Pencoed 2013

Once again the SWLRC team attended the Pencoed Car show

Once again we had an impressive stand with many excellent and varied vehicles

 However the weather was not with us this year and the horizontal rain put paid to pleasant car viewing

 I did have a nice chat with the owner of this paramedic vehicle. Not a full ambulance, but a nice addition to my collection of Land Rover Ambulance variants. This one has been fitted with many radio's for display

Beer

The place not the liquid

Beer is a fabulous little fishing village in southern England, East Dorset to be precise where there's a nice campsite we often visit

Parked up there on Saturday night we had a visit from Ruthie who was excited to see us an had tales of Amble a former GPO work vehicle / camper conversion

Here's a picture of Amble 

and here is a picture showing just what she's capable of as a true Land Rover

One of the reasons for having Katy was to have adventures and meeting people like Ruthie is a big part of that. Pictures courtesy of Ruthie

And if you doubt we were there

Here is Katy

Saundersfoot

We've just had a fabulous weekend away with the South Wales Land Rover Club.

Katy did her best to stay at home with a split fuel pipe dumping diesel on the drive, and allowing air to get in and stop the engine running, but a quick fix by James Holt in his local garage got us going and we were away

The weather for once in wales was superb and we had some real fun looking at the geology on Amroth beach and also in Landyspotting a fun challenge set for us to get our picture with as many Land Rovers as possible in the day

So here's a set of me looking gormless with the 1st of the day being katy of course and the rest around and about

 

This last one was in Tenby where the deailer who's forecort it was on said he'd not has so much interest shown in that vehicles for ages. Sorry mate - Just tyre kickers no buyers today

MOT 2013

Happy St Davids day to you all, especially anyone in Wales of course

A good day to be happy in many ways

1. We had a wonderful meal last night to celebrate that Rhian and I met 20 years ago yesterday.

We met up with the people who had organised that event which was a photoshoot in an abandoned mine. Rhian always says the best way to appreciate me is to not be able to see me properly :-)

2. Katy passed her MOT again

I'd dropped her off with Steve with a few small jobs I'd not had time to do - Trackrod ends which I'm told were a real pain as they were seized, and he identified in a pre-check that the rear brakes were weeping so needed to change the master cylinder and pads as they had been contaminated, but legal for another 12 months is a great place to be

Here's the new parts in place at the front. No pics of the rear as it's all internal and I wasn't there

Yorkshire

We made it up to the Yorkshire Dales

The new suspension really made a difference on the country roads. We can now go into corners with some confidence and the whole driving experience is improved

Katy only blotted her record once with a loose connection to the starter motor - another fix for the list, but once wobbled we were able to get out for some adventures

This is some classic British engineering in front of more of the same. Katy parked near the Ribble Head Viaduct a real trainspotters place of worship. It was being planned to be demolished until Michael Portill stopped those plans and made them refurbish it

We managed a bit of off-roading on the lane up to Alum Pot which is a real cavers place.. it's got dry bits

And damp bits...

To finish the Cave Rescue Organization based in Clapham where we were staying had a practise on Sunday morning so we just had to move along and join the line-up for a picture

A wonderful part of the world well worth a visit

It's Official

It's Official

Katy did do military service and I have photographs to prove it :-)

I found some old information that commented on an ambulance 63-KG-65 being featured in a book Land Rover Military Portfolio by Bob Morrison. This was Katy's military registration so I had to get a copy of that book. I ordered it, but the weather in the UK has been dreadful and delivery was delayed which was quite frustrating.

Anyway it arrived today and on page 90 and 91 there is an article reprinted from a Land Rover Owner International magazine in October 1992 (where it was pages 38-9 if you have an old copy and want to look).

It has pictures taken by Laurie Manton (former assistant editor of Soldier Magazine) and in the article there is a front view and a rear view of a Marshall's 127 Crash Rescue Ambulance and in both pictures the registration number is clear and it reads the magic 63-KG-65

I am so happy to have confirmation of this. I've always hoped I would find definitive evidence that she was a true working ambulance and I now have it

In the article it states that the 127's were being taken out there to replace the "worn out" 101's that had originally been deployed. The Article say that they were deployed to 24 Field Ambulance, RAMC whic accorring to one military history website was deployed 24/6/1992 to Croatia. Operation Hanwood 1992 Zagreb, Knin Split, Sarajevo and various other locations. The date is consistent with the questionable date on Katy's Military History card

In the picture you can definitely see she had no side window on the Passenger side which was one thing that had confused me about the camper conversion as the camper windows are smaller and I could not see a logical reason why to replace them. It is now clear it wasn't a replacement.

I know that inside Katy there were brave men (and women I don't know, but the officer in charge of the unit was a woman so I don't see why not) doing hard duties in an extremely difficult places, I'd like to think in looking after her and doing this research I've done a little to help keep the memory of that hard work alive  

There is a lot more in the book than this simple picture as there are a number of articles by Bob that talk about stockpiled 127's and political intervention from Paddy Ashdown to ger them released. There is clearly a lot more to learn about this

I would of course like to thank Bob and Laurie for taking the pictures and writing the article. without that I would still be in the dark on this

I've included only a small thumbnail of the article as I've not had permission to reprint it so it's not fair to put it in at a scale that would be usable under "fair use"

Update 11th April 2015, I now have permission to share the pictures from this article so here they are

2012 Summary

Well it's been another fun year. One in which I've learned a lot more, made some new friends and got a lot more things sorted to the point that Katy is becoming a pleasure to drive

January stated with tyre troubles. I was having to use Katy as a daily drive because Suzuki were unable to get my car serviced. A bit of a pain having those punctures, but I learned something and solved a problem

February was MOT time, the first in our ownership and quite a worry as there was a lot still to do. we were amazed and delighted when she passed 1st time. In March we stated preparing for the camping year with a new fridge (still to be properly fitted) and a whole load of cleaning and repainting. She will need a respray some time, but more mechanical aspects to sort out first

We headed out for real adventures in April with a tour to Scarborough and back down through the welsh borders meeting up with a fellow 127 owner. Both were a real delight and it showed us what fun we could look forward to

May was the first Car show we attended as part of the South Wales Land Rover Club. It was a real fun day out and about the last sunshine we had this summer. We also had a bit of a moment on the Mendip roads (it's amazing how much body roll an undulating road can induce) which made us decide that we really did need to upgrade the suspension 

Whilst I was researching what suspension to get I fitted  some new seats in June. Rhian fixed some ones I got from one of the SWLRC guys and I discovered that the original colour of the carpet lining in the cab had been pink

Then it was back to full blown mechanical work in July with the rear springs and dampers being replaced with upgraded ones. August should have been a month of getting out and about, but one of the wettest summers on record meant that all I was doing was doing on-line shopping for wheels. I thought I had found a set of original military wheels until we attended the Eastnor mud fest which was a place I got some really good advice on wheels and plans changed again

In September the new Wolf wheels and studs arrived and we got out to some more car shows which was fun. It's such fun meeting up with like minded people and having good times.

Refurbishment continued in October as the suspension upgrades continued with the front springs and dampers, but the driving experience still wasn't what I wanted it to be so in November a new 28mm rear anti-roll bar was fitted.

The final job was in December when the front anti-roll bar was fitted, she drives a lot betterso we're ready for fun and games

What we are all hoping for is a year of adventures rather than refurbishment. There is more refurbishment to do as we noted the track rod ends needed replacing when doing the front anti roll bar, and in January she's going to be booked in to get the fridge finally fitted in properly, after that I still have leaks to resolve - both oil and water, but we really are hoping for more driving and less time at the workshop.

Only time will tell