Night Train

My carpentry bench is 66"x30" and the top is made from solid 3" beech with 4" square beech legs. The space under is full of storage and the whole thing is on 70mm locking castors. My metal work bench is old fire doors taken from my house, three in an L shape supported on 5"x3" legs at the front with a 5"x3" beam under the front across the legs and a 4"x2" at the back rawbolted to the wall. For hitting things I have a 12" piece of 10"x12" RSJ as an anvil. I will need to get a big bucket of sand to put it in one day.

Very nice. Now, why can't we buy chassis parts that nicely made?

I fitted the 11x3 brakes from a 6 cyl Land Rover on the front of the 6x6 and had the four sets of standard LWB Sailsbury brakes on the rears with a series 3 servo. I was able to lock up all the wheels with 3 1/2 tons travelling at 30mph on Firestone SATs. Was a bit noisy though with six sets of rubber sliding on dry tarmac.

The CV12 is a huge lump weighing in at over 2 tons, slightly more then 2 Eagles joined together at the crank. It is the engine used in both the Challenger 1 tank (1200 bhp) and the Scammell Commander tank transporter (625 bhp). The Eagle is a really nice proven engine as is the CV12. Your mates place sounds like a grinning from ear to ear type of place.

If it was an Eagle then it would be 12.17 litres straight 6. If it was 27 litres (26.11 litres) then it is the CV12. I have the workshop manuals on both if there is anything you need to know about it. This could be an interesting build. Ahh, you say six cylinders, then it is the Eagle 12.17l. Dry weights: Normally Aspirated 1073kg Turbo 1111kg Turbo intercooled 1137kg I think you may need uprated front springs.

Hehe, not bad at all. I wonder if he can get a shortened Land Rover through the MOT as easily, I reckon he must be the guy to speak to regarding SVA's.

Would that be sufficiently legal? I thought the requirement was for not seeing any tyre tread from above to protect the public from accidental contact with the tyres. Brushes wouldn't be rigid enough, not that it makes much difference in reality anyway when it comes to high ground clearance vehicles. Don't know if it will be effective in that full throttle blast out of a mud hole. Brushes barely stop the water spray from truck tyres on the motorway.

It's an interesting pattern (can't see it very well for the draught excluder) but I find that plan black or black rib matting works better in the footwells unless you have brushed steel door pulls and marble effect laminate for the dash.

I've often wondered if they worked. I have the old chain on a lever thing that generally tears the filter can apart before it loosens it. It was as useful as stabbing the can with a screwdiver and then levering it off.

That's not a tree, it is barely a sapling! I used my 110 V8 to remove a couple of gateposts a few years ago. The posts were about 8' long with nearly half in the ground. A lot of digging to create a ramp, then build a 'pallet' against it and tie together, then gently pull it over and haul it out. Excuse the poor quality photo. The last tree I pulled down was a laburnam, 15" diameter and 25' high. I did it with my car as it was rotten at the bottom and was free to move a lot. I trimmed off a few of the branches and then used the car to get it rocking and used its own momentum to bring it down.

I only saw this briefly the other day and thought I'd sort out a spread sheet for you. I then found the pages and pages of calculations I did in the past calculating overall ratios long hand my the old fashioned pencil and paper route and got lost looking at all my old designs and plans. I shall check out the links myself and save doing the work. Oh well, back to marking school work.

There is also working it the other way. Find the best positions on the vehicle and then see what the computer says about it. Find the next best positions on the vehicle and recheck on the computer. No point having a great geometry that doesn't fit.

Orgasmic Farmer, thanks for that. I remember the good old days of trying to work it out long hand and then reverting to miniature models and then full scale trials. I shall have a play when I have a bit of time.

I guess I will have to find out how it affects my trailers and what I will need to do with them. Not a bad thing but I hope I don't lose my pole trailer.

Nice one Bish, are you planning anything more radical in the future or are you going steer well clear of the SVA issues?

Would you have a link to the Pirate4x4 4 link calculator please? Thank you.

I have folded 1/8" aluminium sheet up to 4' long by clamping it between two lengths of 60x10mm steel angle and gently starting the fold first by hand and then with a wooden drift before flattening and squaring the fold with a mallet and block. The angle needs to be in line with each other and lined up with the inside line of the fold. You can fold the 2mm you need in the same way.

It is weight saving. If you made a thing with the right strength material and then needed it lighter you might put holes in it. In the right place a hole may not affect the strength of the item but in other places it would. In sheet materials in particular a hole would weaken it allowing it to bend across the hole more easily. A dimple adds a fold that increses stiffness and adding some, or all, of that strength back.

The thing with dampness is that if you apply a little heat then the dampness becomes vapour and raises the humidity. Then, given better ventillation, the moist, humid air can be removed from the garage and replaced with cooler, dryer air. Insulation also reduces cold surfaces that allow moisture in the air to condense. If the garage is just too damp then one thing to do would be to keep all the tools stored in a cupboard that is warmed and ventillated so that moisture won't condense on the tools and metal work but elsewhere.

If you can get power to it then how about a couple of low power electric heaters. I have a 500w oil radiator in my workshop that is only on its lowest setting for the colder months and timed for nights. it would be a good start until something better comes to mind. Good ventillation will also help clear any dampness and you could line the walls and ceiling with insulation panels from your local diy shed.

You see, that is how a crossmember should be made! It just needs the rest of the chassis to be built likewise.

To be honest, unless you want to run a really tidy vehicle it would probably be just as easy to leave it and just make sure the lights are ok and nothing sticks out that would fall foul of the law. It can then absorb any other damage in the meantime and perhaps only change the wings when you are ready to sell and if it would improve the price.

In the past my first route would probably be to get a length of rolled steel channel of around the right dimensions and about 10mm thick and then cut away the bits to get the shape. The missing web can then be welded back in place to make the channel continuous. The bit between the chassis members can be boxed in with more 10mm plate. This may be a little on the heavy side for most uses but wheelie bars shouldn't be needed.

Holes are put into a fabrication to reduce weight. The dimple puts the strength back. Sometimes it can add to the strength at that point by transfering bending loads to a stronger part of the fabrication.

I've just had the play of a new 1.6 petrol Astra and a new 1.8 petrol Zafira as hire cars while mine is off the road. I normally get around 60mpg in my diesel but I only got 32mpg and 33mpg out of the Vauxhalls respectively. Not sure how much the diesels would do though.