Inside the Chieftain's Hatch: AEC Armoured Car, MkII, Pt 1 

The coloured nuts (usually red) are to indicate that they are not to be undone by the user. This is because they are holding the two halves of the split rim together and undoing them is not how you take the wheel off the vehicle. It is how you split the wheel into two halves for changing a tyre without having to use tyre levers and a huge clamp.There is a potential danger in undoing them if the inner tube is pressurised so they are coloured as a warning to leave them alone. Other things that should be left alone may also have paint applied to the fastenings such as the drive flange bolts.

The fact that The Chieftain of all people has to say “i have no idea why they did it, but they did it anyway” several times while walking around this thing makes it the most british vehicle ever.

The outer ring of red painted bolts on the wheels, indicate that it's a split rim wheel. These bolts are not to be undone whilst the tyre is still inflated.

I love it when you young guys talk about memory loss. Now it's time for me to go to my living room and try and remember why, give up and go back to the youtube video on model trains I was watching. The abundance of wheel bolts may indicate a "split rim".

As a mechanical engineer I was trained that painted bolts meant they were securing a pressurised part of a wheel. So I agree with similar comments below.

I was able to meet up with my Grandparents yesterday because they were in my part of the country, we met up at Bovington and it was fascinating to be able to go around there with somebody who spent his entire life, working with metal. Fabricating and repairing anything from horse-shoes to cement mixers. He especially has had experience dealing with tracked vehicles and conveyor belts of various forms. He really appreciated me being able to point out where the tracks were tensioned on lots of different tanks! He also made a very interesting point about the M48 drive sprocket. He says that the track doesn’t engage around that much of the sprocket maybe as opposed to some of the other tanks, similar to a Caterpillar Bulldozer. He says that this is a good thing because less engagement allows for more stretching in the track before it starts to cause a problem with the sprocket binding up. This made me realise that there is a lot more that goes into something such as track design than we might take for granted

1) Lotsa stowage - just what you need for a recon unit in the desert. 2) AEC built the iconic London double decker busses. I would think that with all that milage behind them, the armored car engine would be well proven with any bugs fixed. 3) Some history "Mark I: AEC 190 diesel engine, Valentine Mark I/III turret with a 2-pounder, coaxial Besa 8 mm , Bren AA, crew of three, 125 built. Mark II: AEC 195 diesel (158 hp) engine, 12.7 t, heavier turret, QF 6-pdr (57 mm/2.24 in), coaxial Besa 8 mm (0.31 in), Bren, crew of four. Mark III: Same engine, ROQF 75 mm (2.95 in) main gun and the secondary armament as previous versions. Designated Close Support Armoured Car. AEC AA variant: Tested with a Crusader AA turret for operations in Europe, but never produced" "AECs were mostly used in the latter part of the campaign, until the end of the Tunisian campaign, by British forces and the British Indian Army, in complement to US-built Staghounds. These vehicles also participated in the operations in Italy, while most Mark 3s served in Western Europe, Northern France and the Low Countries, until 1945. The AEC remained very influential, and was kept into service until 1958, when it was replaced gradually by the Alvis Saladin. The Lebanese army purchased some vehicles, that were used until 1976" " The authorised org for an Armoured Car Regiment (WE III/236/2 of Nov43) was based on RHQ, HQ Squadron and four Squadrons. Each of the four Squadrons was built around five Troops, each of two Daimler armoured cars and two Daimler scout cars. Also in the Squadron was a Support Troop (a small rifle element for dismounted duties), a Heavy Troop (two AEC armoured cars or two halftracks mounting 75-mm guns), with both of these Troops also having a scout car. Squadron HQ was to have four armoured cars (one Daimler and three Staghounds) and a scout car. The outline given in the FOW blurb suggests a shift to six pairs of scout cars and three pairs of armoured cars, the latter also with a scout car per pair. Assuming all other elements of the Squadron were left unaltered, that would need 15 scout cars and 6 armoured cars, against a WE of 10 scout cars and 10 armoured cars."

