I was unaware that the "Stalwart" (A.K.A. The Stolly) was a Alvis,
The fact that it is explains a lot though since we've got Alvis to thank for the Challenger 1 & 2 Main Battle Tanks /Simitar/Scorpion & many other Military Vehicles of Merit,
It's sad though that Alvis (once a Car Manufacturer & a rival to Rover [Pre Leyland])
Has Never recived the Prase it Truly Deserves.
One of the Stalwart's Exploits was when a Solder Stole one from a Army Base & Crossed the Channel with it!
@michaelfergusonuk The Challenger was designed for Iran as the Shir but when the Shah was overthrown the Shir was canceled so it was dumped on the army as it was. Vickers bought ROF Leeds and the production line. C2 was developed by Vickers to fix the embarrassing C1. Rover obtained Alvis in 1965, United Scientific bought Alvis from them in 1981. United Scientific then bought Vickers in 1998 and were bought by BAe in 2004. So the Alvis line was only involved in the Challenger line for 6 years.
@733td590 I'd like one of each! There used to be a pale blue Amphicar that lived about two miles from my house. Don't know if it ever went swimming and haven't seen it around for about five years. But it had a bit of a restoration at the garage that was next door to where i used to work about twenty years ago. That was the first time i had ever seen one. I have since read a good article in Classic And Sportscar, and seen them on tv and learned more online. Keeping the rust at bay must be hell.
@733td590 I'd love a stollie, but severe fund restrictions mean i can barely keep my crappy road car going at the moment. I do have an old landrover though it's off the road at the moment. A 1958 Series 2 short wheel base. VERY basic and i love it! You can't beat the old stuff, when driving to work one morning, the loom caught fire behind the dashboard. I leapt out with a can of water to put out the suspected engine bay fire, opened bonnet...no flames?
@733td590 Got back inside, removed the centre dash panel to find a wire had horted out against the body. Previous owner's wire modification... I bent the wire up away from anything metal and fixed it properly after work. The amazing thing is, my one and only fuse on the car didn't blow! Who needs ECUs and sensors! I had to leave it in four feet of water in the middle of a flooding stream. My fault, i didn't engage my front free wheeling hubs. I realised this when i got mid stream and...
@733td590 The back of the car floated and swung around with the front now pointing upstream. Had i not been an idiot i'd have four wheel drive and driven out, but i had no traction. With the water now flowing over my bonnet i had to cut the engine to save the motor. Twenty minutes later a mate's dad was towing me back to his farm with his lorry. Only problem i had was a couple of weeks later when i hit the floor mounted main beam switch, the contacts welded shut and i had to fit a replacement!
@koitorob Ha Ha Ha, what a adventure, you have to put it on you tube if some one have it on film, a good thing you din't have engine damage, or worse, a melted landrover.... the swich is a easy fix.
I'm also a landrover owner, a oldi, a 1969 88 inch truckcab diesel, and a 2003 90 inch TD5, the Td5 is for daily use
I don't go much offroad anymore, but when i feel like it, i'm always alone on my slippers, no winch, no shovel, stuck in de mud, calling my wife to pull my out!
@733td590 sadly none of this was caught on camera. I'd love to see my brother's face though as i battled to hold the door open against the current for him to get out. He had to slowly get into the water, which was COLD. He had been sitting on the rear bulkhead with his feet on the dash, BONE DRY. He laughed as i sat there as the water crept up past the jewels'. He who laughs last... I'd liked to have on film the eight feet jet of water that shot out of the exhaust as the engine fired up too.
you were lucky not to blow you head gasket, you killed the engine in time.
one time we almost sunk with de amphi, didn't install right de watertight rubber "hose" between de hull and de drive shaft, ther was a big hole, engine stalled, water reached the pedals, had to row to shore, just made it.. we were a little bit pale, but, drained and dried it, repair de "hose" and got back in the water,
@733td590 Yes, i sat for about four seconds wondering how long it would take for the back to sink and how long before the engine sucked in water...Decided engine would take a sip first so i switched off. The most annoying thing, apart from engaging the hubs, was that i'd been reading in Landrover Owner International magazine that week about how the army, when deep wading drop the tailgate to allow the back to flood to help with traction. My horror was nothing compared to your 'sink or not?'
