Rod’s January report

Considering that winter is traditionally the quietest time for MV owners, I can’t believe how busy it’s been! As far as the Devon Area is concerned, we’ve all been furiously flying about getting everything in place for the fast-approaching new season. Our area website has been revamped, the calendar is rapidly filling up, and everyone seems to be engaged in an orgy of cleaning, repairing and re-fitting. Roll on the Spring...

For myself, I started the new year with a trip to the Dallas Dig-out, coming away with a bag full of the usual servicing items and – joy oh joy – a bustle for the Jeep. This contraption, a kind of large wire basket that clips on to the back of the vehicle, massively increasing its load carrying capacity, is completely at odds with the Jeep’s assumed identity as an airfield hack for a transport squadron of the 9^th AAF. But what the hell. I’ve wanted one for ages.

Meanwhile, the Land Rover has sat forlornly on the drive, looking faintly ridiculous in it’s desert camouflage against the surrounding snow. Passers-by cheery calls of “you’ve got the right vehicle there for these conditions!” only make me even more aware of just how much I don’t want to take to the icy roads in an un-heated, tent-topped 101 on a set of well-worn bar-grips. Perhaps I’m just getting old....

The Jeep, on the other hand, is an absolute hoot in the snow. Small enough to chuck around like a hooligan where conditions allow, the complete hopelessness of any pretence at weather-proofing means you may as well just drop the hood and windscreen, wrap up like Nanook of the North and go enjoy yourself. Somehow frostbite seems a small price to pay for such fun.

Mind you, it did give me a bit of a fright, albeit not in the driving sense. Just before Christmas I got a rather terse note from the DVLC saying that the chassis number on my MOT certificate didn’t match their records. I can’t say that I was entirely surprised, given that my 1944 (ostensibly) Ford GPW has a tubular front cross-member, suggesting a chassis change at some point, and that there is no visible chassis number where you’d expect to find one. But although I replied with a full explanation, supported with carefully annotated colour photos, the DVLC were insistent that I would have to submit the vehicle ‘in the flesh’ for an inspection.

I have never found the DVLA to be anything less than helpful and polite, and everything was eventually resolved when I drove down to my local DVLA office so that they could inspect the all-important military rebuild plaque dated 1955, recording the critical information. Nevertheless, I must say I felt that I was as much on trial as the Jeep, and the whole exercise seemed to be as much about my credibility as an owner as about the actual evidence I was offering. I guess they get more than their share of people trying to pull a fast one.

Anyway, all’s well that ends well; I got an amended MOT certificate, and the Jeep got the first ever wash and brush-up it’s had since I bought it!

So here we are. The snow has thawed from around the Land Rover. The Jeep is all sparkly clean, legally MOT’d, and sporting a bustle full of artistically-arranged clutter. All’s well with the world.

All I need now is an event to go to ................