Prop shaft splines and pitman arm, drag link tie rod steering is and has been the go to design for so many decades they've got to be the best simple reliable solution of nearly all time.

I guess the armour thickness is in AP round measurements. If an AP round goes in one side and comes out on the other side of the vehicle it has gone through 2.5 inches of armour in total 😁

Dear Sir. As a foreigner, with English as my third language, I must admire the "dry humor" and Your entertaining way, of describing the "thingie". As a engineer, the way of, shall we say, somewhat simplified, description of the vehicle, is great. Keep these coming, I will follow Your next video. from a Finn in Diaspora

Why people think this is ugly? It's so modern looking for its time, almost like a sci-fi Quad vehicle from Dune 2 the game. I just love it!

This AEC turret with the QF 75mm ROF gun was also fitted to the Staghound armoured cars in place of the as built American one with the 37mm gun. With that and leftover ex Grant 37mm guns the last Humber and Guy armoured cars were made with the 37mm guns in place of the 15mm BESA. Trivia but, when the new Sudanese government went shopping for ‘tanks’, AEC wanted to do them Staghounds with the AEC turret and the QF 75mm but the ROF had stopped making them so they cut the mantlets etc. off scrap Sherman’s and welded them to the AEC turrets with the M4 75mm gun and did the deal with the Sudanese buyers. Allegedly they provided the buyers with one bill at tank prices for the Sudanese treasury and another for the actual price to the buyers who then pocketed the difference. Allegedly. The AEC turret and QF 75m gun was still being used in Lebanon into the present century on Staghounds. May still be for all I know.

I think you mean the armour was sloped sidey-widey instead of uppy-downey.

Red painted nuts are ones the crew have no permision to touch, White painted nuts are ones the crew are allowed to touch. White wheel nuts because the crew might need to change a punctured tyre/wheel. Red because you would be getting into mechanical components that only a Vehicle Mechanic is trained to work on. Red also warns that the red nuts hole together a divided wheel and they should only be ondone if all the pressure in the inner tube is released. White / red paint has nothing to do with Right hand or Left hand threads (reverse threads) The white painted nuts are on both sides of the wheel, and indeed the threads are Right handed on one side aand left handed on the other but BOTH are painted white. They are stamped with R and L on one flat to say which thgread they are.

The reason why it is bolted instead of riveted is that rivets have a nasty habbit of tearring off and bouncing around the the inside when they are hit with HE. You can see that on many prewar and early war tanks, before we figured out welding. The Soviets were the first ones to start doing it, since they had goten the first hand experience with the Japanese.

It may not be not as cute as a Ferret, but I wouldn't call it ugly. Thanks for the video, looking forward to the second part.

The rod you originally called a tie rod is actually the drag link, that's what connects the steering box to the wheel. The rod that ties the two wheels together is the tie rod.

As a studying Mechanic, and someone who went through a bit of mechanical engineering, i'd add my two cents that the splined portion of the crankshaft is called a "slip-yoke", as you said it is meant to compensate for the movements of the suspension, and furthermore, from what i can see, there is no Panhard Rod or any form of Linkages in which to prevent the suspension from moving forward or sideways/roll, so it seems to me that the only thing holding the Solid Axles in place is the stiffness of their Leaf Springs. to add, i am quite surprised that it uses a Frame to support the armoured chassis, i thought that it being an Armoured Car that it is constructed as a box with the components placed internally of the chassis with the undercarriage being open, though granted accessibility to those components would likely be limited and would also eat up significant internal volume.

The reason for bolting the armour rather than riveting may have been because the factory did not have riveters (skilled workers who can rivet things together) available. Britain, at that time, was building warships and mechantmen as fast as they could and welding ships was still a bit in its infancy, in the UK, at that time. The riveters were all employed building ships.

I believe Ian V. Hogg said of the AEC in “Allied Armor of WWII” "...the result was an armoured car armed as well as the contemporary cruiser tank. (Another way of looking at it, of course, was to observe that the cruiser tank was armed with nothing better than that found on armoured cars . . .)

