Absolute horse shit™ The official thread of Railton Heavy Industries Limited and it's subsidiaries.

[Zelandeth]

Kind of surprising that someone hasn't come up with a solution to the drivetrain windup issue.  Given these things have quite a following I'd have thought there would be a mod out there to sort it by now.

Or are we running into the "No it must be as it left the factory down to every nut and bolt, bugs and all..." Sort of mentality which seems to prevail in the circles around some vehicles?  So nobody wants to do it because they know they'll get crucified for daring to question the original designer.

Thinking about it, given how sodding awkward it is to do anything to one of these things (I got conscripted to change a brake master cylinder after I discovered (via a thankfully empty) shed that there were zero brakes in Craig's one...nice of him to warn me of that...).  Changing the cylinder?  Twenty minutes. 

Getting to the damned thing, about three or four hours.

[bezzabsa]

IIRC didn't 90% of the "wading gear" get slung when The Army demobbed them....remember Suggs having a right old game finding their wading stuff...Oh and the exhausts usually glow like a V1 at full chat..

regarding Multi fuel, get friendly with mechanics as you have to pay to get rid of used oil......used oil burns.....free gogo juice for the Stolly...

Dont forget the Pools in Pensnett if you ever do want  to test its aquatic abilities...even has a ramp already there

[wuvvum]

11 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Kind of surprising that someone hasn't come up with a solution to the drivetrain windup issue.  Given these things have quite a following I'd have thought there would be a mod out there to sort it by now.

Or are we running into the "No it must be as it left the factory down to every nut and bolt, bugs and all..." Sort of mentality which seems to prevail in the circles around some vehicles?  So nobody wants to do it because they know they'll get crucified for daring to question the original designer.

I did wonder that myself.  Could free-wheeling hubs from one of the many generations of military 4x4 HGVs not be made to fit?

[Zelandeth]

Sure there's a solution out there somewhere.  Would definitely be a great improvement as I didn't find it drove bad on the road at all, keeping the ridiculous width in mind and I wasn't paying for the fuel...but compared to a lot of heavily off road focused vehicles not bad at all.

Just beware the tyres you see on most of them if it's wet, they have absolutely zero by way of water clearance capacity and are as a result absolutely lethal on wet tarmac.

[sutty2006]

I remember an off reading site in Trentham had a large lake, and a large slowing downhill gradient to said lake..... there was a guy up there with a stalwart and he’d fill the rear tub with ambitious passengers at the top of the slope. Then hit the lake at full speed. Epic. 

[somewhatfoolish]

3 hours ago, wuvvum said:

I did wonder that myself.  Could free-wheeling hubs from one of the many generations of military 4x4 HGVs not be made to fit?

The difficulty is everything is massive and it would have to be similarly massive due to the epicyclic hub gears, plus it would be another path for letting dirt in and OEP220 out.

[Heidel_Kakao]

On 20/05/2021 at 14:46, bezzabsa said:

IIRC didn't 90% of the "wading gear" get slung when The Army demobbed them....remember Suggs having a right old game finding their wading stuff...Oh and the exhausts usually glow like a V1 at full chat..

regarding Multi fuel, get friendly with mechanics as you have to pay to get rid of used oil......used oil burns.....free gogo juice for the Stolly...

Dont forget the Pools in Pensnett if you ever do want  to test its aquatic abilities...even has a ramp already there

The wading gear was removed while they were in service once that ability was no longer needed. It saved a bit of weight and made maintenance easier as the wading gear even makes accessing the engine more difficult 

Good shout about the used oil.

Don't know about Pensnett but I do know that boat club owner fees at Cannock Chase are £799 per year.

[Heidel_Kakao]

Black and white number plates on the Stolly?

Would get one exactly like the ones on Cedric.

[sutty2006]

Yes do it! If you’re mentioning Cannock chase, where do you live? If close to me, once I get my licence back i might happily come down and scarily throw some angry spanners at it!

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, Heidel_Kakao said:

Black and white number plates on the Stolly?

Would get one exactly like the ones on Cedric.