@koitorob would the engine, or the air intake, stay above water when you had dropped the tailgate? by the looks of it it was pretty deep!!
yes it was scary, but the problem is to find it again, if there is a current...
now we have a buoy, on a rope!! there are people who sail, with de amphicar, in the fjords of Norway, sometimes over 400 mtrs deep, you don't want to sink there!!
@733td590 No, the front end didn't move. It was just the back that floated. The pplan was to drive across the ford just fast enough to produce a bow wave to keep the engine safe. When the back floated and was turned 90 degrees by the current, i had to use plan B, which was 'panic, then switch off''. I seem to be attracted to water... A few years back i found a flooded lane on the way home. About a foot deep itowards the far end of a thirty yard long 'puddle' of water.
@733td590 Of course me and my mate hit it at about forty miles an hour. We found that when we hit the deep bit, we slowed down to about 20 mph. We turned around and did it again. Same thing, as soon as the bottom of the vehicle, a 110 landrover pickup, hit the deeper water we slowed right down. At the third attempt :) i stayed in second gear and floored it at the point of slowing down. We still slowed down a little, but a huge geyser of water shot up around the gearstick...
@733td590 It hit the roof and when it came down, it went down the right hand welly of my mate Lloyd who was sat in the passenger seat! I nearly wet my self laughing. At the geyser, and Lloyd's filled welly. If i was honest, mostly at Lloyd's welly. He didn't see the funny side... The last time i went in water was funny, In my 300tdi discovery. A polish guy who works with my cousin in his garage has a toyota pickup to which he has fitted much taller and fatter mud terrain tyres.
@733td590 He has also fitted extensions to the spring hangers so it sits about eight inches taller than standard. It is a diesel engine so he doesn't warry about water. Jarek said he'd show me a little lane that he and his mate Lewis go down. We drive off to collect his mate in his rangerover. Petrol 3.5 V8 with a busted front diff so is only 2 wheel drive. We find that the rangie's battery is flat so Jarek jumps it. It is raining and has been for three or four days on and off, mostly on...
@733td590 So, rangie started, off we go with me at the rear. We get about 100 yards and he stalls it at the junction... Jarek pulls round and gets the jump leads out again. Next time he stalls we have gone about four miles and have just turned off the main road. This time the rain is heavier, Jarek decides he isn't getting out again and just shoves him with his toyota. About five minutes later we are going down country lanes that i don't know. Next we turn down a very narrow lane.
@733td590 Both sides of the car are being scratched! Jarek disappears around a tight bend, Lewis suddenly drives into water. His rear bumper goes under! I pause to avoid a branch of about five inch thickness as it bobbs by, then i drive into the water. Lewis then slows down. I realise that if he stalls again i'm going to be in trouble. The water is about as high as my bonnet but i'm still creating a bow wave. Lewis carries on and about another fifteen yards drives out of the water.
@733td590 Jarek is jumping up and down grinning from ear to ear shouting "how did you like that?" Lewis gets out of the rangerover and walks over. I open my door and water pours out... "OH BOLLOX!" Lewis says he has removed his carpets. I don't mind about the wet carpets. It's my coat which upset me. It had been sitting on the passenger seat turned inside out to stop getting the leather seat wet. It had slipped off the seat onto the floor. I saw this and didn't mind. The floor was dry then!
@koitorob: ha ha ha , i'd wish i've seen that to, you are surely atracted to water, i prefer sand, easyer to dig ha ha ha, i'm what more carefull! i don't like scratches and dents, at least not de big ones.
it have to bring me to work the next day so..
but sand isn't always nice , a few years ago we almost lost one on the beach, flat on his chssis in the wet sand, with the flood coming, we need 2 landrovers with winches set in the dunes to get it out, we barely made it..