AEC certainly has a unique aesthetic. It looks great from some angles but just plain odd from others!

The slip spline driveshaft like that is still pretty common in 4x4 vehicles.

"They put a very Cromwell type turret on it, which was the style at the time. The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt. It was a red one. You couldn't get white ones, on account of the war."

You don't actually lose grey matter as you age, it just migrates to the hair follicles.

My son told me this was a good channel. I'd say he's right on with that assessment. Just subscribed.

Always liked the look of the AEC to be honest, it looks like it does a job. I don't think beauty was a design consideration after all.

I dont know when you did it, but I greatly appreciate you finding getting rid of the irritating looping music in the background.

The last 12 seconds, "this is not an ugly armored car" - comedy gold.

It's beautiful in it's functionality.

I think the AEC is rather a handsome brute.

It's not ugly. It has "character". Or something along those lines. Our buses in Buenos Aires were still using red painted nuts in the late 1990s, early 200's to indicate a split rim. Many a mechanic at the time went full "off with his head" when changing a tire, undoing the wrong nuts and the whole thing just disassembling itself in a loud air blast with any of the components maiming or straight KIAing the guy.

Red nuts means split rims, ie.. do not undo as the pressure likes popping things off. We still had them in the RAF on our vehicles especialy green fleet ( Owned by the MOD).

That bar that goes across to the other steer tire is called a “drag link”. Just for future reference.

I've always loved this vehicle. So glad it's being covered in a video.

Yes! I find British armored cars so interesting, not least because of the insane variety.

The unpainted bolts are simply the ones to mount the tire to the vehicle. If you start loosening the wrong ones, you could cause a serious problem.

Not sure if this was covered further down in the comments, but the exposed splines on the driveshaft or propshaft is what is known as a CV (constant vocity) joint & is intended to allow the suspension to freely travel up and down without binding. This is extremely common on offroad vehicles and 4x4s & is actually a pretty effective and simple design.

I'd suggest the unusual construction was as welding in the UK was a relatively new technology (yet to be applied on a massive scale) when this was built. We were still building riveted ships when the US was welding Liberty ships and the Germans welding submarines. Bolting the frame together with a weld, a pragmatic approach for both assembly and longevity.

Maybe the colour-marked bolts hold the rims together, and the non-coloured bolts hold the wheel to the wheel-hub. Just a guessing

All prop shafts that need up and down or side movement meet to change length

I think it’s cute 🥰. And I am sure that the ordinary rifleman would be very pleased to have it around, to dispatch the ubiquitous and pesky MG34/42

00:59 Your memory is the second thing to go. Can't remember what the first is

Thank you Cheiftan for another brilliant video!

Only 6 seconds into this video and what i thought , is no more. AEC, the "Associated Equipment Company" where i had been led to believe, even from my British Army days in the 1980's that is was the "Arlington Engineering Company". The reason being was that my Unit had AEC mk3 Militants often known as "Millys". Thank you Chieftain for correcting a nearly 30 year old mis belief.

Absolutely love the more laid back videos like this!

One of the benefits of having vehicles like this - is that while the enemy is shooting at them - they are not shooting at you. .

The splines on the driveshaft are quite common and as you surmised, it's to allow the axle to articulate and still maintain a connection. You see it almost all vehicles with a live axle. The Deuce in Canadian service also had wheelnuts that tighten to the front, loosened to the rear. It was a common feature on trucks of that era.

Great work Sir 👍

No track tension, so I guess ya gotta check tire pressure

The Chieftain was in Bastogne barracks tank museum. There is a workshop where the Royal army museum performs restorations on their collection of military vehicles. I didn't know that the Belgian army used this model of armoured car. I live not far away from Bastogne and I plan to visit the museum in the future. Not as large as Bovington and Saumur, but I think it is worth the visit.

The Mr. Rogers fit looks good on you chieftain.

Thank you for this video.

Splined drive shafts are still used to this day especially if you have a lot of suspension travel like my rock crawler.

