Thread: Army vehicle disposal

Any thoughts from people up in Sydney as to why the current bid prices of many of the Unimogs are actually less than a lot of the Land Rover 110s?

Are they extremely rough? Too much of a liability for registration/insurance? Not enough people with a Medium Rigid license?

From the first auction release, prices have plummeted!

Anyone got a good explanation?

Cheers
David

Originally Posted by spudboy

Any thoughts from people up in Sydney as to why the current bid prices of many of the Unimogs are actually less than a lot of the Land Rover 110s?

Are they extremely rough? Too much of a liability for registration/insurance? Not enough people with a Medium Rigid license?

From the first auction release, prices have plummeted!

Anyone got a good explanation?

Cheers
David

i can only image a lack of demand for them....which is good for you as form memory you are keen on one.

i drove them on and off for 20 years, i thought all the ones at my last unit look tired and that was 3-4 years ago.......the other thing would the be the availability of parts and the costs attached

Yeah - I was, but I bought another 4x4 truck about 6 months ago, so now I only have a passing interest. Although for $10K it'd be a good toy

Similar units were selling for $60 or $70K a year or two ago. Those 3 NZ ex-army units that Nashy sold were all in that price range.

Originally Posted by isuzurover

How are the repairs done? Do they weld/plate them and then cold gal?
What is the condition of the zinc on the most used examples?

In Sydney one of the three surveillance soft tops had a fair bit of chassis corrosion, amongst other problems. It also has just 10km on the odo, just further shows that the odo and the vehicle are not original to each other.
I didn't notice any chassis repairs on it though.
A lot of trailing arm chassis mounts were dented and scraped, on even the cleanest chassis, which surprised me as I've only recently dented one on my 110 and the other is still straight.

Originally Posted by spudboy

Any thoughts from people up in Sydney as to why the current bid prices of many of the Unimogs are actually less than a lot of the Land Rover 110s?

Are they extremely rough? Too much of a liability for registration/insurance? Not enough people with a Medium Rigid license?

From the first auction release, prices have plummeted!

Anyone got a good explanation?

Cheers
David

I don't know if it will necessarily be a good explanation, Dave, but I am posting this after taking a look at, and clambering up into, some of the offerings in Minto yesterday.

There was only one other looker there while I was there over lunch-time so it wasn't busy. I didn't look at them all, but those that I did look at, I could live with condition-wise

For any enthusiast, the mogs, while interesting, have some practical shortcomings:

.they won't fit into any usual suburban driveway or mechanic's workshop
.the parts are expen$ive and the supply chain not as easily coped with as, say, for LRs
.they require (in comparison to other attractive toy items) much more maintenance
.they won't qualify for historic rego for quite a while yet
.have you sat in a driver's seat of one for very long? .
.(for starters the pedal positions are hardly ergonomic for any distance)
.for those who would buy them to take to rallys, they have a slow cruising speed so they will annoy those other road users we have been reading about who must get where they are going fast
.even the stock grazier in steep country where there could be some justification for the use of a $WD with a crane for fencing and large feed bales, would have a problem with the running and maintenance costs.

The mogs do have a good-sized glovebox !

I would love to think of a reason to get one ........ but I think I would rather get a good inter on historic rego and run it once or twice a year.

I will be very interested to read what other comments/answers you get

Originally Posted by isuzutoo-eh

In Sydney one of the three surveillance soft tops had a fair bit of chassis corrosion, amongst other problems. It also has just 10km on the odo, just further shows that the odo and the vehicle are not original to each other.
I didn't notice any chassis repairs on it though.
A lot of trailing arm chassis mounts were dented and scraped, on even the cleanest chassis, which surprised me as I've only recently dented one on my 110 and the other is still straight.

I took a quick look yesterday, one of the three Minto chassis (I think from memory lot 31) has a plate welded on one of the rails - assuming it was properly done this would be OK, and Lot 32 is fully supplied with red comaclo dust from Weipa

Originally Posted by isuzurover

How are the repairs done? Do they weld/plate them and then cold gal?
What is the condition of the zinc on the most used examples?

To summarise 40 pages of Inspection and Repair guidlines;
Any area that is critical to safety, that is, "enable the operator to steer or stop the veh in the event of a failure", can have cracks>15mm<50mm repaired
Other areas (generally under the cab area) can have cracks >30mm<50mm repaired.
All distances include any adjacent voids, eg drain holes etc and not to exceed 25% of Cross sectional area.
Anything else requires written approval to repair.
Cracks are to be repaired IAW AS/ NZS 1554-1, Structural Welding Repairs.
Min depth of material left at bottom of prep grind 0.5mm, Root Radius 3mm, min 50deg.
Stop hole 3.3mm.
Welds cleaned and cold galved.

The condition of the gal seems to be ok, generally, a fair amount of wair on teh underside of the rails due to sliding over countless logs and dirt. Without the necessary depth testing equipment or metalworkers knowledge, that is the best I can do.

Comparitively, mine and Juddys'from the Cns area have most of the original black chassis paint remaining. Mine has what seems to strengthening welds on same crossmember shown, but at the bottom only.
This RFSV has additional welds up the sides and the top, indicating to me a failure.
Some happy snaps;

I noticed one of the 110s at Minto had a tubular (round) crossmember under the gearbox. Can't recall which vehicle though!