@733td590 I've never driven on the beach as most in this country are out of bounds for vehicles. Suppose your love of sand must go well with your slippers ha ha. I guess i'm more of a 'wellington boot' kind of guy!
I saw a strange thing yesterday, twice i heard something 'odd' driving down the road outside my house. Ran to the window and it was an ex millitary tracked vehicle similar to an Abbot Self Propelled Gun. i live in the middle of a housing estate, not next to a firing range. STRANGE!
@koitorob: is it? i thought it was allowed in England to drive a tank on the road, maybe he restored it and went for a test drive! or he was going to work ha ha ha
@733td590 Well, i see your point. Yes, It is legal as long as the tracks have been fitted with rubber blocks. Without them they woud rip up the tarmac. But not the sort of thing i expect to see driving past my house. Cars, yes. Vans, yes. Even a bus or two every hour and sometimes a lorry delivering to the shop up the road. But any form of tank? No! I think they are definately in the category of 'made me look twice in disbelief !
I was unaware that the "Stalwart" (A.K.A. The Stolly) was a Alvis,
The fact that it is explains a lot though since we've got Alvis to thank for the Challenger 1 & 2 Main Battle Tanks /Simitar/Scorpion & many other Military Vehicles of Merit,
It's sad though that Alvis (once a Car Manufacturer & a rival to Rover [Pre Leyland])
Has Never recived the Prase it Truly Deserves.
One of the Stalwart's Exploits was when a Solder Stole one from a Army Base & Crossed the Channel with it!
michaelfergusonuk 1 year ago
@michaelfergusonuk That soldier, was in my Dads regiment. He later got a job with Alvis as a Stalwart tester as they were impressed he got it so far.
n1cks0an 1 year ago
@michaelfergusonuk The Challenger was designed for Iran as the Shir but when the Shah was overthrown the Shir was canceled so it was dumped on the army as it was. Vickers bought ROF Leeds and the production line. C2 was developed by Vickers to fix the embarrassing C1. Rover obtained Alvis in 1965, United Scientific bought Alvis from them in 1981. United Scientific then bought Vickers in 1998 and were bought by BAe in 2004. So the Alvis line was only involved in the Challenger line for 6 years.
cageordie 8 months ago
OK, for test number two, piggyback rides. First Amphicar on Stollie, and then...
koitorob 1 year ago
have to catch me first .... ha ha ha
no, let's not try that. what a wast .. regards Ton
733td590 1 year ago
@733td590 I'd like one of each! There used to be a pale blue Amphicar that lived about two miles from my house. Don't know if it ever went swimming and haven't seen it around for about five years. But it had a bit of a restoration at the garage that was next door to where i used to work about twenty years ago. That was the first time i had ever seen one. I have since read a good article in Classic And Sportscar, and seen them on tv and learned more online. Keeping the rust at bay must be hell.
koitorob 1 year ago
@koitorob, Yes rust is a problem, i don't go in salt water but still....
i don't use it that much, but some time you have to have some fun with it.. .
now i have some work on it, the clucth is a bit faulty
some more things on my to do list
do you own a stalwart or any other "oldtimer"?
733td590 1 year ago
@733td590 I'd love a stollie, but severe fund restrictions mean i can barely keep my crappy road car going at the moment. I do have an old landrover though it's off the road at the moment. A 1958 Series 2 short wheel base. VERY basic and i love it! You can't beat the old stuff, when driving to work one morning, the loom caught fire behind the dashboard. I leapt out with a can of water to put out the suspected engine bay fire, opened bonnet...no flames?
koitorob 1 year ago
@733td590 Got back inside, removed the centre dash panel to find a wire had horted out against the body. Previous owner's wire modification... I bent the wire up away from anything metal and fixed it properly after work. The amazing thing is, my one and only fuse on the car didn't blow! Who needs ECUs and sensors! I had to leave it in four feet of water in the middle of a flooding stream. My fault, i didn't engage my front free wheeling hubs. I realised this when i got mid stream and...
