Tank Hunter Carrier Progress

[kevin powles]

Hi, Been working on the Tank Hunter Carrier this week, still loads to do but starting to make progress, I have attached some pictures, I know its got Mk2 rear fenders for now.

[Jordan Baker]

Looks real good Kevin

[RichardT10829]

Corrrrr !!! looks fantastic, i see you picked up a few stray's en route your kids must love it Kevin

[kevin powles]

Hi, Thanks for the comments, couldnt of done it without this forum, pictures are a little small, check the bigger ones out and more at photobucket.com just search for cherryturbox under people.

Thanks Kevin.

[kevin powles]

Hi, I have been putting in the fuel tanks the last couple of days, I have attached some pictures of what me and my neighbour have made, considering we made a set of tanks from drawings from a friends carrier (Mk2) and the remains of a British Mk3 tank (rusted to bits), it was not until I had a couple of rusted tanks, (one pictured) sent over from Brian Asbury we could make a comparision.......didnt turn out to bad!.

[RichardT10829]

Kevin, they look really really good ! i may have to obtain a copy of those drawings when the time comes for me to make my own tank too.

the carrier is looking real nice ! any pics of the tuther beasts

[kevin powles]

Hi, No problem Richard, If you going to make some I would suggest you make them from stainless steel, we made ours from mild steel, so we had to etch prime the internals and coat them on the inside with a tank lining liquid, I think the originals may have been galvanised, but saying that most tanks I have seen have suffered alot of corrosion.

I have posted some more pics, the mortar carrier is in bits at the moment being shot blasted, not looking forward to knocking all those pins out of the track next week.

[kevin powles]

Hi, Tank hunter test drive ready for H tracked vehicle driving test, good job the examiner was not around too witness the carnage and the look of terror on my face.

click on the link.

View here

[RichardT10829]

Kevin please tell me you didnt decide to take your test in it ? talk about making a difficult job tougher still. she looks mint Imagine you had the gun in place too....... how bad was visability Poor to shocking by chance mind the carrier looks absolutely mint !!!!! i hate you all, Shaun, Barry, Nigel, Ron, Bah............. green with envy i am

[martyn]

Hi Kevin your carrier looks nice but i wouldnt do a track laying test in it.....
What i would sugest is you hire a mini digger for a couple of hours and do it in that, a carrier is not a vehicle to drive on your own around the streets and in the test you are not aloud a passanger to guide you! I did mine in a 548 cargo and made sure it had lots of mirrors on it. well good luck what ever you decide to do it in

[RichardT10829]

how did your test go ? have you had it yet buddy ?.........and martyn am i right in thinking i can go get a mini excavator and do it in that ? i ask as its a glass bubble on top of a very small track base ? is it done live on roads or in a large car park ie cones gallore ?

[Ron Pier]

I managed to get my H licence by means of a mini digger. But I had a lot of hassle with VOSA, as strictly speaking the test should be on the public highway, with roundabouts and traffic lights etc. Therefore the vehicle should be road legal, registered and indicators and all. I found a sympathetic ear in our county area VOSA supervisor, who allowed me to do it on private land in a mini digger. AND....... a mini digger is not strictly track steer, but what is called skid steer? Ron

[kevin powles]

Finished the shell racks and engine & gearbox covers, need to make the fuel tank covers next and rear seats, these are different to a standard carrier with different inner engine rail brackets, I believe steel covers slide over the fuel tanks probably backed with wood, a seat cushion then sat forward on the covers. The fixing arrangement for the covers is still a mystery but listed in the parts manual are the same screws used for the engine covers (3 in total), odd but maybe they ment four?.

Any comments or details would help.

kevin.

[kevin powles]

Hi,
I took the carrier out at the weekend for a 10 mile run to bed in some resonable looking track, One side of the carrier has 165 links in, 100 of these are NOS the rest were links off the mortar carrier. The other side has 162 links with 150 of these off the mortar carrier with the rest NOS.

After 5 miles all the adjustment i had was used up but they still hung low, after 7 miles they were down to the rear springs, I took a link out either side and this restored them to there correct 'hang' but all the adjustment was used up, after another 3 miles to get home they still looked ok.

So if anyone is running in track that has been lying around for x amount of years make sure you take all the tools with you to do a link change and adjustment.

I have also discovered that if you mix in NOS track with old reasonable track, and space it out you can still have decent looking track that sits right, like i have on the left hand side of the carrier, I plan over the next few months to start dropping out sections of track on the right side and putting in NOS sections as they become available, i have 20 good links sitting in transmission fluid as we speak to free them up.

Another word of warning is make sure you take the hand brake off on a drive The carrier still pulls with it on and appears to steer better on grass with it applied

Any comments please, or if any one has short length of track available please let me know. Attached is a pic of the carrier before the run.