Ohh thats an interesting thought normally yeah go for white on black (especially as its a Military vehicle)

 

but I wonder how a pair of period pressed retroreflective plates would look

to give it that Ex Military now a Recovery vehicle sort of vibe?  (especially once the plates start to weather) like an old Thornycroft antar being used to recover broken buses

back then they would of thrown just the cheapest set of plates on hand, which back then would of more then been a set of pressed ally retroreflective plates

https://www.tippersvintageplates.co.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/tippers?opendocument&part=4

[Heidel_Kakao]

On 20/05/2021 at 19:50, sutty2006 said:

Yes do it! If you’re mentioning Cannock chase, where do you live? If close to me, once I get my licence back i might happily come down and scarily throw some angry spanners at it!

I live in Brierley Hill.

https://www.chasewaterski.co.uk/boat-owners/boat-membership/

Boat membership at Cannock Chase is £799 per year. I Can practice water driving before going to sea.

This is getting more serendipitous by the minute. A 22 mile round trip in the Stolly on petrol at 4MPG would be £33 which is fine for a fun day boating, plus all the fuel in the lake so say £100 total fuel cost for the day.

I have a 2000 mile a year allowance and a vehicle that has only done 1200 miles from new and who's engine isn't fully run in until 3000 miles. This is gonna be fun 🤪

[Mrs6C]

21 minutes ago, Heidel_Kakao said:

engine isn't fully run in until 3000 miles

I suspect you'll need to be quite gentle on the engine until it has been run in fully, especially given its age and lack of use over the last 50 years. It should be glorious though when you can get full performance out of it.

[Mally]

Sign on the back  'Running in please pass'.

[somewhatfoolish]

35 minutes ago, Heidel_Kakao said:

I have a 2000 mile a year allowance and a vehicle that has only done 1200 miles from new and who's engine isn't fully run in until 3000 miles. This is gonna be fun 🤪

1200 miles is quite a lot when you can only do 40mph flat out; I suspect 25-30 was a more realistic/safer speed given the dumper treads and braking ability.

[richardmorris]

23 minutes ago, Mally said:

Sign on the back  'Running in please pass'.

I last did that in 1994!  Brand new 2cv engine ( nouveau exchange ) and ran it in 500 miles a week to Llandudno along the a55.

[djoptix]

6 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Kind of surprising that someone hasn't come up with a solution to the drivetrain windup issue.

This image

makes it look like there is a centre diff going out to the centre wheels, and longitudinal driveshafts to the front and rear wheels...

Seems to me that the simplest solution for road driving would be to just remove the longitudinal driveshafts and make it 2wd with only the centre wheels driven. That would enable you to commute in it/drive into the ULEZ.

Put them back in for off road excursions.

[Heidel_Kakao]

I still fit in my old wetsuit 😀

I last wore it in 2008 when I took the SC100 to Barmouth. Yes that's my spade and shovel, they fit nicely in the front boot lol.

[Talbot]

3 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Just beware the tyres you see on most of them if it's wet, they have absolutely zero by way of water clearance capacity and are as a result absolutely lethal on wet tarmac.

I had similar tyres on a IIB FC Landrover.  Apparently they're very good in sand, but as you say:  Completely awful in the wet.  I had all manner of "issues" with mine as a IIB FC is very lightly loaded at the back and RWD only in normal service.  Makes for rather interesting roundabouts, that's for sure.

I've heard that some Stollys have a couple of propshafts removed, making them 2WD for road use.  Kinda kills the point of the vehicle, but at least you can drive it on road without wrecking it.  From what I've heard, originality isn't the issue, just that there's zero space to get the required number of differentials in there for normal use, mainly because they need to be massive to transmit enough torque.

That said, I'm sure if someone were determined, you could fit something like a Cummins 6BT, a normal manual gearbox and sufficient differentials to make it all work.  Would be a massive amount of work, but if it meant you could have it useable both on and off road at the flick of diff-lock lever(s), and it did maybe 15mpg rather than 4, that has to be worth it.

[richardmorris]

5 minutes ago, Heidel_Kakao said:

I still fit in my old wetsuit 😀

I last wore it in 2008 when I took the SC100 to Barmouth. Yes that's my spade and shovel, they fit nicely in front boot lol.

Amphibious vehicle not expected to be waterproof then?

[Talbot]

5 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Amphibious vehicle not expected to be waterproof then?

