snatch land rover

[Faker]

Was at a local meet and got talking to a bloke with a V8 armoured snatch land rover. Thing was fantastic!! Anyone on here own one, or know anyone with one?

[Guest Breadvan72]

Not so fantastic if you were to be relying on one to save your legs or life from IEDs.      Each to his own, and all that, but I wouldn't want something that in civilian use is too heavy and thirsty, and which also happens to reflect a shameful failure by Government to provide mission-suitable equipment for men sent into danger on our behalf.

[scruff]

I used to sell them. Well, the wrecks that came back from the sandpit anyway. About 3 mpg, shite to drive and all of the above. I forget the weight but you need a proper 10 ton+ HGV to move one. When I left the "updated" version with the 300Tdi were just starting to be released.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Basically a death trap.    A faint analogy: people restore Spitfires, they don't restore Boulton-Paul Defiants.

[chaseracer]

Apparently, they do.

http://www.mapsl.co.uk/

 

[Guest Breadvan72]

Yikes!  I suppose that the B-P D was OK ish as a Night Fighter.  

 

Thread drifting more than somewhat, there was a debate some years ago on the flying fora about some dude who wanted to restore a Stuka to flying condition.  A lot of us said:  In a museum, yes;   in the skies above Europe, no thanks.  Leave it on the ground, please.  

[Sigmund Fraud]

Yikes!  I suppose that the B-P D was OK ish as a Night Fighter.  

 

Thread drifting more than somewhat, there was a debate some years ago on the flying fora about some dude who wanted to restore a Stuka to flying condition.  A lot of us said:  In a museum, yes;   in the skies above Europe, no thanks.  Leave it on the ground, please.  

 

Yet it's perfectly acceptable to turn up at a dub show in a Kubelwagen, complete with iron crosses etc.

 

I'll stop there, as I don't want to evoke Godwin's law...

[gordonbennet]

Talking of not good enough, i used to take a lot of brand new Defenders into a certain works to have winches, electric master switches etc fitted, and some other bits too, then collect them a few weeks later in batches after conversion work was done.

 

This was only about 6/8 years ago but they STILL had the poxy two button years old Rover 200 style plipper type immobiliser fitted, even after conversion this wasn't removed.

Time after time, the bloody vehicles wouldn't turn over or respond to plipper, meaning valuable seconds reaching down to the floor to turn the master switch off and back on again, then re-plip, then they would usually start.

 

Visualise poor bloody squaddies trying to get the heap started when 2 Hilux's (simple, none of this shit) crammed with armed to the bloody teeth bad guys approaching at full pelt and the fuckin immobiliser carps itself, annoying and fiddly enough when you're trying to load 7 of the bastards in the safe confines of a heart of England refitting centre.

 

Why didn't they simply do away completely with this immobiliser shit when they made the fuckin things at Solihull, completely different to civilian Defs anyway, or even sling the poxy things at special equipment stage?

[Guest Breadvan72]

Yet it's perfectly acceptable to turn up at a dub show in a Kubelwagen, complete with iron crosses etc.

 

I'll stop there, as I don't want to evoke Godwin's law...

 

 

Godwin away!  When I flew from North Weald, which still has its WW2 buildings in use,  re enactment dudes often turned up, sometimes to pursue their strange hobby, and sometimes as extras in the filming of dramas or documentaries.  The ones in the Nazi uniforms always outnumbered those dressed as Brits and Yanks.    They would have earnest debates about the correct type of epaulette or cartridge holder for mid 1942 Panzer Grenadiers,  and would lust over the Nazi militaria, plus tapes of the Horst Wessel Lied, Bomben Auf England, etc that were sometimes put on sale at their dos.

 

Once at the end of such a day, some of the locally based historic aircraft returned from a display at Duxford.   We first heard and then saw a (Spanish, post war, painted as Luftwaffe) Bf 109 as it appeared from behind the trees and stormed along the runway  at about 100 feet agl.   Right on its tail was a Mark IX Spitfire, which stuck to the 109 like glue as they pulled up and around to position downwind for landing.*       A mighty cheer went up from the assembled light aviation fraternity gathered for sundowners outside the club bar.    As a bonus there was a Hurricane (a Mark IIa, I think, not sure) flying top cover in the overhead.  Hey, re enactor dudes, remember who won, eh?  That three ship formation must have looked a strange sight as it steered back from Duxford to North Weald over the summery Essex countryside.

 

 

*They were doing what's known as a run and break, a technique for recovering high performance fighters to the airfield in minimum time, dissipating energy rapidly for a safe landing, and with minimum exposure to enemy action, but combining this with a very close tailchase.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Talking of not good enough, i used to take a lot of brand new Defenders into a certain works to have winches, electric master switches etc fitted, and some other bits too, then collect them a few weeks later in batches after conversion work was done.

 

This was only about 6/8 years ago but they STILL had the poxy two button years old Rover 200 style plipper type immobiliser fitted, even after conversion this wasn't removed.

Time after time, the bloody vehicles wouldn't turn over or respond to plipper, meaning valuable seconds reaching down to the floor to turn the master switch off and back on again, then re-plip, then they would usually start.

 

Visualise poor bloody squaddies trying to get the heap started when 2 Hilux's (simple, none of this shit) crammed with armed to the bloody teeth bad guys approaching at full pelt and the fuckin immobiliser carps itself, annoying and fiddly enough when you're trying to load 7 of the bastards in the safe confines of a heart of England refitting centre.

