Canadian Ferret mods

[Richard Farrant]

Can anyone help regarding Ferrets in Canadian service? I have been conversing with a guy in the US who has some Ferret hubs which came from Canada, they have been modified in the planet carrier / wheel bearing area. Being very familiar with the hubs in their standard form, I have never seen anything like it in British service, so it can be assumed it was a modification carried out by Canadian Forces. Would anyone have any information on this, maybe an updated workshop manual (EMER) with the relevant info in.

Richard

[rob love]

Canada only bought 124 ferrets, and they were showing there age and mileage by the 70s. The beefed up hubs were a fleetwide modification for the cdn ones. I believe the cdn emers are located on the Ferret heaven website.

There were a half dozen other mods for our ferrets, many of which were never done on most of the ones i saw, such as the m-72 LAWS rocket mounted on the outside of the hull. One of the better mods was the installation of the US pattern 60 amp alternator in place of the over engineered generator that came standard on the early ferrets.

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by rob love
The beefed up hubs were a fleetwide modification for the cdn ones. I believe the cdn emers are located on the Ferret heaven website.

Rob,

Thanks for the info, it is quite an elaborate mod. from the photos I've seen. Someone else on the Ferret forum has the modification bulletin and is posting it. The Canadian EMER may not have the details in, depends if it was updated.

Once again, this is the place to get a rapid answer to an obscure question

Richard

[rob love]

I believe Gord Falk has a copy of this mod. Your'e right, the manual was never updated AFAIK.
Other official Cdn (only, I won't include the brit mods which we adopted) mods which I recall included:
1) Installation of bracket on right side of hull for std Brit spotlight
2) Installation of bars over the oil cooler to prevent damage to it.
3) Installation of US style fire ext brackets to hold the Ansul 5 pound blue fire ext.
4) Installation of the US style voltage guage
5) Installation of the 60 Amp US style generator
6) Installation of a 30,000 BTU (M-series style) heater ( a useless mod as the engine will easily draw out any warm air that the heater could produce; this is Canada....you expect to be cold)
7) M-72 bracket to the outside of the hull
8) There was some kind of a rocket launcher kit, but I think only 1 of these was ever installed, and likely not for a long time

Unofficial but common mods included
a) the installation of the US pattern M series lamps, and for turnsignal controls, usually a signal stat arm on a big hoseclamp near the steering wheel
b) Installation of two M-series jerry can brackets on the rear hull plate
c) Hull had holes torch cut to allow the installation of the US pattern 524 set, along with torching the ATU brackets to allow the 524 antenna bases to mount on them.

Usually, after any vehicle fleet has been replaced, you hear the troops say how the new vehicle doesn't compare with the old (pick one: Willys, three quad, five-quad...) but I don't ever remember anyone complaining when the ferrets left, and especially not any of the mechanics.

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by rob love
5) Installation of the 60 Amp US style generator

Thanks for that, Rob.
It is interesting to see what mods. were done by Canada. Always you find things like light units changed for those more readily available from the rest of the vehicle fleet.

The British Army carried out a generator change on some of the Ferrets, using the standard 90 amp alternator used on 24 volt FFR Land Rovers, Stalwarts, etc.

Regarding mechanics disliking them, I have worked on them over a 30 year period and they are not as bad as Saracens

Richard

[rob love]

Other than our armour purchases of the 50s (ferret and centurian) and turret components of our AVGP family, Canada had stuck with the US pattern stuff. That is, until recently, where we now seem to be operating an array of European vehicles (VW, Steyr, Mercedes, Iveco)

Hopefully I don't cause offense, but what minor experiance I have had with British vehicles have given me the impression of them being somewhat over engineered. An example would be the hi-lo beam dimmer switch on an FV432. Both serialised and including a modification plate, it seems like something that would be more likely found in a bomber aircraft; why not a disposable switch like the US pattern vehicles? Surely the cost of tagging, shipping, rebuilding, keeping stock of the various sub components, must have outweighed the recycling advantages of making such an accountable item?
On the FV432 I owned, I removed both generators, and replaced them with one of the US M-series generators as well. The need was partly my fault I suppose; it seemed I could never get both generators to work at the same time, and was constantly rotating components back and forth. In the end, it actually saved me a lot of room in the drivers area as I got to remove both the regulators as well.

Apparently, we trialled the FV430 family, and as well the Scorpions, but in the case of the 432s, the M113 won out, and the need for the scorpions were negated.