FV432

soprano54 wrote:

brum wrote:

Bit chilly, here in Cheshire this morning Paul !

There were'nt any heaters on the 438, just the blower that pressurised the veh in the NBC role.
The thing about that kind of veh though was that you had the heat coming from the gearbox, which kept things bearable when at the halt.
Electrically heated suits ? Don't think I ever heard of anything like that. Why would they give them to the Gunners I wonder ? Another Urban myth !

brum

I read somewhere that when they were doing the trial on Chieftain the crews also trialed some electrically heated gloves and socks! I think they were binned on the basis that they got to hot.

If there was a vehicle needing heaters it was the Ferret, no question !

brum wrote:

soprano54 wrote:

brum wrote:

Bit chilly, here in Cheshire this morning Paul !

There were'nt any heaters on the 438, just the blower that pressurised the veh in the NBC role.
The thing about that kind of veh though was that you had the heat coming from the gearbox, which kept things bearable when at the halt.
Electrically heated suits ? Don't think I ever heard of anything like that. Why would they give them to the Gunners I wonder ? Another Urban myth !

brum

I read somewhere that when they were doing the trial on Chieftain the crews also trialed some electrically heated gloves and socks! I think they were binned on the basis that they got to hot.

If there was a vehicle needing heaters it was the Ferret, no question !

It did....................................made from a 4 Man compo box cut to shape and wired onto the louvres with Don10 and two lengths (long enough to reach the crew compartment) of 3" diameter rubber hose, which were inserted into the box via some circular cutouts. Ideal for some of the long road marches with side hatches closed and windscreen fitted! Made all the difference! You just preyed it didn't rain which would melt your compo box!!!

I'm trying to visualise that, can't quite get it. I only ever had a ride in a ferret once, they open type without the cupola.

We still had them in Engineers and believe they are still used as part of Batus fleet. Some of them are right Sheds.

Come on Brum, we are Gunners, we don't need namby pamby heaters!! They are for attached personnel.

Fortunatley i always had a very well heated waggon.One must look after ones comfort.

Where's that one come from then ?

I was all for namby pamby heaters. The nambier the pambier, as far as I was concerned mate !

Mind you, I DID do a winter in a Recce tp. Harm can come to a young man like that

We had pipework with connectors on the end in our Mk2 432's near the NBC fan pack which we were told was for a diesel heater or cooker?

Never actually saw anything that would fit there though.

Chaz wrote:

We had pipework with connectors on the end in our Mk2 432's near the NBC fan pack which we were told was for a diesel heater or cooker?

Never actually saw anything that would fit there though.

I think the designers of the 432 hoped that "rich" countries would be buying them.

You may remember that there was a take-off from (I think) the R/H final drive housing for driving a highly complicated navigating machine, never saw one of those either !

brum wrote:

Chaz wrote:

We had pipework with connectors on the end in our Mk2 432's near the NBC fan pack which we were told was for a diesel heater or cooker?

Never actually saw anything that would fit there though.

I think the designers of the 432 hoped that "rich" countries would be buying them.

You may remember that there was a take-off from (I think) the R/H final drive housing for driving a highly complicated navigating machine, never saw one of those either !

No I was never told about that, being RE we had parts to turn a final drive into a winch with the track removed, we also had to swap over some leads on the control panel so we could use our 400 Hz 'Hi Cycle' power tools gear from the socket mounted by the NATO socket on the rear. We were told this was RE only.