Amazing! Would love to see a start procedure from the driver's perspective; which switches to activate, what levers to pull etc.

TANK NUTS!... Everyone knows you watch anything about 131 with nothing more than a mild passing interest! Lol.

Interested in the engine oil weight rating...I assume for desert use it would have had a 30 weight or something similar for the day due to the heat. But what do you use at Bovvy. OMD 75/80?? It looks and sounds superb, great job guys.

Maybe one day I'll make it back to my Mum's home country. Bovington and Heathrow are 2 main visits on my list. Then Cumberland where she came from. Yes, I know, it's Cumbria but she never accepted the change...

This is the video I have always wanted. Wonderful. Thanks.

No kidding. Having to make all of your parts. Dealing with old labor intensive technology like points and condenser.

I have said thank you to some of the team that look after her. Was lucky enough to watch this process in September 2019.

You mean "Tank you very much" ...ill see myself out

@@ScandinavianHeretic can we all tank a moment to appreciate

@@evanderboynton3057 Points, condensers and carburettors beat electronics when you have a microchip shortage.

Then a confused look on the younger lads face. haha

Exactly why you shouldn't work on tanks. You should understand when to stop even when not told stop. "okay" should be understood as stop considering the context. You need to understand. Okay?

@@badcornflakes6374 okay

@@badcornflakes6374 stop

@@badcornflakes6374 yeah unclear instructions really help when working with heavy machinery. i actually love when im meant to assume every other command.

That Sir, is a beautiful typo on "peace", much obliged! 😁

Your great grandpa was state of the art back in the day

I haven't seen a sherman firefly driving with its original engine for a while. Probably because the 30 cylinder Chrysler Multibank engine with 5 carburetors has a lot of potential for going wrong!

@@HaVoC117X oh look at me!! I pointed out the ONE version of the most reliable tank of ww2 that wasn't totally reliable lol...

@@deejayimm Well, he is right though.

@@mightyTMP I never said he was wrong, but he's talking about what? 10% of Shermans.... The Chieftain is the biggest Sherman lover out there, and even he says those engines are unreliable lol....

@@deejayimm That depends on how you define 'reliable'. Most reliability statistics are based on availability rates, which is very good on the Sherman as it's easy to replace and maintain components. The components themselves are not necessarily the most reliable of the war though. Arguably, anything can be reliable (i.e not break down) if it receives enough maintenance, including the Tiger actually. At least one of them is documented to have covered thousands of miles on the original engine on the eastern front. For overall reliability, the Valentine is probably the king (at least with the GM diesel).

It's probably quite similar to what was used on old air planes that also in some cases had a hand cranked inertia starter. They had now "forgotten" ways of doing things back in the day. You also got shotgun starters and some old planes where 1 cylinder got ignited manually by the pilot hand craking an ignition box, to get the engine rotating.

In essence, it's a bloody big flywheel, I'm assuming that there's a bunch of gearing-down to allow human power to get it going.

High quality fuel and oil probably contribute a lot to keeping it running.

Well, I'll be.... Didn't spot that untill you pointed that out. Nice catch!

All good points, the meaning of an artifact can change across time. the fact that the original engine was removed and sectioned as a teaching aid is a significant part of the story and also how the German army's most fearsome weapon was repaired and restored years later to become a British museum's most popular attraction.

I am all in favor of building working replicas to keep the magic alive.

Yep. They can help us understand how we arrived at where we are.

You guys have a beautiful Panther down there don't you, courtesey of Bruce Crompton and his team....would have loved to have seen the 2 together before it sailed.

If I was rich I'd buy it from them. Man what a machine

Do you have a source for that last part?

@@apis_aculei It is not nonsense! It is straight out of Merkblatt 47a/30 of 20th May 1943 : Merkblatt für den Einsatz der schweren Panzer-Abteilung "Tiger". Page 2, I quote: "Beim längeren Märschen ist eine Kopplung von Tiger Einheiten mit anderen Panzerverbänden aus marschtechnischen Gründen nicht durchzuführen". ["On long marches Tiger units are not to be mixed with other armoured groups due to technical restrictions on march capabilities"] "... Durchschnittsgeschwindigkeit auf dem Marsch bei Tag 10 - 15 km/h ..." ["Average speed on the march by day 10 to 15 km/h"] "Häufige technische Marschhälte sind erforderlich. Es ist nach den ersten 5 km, hiernach alle 10 - 15 km, ein techn. Halt zu befehlen." ["Frequent technical halts are required. A technical halt should be ordered after the first 5 km and then after every 10 to 15 km"]

"Could hide behind it..." but were repeatedly officially ordered not to. Tigers drew a disproportionate amount of fire from the enemy and infantrymen also ran a serious risk of being casually pulped under the tracks (since the driver had only a small slot to see out of). Positions were sometimes overrun when infantrymen chose to follow "their" Tiger around rather than staying where they were supposed to be.

No more over engineered than today's big tanks though. All finely crafted and highly expensive bits of kit are like that ☺.

that was funny. they were fail tanks

If I had to take a wild guess, it has to do on the wear and tear on the transmission, roadwheels, tracks and suspension, and the on the engine itself. Because while it is a fearsome warmachine, it's over 80 years old

There is market for worn parts.

If it is frequently ran , then parts will break. If parts break, then it will be difficult to replace. They only run 131 once or twice a year which is enough for 131. Tigers are notorious for breaking down and they don't want to run the risk of 131 breaking down.

Yes and the actually more tiger 2 are getting restored!

Thunderbirds would be very different if they were going up an incline and the transmission broke 😂

If the tree trunks are less than 20 cm thick then yes, the Tiger would flatten them like straw.

That's because its peace time so nothing is blowing holes into them knocking them out left and right. Plenty went wrong in WW2. Most destroyed tank in NW Europe.

I think there are enough parts but who is going to do it, cost many man hours. According to the internet there are seven Tigers left but only one is restored in working conditions.

Possible, absolutely. It'll just cost an arm and a leg, possibly the name of your firstborn too.

In truth there are 7 Tigers of which one is of course the Bovington 131, one in quite complete condition in Samure museum but with transport transport tracks, one in Kubinka Tank Museum but I don't know if it is complete and finally one that was in Fort Knox but cut a part of the turret and the upper side but never mentioned the condition of the transmission but has been transferred to the new museum after being restored at, Benning I think. Regarding the other two I have no clue. Possibly one of them could be back in running condition....

@@paoloviti6156 There is also one at an artillery firing range in Russia but that one has been shot to bits and is now little more than vaguely Tiger tank shaped scrap metal. There is one in a village square in France which is in reasonable external condition (albeit with collapsed suspension) but has a funky non-historical paint job. The one that was at Aberdeen was sold to the Wheatcroft collection in the UK with a view to restoring it to working condition but that project has since been abandoned.