Adam Elsdon

:rofl:I just inhaled my cup of tea and spat most of it onto my laptop!!:rofl:

Hello Rich and welcome to the forum! I have just been helping Croc (On this forum) with his new acquisition, an ex AFS Bedford RL, That has the ignition switch on the dashboard and the starter button at the rear of the engine cover, in front of the gearstick. Nice looking trucks Commer Q4's handsome stance to them, with the long bonnet, i havent sat in one, but im sure its easier to get in and out of than the RL! The mileage on yours looks Galactic! just over 5000 miles, crocs has just over 1800, nice of the Home office to leave them in sheds for future collectors!! Do you have any history on yours, Croc has a book listing alot of AFS vehicle registrations and where it was stored or used, if you have the Reg number he can tell you what it says! Good luck with getting it going, fortunately they are simple beasts, just bigger

It was p*ss poor, most of the veterans were soaked through although credit to them, they just stood there and took it, after General Dannetts well considered speech, crash gordon just seemed massively out of place. A shame to our government that for the last official turnout of the Normandy Veterans Association, something a bit more special wasnt put on for them.

An engine oil can?

Could be worse! i keep getting people coming up to me saying my vehicle was blown up! rumour had it that it was in Northern Ireland and the commander was killed in it and that a friend of somebodys mate who is related to his best mates sisters, brother in law was in it at the time, but they have bugger all proof of that. However! Clive reckons that it was never purchased back by the army after its disposal at Ruddington in 1967 going by the records he has! i am inclined to agree So the last show i was at "That was blown up etc i know something about the history of this vehicle" was replied with "What a load of bollocks!" :-D

If you have seen the coverage from the D-Day memorial at Arromanches, it was all pretty sombre and then came 2 spitfires and the Lancaster from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, big cheers and smiles from the old boys........enough said!

Sorry MWarrior for hijacking your thread! normal service will be resumed shortly! Croc has a recently acquired the last AFS Bedford RL G.S. that was sold at Measham, some time ago, i am going up to his place tommorrow and see if we can get it running, its only done 1800 miles, its all taking up room!! i will mention trailers to him, he has a few!! Did you get my PM about Matadors? Now does anybody have good info about Saracen lubrication and what to put into them!! somebody must be able to help out here!! the usual suspects have probably gone over to Normandy.....

It Just gets better! this is from a BBC news article, It seems the government now wanted to handover lottery money to get our veterans to Normandy, only a few short weeks before the event: Downing Street tacitly admitted ministers had misjudged the public mood in refusing to help. But i love the response! Peter Hodge, honorary general secretary of the Normandy Veterans Association, told BBC News: 'There is no way in the world I am going to agree with the National Lottery standing up and saying they sent our veterans to Normandy in the 65th anniversary. 'The people of this country have put the money together and the veterans this year will be going to Normandy with the blessing and the appreciation of the British people and there is no way, that 10 weeks before the kick-off, that they are going to take the credit for this.' Bloody Brilliant!!! :yay::yay::yay:

Thats some continuous load on an engine! Well nothing really changes does it, i was out at Muharraq in Bahrain, next to the new building we were in was a motley load of tin huts, apparently what was left of RAF Muharraq years ago, and out on the pan a pair of Victors....leaking fuel everywhere!! progress my arse!! :rofl::rofl:

Do you think changing to higher detergent oils was the main problem, it seems that it would be lifting any build up of old deposits and pushing it through the journals etc, or was it to do with the speed that a B engine running a generator at near max chat eventually knocking out its bottom end due to lack of lubrication problems. Makes you wonder why they moved away from buying in OMD110.

You sound like youve been busy! Its a sod of alot of lubrication when you get going isnt it! How are you glazing the screen, are you going with the MK1 solution of a frame holding glass with a seal around it, or are you going to hard fix the glass into the aperture using a rubber surround like a standard windscreen, which would certainly keep the weather out, you could really do with some hatches though.

Make sure your vehicle is sorted, dont leave something to chance, i.e the points gap is closing up, the water is leaking from a mushy pipe etc, if its sorted, it wont let go, carry a number of good spares and a bit of a "Bodge" kit, wire, Jubilee clips, speed tape, self amalgamating tape, quiksteel putty etc stuff you can make up, fill, patch and repair until you can get home. I usually have a reasonable tool bag with me, a jerry can of water and a spare can of fuel, just about any MV will be capable of accommodating that level of kit, generally as part of its CES. I have had problems, but have managed to sort them out and get going again, as it happens the problems/niggles are getting less, as they are ironed out with use, and you get more tuned in with the vehicles quirks, and i thoroughly enjoy driving my vehicle to shows, its all part of the event, not a part the punters see, but your own personal pride in a job well done. (Kissing the ground after falling out of your MV in a sweaty heap on returning back home from a show, on a sunday night, in the style of the pope, may be considered the most extreme expression of MV ownership.:-D) Get in and drive it, its a pointless exercise in ownership otherwise. (The exception to this is tracked kit, the logistics of which i can fully understand keeping off of the public highway on the way to a show, so long as its used at the event!)

