AKA Cambridge carrier

[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

[Jon Bradshaw]

David you are correct that there was no provision for a wading skirt on JXW32. The one posted coming out of the water is the Infantry carrier version of the Cambridge with the open top (as seen top left of this page). The headlights are different on the APC vs the Arty OP version. I believe the reason the numbers on JXW32 show it as the first prototype is because it is the first artillery Observation Post version to be built. Mine has the headlights in the lower position between the front fenders and it also has the wading skirt still attached (rotted away) but I don't have anywhere near as much info on the APC version that I have on the Arty OP. The wading skirt does not appear to have been a carry over so I will likely do away with it. The headlights were long gone but the mounts are still there on mine. If you look on page one of this thread you can see the difference in the fronts of the two versions. The arty OP version has a better look to it (my opinion) and the starting point of the restoration is the same. Complete strip and sandblast.
I hope that helps answer that.

[Jon Bradshaw]

See here on the front the old wading skirt and the low mount headlights.