AKA Cambridge carrier

[Jon Bradshaw]

Robin, I am not surprised you couldn't find the book either. I would buy it if someone had a copy.

Hanno, I will contact Nigel and see if he still has any info that he can send me. He may even have a copy of the book to send me.

[Jon Bradshaw]

So the package arrived and as promised it has about 150 pages of assorted copies from a few obscure manuals and the engineer reports for the vehicle trials.
I am slowly reading through them and there are also some useful scaled drawings. Not blueprints but still useful to show the angle and thickness of various parts of the outer steel.
The layout of the inside is the real picture I was hoping for, haven't found it yet...
If I find any really god pics or have questions I will post them for the rest of you to help me with.
Still no response from Nigel about his book.

[Jon Bradshaw]

So I received the electronic pictures from the museum today. There are some very good photos of the machine when it was new and complete.
The interior shot is an FV401 and the roofed one is the FV402.
It looks like the ferret generation of radio gear and some other electronics on the interior wall, does anyone have suggestions as to what else they were using? The antennae mounts are normal ferret style except for the big one on the crew comd's hatch side.
You can also see the cutout in the side wall to accommodate the radios, mine has evidence of this so this tells me that it was most likely a 402 not a 401.
The stowage bins on the side are easy to build but the ones on the back will take some work.

[rob love]

My guess is the radios are pre-clansmen, so still of the 19set generation/family. The antenna mounts and the control boxes visible in the one photos give credence to that.

[Ed Storey]

Here is an image of a Cambridge Carrier driving out of a wading tank in 1955.

Cambridge Carrier Seen Coming Out of the Wading Tank - 1955.jpg

[Frank v R]

may also be 29 set , the brits also had them,

[David Herbert]

In the photos that Jon has just posted all the radio gear looks like 19 set generation, remember that the 19 set generation of radio gear was replaced by the Larkspur system which was in turn replaced by Clansman which was replaced from about 2000 by Bowman. The best resource on Larkspur that I use is: http://www.wftw.nl/harness.html If you click on the thumbnails you get an explanation of each item.

In the photos of JXW32you can see the FVPE 'wing' (individual vehicle identification number): 3816, and 'P1' telling us that this is prototype number 1. All the other prototypes will be significantly different in detail and often in major ways like hatch arrangements, power train, etc.

Note that P1 has no provision for the wading screen which I believe was bolted to the top of the track guards and into the notch in the top of the rear stowage boxes, against the rear of the hull armour.

David

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Tank Chats # 123 | Oxford and Cambridge Carriers | The Tank Museum

https://youtu.be/X_6SY16y-OE

[Peter Duggan]

Guys,

I had the opportunity to visit Jonathan Bradshaw and get an update on his work on his Cambridge carrier. Certainly looks a lot better than when it was dragged home. Running gear and suspension freed up, cleaned, painted and ready to roll. Literally tons of sandblasting and paint have brought the hull back to life. The original engine and drive train were beyond recovery, however the original radiator and final drives have been cleaned, painted and are incorporated in the rebuild. Engine pictures to follow on another thread.

Peter

IMG_3433.jpg IMG_3434.jpg IMG_3435.jpg IMG_3436.jpg

[Peter Duggan]

Guys,

With the original drive train in such bad condition, Jonathan has decided to use the drive train from a Canadian Forces MLVW 2.5 ton truck. This consists of a non turbo charged V8 diesel, coupled to an Allison automatic transmission. Jonathan was able to recover and use the original radiator and the original final drives.

The engine/radiator combination has been successfully run up on an engine stand, with goal of installing the power pack into the Cambridge before next summer. I'm looking forward to see this Cambridge drive once again, Peter


IMG_3437.jpg IMG_3438.JPG

[Mike Cecil]

Nice job on the hull thus far. Are B80 engines and gearboxes/transmissions too hard to find in Canada?

Mike

[rob love]

20 years ago it was possible to get B80s with the Allison TX200 automatics from scrapped FV432s out of Regina. But those days are long gone, as are those power-plants. Whereas the 8.2 liter Fuel pincher with the Allison MT635 are relatively easy and reasonably priced right now since the government scrapped the vast majority of the MLVWs in the past 5 years. The GM 8.2 is not a particularly good engine, but for limited mileage, and without the turbo, should give reasonable service.