The story of my ownership of the Carmichael Mark 12A
It had arrived, it was now time to play.
Before anything else I had to replace the batteries as it had been standing for a good while and the existing batteries would not take a charge. Peter recommended a motor factors in Guildford called SED.
Peter Edwards owns and runs 1st Defense Fire & Rescue Services Ltd which is based at Dunsfold Park, just south of Guildford. Dunsfold Park is where we kept our Carmichael Mark 12A and Bedford TM 6x6. Jez helped David and I with the restoration of both the Mark 12A and the TM.
SED supplied 4 large 12v truck batteries which I connected in parallel and series to provide the required 24v system. More on that later including the specs and wiring details.
This was all that was necessary to get the Mark 12A mobile and basically functional as a vehicle, but a lot more would be required to turn it back to a working fire engine / crash tender.
Dirty Weekend
Shortly after delivery the Mark 12A was back on a low loader. David and I have been going to the War and Peace Show near Paddock Wood, which has become the War and Peace Revival at a different location, for a number of years. More on about our visits to the various War and Peace Show can be found within Events. I took the opportunity of exhibiting both the Carmichael Mark 12A and the Bedford TM. The Mark 12A was the first to travel. The low loader driver stopped off on the way and put £100 of diesel into each vehicle. Less than a third of a tank. It is a good job that neither of them do a lot of miles.
Read that paragraph again at the start of the article about the dirty weekend.