Thread: The Ultimate FC

The cargo area floor plates are almost finished.
They were the first things to come out , so I attacked them , but they will be the last things to go back in.


I took off the front hull plate where the winch cable comes though and checked out the winch.
It appears to be in good condition as is the cable.....not the rusty mess I was expecting.
The winch seems to sit inside abit of a air bubble to try and keep it dry when swimming....clever.
I have freed up the RHS water jet steering bucket linkage and fixed up some air lines.

The hand bilge pump which bolts onto the rear of the drivers seat I think I will leave out to make it easier to acess under the front cabin floor and rework the plumbing of that pump.
It sucks from the rear of the hull, but the stalwart with crane is nose down in the water.
I will fit a electric one in the front of the hull, pushing the water out though the standard pipes on the front LHS and save the effort of hand pumping.
The main bilge pump is another system at the rear of the machine.
I need to think about doing this before bolting all the cabin plates back in.

I now know that one of the prototype Stalwarts was fitted with a Allison auto and diesel.(K60 multi fuel)....it was not successful as the auto wouldnt provide engine braking and took too much power from the engine.
The auto was found to get confused if there was some wheel slip.
Diesel engines of the time couldnt fit in the engine bay, or lacked the power to weight of the Rolls petrol motor at that point of time.
In the early 1970 to 1980 when Alvis tried to interest the British army in a diesel Alvis stalwart, they were not interested as the british army was still very much a petrol army at that time and the cost of conversion was too much.

It must have been very early 1970s, because they made a diesel retrofit kit for the 1950s RL Bedford and by the 1970's the British Army was using diesel MJ Bedfords.

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

It must have been very early 1970s, because they made a diesel retrofit kit for the 1950s RL Bedford and by the 1970's the British Army was using diesel MJ Bedfords.

In the gulf war the british were still using petrol centurion tanks and some petrol APCs or versions of.
In the 1980s much equiptment was petrol powered including the 101 landrover and stalwart both of which left service in about 1990.
The Fox armoured car was still in service with a petrol motor until 1994.
The australian army in my time in the mid 1980s was still petrol Internationals and landrovers with the unimogs, macks and diesel landrovers only just starting to come into service.
It is interesting to note the problems of fitting a diesel motor to the stalwart.
While modern diesels greatly exceed the power to weight of the Rolls petrol fitted as standard with a much better fuel burn, they do not supply the revs needed for the Stalwarts gearing and the gearbox and transfercase is so specialised that it is not possible to fit other gearboxes or transfer cases that will over come the problem.
Yes in private hands diesels have been fitted to stalwarts, but in is hard driving them anywhere with a 25 mph cruising speed and reaching from one gear to another rev wise would be harder.
The factory conversions using a perkins pacer diesel as I understand it , used a step up gear train between the motor and bell housing and allowed the diesel motor to be raised from the standard drive line as the Rolls was dry sump mounted down very low.
I am still trying to learn more about the few factory conversions done and the exact details.

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

It must have been very early 1970s, because they made a diesel retrofit kit for the 1950s RL Bedford and by the 1970's the British Army was using diesel MJ Bedfords.

some petrol rl bedfords remained in service until the mid/late 80s, the mk bedford was in service before the mj ( updated mk with a turbo )

some of the petrol powered vehicles that i can remember in service in the 80s

101 landrover
ser 111 landrovers
ser 11 landrover ambulances
mk1 432
centurian arrv and engineer variants
cvrt
cvrw ( fox)
rl bedford
hmlc ( stalwart)
bsa b40 and can am motorbikes
humber 1 ton (pig used in northern ireland)

i think there was also a leyland recovery vehicle still in service that was petrol powered, but thats all i can think of at the moment

just remembered the mighty antar tank transporter was also still in service, i think that was petrol

Originally Posted by peewee

just remembered the mighty antar tank transporter was also still in service, i think that was petrol

Powered by a Rover V8 no less.
Actually they were cut down Rolls Merlin inspired V12 Meteor Tank engines that were renamed Meteorite, apparently both petrol and deisel versions were made, although I believe the Antar only got the 280bHp petrol version.
IIRC the later Mighty Antars had 333BHP Rolls Royce Eagle Deisels.
The Leyland Recovery vehicle you mentioned was probably the 6x6 Martian that was powered by a similae RR engine to the Stalwart.
Bill.