Being that it is a British vehicle, the term is "wing" or "mudguard", not "fender". In British English, a "fender" is the padded thing covered in rope netting that stops ships getting damaged when they rub against another ship or the dock.

Great out-take!

Very nice Video. Thx. And I am glad someone loves this armoured car :)

It reminds me of my son's beer box robot he made out of 18 packs in college for his Halloween frat party. 😂

From the side profile it looks purposeful with the long barrel of the 6pdr. Would have been awesome if supplied in numbers earlier in the desert war as they could knock out any contemporary vehicle, it's functionally a much fightable Deacon so it could operate as tank destroyer and an exploitation vehicle.

Hi Chieftain, I just heard that you helped out Perun immensely in the early days of his repurposed channel and wanted to thank you for that timely assistance.

5:32 The lighting makes it look like the vehicle is a cartoon during this shot. Neat.

Excellent. I love these old armoured cars like the Ferret etc. Thanks Chieftain.

Dodge trucks used left hand thread on the left side lug nuts right up until 1971 I believe. I my 1965 Dodge pickup had them. The left hand lug nuts were stamped "L" on the outer face.

Agreed its not ugly!!! I like it

I personally like the looks of it. Simple and strong. ✌️

1:18 Damn it I had to repeat that last 30 seconds because I couldn't remember what you had said😂😂😂 I'm not making a joke of this, I really had to rewind the video so that I could catch the context for the last line of what you said😂😂😂

saw extended use with Yugoslavian partizans if im not mistaken. Favoured over the M3 and M5 Stuart for its better anti tank capabilities than stuarts 37mm gun. One of the last battles of ww2 was near my hometown where a couple of MkII's along with stuarts faced off against a German captured T34 and other german tanks part of the 97th Army Corps that covered the retreat of axis units north towards Austria.

Can't wait to see the AEC Mk III, if you ever get to it.

That is exactly what the propshaft splines are for. Standard on any vehicle with a live axle, unless it uses a torque tube, which maintains a fixed distance. Although i suppose you could make one that telescoped if you wanted to. Don't need them on an independent suspension since the differential is fixed in place. Although i wouldn't be surprised if they still used them or some other sort of joint to give a little bit of flex to the system for chassis flex or heat expansion or whatever. Binding is bad in a driveline. I think the armored car makes perfect sense. You want faster and cheaper scout and recon vehicles, tanks are very maintenance intensive and unreliable, anything tracked is. As long as you don't need the off-road capability and don't plan on going into heavy combat, a wheeled vehicle with enough armor and armament to safely retreat from opposition is way more efficient and effective.

Maybe it's because I've had a few beers but I agree with that angry mother at the end of the video. It's not ugly!

❤ yours videos !!! Please make more ❤ thanks 🙏

Towing points are these holes in the ends of "side beams". This funny car can tow!

it's beautiful

Superb ! I’ve always liked the AEC armoured car thanks for covering it !!! Absolutely correct regarding the propshaft! I also remember seeing alternative threaded wheel studs on hgvs years ago ….might have been seddon Atkinson …can’t remember……but it was annoying as the studs would have an R or L on the end of em according to the thread being right or left hand thread ….

I like the looks of it too.

Air Brakes are spring loaded and when you Loose Pressure the Brakes Are Applied! The Air Pressure keeps the springs form activating the Brakes!! Hence the nickname of Safety Brakes!!! (This is why you sometimes see a semi-truck sitting still right after it hooks up to a trailer with its compressor running, it is building up the pressure in the trailer's air flask....)

6:40 Note the notch on the female half of the splined portion of the driveshaft. It's likely that this example is missing a dust boot it would have normally had back in the day.

red bolts = user no touchy. The outer ring is because it's a split rim. The 'inner' ring is the axle hub. Easy way to keep a soldier from touching something they shouldn't whilst in the field. Also, the 'steering arm' is a pitman arm, which is attached by a drag link/center link to an idler arm. Which in turn is attached to the steering knuckle by another tie rod. Automotive stuff has 6 different names for the same part. You know, just to keep things interesting.

i think it looks pretty cool

It's got a sort of Mk.I Matilda hull, Churchill turret vibe going on.

