invacar LightBulbFun's Invacar & general ramble thread, index on page 1, survivors lists on Pages 24/134 & AdgeCutler's Invacar Mk12 Restoration from Page 186 onwards, still harping on...

[wuvvum]

I tried the specialists, most of them wouldn't give me a quote.  I must have done something to upset the algorithm.

[chadders]

31 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

I tried the specialists, most of them wouldn't give me a quote.  I must have done something to upset the algorithm.

Good.

I'd hate to be either behind or coming the opposite way to you in somewhere like Cley.

[wuvvum]

I'd probably still be going quicker than most of the camper vans that clog up the coast road every summer...

[chadders]

Or caravans....

I go out for a run in my cars first thing in the morning as it's bumper to bumper for the rest of the day.

[High Jetter]

Sod the insurance, getting a bus parked by the flat might be rare!

[LightBulbFun]

On 06/10/2024 at 21:33, StefanH said:

Hello together,
step by step the restauration of my Invacar MK12 will go into the final distance to the finish.

But i need more technical data.

So have someone here anything like data sheets?
I need in fact the "maximum weight allowed"...in the paperworks I have i only fount the unloaden weight...can you help me?
I pleased to get anything about the car, because I have not realy much paperworks/sheets about the car and it will realy helpful to have informations to get an Streataproval and regestration here in Germany.

Thank You!

Best regards
Stefan

Hello  it is very awesome to hear from you again and that the restoration of HEV109H is nearing completion  as for the technical data you require, hopefully this excerpt from the MoH/DHSS Handbook Motor & Electric Tricycles will provide sufficient in filling in the remaining missing bits of data your looking for  the maximum User/Driver weight is given as  22 stone, which is 139.71 kilograms 

(spose I should also tag @AdgeCutler so he knows how much to watch his waistline by  )

[mk2_craig]

On 09/10/2024 at 10:19, Yoss said:

Surely you could just remove all the seats from the low floor section and drive it straight on! I'm being flippant of course but I reckon if you could widen the centre doors it might just fit. 

That would be great!! Simply drive your mobility scooter into your FX4, then drive your FX4 onto the lower deck of your bus.  No need for taxi insurance, and invacar surplus to requirements! 

[catsinthewelder]

If you keep one vehicle inside another does it count as garaged for insurance purposes?

I'm thinking folding mobility scooter inside an Invacar, inside a van which would fit in a gutted double decker.

[LightBulbFun]

2 minutes ago, catsinthewelder said:

If you keep one vehicle inside another does it count as garaged for insurance purposes?

I'm thinking folding mobility scooter inside an Invacar, inside a van which would fit in a gutted double decker.

all inside of one of British Airway's recently decommissioned Boeing 747's?  

[chadders]

2 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

all inside of one of British Airway's recently decommissioned Boeing 747's?  

Wouldn't you need a 747F and I don't think BA bought any?

[D.E]

Folding mobility scooter inside Invacar, Invacar inside FX4, FX4 inside Routemaster, Routemaster inside A400M, A400M on the deck of Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier. Simple.

[lesapandre]

And aircraft carrier in Bond villian super-ship.

We have been waiting for you Mr Invacar...

[LightBulbFun]

13 minutes ago, chadders said:

Wouldn't you need a 747F and I don't think BA bought any?

funnily enough I was going to put a comment in brackets about that, the 747's BA got are all SUD's (Stretched upper deck) IIRC? so I dont think they can be converted to out-sized cargo haulers (ie they cant have the front opening nose door) but didn't want to ruin the joke with too much of my usual nerdy pedantry LOL  

[Mrs6C]

3 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

And aircraft carrier in Bond villian super-ship.

We have been waiting for you Mr Invacar...

Then beamed up to the Starship Enterprise? Invacars in Spaaaaaaace!!! 🙂

[chadders]

5 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

funnily enough I was going to put a comment in brackets about that, the 747's BA got are all SUD's (Stretched upper deck) IIRC? so I dont think they can be converted to out-sized cargo haulers (ie they cant have the front opening nose door) but didn't want to ruin the joke with too much of my usual nerdy pedantry LOL  

No.

They started with 747-136s well before the SUD ones.

They also looked at the SR, I've got some of the Boeing documentation somewhere in my study as I needed it for my degree project and they didn't want it back.

