agripper Posted February 25, 2010 Share Posted February 25, 2010 Been looking around the different types of AFV's I have never seen one running in the steel other than on scrap heap challange where they swam one. Have heard that they are a handful and hard to maintain and considering how hard a normal if you can call a AFV normal is to maintain must be hard. was wondering those on here that have them what are they like. how well do they swim. Dont what one just wonder what they are like? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antarmike Posted February 25, 2010 Share Posted February 25, 2010 "Antar" has/had one, try PM to him? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antar Posted February 25, 2010 Share Posted February 25, 2010 Had 2 at one stage, now got one, sold the other one to Turboventure up in Newcastle upon tyne. Wonderfull bit of kit if you know what you are doing. They had / have a terrible reputation in service but I suspect that a lot of that is to do with how they were not looked after properly. They were clearly designed by a bloke in Nottingham (ROF) who clearly had never and would never have carry out repairs or maintenance on the thing. The main issues I have had are with the steering and braking control unit. It is prone to water dripping through the front deck straight into it causing all the air valves to sieze up. It drives and steers really well now, acceleration is pretty good over flat ground with 330 bhp C6T engine. They are a very versatile bit of kit. I have never been tempted to swim it as there are a number of buoyancy floats that are required to ensure the correct trim which I have never been able to find. If you ever fancy a closer look at one send me a PM and you can come over the hill to have a look ! John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan turner (RIP) Posted February 25, 2010 Share Posted February 25, 2010 some views of early CET's from RAWHS collection Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddy8men Posted February 25, 2010 Share Posted February 25, 2010 i never worked on cet but was taught that they were designed with close cooperation with RE so i suppose you can blame them for some of the faults,i was also taught that the cooling system was badly designed and ran the wrong way ie hot water fed to the bottom of the rad and not the top ,not sure if they ever fixed it ,maybe someone could enlighten me ,it all sounds a bit negative but squaddies always moan about the kit they're issued no matter how good or bad it is. eddy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abn deuce Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 What is the seating arrangement on those ? what I mean is there a driver postion and a commander postion ? that switch depending if the vehicle is moving say in convoy or if using its bucket for excavation work ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferretfixer Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 Been looking around the different types of AFV's I have never seen one running in the steel other than on scrap heap challange where they swam one. Have heard that they are a handful and hard to maintain and considering how hard a normal if you can call a AFV normal is to maintain must be hard. was wondering those on here that have them what are they like. how well do they swim. Dont what one just wonder what they are like? We had a saying in the L.A.D Workhop: 'When is a C.E.T not a C.E.T? = Answer: When it's a Runner!!! :-D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 I'd love one! A REME guy told me get them started , then never turn them off. I rathers suspect hot disiel shut down problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antar Posted February 28, 2010 Share Posted February 28, 2010 i never worked on cet but was taught that they were designed with close cooperation with RE so i suppose you can blame them for some of the faults,i was also taught that the cooling system was badly designed and ran the wrong way ie hot water fed to the bottom of the rad and not the top ,not sure if they ever fixed it ,maybe someone could enlighten me ,it all sounds a bit negative but squaddies always moan about the kit they're issued no matter how good or bad it is. eddy The rads are set at about 15 degrees from horizontal in the raised part of the structure on the other side of the hull fom the Driver/Earthmover seating position. The coolant entry and exit points are all at the lower end of the rads as they can be lowered down for cleaning purposes. Above the rads are two hydraulically driven fans which have variable speed dependent upon the coolant temp. The biggest problem seems to be with the temperature thermocouple activating the controls on the "fan pack" which is a transfer box driven variable flow hydraulic pump. Basically as the coolant gets hotter the fans go quicker. When you enter the water when swimming the rads become water/water heat exchangers at which point you flick a swich on the drivers console which turns off the fan pack so that the fans are not thrashing the water about. When leaving the water you are supposed to swich the fan pack back on again. If there is a fault with the thermocouple there is a manual overide on the fan pack consisting of a 1/2 unf bolt which you wind in, when this is activated this puts full flow of hydraulic oil onto the fans overiding the thermocouple. To access this overide you have to take off the hull top plate, remove the air cleaner ( which is massive and shoehorned into the tightest space imaginable), then stand on your head next to an incredibly hot engine (exhaust and turbo are on this side) with a 1/2" spanner ! It is no wonder that so many of them had cooling problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antar Posted February 28, 2010 Share Posted February 28, 2010 What is the seating arrangement on those ? what I mean is there a driver postion and a commander postion ? that switch depending if the vehicle is moving say in convoy or if using its bucket for excavation work ? For road use they are driven with the bucket at the rear, the driver position is then the forwards one. The "earth operator" then acts as commander and also faces forwards directly behind the driver. When earthmoving the crew stand up onto their seat base lift out the backrest and fit it in the other side of the seat base and sit down again facing the bucket. You then flick a single togle switch on a control box which swaps over all the gearbox controls (fwd, rev, 1,2,3,4) at the same time the transfer box drops a gear so that driving in all gears is aproximatly half full speed in the driving direction (35mph/18mph). The "earth operator" then has control of the vehicle including all the bucket controls. The driver now acts as commander. There is an extra pedal in the earth operator end for "transmission dump" when operating the bucket similar to modern day loading shovels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antar