Perhaps this is why British roads are so smooth. They get compressed flat with steam rollers daily. I also hear the UK is getting really hot lately. Perhaps you can retrofit this with air conditioning!
thats a superhuman effort. lots of questions tho if you have time? is there rubber on the front rolls too? what do you have to do to the landrover so it steers when being towed? is there a transfer pump between the IBC and the engine? enjoyed the trip though.
Yes, this roller has rubbered wheels front and back, which does improve the grip on the road surface a lot compared to the more traditional metal tyred rollers - although they do need to be careful where hot firing irons are placed so the rubber doesn't melt and get damaged! When towing a vehicle on an A-frame you just have to ensure the steering lock can never engage! Unlike towing with a single fixing point, such as with a bar or rope where the towed vehicle is free to move left and right, with the A-frame the towed vehicle is forced to follow what is towing it, and the front wheels just self-centre as required (so turn left and right as needed on corners), in much the same way if you let go of the wheel whilst driving on a straight road the wheels will centre themselves to carry on straight ahead (and in theory on a banked corner the vehicle should self-steer around that as well if the speed is just right!). The different design of steering mechanism on the living van means the front wheel carriage on that needs guiding, this is why you can see the solid tow-bar go from engine direct to the chassis of the trailer (so all the towing load falls onto this), then there's a loop from the 'traditional' tow bar connected to the front wheel carriage that hooks over the towing bar. If a trailer with this type of steering was left to its own devices then the wheels could go anywhere. If you just towed from the wheel carriage then all the load of the trailer and everything coupled behind it would be going through the centre pin of the carriage - towing direct from the chassis is stronger. Some people who carry extra water on a trailer behind will just use gravity to feed from the tank to the engine, others use the steam operated 'water lifter' on the engine to suck water from the tank to the engine [can be seen on the nearside front belly water tank on this engine - but it isn't connected to a steam supply to allow it to be used). In this case the hose from the IBC couples direct to the water control valve on the engine, this is a three-way valve meaning the driver can select to fill the boiler with water from the roller's tender, or to feed direct from the IBC via the long hose. ....of course when problems are encountered and the land rover has to be taken elsewhere to effect repairs whilst the roller limps on alone then it does rather drastically reduce the water range as the IBC with all the spare water disappears as well! Lol.
@@IACooper thanks for taking the time to reply. ive always got a million questions, mostly because i recently purches a fowler roller (number 16771) here in australia and hope to do some road runs /camp trips across country on it, if me and my crew live long enough and get fit enough. rubber is something that were looking into , and the hauling the landy seems a pretty good option for short runs. in australia, 50 miles is probably not as far as it should be, but planning to keep it fairly central to the rally feilds. heavy haulage is something everyone needs to be a bit careful with cost wise, best avoided. we do have a working water lifter though. keep the amazing videos coming.
@@IACooper But don't they carry a water hose to fill up the engine from a steam? I also noticed they removed the fire at the end of the day's steaming?
@@eliotreader8220 Not all road engines have a water lifter to be able to suck water up from a stream. This one does have a lifter on the belly tank, but it isn't piped up to work. The fire was thrown out at the end of the first day as it was a little on the excessive side and the crew were looking to seek a meal elsewhere and didn't want the boiler blowing off steam in their absence. At the end of the second day the fire was cleaned out before the engine was parked inside a secure building to ensure there weren't any fume/fire problems.
