War and peace show 2012

[andrew honychurch]

I do have my "H" elicopter licence yes Ron! Now that is the way to arrive.

Its only 20 miles guys, these things were designed to drive from Normandy to Germany!

I will try it around the local lanes here first and see how I get along. I did drive a T16 in about 2007 at Mons and covered about 20 miles then, great fun it was too. Spun it in front of a Sherman though, carrying out a "high speed" long gradual turn. Message is to make all corners have dog legs on to avoid over heating the brake bands and causing a grab.

[eddy8men]

that's the spirit mate

ref the ear defence, if you go on ebay you can pick up clansman headsets for about a fiver a piece, they are designed to be worn when driving tracked vehicles and work very well, they also have an open and close flap so you can listen to people speak without removing the headset (very handy). if you want comms with any other crew members just buy 2 headsets and a cheap motorbike comm set and you'll have the perfect wireless set up. here's a link to a thread explaining it in detail.

http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread...ht=cheap+comms

[horsa]

We got to experience how easily the T-16 slides sideways on pavement when doing a turn at speed. It can happen with no warning and really will surprise you at how far it will travel due to forward momentum. Makes sense after thinking about the track links turning into skids when in a turn. Easier for them to slide than to grab the slick pavement and keep you on course.

I think you should go for it Andrew and drive to the event if you can line up someone else to ride with you and serve as a ground guide and traffic coordinator. Someone with a truck could probably tow you if needed in an emergency since the carrier would roll easily on flat ground.

[andrew honychurch]

thanks for the advice and comments . I will look into those Clansmen headsets and as you say, an inexpensive motorbike system will do the job. Presumably they have the same sort of jack plugs?

If I am not on lawnmowing duty this weekend, and it isnt raining, I am going to try it down the road and see how we fair. I will report back of course.

[RichardT10829]

You can buy the scala rider Q2 systems cheap enough and they are wireless.... They need to mount to a helmet though, however a couple of issue lids and your laughing

[Andy Foulds]

Originally Posted by andrew honychurch

thanks for the advice and comments . I will look into those Clansmen headsets and as you say, an inexpensive motorbike system will do the job. Presumably they have the same sort of jack plugs?

If I am not on lawnmowing duty this weekend, and it isnt raining, I am going to try it down the road and see how we fair. I will report back of course.

Clansman headsets and boxes can be bought quite cheaply on ebay, when I last looked you could buy most of the bits for about £50.

Clansman when its working correctly doesn't require a radio to operate the system nor does it require the use of civvy frequencies. From memory even though its designed to run at 24 volts it will work with 12 volts. Basic problems with Clansman are the leads on PPT's and headsets.

Picture of the basic boxes needed for the system plus link to plugs / leads required (towards top off the page). http://www.ferret-fv701.co.uk/intercoms_&_radios.htm



Last year at W&P every man and his dog were on the civvy frequencies which doesn't bode well when moving AFV's about. Whatever you use it needs to be hard wired together without the need for a wireless system.

My two pennies worth buy something decent, cheap doesn't equal good for the vast majority of things in life and as you're vehicle isn't cheap it requires the corresponding system to go with it.

In regards to travelling to the show under its own steam have you seen how people behave around armoured vehicles slowing down to take pictures in cars , running out in the road to take pictures, crashing car into stationary vehicle at traffic lights (seen that). I'm sure that I can add a few more to that list if I wanted too and thats just with a moving vehicle.

After the grumpy bit driving to a show has some perks all the lasses smile at you (good ego boost), it pees Ferrari drivers off as all the attention goes to the AFV so on so forth you get the idea (very shallow).

[andrew honychurch]

thanks for this stuff, and I will definitely look into a Clansmen set. In 1994, I drove my Daimler Armoured Car, from Shrewsbury to Portsmouth and all around Normandy. I was only thwarded on the return 280 mile trip by a broken vlave spring. So I do have experience of driving Armoured vehicles on the road, and the visibility out of the vision slots and front hatch of a DAC is not great to put it mildly. That said, we are talking about nearly 20 years ago, and there is no doubt that traffic volumes are much greater than they were then.

As a point of interest, we drove the whole way using the internal 19 set intercom with original headphones. All I can say was that the chaps who used them in period with the noise of battle going on were amazing!

[carrierbarry]

Looks like it's going to be a MUDDY one !!