Chieftain Stuff

[Dave Dibb (Armorpax)]

Hi Stephen,

No problem on the older style, I have asked for the new labels as well as have some customers who build current stuff. I have also asked for some 7.62 Ammo box decals with 80's dates on them

Best regards

Dave

[Dave Dibb (Armorpax)]

Hi All,

Almost there with the BV but eyes have had it for today. Just the lid rear locating pins and brackets to do and then the cable plugs.

Best regards

Dave

[Dave Dibb (Armorpax)]

Hi All,

New decals arrived from Peddinghaus while we were away last week so in between casting some of last weeks orders I decided to paint up a BV and oil drums etc.

Cheers

Dave

[John Clarke]

Great job

[Stephen White]

Great achievement Dave, they look spot on. You're making a lot of work for yourself, which I guess is the object? Form an orderly queue please ......

My only question is what the hell is that in the BV? It looks like mulligatawny soup with lumps.

[Kevin Hunter]

The best mulligatawny has lumps

Dave, great looking accessories for our Chieftains. Looking forward to seeing more of the suite...
Cheers
Kevin

[Dave Dibb (Armorpax)]

Hi Stephen,

I thought from your descriptions at Bovi that the stuff in your BV looked like that

Cheers

Dave

[Adrian Harris]

And curry powder...

[andymusgrove]

Hi Dave

Absolutely fantastic work -wow.

That BV is awesome - regardless of what’s brewing up in there.



Cheers

Andy

[Mark Heaps]

Few comments on the BV and BV lead.

The BV was used for heating water. When cooking food, the food did not go directly into the BV but into a handled insert that was dropped into the BV.

The BV lead wiring has the correct colour but I can only make out three strands, there should be four, pos and neg for the heating element and pos & neg for the switching circuit through the thermostat on the the BV. As an emergency repair of the lead, the negs could be commoned to make it work on three. Better was to add two lengths of "yellow string" replacing the thick wires for the thermostat circuit. Then you had a spare thick wire for the heating element should it be required at a later repair.

Mark

[Dave Dibb (Armorpax)]

I am aware of the insert but chose not to add it, the BV has a moulded in liquid surface to make it more practical to cast and although it might not look like it in the pics it is supposed to be tea.......................................

I'll modify the lead when I get chance.

Dave

[Mark Heaps]

Hi Dave
Yes, the BV was for doing tea, boiling water for it, but I never knew a crew doing the tea directly in it. It heated water for tea, coffee, washing and shaving etc.
Mark

[John-Heaps]

Hi Guys,
when i was in, pull up the sandbag moment here, the BV was used to heat water or heat tins/pouches of food in the water, my normal practice was at each stop to make a brew for the crew from the thermos flasks and then refill the flasks with the boiling water from the BV, doing this meant that the flasks were always full of hot water for use in case of going into hides, going silent, break down, after a meal came out of the BV the next one went in and the BV really would be on in this cycle all the time, ok on odd times a cottage pie/spag bol would be made in the BV insert but the inner of the BV was always clean so the hot water could be used for washing, shaving, injury management ect.

Thank goodness some one has made a BV for the Armotek Chieftan as it would be VOR without one, ask any tank crew, also our REME also got hold of BV spares kits to create crew heaters, toasters and other items requiring heating, yes they were inventive.

Go to a Fitter section and let them know your tanks laser range finder was not working and the BV was inop, BV got fixed first as we can fight a tank with out the laser.

Cheers
John

[Dave Dibb (Armorpax)]

I have found some thinner wire on Ebay so I have corrected the lead to 4 cables rather than the 3 I had done originally. I have to be honest that making a solid look like water is much harder than making it look like Tea. Not really happy with the result so the lid is likely to remain closed now.

Regards

Dave

[Mark Heaps]

Go to a Fitter section and let them know your tanks laser range finder was not working and the BV was inop, BV got fixed first as we can fight a tank with out the laser.
Cheers
John

My experience was that on exercise, the crews generally only reported the most critical fault. Once you had got to them and sorted that out, it was "If you have time, can you also take a look at these other minor problems". A non functional BV was the most critical fault and was wone of the first circuits I was taught when going through training.

For anyone who didn´t serve , the way the BV lead is laid out in the photos provided is correct. The straight end is a female push-on connector to the BV, both socket and plug should have key-ways, key-way on the BV was at the top unless the heating element had been replaced at some time. The right-angled end is a male screw-on connection to the junction box in the turret ( TDB ).

On the Chiefy ARRV and CrARRV, we would use the now warm water in the flasks for washing and shaving, we might not get another chance for a while due to taskings. We could and did have brews on the move, the radio operator was also the crane op and the BV op. Prior to the days of thermal mugs, an experienced crew could have the BV op doing three brews 80% full in open top mugs, pass two up to the commander and the commander pass one forward to the reccy mech in the drivers seat without a drop being spilt whilst the vehicle was going cross country.