Dougy FV432

Hello All, I said a similar thing to a few people at the W&P. Anything to do with military vehicles is expensive, unfortunately no longer a affordable hobby for the average person. Came across some nice British marked GPMGs for sale, £3995 each! But how often do you see them up for grabs? Maybe the market pushes the price up? Some "Russian" type deacts have been available recently, that seem to be abundant at the moment, so priced reasonable, but in a couple of years I bet you will be paying double if you want one. See what happened to the Brens. Could buy one a couple of years ago in a crate, for about £300, more than double that now. If anything was old spec deact, again priced a lot higher. But one thing that is also inflating prices at the W&P is the pitch prices. I spoke to a dealer that was trading in modern British surplus, which wasn't that common. He had a reasonable sized plot, but I'm sure he said it cost him £600 for the week. That's a lot of surplus to sell just to cover costs! Dougy

Hi Jak, You mention a standard 110. The VRC 353 needs 24 volts, have you got that? The system, includes the radio itself, plus a couple of other items TUAAM and a ARAFAT, also antenna mount and tuning ring. Sorry no pics available at the moment. The Tuaam is normally mounted in the wing mounted box along with the antenna mount and ring. The Arafat tends to be positioned close to the radio on dexion. Plus there is normally a "table" that fits in the rear which has mounting rails to secure the radio. I hope this helps. Dougy

Hi, First off, don't use the surf on a 351/2 with the 20w amp. The surf is only rated at 4 watts! Dougy

Here is a pic of the cage that is in the workshop where I currently work. Hasn't been used for a good few years, never see split rims nowadays. Dougy

Here is the 353 radio with the turf position instead of Arfat Dougy

Spotted outside Worcester Warriors Rugby Ground tonight Have left the link on the image as more pics on my photobucket page if anyone interested. Dougy

I have a bit of a weird 353 that has a Turf position instead of Arfat, will see if I can get a pic of it for the weekend. Dougy

Hi Arnie, Which position are you planning on fitting the radio into? Have you got the radio table fitted behind the automotive batteries? Have you got any cables left in from its original fitment? Mike has found the mounting tray that the 353 will sit onto in the table. Depending on which antenna mount you want to use, determines what length cables and brackets you need. If you go for the front mounted tuaam, by the driver then the cable lengths are fairly easy, but the brackets are harder to find. If you want to mount by the rear door, then the brackets might be a bit easier to come by than the front, and you will need a long 12core and bnc lead to go from the Aarfat to the radio, and a short 7core and bnc from the aarfat and tuaam. Don't forget you might need the short bnc lead from the tuning ring at the antenna base to the tuaam. Also some antenna mounts don't have the link wire from the antenna mount to the tuner ring. Obviously the last couple of points relate to whatever position you go for. I will post some pics at that other place you know! Also I will give you that link for the clansman manuals Dougy

Excellent thanks for that. Interesting that the adaptor box allows all types of cable to be tested, wondered why there were so many sockets on there. Good news is that I have managed to get the intercom to work in the fv432. Turned out I had a couple of duff IB2/3s, the IB2 that I'd fitted was no good, and the IB3 I used to test was faulty aswell! Only managed to work it out by breaking the system down to two basic CB2s and the IB3. Still didn't work, swopped leads and CB2s ended up completely isolating the 432 system. As still not working, it dawned on me was that one of the only common things was the testing IB3. Went and dug another IB3 out and it worked. Slowly intergated the 432 system back in until I had the whole 432 system was reconnected, just not the original IB2. Suppose the lesson is, just because I had fitted the nicest looking intercom boxes, that doesn't mean they will work! Dougy

Hello All, I have one of these harness cable testers, does anyone know where I can get a copy of the user manual for it? I don't think I have all the leads for it, as I only seem to have one short 12 core lead, a power lead with only a plug one end for the tester, bare wires the other, and a split 12 core lead that has a standard 12 way one end, a opposite one the other, and spured of a power lead. Almost seems this one you could put into the harness curcuit, and it would power the tester? Can this tester test the whole harness curcuit with the control boxes still connected, or will it only test individual leads? Are all 12 core harness leads the same, in as far as there are 12 core leads that are used for the VRC353 to the Aarafat. Thay all have the same plugs on the end, but are they wired the same internally. I have tried to test a couple of leads that are definitly one for harness and one for 353, with this tester, and they seem to "pass" the same. The reason that I ask is that I am trying to get to grips with the intercom curcuit in my fv432, and basically it won't work! I can go to override at any of the stations and the tone can be heard, but with all the stations on intercom, nobody can talk to each other, neither can the radio be heard in the curcuit. I have managed to import "sound" into a CB2 in the curcit and be able to heard it at all stations, and even disconnect on harness lead and still hear it through the system, so guessing that the harness "ring" is intact? Any help would be much apprieciated. Dougy

