Death Trap in the Wet!!!

[Gtdog]

Woah have I missed all the fun?
Surfs in wet, letme think- 2 tonnes, pickup chassis, light to no load, upto 300 fp of torque.......... love to drive gentle in the wet.
Have Yoko Geolander I/T s on both of our surfs, both require a little more work and thought in the wet.

My daily drive, 48tonnes laden 2x 1350hp MAN Fuel burn 400ltrs per hour per engine.

[BUSHWHACKER]

My daily drive, 48tonnes laden 2x 1350hp MAN Fuel burn 400ltrs per hour per engine.[/QUOTE]



Blimey! I'd fit a big sail if I had to buy that amount of fuel.

[Gtdog]

My daily drive, 48tonnes laden 2x 1350hp MAN Fuel burn 400ltrs per hour per engine.

Blimey! I'd fit a big sail if I had to buy that amount of fuel. [/QUOTE]

Thats the best thing about my job, all the joy, whilst the owner pays the bills!
Guess the trick is that if you can afford that much for a toy, the fuel bill isnt going to supprise you, mind last year I was paying 32p per litre, this year 60p per litre, now thats more scary!

[wibblywobbly]

Oh dear Oh dear Oh dear

Sitting between four wheels with four sets of brakes and feeling safe and secure sat in a steel box, knowing that the contact area of your tyres on the tarmac is pretty damned huge is comforting....but putting 160bhp through one back tyre on a motorcycle with the contact area being the size of a tablespoon, and having all the braking on a front tyre with the same contact area puts a different perspective on things.

Motorcycles handle, the tyres stick and the suspension works. Thats because that is what they are designed to do, straight out of the crate. Any modern bike will outride the rider.

A Surf is a dual purpose piece of kit that is a 'compromise'. It won't do anything brilliantly but it will 'do it all'. Tarmac, Mud, Towing and trips to the shops.

I love bikes, I also love the Surf. Having just returned from a weekend caravanning towing a 20ft ft van, loaded down to the ground, and still enjoying myself, I think we should all take a breath and remember that going quick in or on any vehicle that is not equipped for the task either through **** maintenance, **** design, or unsuitabality for the task, is a recipe for disaster.

Trust me, I have recently attended an inquest, and one 4x4 owner out there is in a whole lot of trouble because they 'assumed' that their dodgy brakes wouldn't matter, after all what could happen that day?

Don't push it, all vehicles have their limits and those limits are different for every vehicle, even outwardly similar ones.

Stay safe

RobG

[KBRE]

Had Bridgestones Dullers on mine squeeled and not so good in the wet..put a set of Toyo great handling and good in the wet....including 4x4 alligment 400.00 well worth it


Mind you Bridgestones on my 2 wheel babe wouldnt change for the world.....dam clever those Japs

[openback]

i think the post that hinted toward the tyres age may be on the right track. also check the shocks. my truck came on somesort of all terrain, dunlop i think, also had ****ed shocks. scarey in the dry let alone the wet! handled MUCH better after new shocks a 4" lift and BFG muds! if your not happy with how they handle change them sooner rather than later while your panels are all still intact.

on another note what the m35 like? been looking at an olive drab toy, cant aford one yet but i can plan ahead (several years ahead if i'm realistic!) marmon simca seems practical,but ugly, zil 131 nice but v8 petrol, m35 nice and multifuel, veg oil?

[Rob_88]

Change the tyres, and the spare.

My surf was all over the place when I first got it, I got a new rear tyre to match the spare, put the spare and the new on the back and ditched the worst rear and made thr other rear the spare.

6 days later the tyre that was spare seperated on the M40 and the tread whipped around apart from the inner and smashed up the rear end.
Destroyed the bumber, the wheel arch and the running board.
The chrome bumper was 0.5cm thick and the running board was so bent it almost touched the ground.
Huge mess.

I spoke to a tyre bloke and he reckons that the time spent in transit and the conditions cause the tyres to dry out/harden up. In the case of the spare it was probably the one that came with the surf ten years ago and had never been changed.

Hard tyres don't grip, they have lost their tackyness, and they explode.
£300 quid later a full set of 5 bridgestones.

[M35A2]

i think the post that hinted toward the tyres age may be on the right track. also check the shocks. my truck came on somesort of all terrain, dunlop i think, also had ****ed shocks. scarey in the dry let alone the wet! handled MUCH better after new shocks a 4" lift and BFG muds! if your not happy with how they handle change them sooner rather than later while your panels are all still intact.

on another note what the m35 like? been looking at an olive drab toy, cant aford one yet but i can plan ahead (several years ahead if i'm realistic!) marmon simca seems practical,but ugly, zil 131 nice but v8 petrol, m35 nice and multifuel, veg oil?

Hello Shaun,

I've owned Military Vehicles since 1989, and love them. I do most of the shows through out the year, it's a fantastic hobby.

I will give you a little bit of advice. DO NOT buy a ZIL. They are a great truck and are cheap to buy, but you need an oil refinery to run them. If you are looking for a "BIG" truck then you need to consider a few things. If you are after one that you want to show, then it would be best if you bought one with a radio or workshop body. This means that you can keep all your gear in the truck at the shows and also sleep in it. The M35 truck is the best, but that is because I love them and am into the Vietnam era. The trucks come in the 2.5ton, 5ton and 10ton varients. This is the weight it is "designed" to carry off road. On road a 2.5 ton truck can carry 5tonnes. They are massively over engineered and can carry much more.They have a variety of engines. The A1 is a petrol engined varient, and also the oldest. The A2 is a later vehicle either from new or a re-con A1 that has been up graded with the diesel. The A3 is much harder to find as most of them are still in service. These usually have "super single" rear tyres and a central tire inflation system, and an auto box.
The engine was manufactured by several companies. The most common are Hurcules, white and continental. It's basicaly a MAN engine. It's an 8lt straight six, with or without a turbo. The turbo versions come in 2 different types. The "whistler" or the "growler". I love the whistler, as they whistle like a banchee. They don't have an exhaust silencer, and run straight through a stack. The other engine you can get is a Cummins, they are non-turbo but have more power. They do about 9MPG. But as it's a multifuel you can run it on Diesel, petrol, avgas or anything that burns basically. It's best to use diesel though.

As with any truck. Buy a pre 1960 model, and it will be tax and mot exempt. You can have a later version, but it will need to be plated as it will require an mot. There are exeptions. If you buy a wrecker that is designed for a suspended tow, that too is mot exempt. If you have an HGV licence then you can get any truck of any age. There is no requirment for an HGV licence on a pre-1960 truck though.
Another truck worth looking at is either the Bedford MK or MJ, the MJ being the turbo varient. This requires an mot and HGV, but if you take the helper springs off the back axle, it down rates it to 7.5ton, so you can then drive it on a car licence. If you go on this website, you will see dozens of trucks for sale, more than enough to wet your appitite. The REO's (M35A2's) cost about £6,000 for a good one. There are only around 70 in the country, so it's hard finding a good one. I know one guy who owns about 8 of them.
Word War Two trucks (GMC352/353's) are plentiful and cheap, but have petrol engines. Best thing to do is look on the site and see what takes your fancy. Look on the dealer sites also, as they have direct release stuff straight from the British Army. Hope this has been some help???

www.milweb.net

[openback]

cheers for the extensive answer andy, plenty to think about while waiting for the cash! not to worried about showing ,more for a giant tonka toy.

[sam]

Scammell explorer is what you want for big toy, and you get a stupidly large winch for pulling teeth out with it, think of the savings on your dentist bills, so many ways to justify it.