Adam Elsdon

How did they get it to the yard!

Must be free to a good home as nothing on the website has a price listed!

Chevpol on the button ! its a Goer M-520 an enormous piece of kit which makes a Gama Goat look tiny, seen an advert for two at http://www.exarmyvehicles.co.uk/4x4.htm ross's yard at Girvan, the picture in the advert certainly doesnt convey the monstrous proportions! pity they dont have the wrecker version which sound useful.

Wiki blurb about it-

Caterpillar eventually receive a production contract for 1300 units: 812 M520 cargo-vehicles, 371 M559 tankers and 117 M553 wreckers. Production began in 1972 and lasted through June 1976. When fitted with its own crane, the cargo variant would be designated M877.

Not only did the Caterpillar offer extreme off-road ability, including 20° longitudinal articulation and 30° side-slopes, it was also fully amphibious, using the wheels for propulsion in the water. The rear cargo-bed tailgate and drop-side doors, that allowed rapid discharge of cargo, had watertight seals to preserve the unit's swimming capability. In the US’s involvement in the Vietnam War, the Goer developed a reputation of being able to go where other trucks could not, and it was one of the preferred resupply vehicles after the pre-production units' introduction in 1966. They achieved a 90% availability rate even though spare parts for the Goer were not an official part of the US Army inventory until 1972 [2].

Nevertheless the vehicle's lack of suspension made it too bouncy on hardened surfaces, making most drivers shy away from its 31 mph (50 km/h) top speed. Also its oversize dimensions proved generally awkward, so in the 1980s it was replaced by the Oshkosh Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck series, that combined good on-road behaviour with adequate off-road performance. As the Goers were surplused accordingly, it was done so under a demilitarisition order similar to that of the M151 MUTT jeep. Core components in the steering and driveline were destroyed before the remains of the vehicle were sold off. Consequently only very few vehicles remained in existence, in museums and private collections

Found a website selling these trucks, as it turns out they are reasonably rare, but do you know what it is....

Mk1 Pig Cyprus 1964 with the gloucestershire regiment:-

Getting away from toilet humour for a moment!

What do people use for copying manuals to electronic format, what would you recommend?

I have parts manuals, driver manual etc for Humber Pig, and was considering scanning them, i would have no problem doing this if it was going into an HMVF library.....why dont you charge a small fee to access it, like a library and to regulate the access, and can you watermark electronically, because you can bet your ass it would turn up on e-bay on disk for 20 quid.

Mmm, looks like a good place for a hardware dump, followed by a software wipe!

The previous website i referred to also has a german machine gun, an MG42 i think, belt fed, in reasonable condition considering it was found in the Ardennes in a gun position, what does the vendor do, plot the position, record everything found and give the gun and info to the local museum? put the information out to public information ommitting the exact location for historical reference? no he flogs it on his website for nearly 2000 pounds with an off the cuff description of where it was from.

It is what it is, a theft of history and potentially disturbing grave sites.

Adam, yes I've always had to hacksaw them down. Where images are shown on these sort of items, it is never a very clear view of the exact fitting. Was that standard type if 50s/60s then? They are are bit expensive as I will need 2 pairs.

 

BTW do you need a stop light pressure switch on the pig servo? I have found some at £1.98 although postage costs more than that!

There is that bayonet type, and the "Peg" type that you need the rubber peg to hold it in place, i havent seen another type of fitting with that style of wiper blades, that particular website is quite reasonable, i have seen them at nearly £20 a pair!

Did you find the brake pressure switches on an e-bay shop, i already have one, just need to fit it as my lights are a bit unpredictable with the present switch, very reasonable price was considering buying more but where do you stop! (Brake...stop ....geddit?......i'll get my coat)

Clive, have a look here, they do a range of wipers, they also do them in choice of black/stainless at reasonable price, no idea what the part numbers are.

If they are too long, use a set of tin snips to get them the right length, you then get a decent custom fitted blade for your particular screen!

http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/10-riged-bayonet-fit-ss-or-black-wiper-blade-c-915-p-1-pr-17154.html

What about 15 years TCO/TCC in RAF signals, morse 18Wpm HF systems controller (Chirpsounders and that stuff) Satcoms etc.

