Lauren Child

here you go

Not as good as my normal photos - I was getting to grips with a new camera.

Some photos from Sunday Things were a tad dusty and more spread out at the end of the week, but the vehicles were still cool.

My thoughts are with her - lets hope she has a speedy recovery.

Sight alignment? That might make sense for the two fixed lights and one moveable - moving with the sight or barrel (lining them up?)

For the general public the funfair was a bit of fun close to the food, arena, and entertainment tents making a good family centre of the show. I quite liked that. What I did see was a problem was getting to the vehicles. The fair was only small, but without any maps or signposts the first you saw of the vehicles was in the distance behind the living history (which in turn was difficult to get through) so the vehicles felt quite cut-off from the show. Personally I'd start the vehicles closer to the entrance so you see the way around at the same time you see the family centre. That would make it easy to work out where to go. Walk in through the gate - turn right for shops, turn left for vehicles, go ahead for the arena, family zone & living history - there's an immediate mental allocation of areas within the show.

It's a Chieftain ARRV - I think it belongs to a forum member.

Is it a steering arrangement for chains of trailers? It looks like the "U" at the right is going to the front, and the other two items are at the rear. I'm guessing there are two small wheels at the front and two big wheels at the rear. The box underneath appears to be with the smaller wheels. Edit: I missed the "dispensing" post. Is it a wet spray to damp down the dust? Control at the front?

Can anyone who has one do a quick measurement of the poles? I have one but no poles to go with it.

As a visitor to the show (not camping or exhibiting) the new site worked a lot better. The vehicle movements via the ring road made it feel a lot safer on foot, and led to some good photo opportunities. Overall it felt a lot more family friendly. It felt much better organised and very smooth, even when the unusual stuff happened. That said there were two problems where improvement could really benefit the show next year. 1) the arena is very difficult to see as it seems to be sloped away from the viewing public. 2) the dead-ends through the living history displays were a nightmare to navigate and wasted a lot of time/energy trying to get through to the vehicles. I met a lot of folks who found the same as the paths and ditches weren't shown on the map or marked as dead ends. I found the loos a lot better than previous shows - generally clean and well maintained, and more of them in good locations. On occasion there was clearly someone a bit mentally unwell doing things to them. While unpleasant, that can't be helped. It didn't look like the work of vandals. I didn't see any soap in the loos for the course of the weekend though, which would have helped a lot (note to traders - some gel hand lotion might be a good seller next year). The new food area worked very well, especially with the extra space next to the arena and up in the stands. The stands also offered a much better view of the arena, albeit too far away to see any detail. Looking around the show on Sunday the vehicles seemed to be spread a bit thin. I don't know how many had left early but there were a lot of empty spaces. Hopefully next year it'll be a bit more packed, as it was a long way around with everything so spaced out. Given the distance to get back to the arena/food area a bit of shade/rain cover half way around or so would be nice. Overall we had a great weekend though, much better than the Hop Farm albeit less to see. Keep the momentum going and hopefully it'll grow back to what it was with a far better basis to build on.

Excellent and well deserved - I had a major case of tank envy. Big thanks to Rick for a look around on Saturday and a very knowledgeable chat. I can't wait to see your Centaur finished now Kevin!

It does look good...

Watch out for Terminators. I think that was Sarah Connor.

Excellent - its good to see more girls getting into all this

Thanks chaps, I'll do some more tinkering.

Just a heads up from Facebook - a ward-mate of the driver has posted to say

While I'm not sure I'd have driven her on the motorway given the dangerous driving I've experienced of some other road users, that's not really the point. It's sad that something like this happens in the first place. Whoever's fault the accident itself was, I have to wonder about any other driver who is driving so badly they can't avoid or react to a slow moving vehicle like a Pioneer/Explorer. Crikey, it's not like its going to make any sudden surprising moves. If something slow is in your way, slow down to a sensible speed that you can react with and go around it.

My CMP has started wagging it's ammeter needle rhythmically back and forth as I rev the engine. It operates fine at low revs but as they increase it starts happening. I seem to remember this means something (overload?) but I can't find the reference in any of the books I'm picking up. Can anyone clue me in?

Excellent - "Hellzapoppin'" and "Lady Godiva" are both good For a Churchill my favourite is "PUT THAT B-CIGARETTE LIGHTER OUT - WE KNOW IT"

According to "Villers Bocage through the lens" the 7th Armoured Division were the only British division to use the Cromwell as their main fighting vehicle (although other used them as part of the division or as an independent unit). One of the Cromwells in the book is called "Shufti Cush" (looking good). There are a some good photos of Cromwells in the book if you've not seen it already.

Here's the thread I was thinking of - http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/showthread.php?t=19356 As Pete mentions, it looks like there's more variation that I'd thought. This thread shows some alternatives - http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/showthread.php?t=8226

I had to find it on youtube after you mentioned it - here you go Something went wrong...

"Crommy"

If you go onto the Maple Leaf Up forum and search for "tool box" you should find a thread with some PDFs of plans to fabricate a new behind-cab toolbox with the spare wheel clamp in the middle. This wasn't the same for all models though. There's an Aussie version with a taller box on one side and a frame/ladder for the spare if you have an Aussie manufactured truck (rectangular ventilator panel at your feet). There's also a no-spare-wheel version with longer fold-up lids, which I presume went with run-flat tyres (no spare tyre holder needed).

I like the Dubliners version in song form. Something went wrong...