CHEIFTAIN ! You missed one interesting technicality of the AEC. As you rightly say, it was based on the Matador. In putting the engine in the back it meant the gearbox was also arse-about-face, not wanting to redesign the transfer box, they gave 4x2 drive to the front steering axle and when 4x4 was selected the rear axle joined the party. Therefore, the only known front wheel drive armoured car !

We have an AEC Matador at the Gunfire museum in Brasschaat ;-)

The first tractor I ever drove on the farm was an old Nuffield, and had the same type of steering, IIRC

Even on civilian vehicles, before a certain era, the wheels on one side had reverse threaded lugs. GM did it at least as late as 1960.

Biffbang forgot the other arm thingy in the steering rods - thats the PITMAN ROD and its the main steering rod - if its not attached ur not going anywhere 😂😂

You could use the two eyes in the rails on the back for towing, with some added hardware. Maybe it's in one of the side stowage boxes.

This was a great vehicle. It often went up against German Luchs light tanks or the Sd.Kfz. 222s that were scouting around. It could even take on Panzer IVs with some support. It had smoke launchers and veteran crews even learned to target the tracks of enemy vehicles. They worked well until the resources of the British Company Command Post could be brought to bear and more powerful vehicles became available like the Centar, Cromwell, and Sherman Firefly.

Thanks!

The driveshaft has a "slip joint". This is standard on just virtually every vehicle that has a driveshaft. You may find it in the form of a slip yoke at the transmission or in the shaft as you did there. The painted bolts indicate which should NOT be removed in order to change the tire. That design has a split wheel( the outer ring) and the axle shaft the (inner ring) taking either off could be dangers and do more damage than good.

My vast knowledge of automotives leads me to believe, that the bolts on the wheels are painted red, so the wheels go fastah.

I always liked the look of the AEC Armoured Car. Kind of reminds me of a big strong rugby player or the like.

I would imagine the front driveshaft would have some sort or boot for the exposed splines, especially for any location with sand would wear the splines and cause vibrations and wobbling.

Opposing thread is usually opposite sides of the vehicle as they thought the wheels would fly off into the sun if they didn't oppose the thread to the rolling direction. Red painted threads on commonwealth vehicles indicate the threads that are not to be undone while removing the wheel from the hub. this is in a time where very few people owned a car let alone the young men enlisting in the military enough of them obviously blew themselves up undoing the bolts holding the 2 piece rims together while still inflated that this became necessary.

Lefthanded lug nuts on the left side is still comon practice or heavy commercial trucks. The main frame rails on the armored car are also the same as heavy trucks.

A lot of US heavy vehicles had left-handed threaded wheel nuts on one side until the 1960s came a long when people realised it was a bit of a waste of effort to do this. The most common marking was for a number of dots or an "L" stamped into the end of a left-handed threaded bolt, along with a very firm instruction to keep the nuts to the corner of the vehicle they were removed from. In general the use of a mixture of left-hand and right-hand threads for wheel nuts was a grade-one pain in the chair polisher for any number of reasons, including a mixture on the same wheel (talk about confusing)

You may find it ugly but I've a soft spot for armoured car aesthetics & have been severely tempted to buy one on a couple of occasions. The Ferret & Humber MkII being my favourites.

As to why the reverse thread nuts aren't reversed on the off-side, I haven't got the foggiest idea. But torque loosening of the nuts only become a problem in the 1930s as engine power increased dramatically.

9:37 So that you can use one design of wheel hub on both sides of the vehicle, while having the "correct" rotation threads on the "correct" side

It is called a thingmibob. Marine Electrical and Electronic Engineer

Aww, I think the AEC looks nice

The splines on the driveshafts are normal expansion joints. All cars and trucks with driveshafts have them, they're commonly protected with rubber boots these days.