Also Global Maritime Distress Safety System (GMDSS) General Operator Certificate for when i was offshore to operate ship stations globally, and i used to fix the police radio equipment and hillsite stuff, until they got Airwave (Encrypted mobile phones!).

Never really had anything to do with amateur radio, apart from helping police raid a house where an amateur radio operator was transmitting on police frequencies trying to pass himself off as a cop, caught red handed!

Found this posted in agrippers pictures of BARV's and LST's, obviously the FV1620's in the foreground coming off of HMS Bastion are of more interest here!

You have the proper gear, the expedition is going as planned then somebody pipes up:-

"This snowcat is fantastic its absolutely unstoppable in snow........."

bugger!

London and the strand in 1955, snow, buses running and little old cars and a weird trike seem to have no problem getting out and about.......

Just read that again, doesnt sound right does it! forgot to mention they had chemical toilets as well :-D

The Green Berets used them at Incirlik air base turkey, they were there to rescue downed pilots in Iraq, pretty spiffy looking things, had padded roll cages covered in cam etc, they also had a bar with pool tables so we introduced them to alcohol abuse brit style!

Just found a new website selling artefacts from battlefields, the following is a rejigged version of part of the original advert to keep the seller I.D. anonymous:

"Recovered at Meautis, near Carentan in the Normandy/Cherbourg Peninsular, The helmet is heavily battle-scarred, showing a direct hit from a rifle or shrapnel on the inside - bursting the metal out."

A WW2 item, found not far from the D-Day beaches, regardless of the nationality of the soldier who may of been wearing it, my own opinion is that it does not deserve to be paraded as a ghoulish trinket of fascination, which is all it ever will be once purchased.

The only thing i can see coming of this is that historic sites will be turned over for profiteering, after all dig it up for free, and sell it for just under 150 quid.

Disgusting.......i would rather donate the money to getting a Veteran over to the D-Day beaches without hesitation than spend it on that.:argh:

There is another convoy flag, which is a black/white flag split in half diagonally which denotes convoy commander.

I have a full set somewhere, will get a pic on here sometime.

I'll see if i can get Paris Hilton and CW fan base to come along and give you a bit of support :-D

If you want to land planes on it (?!) then you are better off with Class 60 trackway, which is designed for that role. Comes in a nice big roll which you can roll up again afterwards.

 

I'm sure I've seen it in the background of a photo of a surplus dealer somewhere - now where was that?

Beat me to it, this stuff would be the trick, it comes in huge rolls, corrugated aluminium, the R.E. used to keep tons of this stuff on RAF airfields for Battle Damage Repair in the event the runways were hit, alot easier to handle, and you may be able to hire this stuff out if a civvy contractor has it.

I think its friendlier on here, mainly because everybody actually owns a vehicle, or has a very close affinity with them, or has a particular area of expertise within the field, i.e. research etc.

It keeps the walter mitty types at bay, they dont stand a chance and they know it, and you are hardly going to get the "Well mine has a bigger engine its a V8 blah blah" when people are on about the Meteor engine they pulled from a Centurion tank on the weekend, if you start bragging about just how big your truck is, there is a very good chance somebody has a much bigger one.:cool2:

hi,

the hindge pin sticking on the back door is to do with age and rust i have several doing the same as long as they are free and plenty of wd40 on them dont worry

You have several!

Adam I'm afraid 05 BK 61 was not one of the pigs that was recovered for use in NI. It was struck off census on 12/9/67 & was not taken on census again.

Excellent, that clears a few things up, which also puts to rest why its in the condition it is, its just had a hard civvy life..... how do you know that it wasnt put back on census, where do you find that information out?

Thats quite some testimony to how strong they built those vehicles, and quite remarkable bordering on a miracle that there wasnt any deaths.

Unfortunately after doing a search at the RLC museum, they didnt have a record card for my vehicle.

All i do know is that the Army sold it off in 1967 at Ruddington, but as anyone with a Pig knows, they then bought loads of them back, for N.I. duties.

Is there any lists of incidents, recording fatalities, i know its bordering on the macabre, but i would like to nail down if my vehicle 05BK61 was involved or not!