koitorob 1 year ago
@733td590 The back of the car floated and swung around with the front now pointing upstream. Had i not been an idiot i'd have four wheel drive and driven out, but i had no traction. With the water now flowing over my bonnet i had to cut the engine to save the motor. Twenty minutes later a mate's dad was towing me back to his farm with his lorry. Only problem i had was a couple of weeks later when i hit the floor mounted main beam switch, the contacts welded shut and i had to fit a replacement!
koitorob 1 year ago
@koitorob Ha Ha Ha, what a adventure, you have to put it on you tube if some one have it on film, a good thing you din't have engine damage, or worse, a melted landrover.... the swich is a easy fix.
I'm also a landrover owner, a oldi, a 1969 88 inch truckcab diesel, and a 2003 90 inch TD5, the Td5 is for daily use
I don't go much offroad anymore, but when i feel like it, i'm always alone on my slippers, no winch, no shovel, stuck in de mud, calling my wife to pull my out!
it's fun Ha Ha
733td590 1 year ago
@733td590 sadly none of this was caught on camera. I'd love to see my brother's face though as i battled to hold the door open against the current for him to get out. He had to slowly get into the water, which was COLD. He had been sitting on the rear bulkhead with his feet on the dash, BONE DRY. He laughed as i sat there as the water crept up past the jewels'. He who laughs last... I'd liked to have on film the eight feet jet of water that shot out of the exhaust as the engine fired up too.
koitorob 1 year ago
@koitorob Offroading in yer slippers? Im impressed. Thats living the dream!!!
koitorob 1 year ago
@koitorob you only end up with dirty feet..
i wish i'd seen that...
you were lucky not to blow you head gasket, you killed the engine in time.
one time we almost sunk with de amphi, didn't install right de watertight rubber "hose" between de hull and de drive shaft, ther was a big hole, engine stalled, water reached the pedals, had to row to shore, just made it.. we were a little bit pale, but, drained and dried it, repair de "hose" and got back in the water,
733td590 1 year ago
@733td590 Yes, i sat for about four seconds wondering how long it would take for the back to sink and how long before the engine sucked in water...Decided engine would take a sip first so i switched off. The most annoying thing, apart from engaging the hubs, was that i'd been reading in Landrover Owner International magazine that week about how the army, when deep wading drop the tailgate to allow the back to flood to help with traction. My horror was nothing compared to your 'sink or not?'
koitorob 1 year ago
@koitorob would the engine, or the air intake, stay above water when you had dropped the tailgate? by the looks of it it was pretty deep!!
yes it was scary, but the problem is to find it again, if there is a current...
now we have a buoy, on a rope!! there are people who sail, with de amphicar, in the fjords of Norway, sometimes over 400 mtrs deep, you don't want to sink there!!
733td590 1 year ago
@733td590 No, the front end didn't move. It was just the back that floated. The pplan was to drive across the ford just fast enough to produce a bow wave to keep the engine safe. When the back floated and was turned 90 degrees by the current, i had to use plan B, which was 'panic, then switch off''. I seem to be attracted to water... A few years back i found a flooded lane on the way home. About a foot deep itowards the far end of a thirty yard long 'puddle' of water.
koitorob 1 year ago
@733td590 Of course me and my mate hit it at about forty miles an hour. We found that when we hit the deep bit, we slowed down to about 20 mph. We turned around and did it again. Same thing, as soon as the bottom of the vehicle, a 110 landrover pickup, hit the deeper water we slowed right down. At the third attempt :) i stayed in second gear and floored it at the point of slowing down. We still slowed down a little, but a huge geyser of water shot up around the gearstick...
