort of fashion. Quite right Degsy, it was about 6 months old around 6,000 miles :shake::shake::shake::shake: Was already a bit rare, not noticed the right hand drive? And the non military seat? Again quite right, Paid around £12,000 ish. Cost you lot around £60,000 when new! You are on the right track there Bastion, built to nearly do duty in Britain. Come on you lot who knows it's history, where's CW got too, he will know!