Looking at the for sale advert, it currently isn't.  (waterproof that is).  I'd say that's a reasonable precaution.

[richardmorris]

3 minutes ago, Talbot said:

Looking at the for sale advert, it currently isn't.  (waterproof that is).  I'd say that's a reasonable precaution.

Without being too picky, it’s also a different wetsuit. GUL and it looks like HUUB.

[richardmorris]

1 hour ago, Heidel_Kakao said:

I live in Brierley Hill, the Stolly will be living in Penkridge. 

https://www.chasewaterski.co.uk/boat-owners/boat-membership/

Boar membership at Cannock Chase is £799 per year. Can practice water driving before going to sea.

This is getting more serendipitous by the minute. A 22 mile round trip in the Stolly on petrol at 4MPG would be £33 which is fine for a fun day boating, plus all the fuel in the lake so say £100 total fuel cost for the day.

I have a 2000 mile a year allowance and a vehicle that has only done 1200 miles from new and who's engine isn't fully run in until 3000 miles. This is gonna be fun 🤪

I think you could get a fair bit back by turning up at the field of dreams and charging people £10 a go.

[bezzabsa]

1 hour ago, Heidel_Kakao said:

I live in Brierley Hill, the Stolly will be living in Penkridge. 

https://www.chasewaterski.co.uk/boat-owners/boat-membership/

Boar membership at Cannock Chase is £799 per year. Can practice water driving before going to sea.

This is getting more serendipitous by the minute. A 22 mile round trip in the Stolly on petrol at 4MPG would be £33 which is fine for a fun day boating, plus all the fuel in the lake so say £100 total fuel cost for the day.

I have a 2000 mile a year allowance and a vehicle that has only done 1200 miles from new and who's engine isn't fully run in until 3000 miles. This is gonna be fun 🤪

isnt a certain Ford & landrover Tuning place up in Penkridge??? (MAD Ford) few Turbo's on the RR lump=Mo fun!!!

[Six-cylinder]

[Heidel_Kakao]

31 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Amphibious vehicle not expected to be waterproof then?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seadoo-jet-ski-/124732777227?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286

It's for riding the Jet Ski I am currently high bidder on. I can lift it in and out with the HIAB* 😀

*To be pedantic to myself it is actually an Atlas crane not a HIAB.

[Heidel_Kakao]

10 minutes ago, bezzabsa said:

isnt a certain Ford & landrover Tuning place up in Penkridge??? (MAD Ford) few Turbo's on the RR lump=Mo fun!!!

Twin Turbo Rolls Royce 6.5 litre straight 8. Man you are some kind of sick genius, why the fuck didn't I think of that! With a 200BHP shot of Nitrous on top? How fast would it go then?

[Heidel_Kakao]

Does anyone think the Police might try and stop me while driving my Stolly?

[Zelandeth]

51 minutes ago, djoptix said:

This image

makes it look like there is a centre diff going out to the centre wheels, and longitudinal driveshafts to the front and rear wheels...

Seems to me that the simplest solution for road driving would be to just remove the longitudinal driveshafts and make it 2wd with only the centre wheels driven. That would enable you to commute in it/drive into the ULEZ.

Put them back in for off road excursions.

That sounds right from the diagram and what I foggily remember from about 15 years ago.  If it were any normal HGV/offroad vehicle "just remove the driveshaft" would be a pretty simple job...however because Stolly I seem to recall the drivetrain being buried several layers deep under "stuff."

[djoptix]

4 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

That sounds right from the diagram and what I foggily remember from about 15 years ago.  If it were any normal HGV/offroad vehicle "just remove the driveshaft" would be a pretty simple job...however because Stolly I seem to recall the drivetrain being buried several layers deep under "stuff."

Yes, that sounds very plausible. It would be a shame if you couldn't easily swap them back in for off-road fun. But I guess for a show machine it would make sense to convert to 2wd.

Surprising that they didn't manufacture it in (switchable 2wd or some other way of avoiding driveline self destruction when driven on a road) , but as someone said, that's military procurement... 

[puddlethumper]

16 minutes ago, Heidel_Kakao said:

Does anyone think the Police might try and stop me while driving my Stolly?

They could try but success might be tricky.