• Steel Soldiers now has a few new forums, read more about it at: New Munitions Forums!

  • Microsoft MSN, Live, Hotmail, Outlook email users may not be receiving emails. We are working to resolve this issue. Please add support@steelsoldiers.com to your trusted contacts.

RORO shipping help for new FV-432

45FMJoe

New member
113
1
0
Location
Charleston, SC
They will require you to steam clean or fumigate the entire piece of equipment if they find any dirt or signs of insects, inside or out. They are worried about bringing in pests or fungus or some sort of plant disease.

From my experience, they are only worried about it when it is time for their quotas to be met.:roll:
Not true, brosef. Our ag specialists work along side us every day at the examination stations. Ag issues are cleared by CBP Agriculture Specialists, not the Department of Agriculture. There are only a fraction of CBP ag specialists compared to CBP officers. In fact, most of the time we do the agriculture inspections on incoming vessels since there are no aggies to tag along. Of course, every port is different..
 

kochevnik

Member
163
1
18
Location
Colville WA
Well that's an odd thing. I'm working on getting a new job and there is a pretty good chance I may not even see it myself. I had an interview Friday for a job in LA and if that had gone thru (it didnt) I would have been stuck down there when it came in. The kind of work I do, there is no such thing as time off - feast or famine kind of deal.

I had originally thought I would be supervising the unloading but since it's not my area of expertise, now I am planning on farming it all out. And I have no truck for transport so it's going right into secured storage where it will sit till I have another place to play with it. Even tho I dont have a place to use it right now, I thought it best to actually work on getting it here in my grubby hands first, then worry about how and where to use it later.

For those interested - when I was filling out my BATFE form 6 this page was extremely useful - it has all the ways you can screw up your app.

ATF Press Release - Common ATF Form 6 Errors
 
Last edited:

kochevnik

Member
163
1
18
Location
Colville WA
The 432 is now in Southampton and is supposed to be on a ship on April 13 - arrival date is sometime in the beginning of May. I ended up just paying the extra $1800 to have the shipping company handle the trucking down to the storage site. More money - less hassle - and when I went to actually book the trip the cost had risen $1000 thanks to the crude oil going vertical in the last month.

Always costs more than you think it will doesnt it LOL

Just hope it gets here in one piece and zero problems. Find out in May I guess.

Also - I have found how to get each and every one of the FV-432 manuals for free - I have a separate thread for that here :

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/tanks-apcs-etc/86242-free-fv-432-manuals.html#post1106521
 
Last edited:

kochevnik

Member
163
1
18
Location
Colville WA
Yes - I got it and then got a new job in TX LOL. So it sits in OR - this job is over this fall (knock on wood) and I'll be back then.

The unloading was quite the experience. The truck showed up early so we had to rush up there. Get there and the APC wont start, evidently they unloaded it from the ship with a crane LOL. So the driver loosens up the binders and chains and it wont roll. So I figure out one of the control sticks, the left one has been jammed really hard back holding the brakes, and is stuck. So we beat on it with a BFH and nothing. In the end, it takes both of us pulling back as hard as we can to get it loose - at which point the driver mostly lets it roll back as he is in the seat and ... wham ! it slams into the back end of his tractor - even worse it's the open armored door of the APC that hits the truck. So we lock the brakes, he gets out, moves his truck forward - which he should have done in the first place of course. I kind of saw that coming, but figure he was the expert HAHA. So no damage either to the truck or the door.

Driver was a very nice chap - he then proceeded to chain up the APC and we towed it backwards (which is a bit of a no-no but we went pretty slow) and I steered it into place.

I only had a few days to mess with it before I left, got the batteries charged and it turns over fine, but wont start. I loosened the fuel lines to see how far the fuel was getting and I'm about 95% sure the fuel solenoid is stuck. And the fuel pump is clearly on it's last legs - there was a note in there from the seller for the RORO guys to beat it with a hammer if it wouldnt pump (hammer included) so the seller knew it was on death's door and never mentioned that fact to me - which is one of several reasons I wont recommend him.

Main lessons - paying the trucking company was expensive but worth it. The customs broker was very good and worth every dime. The govt customs guy really didnt know what he was doing and the ATF paperwork was not much of a problem, but there was very little communicating between the customs guy and the ATF guys. There was a big issue with the 'smoke dischargers' which were actually tent poles, but I straightened that all out mostly myself. It's a lot like playing that telephone game - customs guy complains, tells the customs broker, who calls me, then I call the ATF and when I get the answer I call the customs broker and explain to him what to tell the customs guy, who then he calls customs who then complains and wash rinse repeat. That went around and around for several days but I got it sorted thank god :)

If I was going to do it again, I think I would probably go over there (Great Britain) and buy from a private party or at least inspect in person. Trust always seems to be a problem these days.

Quite the adventure anyways.




IMG_0037.jpg
 
Last edited:

kochevnik

Member
163
1
18
Location
Colville WA
Sure I know you guys would like to see it :) - so would I LOL .

When I get it all sorted I'll invite you guys over for a beer and a look-see but it's going to most likely be next spring or summer before that happens.

JD :
I've posted this elsewhere - go here for the best experts on this machine - great great guys :

http://wwwfv432couk.freeforums.org/index.php

And search my other posts for the manuals link.

If I can answer any questions PM me - I have not had a lot of time to come here lately.
 
Last edited:

jdknech

Active member
1,095
6
38
Location
Jeffersonville, Indiana
Sure I know you guys would like to see it :) - so would I LOL .

When I get it all sorted I'll invite you guys over for a beer and a look-see but it's going to most likely be next spring or summer before that happens.

JD :
I've posted this elsewhere - go here for the best experts on this machine - great great guys :

http://wwwfv432couk.freeforums.org/index.php

And search my other posts for the manuals link.

If I can answer any questions PM me - I have not had a lot of time to come here lately.
i have become a member on that fourm.. it has lots of useful info! and i am in no hurry on this venture.. i suspect it will take me 3-4 years to make it happen... do you have to have a federal firearms license to import/own a 432?
 

kochevnik

Member
163
1
18
Location
Colville WA
No - just fill out a few forms. If you get that far I can send you copies of what I did. The ATF/gov forms were pretty straight forward.
 

jdknech

Active member
1,095
6
38
Location
Jeffersonville, Indiana
No - just fill out a few forms. If you get that far I can send you copies of what I did. The ATF/gov forms were pretty straight forward.
awesome! sounds like a plan if/when I get that far.. there is a guy that is in our MVPA group that has 5 live M5 stuart tanks that he has imported, (and has shipped them to france and back a few times for renactments) but when I talked to him yesterday he wasn't sure what i would need paperwork/license wise because this is just a APC and doesn't have any guns on it.. so is there anything special I need to start applying for now just to own it? or is it like having a "tracked farm tractor" more or less after its here..
 

kochevnik

Member
163
1
18
Location
Colville WA
I'm not sure how long the ATF paperwork is good for, it was either a year or 6 months - so you can't do it too far ahead. Tanks and APCs are basically the same thing - they just both have to be de-milled correctly to get thru customs. The 436 I have is already de-milled by the British govt so usually it's not much of an issue.

Looks like you could get a T-55 for not a lot of money - just wait for the euro to crash some more :

http://www.milweb.net/webverts/61876/

Just don't wait too long, the dollar will go shortly thereafter LOL
 
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website like our supporting vendors. Their ads help keep Steel Soldiers going. Please consider disabling your ad blockers for the site. Thanks!

I've Disabled AdBlock
No Thanks