I don't think being a SUD affects the feasibility of the front opening door by what I remember.

[LightBulbFun]

20 hours ago, D.E said:

Folding mobility scooter inside Invacar, Invacar inside FX4, FX4 inside Routemaster, Routemaster inside A400M, A400M on the deck of Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier. Simple.

 

20 hours ago, lesapandre said:

And aircraft carrier in Bond villian super-ship.

We have been waiting for you Mr Invacar...

shhhh they are not supposed to know about that yet  https://flic.kr/p/a5Y6g4

 

[catsinthewelder]

45 minutes ago, Mrs6C said:

Then beamed up to the Starship Enterprise? Invacars in Spaaaaaaace!!! 🙂

Where nobody can hear the belt scream!

[LightBulbFun]

speaking of Invacars a long way from home, some bonus pictures for @Dyslexic Viking  "Oslo, Twenty war invalid from England on tour in Norway. Here they are at the "wheel" on Old Mossesvei"

[Pieman]

I think @LightBulbFun has actually perfected AI imaging and is using it to create images involving Invacars depicting any scenario posted in this thread.

[Dyslexic Viking]

6 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

speaking of Invacars a long way from home, some bonus pictures for @Dyslexic Viking  "Oslo, Twenty war invalid from England on tour in Norway. Here they are at the "wheel" on Old Mossesvei"

This is interesting, did they drive up here or were they transported here? 

And do you know about the route they did?

[LightBulbFun]

17 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

This is interesting, did they drive up here or were they transported here? 

And do you know about the route they did?

sadly I dont have much in the way of extra details other then a date of 27/04/1955 (which fits in with the vehicles I see in the pictures above, most notably the Harper Mk1 which is the squared off machine behind the foremost AC all Weather tricycle in the 3rd photo, the Harper was only introduced in 1954-1955 or there abouts) 

Oh and one more photo  

I would not be surprised at all if they where driven up to yours, at least part of the way, back then the Invalid Tricycle Association was very active in this sort of thing, the founder Denny Denly famously drove his 147cc Villiers Stanley Argson across the swiss alps and back   

[Dyslexic Viking]

10 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

sadly I dont have much in the way of extra details other then a date of 27/04/1955 (which fits in with the vehicles I see in the pictures above, most notably the Harper Mk1 which is the squared off machine behind the foremost AC all Weather tricycle in the 3rd photo, the Harper was only introduced in 1954-1955 or there abouts) 

 

I have searched through Norwegian newspaper and image archives and have not found anything about this, which is strange.

[chadders]

15 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

funnily enough I was going to put a comment in brackets about that, the 747's BA got are all SUD's (Stretched upper deck) IIRC? so I dont think they can be converted to out-sized cargo haulers (ie they cant have the front opening nose door) but didn't want to ruin the joke with too much of my usual nerdy pedantry LOL  

I'd forgotten about the aftermarket conversions that are just side loading:

https://www.iai.co.il/p/b747-400bdsf

[warren t claim]

9 hours ago, chadders said:

I'd forgotten about the aftermarket conversions that are just side loading:

https://www.iai.co.il/p/b747-400bdsf

When I look back on my life I've survived many life threatening situations like Covid, a few murder attempts and Mad Sunday on the IOM TT but when it comes to cheating death my greatest achievement is taking a long haul eight hour transatlantic flight on a DC 10 and living to tell the tale. 

[Sheefag]

In the early 2000's, I used to do that a few times a year on Northwest DC-10s out of Minneapolis into London Gatwick.

No seatback IFE, just a single screen up front with one movie delivered from  a 3 gun CRT projector. Audio was delivered through Pneumatic Headsets with hollow tubes that plugged into a hole in the seat. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't the very best sound that you ever heard. The last movie I remember seeing on that run was 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding', no idea why I remember that,

Northwest. The only airline with NO in its name.

 

[warren t claim]

11 minutes ago, Sheefag said:

In the early 2000's, I used to do that a few times a year on Northwest DC-10s out of Minneapolis into London Gatwick.

No seatback IFE, just a single screen up front with one movie delivered from  a 3 gun CRT projector. Audio was delivered through Pneumatic Headsets with hollow tubes that plugged into a hole in the seat.

Northwest. The only airline with NO in its name.

