Adam Elsdon

Quite right, it looked like a very nice truck, alot of quality vehicle for the money, compare it with a modernish defender, 7K wouldnt get you anything particularly special.

Another Explorer owner! watch out for people telling you how you should park your vehicle at the clubhouse they are scared you will crush their dinky vehicles!!

Excellent another Explorer, Croc who resides in these parts has one, i am co-owner, most of the muck on it is from my field :-D

This is the piece of kit that i had that led to the interest in Villiers engines. Its an Allen Scythe model TS, it had a yard wide reciprocating knife blade cutter, and also came with a snow plough blade for winter, it was really heavy and would haul you around if you let it, an amusing piece of equipment that used 2 stroke oil at the ratio of 1/2 pint to the gallon of petrol! bought at a farm auction as a non runner for bugger all, had it working in an afternoon and used it to blitz the horses paddock and clear snow for a couple of winters and sold it to a collector for an awful lot more than what i paid for it!!! Mine had a lovely old oily well used/maintained patinated look, and it had speedway bikes knobbly tyres for the sporty ground maintenance man types! Croc and i even contemplated extreme agricutural equipment snow racing, remove the blade dont fit the snow plow, put on the ski's and open up the Allen full chat, getting it to pull you through the snow at a reasonable rate of knots, even had a mono ski design for the front of the machine, and got hold of a villiers lighting coil so it could have a 6v lamp on the front........ah the memories!

Found this which looks like your ignition system at the following link: www.villiersparts.co.uk/ignition.html Your engine looks like its short of a condensor!

I cant quite tell from the picture as it is side on, but does the ignition module look anything like the pictures from the Seagull Outboard engine link below, they used villiers engines with variations of ignition types. http://www.seagullparts.co.uk/ignition2.html

Madrat, send a PM to Croc and ask about plans for the rear body of Scammel Explorers, he has Scammels rear body blueprint plan, it is fairly large, but may be able to get it copied.......

Smart looking trucks, i dont think i have ever seen one in the tin, i take it they are 4WD and not 2WD like the civvy commercial, did they use common 4x4 parts or did it have its own bespoke system. Interesting to know about the brake part commonality with the Humber 1 ton, i am quite good at rebuilding brake components now!

Somebody i know is getting a Morris MRA1 truck, in need of a bit of restoration but not too bad overall, he has asked me to keep an eye out for anything MRA1.... So not been entirely sure what an MRA1 is other than its a 1 Ton truck from the same post war era as the mighty Humber 1 Ton truck and its slightly less mighty sibling the Austin K9 1 Ton truck. I found a picture of one, but i couldnt get a copy to put on here, anybody like to fill me in on what its all about, it would seem that they are pretty rare beasts.

"Sniper One" by Sgt Dan Mills, by far and away to my mind at least the best true account of combat with the British Army, it is absolutely superb, a battle group comprising men from the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment, holed up in a compound in Fallujah Iraq, very close combat with overwhelming numbers of enemy continually hitting them, a staggering statistic at the end of the book is that during the period of battle, they used more ammunition than the whole army during the invasion of Iraq. Pte Beharry VC is also mentioned in this book as his Warrior AFV was engaged in the same area of action. I cant say enough about it, you really have to read it yourself, if you want to know what it is like to be in the British Army today, up front and in the thick of it then go and buy this book, and put some money in Dan Mills pocket.......because he deserves it!

This is a good bit of kit, it tests the volts and amps of lead acid and sealed lead acid batteries from 1.2A up to 200A capacity, its quite pricey £149 but it does do a very thorough test on your battery state. My workplace is now furnished with one, and will be going off site for testing when required!:-\ http://cpc.farnell.com/act-meters/gold-ibt/sla-battery-tester/dp/IN02529

Found this on YouTube, films from the period showing various German aircraft such as the ME109, FW190, HE111 and Stuka etc in use or under test by the RAF, makes a nice change from pictures of captured vehicles the Germans used during the war! http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bLW09CSQB-w&feature=related

I paid 2100 for my Mk1 just over a year ago, needed some brake master cylinder work, and some servicing/fettling, and it isnt 100% original, but it now goes quite well, and is reasonably reliable. If it had been fully restored i wouldnt have anything to tinker with, and i wouldnt know the thing inside out! I was reasonably lucky with mine, it was pretty much how it should of been mechanically, but if you are buying one, make sure you go with Clives advice, and dont let the rose tinted goggles take a hold of the decision process!