Posted February 28, 2010 Share Posted February 28, 2010 Alan thanks for posting those superb pictures. Most seem to be of the prototype/pre production/trials ones on SP plates. A couple of years ago one of the SP ones came through Withams but unfortunatly it got cut for scrap. For those not too familiar with CET the hull is alluminium so there is some considerable value in the scrap which tends to keep the value of them up irespective of their condition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abn deuce Posted February 28, 2010 Share Posted February 28, 2010 Thank You Antar , I had wondered about the controls as as well as if they swapped positions or not .So I take it they have the same rank ? Do you have any other details/stories about the operations of these units ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddy8men Posted February 28, 2010 Share Posted February 28, 2010 hi john thanks for taking the time to answer the cooling problems,looks like they made life a little bit harder than it needed to be. cheers eddy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agripper Posted February 28, 2010 Author Share Posted February 28, 2010 Knew it was a bit complex but that has to be the understatment of the decade. They sound to be a lot more fun than most of the AFV's In all truth ther realy is little you can do with a tank . Was surprised to see how low in the water they are. you could almost call them a submarine! does anyone have a swimmer? Or even a live anchor laucher that looks just to much fun!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan turner (RIP) Posted February 28, 2010 Share Posted February 28, 2010 Thanks for the comments re the images antar John but I will only take credit for lodging them on this site the real credit should go to the MOD photographers who from the thousands of negatives I have seen dont appear to have taken any duff shots. They all seem usable even when half stop differences are used for the same picture. Sadly Mr Charles Ellis whose name I mentioned in my maiden speech (introduction) is no longer with us having departed to the great darkroom in the sky during January this year, sadly followed a week later my his wife, he was 94. The CET views are luckily 35mm so easy to scan unlike the coloured one I included so I shall add a few more onto this thread Alan T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plainmilitary Posted March 1, 2010 Share Posted March 1, 2010 (edited) Hope you don't mind me sticking these snaps up for you. They were taken at the RETA at Perham Down back in 2005 I think. The vehicle was part of 22 Regiments arsenal. The last three pictures are of the new Terrier. Thought you might like to have a gander at what will be replacing the poor old CET. The vehicle in the snaps is a SP VRN so still an on going project. Terrier Tony Edited March 1, 2010 by plainmilitary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antar Posted March 1, 2010 Share Posted March 1, 2010 (edited) Many thanks for those excelent pictures Tony. From my records 44KJ71 and 44KJ75 were sold from Whitams and scrapped. Nice to see a Terrier too, I heard on the grapevine that they have troubles with the final drives. Edited March 1, 2010 by antar Addition to text Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plainmilitary Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 Many thanks for those excelent pictures Tony. From my records 44KJ71 and 44KJ75 were sold from Whitams and scrapped. Nice to see a Terrier too, I heard on the grapevine that they have troubles with the final drives. Hello John, It's always sad to find out that these local vehicles have been scrapped. We never got to see them very often. I have some pics of LWC CETs here somewhere, I think the pictures were taken around the same time. As like most total new builds, the Terrier is having a few minor problems here and there. Most of the trials work is almost complete and from my view point, it's a monster of a vehicle. I have watched this machine dig through solid chalk and flint as if it were sand, the power it amazing. It's like a little Swiss army knife unlike it's bigger brother the Trojan which is a massive Swiss army knife. Can't wait to see this vehicle in service..... Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
50 cal ( † RIP † ) Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 terrible to work on the only man with the patience is antar unfortuanatly due to this mine went for scrap along with a couple more that i had purchased and if i remember correctly one of those was a prototype but was in very poor condition it had been robbed of a lot of parts when i bought it thanks 50 cal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plainmilitary Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 Just a few more CET pics. Taken in 2005 and all part of one of the biggest Battle Groups seen on the SPTA. Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agripper Posted March 7, 2010 Author Share Posted March 7, 2010 Does the CET share any parts with any other AFV or is it one on its own? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FV1604A Posted March 7, 2010 Share Posted March 7, 2010 Hi all, Thanks to all the members responding to this thread. I have learnt more about the CET in the last five minutes than I could have imagined. Thanks, all your posts and your time are really appreciated. I haven't the resources to own one, but have always admired it as a working piece of kit and wondered what they were like in the real world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plainmilitary Posted March 8, 2010 Share Posted March 8, 2010 Does the CET share any parts with any other AFV or is it one on its own? Hello agripper, not knowing to much about the CET, but I'm sure it's a one off piece of kit. The engine might be shared with other AFVs but I think thats about it. FV1604A, you are more than welcome mate. Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stone Posted March 8, 2010 Share Posted March 8, 2010 On a slight tangent were there ever any Terriers with Challenger 2-style tracks (two square rubber grips per track link)? I'm convinced I saw one today - definitely didn't look like a CET! :??? Stone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antar Posted March 8, 2010 Share Posted March 8, 2010 Does the CET share any parts with any other AFV or is it one on its own? No all the parts are completely unique. The engine is classified as a Rolls Royce C6T but it is the same core as an Eagle out of a Scammell Crusader or RAF S26 Tractor except that it develops 330 bhp instead of 305 bhp. The turbo is side mounted and I think a little bigger than a Crusader rear mounted one. The pump seems to be opened up a bit hence the plume of black smoke when you open the throttle quickly. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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