 

Why didn't they simply do away completely with this immobiliser shit when they made the fuckin things at Solihull, completely different to civilian Defs anyway, or even sling the poxy things at special equipment stage?

 

 

I could tell you some stuff about that based on a case I did for the MoD, but I honestly can't without breaking a professional and statutory obligation.  All that I will say is that it is even worse than you think.  

[mat_the_cat]

This might just be my uneducated layman's view of the situation, but my understanding was that the problem with the Snatch was more that it was being used for stuff it wasn't designed for, rather than the actual design. Weren't they originally made for the problems in Northern Ireland? And then a case of "It'll do" (or not!) for Afghanistan and suchlike?

[saucedoctor]

This might just be my uneducated layman's view of the situation, but my understanding was that the problem with the Snatch was more that it was being used for stuff it wasn't designed for, rather than the actual design. Weren't they originally made for the problems in Northern Ireland? And then a case of "It'll do" (or not!) for Afghanistan and suchlike?

My bold. Yep, a version thereof, anyway. All the ones I drove were V8s. As well as the usual bricks and bottles, we were hit a few times by small arms fire and they handled that OK. IED's weren't peculiar to the sandpit, either. A few of our 'Rovers got clobbered by "Culvert Bombs". Seemed to be pot luck as to how the vehicles coped with the blast. We did have some Humber Pigs as well, but I never drove one, and it was seen as "too much" to have them on the street too often.

 

Army "Makralons" (sp?) were a lot faster than R.U.C. Tangis.

[oman5]

bloody hell. This is shocking.

[Rocket88]

Further to this, back in the seventies, when I was in Her Madges Royal Signals , we were still using Bedford RLs, as, amongst other things, radio relay wagons. These poor old things were supposed to carry a radio relay station, AND tow a 10 KVA diesel generator.

Last exercise I did before I came out involved [as usual] the long drag up to the autobahn from barracks. Halfway up this drag, I felt a jolt, and suddenly started going faster..............looked in mirror to see generator had now decided to go freelance, demolished 2 cars and a fence before coming to rest.

After much finger pointing [mostly at me] it was discovered that the tow hook had ripped clean out of the chassis...years of flexing had evetually caused stress cracking, and because we had to paint everything to keep it looking pretty, these cracks were never evident,

Happy times!

[Faker]

No offence intended, and none taken. I am fully aware of the snatch's failings, however it functioned very well when in service in northern Ireland, where it was used to great effect. I know of many ex-service men and women who have served in N.I. and hold fond memories of the snatch land rover. In the middle east the snatch was less effective, but the yanks with the hummers don't fare any better.

[brickwall]

Personally, I'd leave it due to power-weight ratio and the bills. Get a sexy ex mod bikini Defender.

[HillmanImp]

When I came on here I was expecting pictures of that plus size 'speciality films and gentlemens magazines' model draping her droopy bits over a Defender again.

 

If I wanted something shite to drive that would do about 3mpg I would get a Daimler Ferret though. I prefer Ferrets to Snatch.

[saucedoctor]

I know a bloke who has a Daimler Ferret. Must ask him if I can takes photos of it again, as I dunno what I did with the last ones. He's after a  FV101 Scorpion, an early one, which has a 4.2 Jaguar AJ6 engine I believe.

 

He's a member of this club

 

www.umvc.co.uk/

[Faker]

Just out of interest scruff, what sort of money are they being sold off for? V8 and tdi?

[Timewaster]

I'm quite intrigued about the different military Land Rover variants, but there is no way I am going to google "military snatch vs bikini"

[scruff]

V8s have all gone from the MoD's dispersal agent, but they regularly appear on ebay sometimes cheap and in 'as robbed before being put on the low loaders released' condition. They have one still there but it's a refurb by Hobsons. There are still TONS of spares for them coming through especially engines, axles, transmissions. 

 

Tdis are megabucks and you will not get away from that loon with a anti aircraft gun at anything approaching speed.

 

http://www.mod-sales.com/direct/vehicles/,82,/Armoured_Land_Rovers.htm

[oldford]

Yet it's perfectly acceptable to turn up at a dub show in a Kubelwagen, complete with iron crosses etc.

Especially with Afrika Korps insignia, looks like a Swastika with a Pineapple on top, it should fit in well.

[Faker]

Yeah!! I saw the re-firbed V8, £35,000!!!

[Faker]

absolutely 

 

 it was designed  for  temperate urban  'police actions' against small arms and petrol bombs

 

And.... IED's, horizontal mortars...... And anything else that could be thrown or shot at the mod and police, and still do for that matter. That's why they still use armoured patrol cars and landrovers in N.I.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Yersh, the Landies were OK for the more low intensity end of the stuff in Northern Ireland, but it was a wretchedly bad idea to use them in the sandy war places, and the decision was based on the Government being cheap bastards, cynically taking risks with the lives of disposable infantrymen, whilst spaffing money on wanky public procurement projects elsewhere.

 

Military Spec Landies in the 60s seems to have been simple and robust, like the civilian ones, but in the Defender era the management consultant wankers and public procurement dickheads arrived, and mil spec Landies had all sorts of bollox added to them.    

 

I have done lots of public procurement legal work across Government, in defence sectors and elsewhere, and it makes me want to stab my eyes out in frustration at the waste and stupidity and sheer scamming that goes on.    It would not matter if it was all just money sloshing about to stimulate the economy and tax take one way or another, but when some poor Geordie lad who is paid about 10p a month gets his bollocks blown off the joke wears thin.