From: Ryan Gill (rmgill@mindspring.com)
Date: Fri Jan 10 2003 - 09:15:12 PST
At 1:27 AM -0600 1/10/03, jeff diederichs wrote:
>Hello, list.
>
>I am trying to assess whether ownership of a Daimler Ferret will be
>within the confines of my abilities and resources in the future, and
>welcome advice on what to expect - most notably on initial
>investment. I have seen quite a few dealers with vehicles in the US
>and abroad around the 10,000 - 17 thousand $ range, but a surprising
>lack of "project" category types, running but rough, etc. -this,
>however, is quite a bit higher than I'd like to pay! Some are
>evidently available from various European sources in this condition,
Most folks don't really want to import a crappy example to fix up
because you'll spend that much more to get it running. You might try
talking to some of the Ferret retailers in the US. I bought mine from
Joe Frances at Western Resources. Joe was good enough to let me crawl
around in several ferrets he had, get a look at them in his repair
shop and drive one around for a bit to get the physical process down
in shifting the Wilson Pre-selector Gearbox.
>but I am completely unfarmiliar with the ins & outs of importation,
>etc, and a "project" sight unseen from across the globe sounds
>frightening at best. I would enjoy doing the work myself, half the
>fun of this hobby is in the handiwork. I think I'm nuts enough to own
>one.
The importation is a bit of a pain from what I've heard. I've
purchased domestically up until the Humber Mk IV in my .sig. It's
still in the UK waiting on an engine rebuild however, so the form 6
isn't in process yet. The plan is probably to container ship it so
that we can bring over extra tires, for it and other vehicles in the
groups collection.
As far as ferrets go, parts aren't cheap, especially when you throw
in shipping. You can get entire power packs and drive line assemblies
either rebuilt or in some cases new. I believe that most major
components are still available. The biggest issue is that the
majority of the parts are in the UK and shipping is certainly not
cheap for such components.
Some ferret owners have purchased their vehicles and had more than a
few things to fix like radiators, gearboxes, fuel pumps, generators,
etc. The configuration of the hull makes doing anything but a bit of
work on the upper/right side of the engine a very confined process.
As far as storage goes, they fit in the average size garage or
carport (just close that hatch on the Mk2s and up before you back
into the garage) and run on currently available fuels with zero
issues. They're fun vehicles and they turn heads like you'd expect
they would.
>
>I have been over the http://www.ferret.simonides.org/index.html
> website (excellent site!) thouroughly, and it looks like there are
>quite a few spares & tech gurus available.
Yep. Dick Farrant and Alex are great. We don't have any super experts
in the states, but both of those Chaps are a great help. Come over to
the Ferret list and ask more questions. You might find a vehicle for
sale in the States that you can go and drive to get a better
understanding of the vehicle to purchase.
>Am I going to pe squirreling away pennies and selling all my other
>toys for years? Or is there a source for entry level types around?
Depends on what you have for resources. I have two vehicles with
similar drive line setups and I've had minimal problems so far
(crosses fingers). Assuming your vehicle hasn't be really abused and
its fluids are kept up, they should last a really long time. They're
waaaay over built and designed.
--
Ryan Gill rmgill@SPAMmindspring.com
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'60 Daimler Ferret '42 Daimler Dingo '43 Humber MkIV (1/2)
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