Starfire

Doug, I fitted my Ferret with Michelin XZL (got them from Bandag in Adelaide), and they work a treat. Please note that post war, the Brits changed over to using American style beads on their 9.00 x 16, so for the Ferret, that is actually what you want. What would you be after for your NOS tyres? Are they cracked or in good condition? Cheers, Terry

How much are you chasing for them?

Tim Vibert of Empire Trading in Australia has some non-genuine ones. They don't have the in-hex in them for the crank handle, but they will plug the hole. Cheers, Terry

I've owned my Saracen for about 4 years now and, for the most part, maintenance is time consuming but not overly difficult, although everything is harder to get at than it should be. Where you might have problems is if anything breaks (mine destroyed a hub), it's very big and heavy to remove and replace, but the spares are out there and aren't too expensive. Another vehicle that you might want to consider is a Ferret. They're a little smaller and easier to live with than the Saracen, but have pretty much the same running gear. Being a physically smaller vehicle, things are easier to get to and maintain. Compared to the Saracen I would say that the ferret is a little more cramped, considerably faster and a whole lot less civilised. The Saracen has a double floor, so the layer of oil and grime down there is generally hidden, while the Ferret does not, and the Saracen has considerably less interior noise. The Saracen is also easier to get in and out of and has much more interior room. I really like my Ferret, I love my Saracen. Cheers, Terry

How many do you have? I need some too.

Very nice.

Did you get it sorted?

We have a WOT 1 with a radio body at the museum in Adelaide. It came from Malta.

Are we collecting bug reports somewhere? Tables from old posts are all screwy. http://hmvf.co.uk/topic/36883-daimler-ferret-stowage/?tab=comments#comment-420088 In fact, I can't see a way of adding a table, short of using the insert code option, which may prove to be a security risk. Cheers, Terry

What do you want to know, Nic?

I'd be checking your oil levels to work out where it's coming from, before anything else. Get some on your fingers; 90W is very thick, 30w is reasonable and the 10W or ATF is very thin, that should narrow it down a bit. Are you certain that it's not coming from a bevel box though? Cheers, Terry

Strangely, a lot of women call my Ferret cute. I guess it is, a little bit. Cheers, Terry

I'll bet that she didn't specify though Cheers, Terry

I use one of these, it works pretty well, but you still have to remove the fill bolts. You have to straighten the nozzle a bit, but I use it for everything that needs OEP220 on both the Ferret and Saracen (in fact, I bought 2 and keep one in each vehicle). Cheers, Terry

Sorry to hear about your wife. I've seen a few on YouTube, the one with the Bundeswehr is probably the best and there is another where a guy is thrashing one around, trying his hardest to roll it over that's amusing. Cheers, Terry

Could you do a vehicle walk around video and post it on youtube? There isn't much out there. It'd be cool if you could go into detail about its controls and mechanicals and show the folding mechanism and process. Cheers, Terry

I'd never seen or heard of one before, but now I want one! I love wacky vehicles and this thing is pretty much up there. It also folds up! Cheers, Terry

It depends if you're talking about America the country or America the continent, I guess

Are you heading to Adelaide? I'll try and get down there at the same time, if you are, and say g'day. Cheers, Terry

It seems that those history cards were only brought in in around '67 or so. I've never seen one dated before that and have no idea what my Saracen did before then. My history cards detail an entry in '74: Conversion from 0010 6201 to 0030 8201 auth 875. I believe this to be the Mk 5 upgrade. The form is stamped CARRIER PERSONNEL WHLD APC SARACEN MK2 but has been amended, in pen at 2 different times, to read CARRIER PERSONNEL WHLD APC AMBULANCE ROLE MK5. As an aside 115 379 is the Australian army Saracen at my club's museum. Montie: I did a little bit of digging and it seems that, for some reason, British vehicles manufactured for foreign militaries are allocated British VRNs, but little to no records are kept of them (outside of the sales contracts in some government vault somewhere, probably), so Bovington and the like will not be of any help. Cheers, Terry

It looks like the problem is in one of the tail lights, given the rather angry sparks it threw at me when I took it apart and the fact that the breaker is no longer tripping. It seems that they cut the wires when disassembling it and didn't tape them properly afterwards. I'll dig up some electrical tape tomorrow and it should be all good. Cheers, Terry

Thanks Richard, I'll give that a go. Cheers, Terry

I think they left that in place, but I'm not sure.

The panel appears to be a No 1. Mk 6, so that has a position for tail lights only, which also blows, so that kinda narrows it down, I guess.

My Saracen is currently having problems with the electrics; When attempting to turn the headlights on, the 30A breaker is tripping. This seems to be happening when I move the light switch at all, even a little bit, which would be switching on the side and tail lights only. I suspect that the switch panel may be shorting internally, but the vehicle has been repainted in the not too distant past, which involved removing all of the external lights and wings, so there could be a short in one of those. Can anyone give any suggestions? How hard is it to rebuild the switch panel, or find a replacement? Cheers, Terry