That is a slightly different setup to the villiers i had but it is pretty much the same thing, is the ignition lead making a good contact with coil/ignition module? Also the magnets in the other side of the fly wheel de-magnetise, giving a weaker charge, there is a way to re-magnetise them which escapes my memory, im pretty certain if you do a search on villiers engines it will become apparent!

It would seem to be a VITYAZ DT-30, there is a manufacturers video on you tube, the thing is just amazing, it is probably the most capable all terrain vehicle i have seen, imagine a Hagglunds, but massive with a huge payload capacity, if the Thunderbirds were real, they would have one of these in the garage!

Just had a look on HMTV, and this caught my eye, but i cant see anything which describes what it is, and my Russian isnt up to much!. http://www.hmvftv.com/watch/f4cc0ad3819a36752467/Off-Roading-with-the-Russians Basically it looks like the Russians have looked at a Hagglund, thought it looked a bit limp of wrist drank Vodka at the design stage and came up with this, which is just epic, the way it pulls a Tank out of its snow filled berm is impressive enough, but its the way it makes it look toy like which is really the impressive thing! I am not really into Russian gear or things with tracks, but this thing is just superb!

Thats a nice signals set up in the Mog, and i like the way you manage to get the Camouflage looking right, i.e. pulled over in a tight canopy and used in the right context!

Clucking bell!, you have a few large trucks, i must admit having a soft spot for the Kraz 255b, they are a tough looking piece of kit, go on stick some more pictures on here!:-D

No Sarge, no Ford scripts here, its another Hotchkiss :-D

Fer chri's sake leave it with the 24v system in, to many of these land up hacked up and bodged, and when serviced properly it will run like a Swiss watch, a thrashy bouncy one admittedly.

Roger dont go looking at official staged pictures, have a look at real in service pictures, old regimental mates sites are good, you see a great combination of stuff, this is one of my favourite photos i found from BAOR Ex Spearpoint in 1961, it's titled having a chat and a cuppa with a Canadian soldier, somebodies personal photo shot off the cuff, but its stuff you dont see until you look at it for a while, the road side chewed up by a tracked vehicle, SMG in arms reach, not posed, the petrol cookset packed away after the water was boiled, the clutter of a busy used vehicle in the rear:

The 9th's formation sign:

And just when you thought the hardships of the desert combat was really bad, they throw that joker at you!

In my experience, the forces use stuff for years, how about the old First Aid Kits in the webbing pack, i was using a bag dated 1944 in 1994 as a vehicle FAK, i think health and safety eventually stipulated you had to use a more modern version. I still had some 68 pattern lined DPM jackets and trousers when we had to hand it in to get the "Soldier 95" kit which was a bugger, as it was really comfortable, i used to use it on exercises, it was totally rustle free/silent been quite soft to the touch.

Have you checked the voltage output of the dynamo/alternator at varying revs, it may be the regulating side of the charging system has broken down, and you are running your battery into the ground, or you are cooking the battery by over charging it. Are you using a proper automotive battery or a leisure type battery, there are distinct differences in the construction, leisure batteries dont like fast heavy discharges that a starter motor will take, automotive batteries dont respond well to total discharge states. Test for amp useage when the vehicle is turned off, if there is a continuous leak it could be a faulty earth or wiring problem. 60amp battery sounds about right, military petrol engines dont need massive batteries, due to the low engine compression ratio (unless its a diesel of course)and as standard most vehicles are only running lighting, most military trucks probably have the current use that a basic Austin Mini has, as they dont exactly have all the mod cons! If you have a big amp 1000 cca battery, it just means you will blow a bigger hole in whatever shorts out i.e. your sticking starter motor, dodgy unfused accessory lighting wiring etc!