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Is this Ferret still 'alive' and kicking?


oily

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Hi everyone!

having been given a large wad of 'in-service' photos of my Dad, and various vehicles/places he had dealings with, (mainly Aden), I came across several of him with one particular Ferret Mk1, it's Army Reg No. is

32 BA 79, and at the time, (1955 -ish), seems to have been Desert Stone/Sand colour.....Check out the following images..... does anyone know if there is a 'Ferret Register'....?

 

There are a few pics of my dad too, just in case any of his old pals are on here too!!:-\

Dad and a ferret,

Aden 10..jpg

Dad aged 21..jpg

Aden1..jpg

Aden 15..jpg

Dad aged 20..jpg

Aden 2..jpg

Aden 9..jpg

Govt Defence Fort.jpg

Aden 8..jpg

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Hi, I'm trying to find if my Dad's old Ferret is out there somewhere, and still alive and kicking..... if you have any news, or pictures of it, can you pop a post on here? ..it'd make an old soldier VERY happy!!!:D

 

MOD EDIT.. Threads merged, please do not post multiple threads on same subject

Edited by Marmite!!
Threads merged
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I had 32BA77 Hull No.3 of the first contract of 6 ordered by the British Army... 32BA79 would of been from the same contract... haven't seen it about.. I believe the next lowest surviving hull number is 11.

 

I see from my notes that I worked on 32BA78, Hull No. 4 in August 1980 when it was still in service.........although just realised, that was 30 years ago, so no bounds what has happened to it by now :-(

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Hi everyone!

having been given a large wad of 'in-service' photos of my Dad, and various vehicles/places he had dealings with, (mainly Aden), I came across several of him with one particular Ferret Mk1, it's Army Reg No. is

32 BA 79, and at the time, (1955 -ish), seems to have been Desert Stone/Sand colour.....Check out the following images..... does anyone know if there is a 'Ferret Register'....?

 

There are a few pics of my dad too, just in case any of his old pals are on here too!!:-\

 

Nice unseen before Service pics! They are clearly early Service variants. Note the Methol Bromide Fire Extinguishers, early Antenna rubber base mount & SQUARE hatches. Thanks for sharing them with us all! :D

Mike.

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Hi Guys

 

I've been trying to compile a "ferret register" over the last few years including corresponding hull numbers when I can get hold of them. I would appreciate as much info as anyone can provide. I'm currently trying to piece together information from the old ferret heaven register and all other sites, including HMVF :-) and of course from ferret owners.

 

I have no info on 32BA79, apart from the hull number from the old ferret heaven site.

 

Cheers

 

Matt

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For my sins I have a register as well more picture based and without hull numbers as I know that they only seem to be in order for the first orders of Ferrets.

 

http://www.ferret-fv701.co.uk/vehicle_register.htm

 

Matt is trying to identify his Ferret and the difficulty that he is having is finding the hull numbers around the Ferret which is his. If they had been applied in order it wouldn't be a problem but they were not. Someone somewhere has the list of what Ferrets went where and what registration matched which hull number. Its an ex Alvis employee that has the ledger. Find him Matt and your onto a winner

 

32BA79, 34BA97 & 87BA14 haven't yet appeared but that doesn't mean that those vehicles aren't still about they might not have surfaced yet or aren't known to me. Plenty of Ferrets that aren't known to me 'r' still about.

Edited by ferrettkitt
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Thanks Andy and i appreciate all the help you have given me too! I'm getting there slowly but surely (more slowly though!)

 

Maybe at a later date we could add hull numbers onto your website.

 

If that Alvis employee would like to speak up there would be plenty of pints coming his way :D

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Nice unseen before Service pics! They are clearly early Service variants. Note the Methol Bromide Fire Extinguishers, early Antenna rubber base mount & SQUARE hatches. Thanks for sharing them with us all! :D

Mike.

 

 

...well my Dad assures me there are 'loads' more, similar pictures, more of Aden, and some of 'his' vehicles (including Champs, Centurions, and Conquerors too) when stationed in Germany, Bovington and Tidworth...... but we can't seem to find them yet.... watch this space!!!;)

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  • 7 months later...

Just trying to make sure these numbers ring true, sorry about the quality of the pics but we left the good camera behind today and had to resort to phone pics.

 

The issue I have is the hull plate is crudely welded in unlike some others I have seen, This scares me. The data plate has the same army registration number 05 CC 29, my question is does the hull number and date ring true.

 

She, "Phillipa", used to be my Ferret years ago and was sold to my "friend", who is now my boss. She has not had as much use as we would like. We have sorted out some newly acquired heated dry vermin free storage, she has been liberated from the previous storage building to join the other one already there.

 

We gave her some TLC today having pulled her over with the tractor as she was a no start. We pulled the escape hatches off and vacuumed her out and pulled the batteries and filled the cells up and charged them fully and slave started her off the Supacat in the shop. The reason for slave starting was to relieve the pressure on the batteries as we knew she might take a few attempts to start.

 

She started second time around and warmed up nicely having done fluid checks prior.

 

She the moved under her own power the 7 kilometres down the road to her new home. Pretty sweet actually to get both the collection's Ferrets in the same heated garage. They will both be run up weekly now and will be much more happy and better preserved. Now we can work on the minor bits and pieces.

 

Robin

aaa ferret build tag.jpg

aaa ferret.jpg

aaa ferret data plate.jpg

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I'm not lucky enough to have have my Ferret's data plate, but the hull number plate is pretty similar to yours - not quite as rough, but not good either!

 

I'd be interested to see other hull number plates but I think yours is OK - the recent (ie post service) history may tell you more - did 05 CC 29 enter service around October 1959?

 

I'm not sure anyone would bother to fake a hull number plate - but a data plate? quite possibly!!

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Hello Robin

 

The Hull number looks very clean. As if it's been recently welded on. However that could just be that it's never been painted over and has been covered by the data plate for all it's life. It is in the correct format and the hull number/build data/Mil reg all look to correspond. The nearest ferret I have to that is 05CC10 which has hull number 2143-9-59. Judging by other numbers I can see that the hull numbers are not sequential in contract KL/A/0008, so must have had some export orders mixed in with the production.

 

Here are some photos of hull and turret plates for comparison.

Turret Plate 1.jpg

Hull Plate 2.jpg

Turret Plate 2.jpg

Hull Plate 1.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi there guys, I'm new to this forum and to the Military vehicle scene.

I seam to be in a similar pickle as some of you. let me explain. I bought my ferret mk 2/3 as a burnt out wreck in 2008. She is nearly complete now, but, i don't know its original reg number, her hull number is 2897-11-61. i was wondering if anybody has a hull number close to this?

Also i'm looking for a copy of the war and peace vehicle list (booklet, brochure) for 1998, 2001 and 2003 as this ferret was there.

many thanks

Ross

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