Night Train

As much as I love Scammell Explorers I have yet to drive one so that would be top of the list. Chris Acock, who had/has Natts is a great chap, I am sure he would be happy to show off Natts to anyone interested. I'd also like to drive a Scammell Contractor 240 ton with 1000 tons behind it just to know what it is like to move that much weight. I would also like to have a go in one of those artic steer, 6x6, dumper trucks that dominate small quarries, the ones that pivot behind the cab. The one thing I would really like to have though, apart from an Explorer, is a Land Rover Centaur, the half track one. That has to be an amazing beast both on and off the road. Imagine trundling into Tesco's carpark with one of them.

I could do my whole history as it may put into better perspective more so then just the 4x4 stuff. Owned and driven: Ford Escort Mk1 Land Rover S3 109 Safari MGB GT (1970) MGB GT Track prepared (1970) Ford Escort Mk2 MG YB saloon (1954) Land Rover S2 109 Ex MOD V8 auto Land Rover S2 88 Truck cab Land Rover S3 109 6x6 Modified 3.6D Skoda Estelle x2 with 3 engines on rotation Ford Sierra estate Rover Montego 2.0i AEC Matador timber tractor (1949) Land Rover 110 V8 truck cab Vauxhall Astra van VW Polo Land Rover Discovery Harley Davidson Night Train 1450cc (hence the name) Skoda Octavia estate 1.9tdi Also driven: Ford Capri Mk1 3.0 Renault 5 GT turbo Alvis Stalwart Bobcat JCB Artic steer dumper Thornycroft Antar Scammell Constuctor Mercedes 815 Mercedes 1820 with drawbar trailer Probably some others but can't think at the moment.

In the 80's I had a screen wash heater which was just a heat exchanger that went in line with the heater hose. It worked fine squirting hot water on the screen but I also found that the hot water must have evaporated off the screen wash in the process. At higher speeds with greater wind chill the wipers ended up caked in clear ice as did the rest of the screen, bonnet edge and top door hinge areas. I took the heat exchanger back out and just used screen wash and it was better.

That's a really useful link. I remember when we used to have to do that by manual calculation, it was a pain and boring too.

Sort of OT, Paul, but I thought you when I found this while looking for images of trailers. Made me laugh. I expect yours will be better attached then this one. Big fith wheel camping trailer!

I've only towed a lightly loaded Sankey, about 600kg all up, behind my Skoda at 60mph on the motorway and it towed surprisingly well. Due to the previous owner's bodged 50mm ball hitch it was running without brakes so I can't comment on those.

I think the engine blocks on the petrol and diesel were the same but I wouldn't like to say that anything else was interchangable. I would opt for a direct replacement as the simplest or for a bit more work go for a later engine. It may be cheaper to try and find a working diesel with a rotten chassis and buy the whole thing for the engine before selling the rest on again with the broken engine thrown in, however, that depends on finding space for three Land Rovers.

I would avoid cheap new as well. I bought a Clark pillar drill as I needed one for a job and although it is still in use it is rough and inaccurate. I would go for a secondhand one from an established workshop that is closing. It would have been bought because it was good not because it was cheap. I do scour Ebay for such things and have come up with a few bargains. Even a 3ph one would be ok as they usually sell for a little less and a replacement 1ph motor could then be used.

That 'cabriolet' style roof isn't new, I was first in 1987:

That's a nice design, I shall have to think about something like that for my workshop. I produce no end of scrap hardwood for fuel.

The Scammell I fell in love with was Natts owned by Chris Acock. I first met Natts at a Heavies trial where it was not running due to a broken gear box. Chris had taken the side off the box to try and fix it and all the selector bits fell out. I offered to fix it and did so having never seen the inside of one before, earning myself a ride around the trials course. It has to be the most complex gearboxs ever, two lay shafts, two mainshafts and sequential selection of the six forward gears and three or four neutrals. Phil, had my Dad still got his Disco I could have given him a heart attack with that image and my mechanics tools cleaned and readied! Nice one. Bill, that Metrac reminds me of the . It has opposing steering on front and rear axles and it bends and pivots in the middle and floats.

It is possible to convert motors from 3ph to 1ph but as Vanny says they loose power. I do, however, look for 3ph machines for my workshop on the basis I have a small stash of big 1ph motors to replace on them thanks to a dad who hoards everything electrical. I think, generally, if you need that much power then 3ph really makes a difference, if you can afford it.

Come on Phil, I'm on the edge of my seat here!

This also means that the other car will take more impact then if it hit a similar vehicle and so greater injuries will occur. The lack of crumple zones on a Land Rover will also go against you if you were to hit a bigger vehicle, a truck, or an immovable object. This could be argued with fair pros and cons on both sides but ultimately it will come down to driver awareness and defensive driving to reduce the risks, whoever is at fault, both on and off road.