koitorob 1 year ago
@733td590 It hit the roof and when it came down, it went down the right hand welly of my mate Lloyd who was sat in the passenger seat! I nearly wet my self laughing. At the geyser, and Lloyd's filled welly. If i was honest, mostly at Lloyd's welly. He didn't see the funny side... The last time i went in water was funny, In my 300tdi discovery. A polish guy who works with my cousin in his garage has a toyota pickup to which he has fitted much taller and fatter mud terrain tyres.
koitorob 1 year ago
@733td590 He has also fitted extensions to the spring hangers so it sits about eight inches taller than standard. It is a diesel engine so he doesn't warry about water. Jarek said he'd show me a little lane that he and his mate Lewis go down. We drive off to collect his mate in his rangerover. Petrol 3.5 V8 with a busted front diff so is only 2 wheel drive. We find that the rangie's battery is flat so Jarek jumps it. It is raining and has been for three or four days on and off, mostly on...
koitorob 1 year ago
@733td590 So, rangie started, off we go with me at the rear. We get about 100 yards and he stalls it at the junction... Jarek pulls round and gets the jump leads out again. Next time he stalls we have gone about four miles and have just turned off the main road. This time the rain is heavier, Jarek decides he isn't getting out again and just shoves him with his toyota. About five minutes later we are going down country lanes that i don't know. Next we turn down a very narrow lane.
koitorob 1 year ago
@733td590 Both sides of the car are being scratched! Jarek disappears around a tight bend, Lewis suddenly drives into water. His rear bumper goes under! I pause to avoid a branch of about five inch thickness as it bobbs by, then i drive into the water. Lewis then slows down. I realise that if he stalls again i'm going to be in trouble. The water is about as high as my bonnet but i'm still creating a bow wave. Lewis carries on and about another fifteen yards drives out of the water.
koitorob 1 year ago
@733td590 Jarek is jumping up and down grinning from ear to ear shouting "how did you like that?" Lewis gets out of the rangerover and walks over. I open my door and water pours out... "OH BOLLOX!" Lewis says he has removed his carpets. I don't mind about the wet carpets. It's my coat which upset me. It had been sitting on the passenger seat turned inside out to stop getting the leather seat wet. It had slipped off the seat onto the floor. I saw this and didn't mind. The floor was dry then!
koitorob 1 year ago
@koitorob: ha ha ha , i'd wish i've seen that to, you are surely atracted to water, i prefer sand, easyer to dig ha ha ha, i'm what more carefull! i don't like scratches and dents, at least not de big ones.
it have to bring me to work the next day so..
but sand isn't always nice , a few years ago we almost lost one on the beach, flat on his chssis in the wet sand, with the flood coming, we need 2 landrovers with winches set in the dunes to get it out, we barely made it..
733td590 1 year ago
@733td590 I've never driven on the beach as most in this country are out of bounds for vehicles. Suppose your love of sand must go well with your slippers ha ha. I guess i'm more of a 'wellington boot' kind of guy!
I saw a strange thing yesterday, twice i heard something 'odd' driving down the road outside my house. Ran to the window and it was an ex millitary tracked vehicle similar to an Abbot Self Propelled Gun. i live in the middle of a housing estate, not next to a firing range. STRANGE!
koitorob 1 year ago
@koitorob: is it? i thought it was allowed in England to drive a tank on the road, maybe he restored it and went for a test drive! or he was going to work ha ha ha
733td590 1 year ago
@733td590 Well, i see your point. Yes, It is legal as long as the tracks have been fitted with rubber blocks. Without them they woud rip up the tarmac. But not the sort of thing i expect to see driving past my house. Cars, yes. Vans, yes. Even a bus or two every hour and sometimes a lorry delivering to the shop up the road. But any form of tank? No! I think they are definately in the category of 'made me look twice in disbelief !
koitorob 1 year ago
yes, the stolli is one of the best! ;-)
dassupreme 4 years ago
the water isn´t deep enough. the stolli had grip with the wheels, he doesn´t swim. ;-)
dassupreme 4 years ago 2
yes, you are right, he wasn't swimming
a little bit further on it was deep enough
great amphi by the way
733td590 4 years ago