The Military Vehicle Thread

[DCLane]

Son no. 2 (the one who races bikes) wants an ex-Army Land Rover when he passes his test and can get reasonable insurance.

Is this a slippery slope?

 

[ozboz]

Seen recently whilst at work

View attachment 524744

Hi @Ffoeg , where is this Chieftain ? the main armour looks intact so I’m assuming it’s not on a firing range and used for target practice ,

 

[Hicky]

Son no. 2 (the one who races bikes) wants an ex-Army Land Rover when he passes his test and can get reasonable insurance.

Is this a slippery slope?

Yes, it will have been maintained when and only when it’s completely knackered, driven by someone with zero mechanical sympathy because it isn’t theirs......I’ve seen it and I’ve been that person 😲

 

[Drago]

There's a WW1 tank in the middle of a roundabout in Ashford, Kent, near the Volvo dealer my Dad uses. Because of it's location it's not really possible to get a decent look at it.

Edit - I've just checked, it was replaced with an APC a while ago.

 

[Trickedem]

They are fun to drive
The gearchange is awkward though, due to lever positioning
And, with that petrol V8, almost as economical as a Stolly

They do intimidate B*W drivers, at 70MPH though on the mways (& taxi drivers in town)
People think they're huge, but they're shorter & narrower than a Range Rover (original shape)
A friend used to have one, when I had my light-weight

Circa 1990???
View attachment 524747

View attachment 524749




Not much axle-articulation, when empty (Scaley-Gate, near Jackson Bridge/Holmfirth)
View attachment 524748


One company seriously updated them in the late 90s/early 00s
They;
- built a new chassis (straight, not like a standard LR chassis)
- fitted coil-spring seats
- used Range Rover (or 'Defender') axles
- power-steering
- offered Tdi conversions
- I can't remember what gear-box was offered though?

Awesome vehicles. I served with 4 Field Regt Royal Artillery and these were used as gun tractors. They could easily do over 85mph whilst towing a gun. There was always a race to get back to Aldershot after exercises. Pretty scary to think of this, with 6 guys plus equipment in the back overtaking cars on the M25!

 

[CanucksTraveller]

Yes, it will have been maintained when and only when it’s completely knackered, driven by someone with zero mechanical sympathy because it isn’t theirs......I’ve seen it and I’ve been that person 😲

Agree! I wouldn't touch an ex military Land Rover for exactly those reasons, they've suffered life long abuse to really quite shocking levels, and been maintained / repaired only when they strictly have to be (i.e. when they're broken) by people who don't care about how good the repair is. (And I don't blame them, I'd be the same if my "customers" kept wilfuly breaking the stuff I was trying to fix for them).
Many times I've brought up the subject of mechanical sympathy while sitting in the pax seat, with a driver smashing his way through the gearbox! The answer was always... "I dont care, it's not like it's my wagon!"
That, or "So what, it's a big company" (i.e. they can afford a new gearbox/ half shaft so it's okay to break it).
Crashed military vehicles are often badly bodged back together. (And a lot of them will have been crashed or damaged).

There used to be a misguided belief amongst the motoring public that military vehicles were meticulously maintained and looked after, I'm not sure if the public still holds that naive view?

In short @DCLane don't buy an ex forces Land Rover, they're likely to be an even worse money pit than a civilian one.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Awesome vehicles. I served with 4 Field Regt Royal Artillery and these were used as gun tractors. They could easily do over 85mph whilst towing a gun. There was always a race to get back to Aldershot after exercises. Pretty scary to think of this, with 6 guys plus equipment in the back overtaking cars on the M25!

'Bar-Grips', & it's raining...……..