When I had my 6x6 I had a Warn 8000 on it which was showing its age. I wrote to Warn describing it and asking if they still did spares for it and they were most helpful. They wrote back saying it was the oldest Warn 8000 they knew of that was still in use and running and sent me a parts list, breakdown drawing and the parts I needed free of charge for the rebuild. Granted there wasn't much wrong with it, just a brake strap, seals and bushes but it was very good of them. This was 18 years ago though.

I think you're not far wrong on the transmission on that thing, Bill, but with the short wheelbase it would need to be skid steer I think, couldn't see the video of it as I don't have flash installed. Can't imagine it would have much speed due to chain tension and whip. I like the Scammell walking beam system myself: It is gear driven with a 2:1 reduction in the gear case to allow for drive torque balance. Its down sides are huge unsprung weight and no brake balance. Under braking, load is transfered forwards to the leading wheel. However, it does lend itself well to being a halftrack. Steve, nice RR there. What is it using to drive the rear axle and any chance of it being six wheel steer?

Just thinking that I can't talk given that I like having an extra axle on everything along with the corresponding extra few feet of length.

Size isn't everything!

That's a nice little 6x6 there Bill. I wish I had video of mine but moving pictures were still an expensive pipe dream then. Maybe we do have the same madness! Here's the inside of the transfer box in the 6x6 during assembly. Four shafts, input via a prop flange, three outputs and a pto. I really like six wheelers a lot. I've even been thinking of doing this to my Skoda for extra load space to save dragging a trailer about. If I don't get mine back, or if it is in such as state as to not be worth it then I am very tempted to build another with all the modern stuff that is around now. In those days I had to make everything as nothing was available.

Looks like a nice neat job there. I'd still be a little worried about the one at the bottom getting scraped when off road but if you know it is safe then that is fine. My bellhousings always looked battered for some reason.

You may also want to consider that if you were to use your Landy in a way that may risk it rolling over and so need a cage for protection then the extra weight of a cage so high up may prompt the rollover to happen sooner then with an uncaged one. The risk of rolling over is really as much to do with the way the vehicle is driven and the allowance made for any uneven terrain. In my youth I was able to four wheel drift and do reverse J turns a Series 3 109 SW with XCL Radials without it rolling and all on tarmac. I was also able to trial and greenlane it without laying it down. I never had a cage because it never went beyond its, or my, limits. Driven carefully and you may not need a cage at all, however, if you feel that the risk is there then get the best you can afford and proper 3 point seat belts as well.

He should get in touch with me then. I could rebuld it with my eyes shut, and get it through an MOT if I still had the engine and gear box. He will have fun figuring out the transfer box as if it is in bits as the ad suggested then there are no manuals, it is all in my head. It is all made out of lightly modified Landy parts though and operated with twin levers. I hope he isn't going to break it up. It was my baby! I want my truck back! [folds arms, stomps feet, sulks!]

This is me except that I am not Japanese, I am Chinese! Thanks, Muddy, for the PM. I have emailed the guy that bought it, Will see if he gets in touch. The sad thing is the engine and gear box have been removed as has the winch, one of the best Warn 8000's at the time as I rebuilt it myself. The truck was good for towing around 50-60 ton (gently) and, with the 3 speed transfer box I designed and built, it was flat out at 1.2 MPH at 4000rpm in bottom first. It was meant to emulate an Explorer but I was still designing the rear walking beam suspension when I had to sell it. The rear supension I ran it on is similar to the Constructor where the axles are mounted rigidly on to A frames in the same way as the front axle. The axles were also widened to take a long Sailsbury half shaft on both sides. The steering was by an Audi Powered rack under the drivers door on to a drag link to the off side front wheel which eleiminated bump steer at all but the most extreme axle articulations. The cab was also made wider at the back then the front so it was tapered in the same way as an Explorer. When I last parked it up, in a field in Norfolk, I had 2 ton of spares and scrap steel in the back and it climbed over a 5ft bank of hard core at 40 degrees and waved its front wheels in the air before landing on the other side. It would be nice to have it back on the road. It would be nice to have it back.

I'd agree with this, you couldn't be sure it was clean of all grit as it gets everywhere. I lost a wheel due to sand in the wheel bearings after a weekend on Sailsbury Plain. No amount of cleaning would have made up for a proper stripdown and rebuild after wet sand got in the brake drum destroying the hub seal.

I can only imagine that it would be due to the larger diameter of the wheels pushing axles further apart. This would lead to the suspension and braking components being non standard to the company parts bin. Twin axles usually require the suspension to be linked to share the load equally between axles and with leaf springs this is usually a balance beam between the back end of the front spring and the front end of the back spring. The company's existing spring lengths would not then allow larger wheel and tyre diameters to be fitted in this format and so longer springs would need to be stocked together with longer brake cables or rods and longer mud guards, etc. I have seen plant trailers that do run twin axles with Land Rover pattern trailers but they have been very old.