The Bovington Tankfest thread

SDP
Once again I would highly recommend anyone who visits Bovington - spares an hour of his time to Visit Sapper( Brian Guy ) at Swanage less than ten miles away - it will be well worth the extra time spent to meet him and his saintly wife

Shiela....

Cheers

 

But will he have biscuits Tom?

 

Van Poop re your pic of Holt tractor post #49.

One has just been sold for £150,000 Alleged to be the only sole surviving example of its kind that served in the British Army.

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/rare_tractor_goes_for_150_000_at_norfolk_auction_of_paul_rackham_collection_1_4249035

Interesting history of the company.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holt_Manufacturing_Company

 

I've been curious about how they shift gears in Tiger 131.

In almost every video I see, 131 will be running along on level ground when the driver revs up the RPMs and slams it into a higher gear, like he is driving a car. It's never smooth and you can see the barrel bouncing up and down and hear the big clunk as he changes gears.

I don't have a complete understanding of how the Tiger transmission works but sources say it is a semi automatic pre-selector type.
I thought that meant that the driver moves the transmission lever into a higher gear location and then lets the transmission shift into the gear automatically without using the.clutch. On level ground he shouldn't have to shift much, if at all, anyway.

In my limited experience operating some fairly large farm tractors from the forties, you selected the gear you needed to do the work you were doing and started off and remained in that gear, even top gear if you were transporting on the road. These were ordinary four or five speed manual tractor transmissions. I was told in firmly to stop trying to shift up though the gears like a car because it wasn't necessary and the transmissions weren't designed for quick shifting on the move.

I'd love to see an English version of Tigerfibel or other Tiger tank manual to see what they say about it

.

 

There's a big tankfest event on 28-30 June 2019 at the ' Tank Museum, Bovington '.
More details here.


The Tank Museum | TANKFEST 2019

Graham.

 

Wow, that's pretty cool. I hope all the mechanics and drivers can do their work safely.

 

For Juha, and all, good to see something unexpected, something different.

Kind regards, always,

Jim.









P.S. And the not unexpected

 

Some of the show today will be streamed live as a promotional thing for World of Tanks.

 

That would explain the rough shifting in the contempary videos. Can you imagine trying to diagnose and correct any problems in that transmission after looking at the cutaway. They can't look at another one to see how it is supposed to work.

I wish the Fort Benning museum's collection was in as good a condition as the Bovington one. They are working on it but they have a long way to go.

 

Was at Tankfest June this year and plan to see the Tiger Day next April. This amused me:


I think this is a Matilda I same as my Father drove (not at Tankfest, in the Desert)

 

It's a grand day out. Been once myself (2018).

I don't thiiiiink any Matilda Is were sent to the desert, though, but the much better Matilda IIs? I could be wrong though.

 

I think you're right.

As a newbie can I post videos of the tankfest here ?

 

I don't think we can post videos here. I guess we could post videos to YouTube and then link them... I've never looked into that though.