 

[ozboz]

Agree! I wouldn't touch an ex military Land Rover for exactly those reasons, they've suffered life long abuse to really quite shocking levels, and been maintained / repaired only when they strictly have to be (i.e. when they're broken) by people who don't care about how good the repair is. (And I don't blame them, I'd be the same if my "customers" kept wilfuly breaking the stuff I was trying to fix for them).
Many times I've brought up the subject of mechanical sympathy while sitting in the pax seat, with a driver smashing his way through the gearbox! The answer was always... "I dont care, it's not like it's my wagon!"
That, or "So what, it's a big company" (i.e. they can afford a new gearbox/ half shaft so it's okay to break it).
Crashed military vehicles are often badly bodged back together. (And a lot of them will have been crashed or damaged).

There used to be a misguided belief amongst the motoring public that military vehicles were meticulously maintained and looked after, I'm not sure if the public still holds that naive view?

In short @DCLane don't buy an ex forces Land Rover, they're likely to be an even worse money pit than a civilian one.

Things must have changed since my day In the Royal Armoured Corps, drivers were responsible for the day to day maintenance and reporting of mechanical defects of the vehicle , a log book was with with the vehicle . All Regt’s had a light Aid Detachment of dedicated REME mechs and techs. The picture being painted here is to me a slight on them , there is to my knowledge one ex REME Mech, Tech I’d be interested to hear what his take on this is , calling @markgrant,
Every morning the driver of a vehicle performed a First Parade check on oils , water, battery‘s tyres wipers etc . any small defect was called a B job, drivers were expected to sort these out . bigger defects were classed as A jobs , they got fixed by REME , If you were found to be negligent you were on one, big time , also Land Rovers that were attached to the RAF did not seemingly get much use by comparison to the Army, so they could be worth looking at , There would be an argument that vehicles returned from combat zones could well have been hammered and possibly records not to well kept ,but the big idea was you kept the vehicle In top condition , if not you are risking the lives of yourself and others at risk .
But , maybe things have changed since my day . But who would want a Mate as a driver who couldn’t be arsed to do his obligatory simple vehicle checks , drive into into a well well known bad lands and have it break down ?
and you all become target practice ?
also risking lives of others who have to drag your sorry arses out of it ,
Somehow , I can’t see the Army changing that much .

 

[Deleted member 23692]

Hi @Ffoeg , where is this Chieftain ? the main armour looks intact so I’m assuming it’s not on a firing range and used for target practice ,

It's on the Warcop range

 

[ozboz]

It's on the Warcop range

Is that right ! They are usually full of shell holes !

 

[Drago]

I think in the likes of the Royal Engineers or the armoured corps where the vehicles are more part of the culture, they're better looked after. From what I've seen with the infantry and on courses with other regiments, RAF Regiment, Paras, etc, the landies were treated appallingly.

I wouldn't touch an ex police car either, regardless of what anyone says!

 

[ozboz]

I think in the likes of the Royal Engineers or the armoured corps where the vehicles are more part of the culture, they're better looked after. From what I've seen with the infantry and on courses with other regiments, RAF Regiment, Paras, etc, the landies were treated appallingly.

I wouldn't touch an ex police car either, regardless of what anyone says!

That’s pretty bad in my book , a lot of lives could well depend on your wheels , especially as nowadays we have a well mechanised Army.
I hope they look after their weapons a bit better !!

 

[Deleted member 23692]

Is that right ! They are usually full of shell holes !

They are predominantly infantry training these days so I'd expect they don't use much that would dent a tank. There's plenty of other stuff knocking about

 

[Drago]

That’s pretty bad in my book , a lot of lives could well depend on your wheels , especially as nowadays we have a well mechanised Army.
I hope they look after their weapons a bit better !!

Meh. They dont look after their weapons as well as the Guards units, but a whole lot better than the Engineers do!

 

[DRM]

Son no. 2 (the one who races bikes) wants an ex-Army Land Rover when he passes his test and can get reasonable insurance.

Is this a slippery slope?

Your other problem will be the insurance, my nephew was quoted £2,500 because it’s got an engine over 2 litres in size , the insurers couldn’t grasp that a Series 3 2.25 litre petrol would struggle to do 65mph down hill with a tail wind