 

From TDW a post to prove that I'm hardly risk averse when it comes to flying.

Back in 1989 when I was a fresh faced sales rep I touched lucky and managed to secure an appointment with a pretty large firm to sell them at least twenty NEC fax machines. There was no fucking way the company I was working for was going to let me pitch this client on my own so I was sent along with Alan our major accounts manager (in his Sierra 2.0i GLS) to try and secure the deal with who I'll call for the sake of this tale Sebastian, their decision maker.

This was my first taste of how large clients are treated and after a rather excellent and expensive lunch where we made great efforts to get Sebastian pissed and signed up, Sebastian insisted that we all get into his company Orion Ghia Injection as he wanted to give us a surprise. Not wanting to risk a large commission, Alan and myself agree and hop into Seb's Orion despite him being well over the limit. Seb's Orion was fitted with a car phone and during the ride, Seb makes a call to someone and starts talking about the weather. I exchange glances with Alan and we both look totally mystified at what the fuck is going on. I point out to Sebastian that we were doing 55 in a 60 limit behind a police Granada and his reply was "Well, he's going the same speed".

All becomes clear a little while later when Sebastian turns into a private airfield and tells us that it's great flying weather today so he thought we'd enjoy a little flight in his Cessna (I think) plane. I go white. Sebastian is a little bit pissed and had been throwing his Orion around and here was me about to get into a light aircraft with him! Alan is the total pro and tells Sebastian that he really doesn't have to do this for us but Sebastian insists. 

All three of us get into the Cessna and sit in the same positions we were in in the Orion. I'm in the rear left seat and Alan is in the front passenger seat with Sebastian taking the controls. Seb does his pre flight checks saying things like "full and free movement" even on levers that seemed a little stiff to say the least. After probably twenty minutes of checks we take off. Sebastian explains to us that he's recently been licenced for aerobatics and can fly this little Cessna on a wing tip. I'm really starting to panic now but Alan manages to think on his feet and tell Sebastian that he's been thinking about taking flying lessons and is there any chance we could treat this flight as a cheeky lesson. Sebastion agrees and we spend the next half hour with Alan at the controls. After that, it's time to land and Sebastian lands it perfectly.

Once back on terra firma, we get back into the Orion and we're driven back to the restaurant at high velocity. Sebastian signs on the dotted line and myself and Alan retreat back to his Sierra. The first ten minutes of the drive back to the office are in silence before I open my mouth and ask Alan if this is just a typical working day. He shakes his head and says that if this was a typical working day then he'd quit and start sweeping the streets. 

At least we both got paid.

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, Sheefag said:

Audio was delivered through Pneumatic Headsets with hollow tubes that plugged into a hole in the seat.

they still have those as "in flight entertainment" in MRI machines, my lasting memory of them, is going for an MRI being told "you know you will be able to listen to some music while your in there!" where I am then shown the music library on the Machine operators personal iPod, so I scroll through it and find Gorilaz Demon days, that will do nicely I tell the operator.

So we go to the machine, they lie my down on the table, I get given those headphones to put on, I get moved into the machine, and just as it gets to the ending part of the Intro song on that album "You are now entering the harmonic realm" the music just stops working and now I am just left to my own thoughts for the next hour or so in this gently* humming tube of of very powerful electromagnets....

[lesapandre]

The noise they make is amazing - I imagine it's what time travel will sound like...

Always makes me think of this when I stagger out...

[lesapandre]

Meanwhile as this is the place for three wheels - dig this cool home-made electric bike I spotted. A bit 'knife and folk' but interesting - I hung about but the Caractus Potts who made it did not turn up to speak to.

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 06/10/2024 at 15:49, LightBulbFun said:

as much I would love an FX4 (and I do mean that genuinely, you only need to ask @Saabnut how I would regularly ask about his!), sadly I dont see an FX4 being currently attainable for me, the ULEZ exemption for Disabled Taxation class vehicles ends in October 2027, so any sort of FX4 would have to be,1987 or older, most of which are not wheelchair accessible, and would probably pose a similar effort to keep going as any 40 year old vehicle would, and even the newest 1997 FX4's are at a point where most of the ones you find on eBay need some work doing, turn key examples are rare and often fairly pricey

there was an approved modified set of hinges which allowed the nearside door to fully open to 90° thus making the fx4 wheelchair accessible