Hello All, I have had these two bits of "radio" equipment kicking around in my garage for a while now. Can anyone tell me what they are or what systems they belong too. I doubt they are related to each other, guess from different system? Thanks for any info Dougy

Still having problems posting, eventually got to upload pics but still didn't go first time. Yes I'm using IE Dougy

Hello All, Decided that this might be the best place to post this pic. A shed full of drops, back from Bosnia in the mid nineties I believe, Dougy

Hello All, Came across this pic of this Commander, I have a few other ones of the same vehicle just need to scan them and post. Believe they were taken about the mid nineties. Dougy

Hello All, Is it me, or do other members go through the trouble of writing out a long detailed reply to a topic, to only submit and then get HMVF not responding, then try to recover webpage, and eventually get back to where you started, to find you have lost your reply. What is even worse is when you have tried to be one step ahead and ctrlC your text to just paste it to find that it has lost that aswell! But your still one step ahead, your pasted it on notepad first, ha ha! In you go straight in, ctrlV, submit! Then you get you need to log in to post! Off to CtrlC and V Dougy

Funnily I had the same problem a couple of weeks ago and started a thread on the fv432 forum. Since I have been converting a Bowman 432 back to Clansman, my stocks of UNF started to dwindle. I was after a few particular sizes, so looked on ebay etc, but when you cost in postage, they start to get expensive. With this in mind, I went looking in Worcester, and as mentioned, nobody stocked any UNF bolts. So of I went to Gloucester to Allcap who I used when I lived there, and they were able to supply 60 large size 5/16 unf bolts for under £10 Dougy

Hello All, I believe this one in your collection is the one that was sold at the W& this year. As far as I am aware it is the EW Electronic Warfare variant as Peter has mentioned. Here is video of one that I saw at Withams a while ago, and you will find some pics on the fv432 forum as well here is a pic of the generator but going by ducting is it an air conditioning unit? as there seems to be a mounting bracket that could accomadate a generator. Dougy

An average tri-axle tractor unit will weight in about 8tons and a decent tri-axle step frame trailer (see forsale section, mine is up for grabs) come in at approx 10tons. I could easily carry a fv432 (13tons), lightweight and sankey trailer. Max height is governered by motorway bridges as they are 16', if of motorway you have to plan as bridge heights can anything. Dougy

Hello All, Amongst my interest in the post war vehicles of the British Army. I have slowly tried to collect kit to go with mine. But my query is that the era that mine is set, i know the weapons used would be either SLR and LMG, or SA80 and GPMG, but what "hand gun" would be issued and to who, and how would it be carried? Regards Dougy

Hi All, I'm afraid I don't venture into this section, but my Uncle-in-law is in his great wisdom, trying to make a remote controlled model of the fore mentioned HMS Ceasar. His grandfather served on her and he is trying to build it to that time. If anyone has any information, or better still some pics that could help with his build they would be greatly recieved. If any dates are required i will get him to confirm what they were as I sure he said it had a refit at some point. Thanks in advance Dougy

Hello All, I have been a bit naughty and just got around to reading my latest plains update, and was shocked to hear about Dave, but came straight on here and hunted down this thread, and am pleased to see from your comments Dave you are on the mend. It will be good to see you all at the weekend, my boy and I are really looking forward to it, but please Dave take it easy. I will pitch my tent next to DaveP, as he did a good spread at Beltring, cheese, crackers and wine! Get well Dave, see you all at the weekend. Dougy

Hello All, Sounds like it is taking in air. Some early Dafs had ally washers on the banjo bolts, and they would corrode, take a handful of new copper washers. We had a spare lift pump that we added in the system at the tank and would pressurize the bottom end. Also if it had a repair on the fittings at the end of the pipe, if these weren't done very well they could allow air in. Also the copper washers would go "hard" if they been on off a few times, like the ones at the pipe into the lift pump, where the online filter is fitted (if it hasn't already been chucked over the hedge!). Hope this makes sense and helps. Dougy

Hello All, Andy, the fitting can be used with the Clarke and racal masts, and the coax fitting fits the big coax that comes with the pineapple kits. The thread is for the cap that screws over it to protect it. Hope that makes sense. Dougy

Hi All, Wish i could shed some "light" on the subject, I have a similar problem with my 432, just haven't got around to looking at mine yet. Think mine has some thing to do with the fact that some big footed driver jumped in and dragged the wiring down that goes to the switch panels. Let us know how you get on. Dougy

Shhhhhh! Don't tell anyone I work (attend) BT, but someone has to! Glad u like the site, got lots of stuff still to go on there, now if I cud get away with bringing my laptop into work! In the process of trying to make a page doin a step by step with pics we took of the brake adjustment. There might even b a page on how to put the pack back in the 434 when DaveP pulls his finger out, & stops buying other projects! Oh & the dodgy one on the site is the technical department, when u spend a weekend camping at beltring with DaveP u can see why! Dougy