Aha! forgot you are a colonial! ASDA = Wal-Mart, all probably sourced from the same place, i have no doubt the Wal-Mart version costs less ! The Rolls Royce B series engines were actually designed with oil burning in mind, i think my B60 engine consumes something like 1/4 to 1/2 pint (Imperial) every 100 miles according to the handbook, you could put synthetic in it, but it would be like giving a 30 year old malt whisky to a street bum alcoholic. The detergents were put into oil to hold the particles in suspension, to be picked up by newer designs of oil filter, the big rough and ready cloth filter in the B engines is to catch big bits, the rest of the crud settles in the sump or comes out when drained.

There is much said about what oils you put in them, the original specification oil they were designed to use by Rolls Royce was OMD110 which was a straight 30 without detergent, the particulates going to the sump to be drained away at servicing. As oil chemistry became more advanced with multigrades, the forces also moved with the times and they used 20/50 which i think equates to OMD80, this had detergents! not that they gave a hoot as this was the main engine oil purchased, everything that used OMD110 then went to OMD80. Personally speaking, and im not saying that you must follow this! I use the cheapest ASDA special 20w50 in the Humber Pig (RR B60), it meets the oil standards for its grade and probably exceeds old 30 Mono specs, i think it was a fiver a gallon last time i bought it, your vehicle probably wont be racking up the same mileages under the same stresses that the Army put on your Saracen. It gets topped up using the same stuff, and drained annually, after the initial first flush/change, it comes out pretty clean, i very much doubt the oil has had a hard life, it comes out with the same viscosity as new. I could go out and buy brand name 30W monograde and it would set me back considerably more money, and next year it will be drained into a bucket after little use. Bearing in mind the conditions the vehicle is used, i.e predominantly Spring/Summer light use, low mileage with a bit of Off road work and light towing, i think it is more than suitable. As for the rest of the lubrication, im not sure what it takes, Clive Elliot has done a piece on POL (Petrol Oil Lubricants) in Clives corner, which gives an explanation to the Military codes i.e OMD110 = 30w so just a matter of working out the civvy spec equivalent. If you havent got some form of driver handbook or service manual, it is probably adviseable to get one, as you dont want to be pouring gear oil into something that should be using Hydraulic oil, which i know Saracens use. Good luck!

If you look at the big hangar in the foreground with the large aircraft in front of it in the first picture, you can see it in the camouflaged version, it has had two houses painted on each upper end to give the effect that it is lower than it is, the giveaway is the main hangar door is open to let in a small aircraft.

:thumbsup:

This is one of the best uses of large scale camouflage i have seen, it is the Lockheed Burbank aircraft plant, they were concerned it would be readily visible if the Japanese sent in the bombers, and been a major producer of war materials the US army engineers were brought in to come up with a solution to hide the factory. The finished result was a camouflage job that made it blend with the suburbs around it, leaving some buildings protruding through the greenery, hiding large parts of the production plant and associated roadways, car parks and yards. very clever.

That used a Mk 2/1 cloaking device and had nothing to do with Cam nets, or even Fish nets for a matter of fact!

Have you considered a Humber Pig, about the size of a transit van, but considerably prettier! While not so "Cool" (If you like that sort of thing) you get to put all of your kit inside, where it stays dry, you can also fill them up with 10 of your mates and go to the pub in style. They share the same engine as the Ferret, and are reasonably easy to work on, especially compared to a Ferret which is very tight in the engine bay. Easier to keep than a 432, which is what replaced the Pig in service, as it was brought in as a stop gap Armoured personnel carrier until the 432 turned up. From a practicality and ownership point of view they are great "Starter" armour. My Pig, matching trailer an optional extra!

When i was in the mob i used to use the stuff you tend to find going at surplus stores, green netting with green and brown leafy panels tied to it for the vegetation effect, or desert or white, depending on theatre. How were cam nets constructed in WW2 and up to the present modern day netting. I read somewhere that the early nets had hessian tied into them for covering effect and were then dyed. anybody have any pictures of the correct brit patterns? and how they were constructed?

Getting back on topic!! Now there is a general back lash of public opinion about the Queen not attending, they (the politicians) are starting to worry and are sending out the invites, this story is about Sarkozy asking Prince Charles to attend, with agreement of the Queen but here is an interesting paragraph:_ "Some British veterans, who took part in the 1944 invasion that helped to defeat Hitler's Germany, will also play a part in a number of events planned on 6 June." You would really really hope so! Full story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/8079288.stm

Wouldnt worry about it, probably get shot by their own side, or fragged!

:-d:-d:-d:-d:-d

Cant see it being petrol type, and the carburettor flooding would have to be massive to be getting past the piston rings enough to raise the oil level. Probably a split in the diaphragm, still providing enough fuel to the carb to keep the engine running, but also pumping it into the engine crankcase. Just been playing with a rough running ferret today, would run fine for a short while then cut out, the pipe from the filter, through the pump and up to the carb had a reasonable quantity of grit/sand in it, which we blew out with a compressor,and that has similar access problems as the Saracen, and my Pig has the same pump, but at least i can get to that with after removing a few bits and pieces!

Im going for the buggered diaphragm on the fuel pump, if the oil starts smelling like petrol, dont start it because the crankcase fumes will go bang!