The 514th keep em rollin' (sort of)

[mick.wilson]

The trip to and from the Victory Show turned out to be another 514th adventure story.

It all started with the Halftrack gear box rumbling on route to the show but we arrived with little problems. The Dodge followed up on the Friday with Cara driving, only 5 miles from our Farnborough depot we received radio transmissions that there were problems with the transfer box and she was jumping into neutral. Thanks to the evacuees (Connor and Sean) wedging their feet against the gear lever to hold it in position for the remaining 115 miles the Dodge arrived safely on site. But that was just the start of our adventures.

The halftrack gear box continued to cause trouble throughout the weekend and after pondering all day Monday a coin was flipped to decide whether to low-load it home, we went against the decision and drove. 10 miles into our homeward journey, the halftrack cut out on a roundabout leaving the convoy dangerously exposed. A quick repair job and we were on our way again for another 10 miles, where the second vehicle in the convoy (Jeremy’s truck) decided that it wanted all of it’s six spark plugs changed. At this point we told the halftrack to continue without us and that we would rendezvous with him at the halfway point.

Jem’s truck continued for all of 5 miles before it gave up the ghost (That’s one engine per season so far, for this particular truck), with all the trucks towing trailers the only vehicle with an available tow hitch was the Clubmobile, which was immediately turned into a Diamond Tea recovery truck. Towing Jeremy’s fully loaded truck and trailer (We must have welded the extended chassis on well enough as it didn’t come off). Due to faulty communications equipment I (Driving the Clubmobile/Diamond Tea) was the only person unaware of what was unfolding with the Halftrack ahead.

At 2100 on the A43 I was being flashed by a spot lamp on the cab of a halftrack stopped on the side of the road, only to realise it was our halftrack. After talking to the driver (Parker) we were informed that the near side track had snapped and shot across the dual carriageway nearly taking out an 18 wheeler, luckily Parker and Mother had managed to drag it off the road to prevent a major incident. So we phoned for recovery as we were certain that our new Diamond Tea couldn’t tow a halftrack aswell. Half an hour later 2 low-loader recovery trucks arrived at our position, 1 to load the halftrack and the other to tow the Bofors. After loading our convoy continued to the break down depot at 10 miles an hour with one recovery truck with halftrack at the front, followed by the Clubmobile towing Jem’s and trailer, then the two still operational trucks, with the second recovery truck towing the Bofors bringing up the rear.

After a quick cup of tea at the recovery depot, trucks, drivers, trailers were all swapped around and the remains of the convoy continued and arrived back at the Farnborough base at 0430 this morning. Some people would say “What a horrible journey.â€Â

[Chappers]

What a class story Mick, wish I could have been with you guys sounds like my kind of trip tbh. I always carry a bottle of Bud in the Cab incase of emergencies keeps the mind free,I've only had to open one bottle upto now.

[pfarber]

Bet that is gonna be an expensive night on the town!

I could imagine the tow truck drivers expression as he pull up.... how many BOFER's do you get to tow in your life?

[mick.wilson]

Just put our Victory show page up on line. Special thanks to Nick Halling for letting us put some of his great photos up .

http://514th.co.uk/VictoryShow2006f.html

or for more of Nicks Victory show photos.

http://www.nickhalling.co.uk/pictures20 ... /index.htm

Mick.