It’s the time of year again when we complete routine maintenance on our fleet of FV432s to ensure that every tank is in good working order for our customers to learn to drive during the tank paintball battles, military vehicle driving and tank driving experiences.

As the weather was so mild this winter, we managed to run our battle experiences much later into the year. Although that means more people got to storm tanks through more mud than we thought possible on one track, it does mean that the annual maintenance time here and the TLC afforded to each of the tanks, which have worked so hard over the season, also involved quite some cleaning task!

Each tank has a file in the office at Armourgeddon which houses information on parts, number of hours in use, tank history, routine maintenance and any safety information. As well as daily, weekly and monthly checks during the Tank Paintball Battle and Tank Driving Experience season, an annual test is conducted on each of the FV432s.

In turn, during the months between December and March, the FV432s are taken one-by-one to the on-site workshop here at Armourgeddon. Our resident chief engineer, Nitro, heads up the work at our onsite workshop, supported full time by Jack G. All of the team here at Armourgeddon spends some of their working week in the workshop, as well as their other duties as Instructors, with the traditional Paintball games in the woodlands and on the working farm at Southfields. With lambing season still a fair way off for this year, the farm work becomes a bit more regular. All the animals are fed inside and the animal areas are mucked out every day. This all allows for more structured time management and planning of the routine jobs, which are required on the tank maintenance side of the business.

The FV432s is taken out of the line, the engine or ‘pack’ as it’s called here on site, is removed. The pack is then stripped down and steam cleaned, re-greased and re-built. Once fully serviced with any necessary parts replaced or fixed, the rest of the tank receives a full pressure wash and steam clean. Next, the sprockets, tracks, suspension and running gear is checked and any broken parts replaced. The moving parts are greased and reviewed whilst in motion.

Health and safety checks are conducted on all aspects of the tank; ensuring all doors are in full working order, that safety flag, first aid kits and fire extinguishers are in place and working or full. Additional checks ensure that the different parts of the turreted cannon work, from the turret lock and securing brackets to the periscopes and the breech screw. A check is also conducted to highlight and alleviate any air leaks.

Next, all rear bench seats, turret seats and drivers seat with harness are taken out, cleaned, checked over and put back into place. Every moving part inside and out is then greased and oiled including the hatch lock hinges. Finally the gun barrel is polished and oiled through the inside and the sighting is checked for accuracy.

After a complete re-spray inside and out, the pack is replaced and locked back in position, the tank is taken for a short run as a final check and it is parked up in the yard to be covered with tarpaulin.

We have a huge amount of pride in our FV432 fleet and hope that you find every tank in excellent working order and as clean as is possible when they spend their working life in muddy field, although we have escaped the dreadful flooding of the north this winter, we are not short of mud! We may hibernate the fleet once they have had their annual maintenance on site, we have Military Vehicle Driving and Tank Driving Experiences that continue throughout the year. We also continue to take group bookings and kids party bookings year round. Add to that paintball and airsoft days, archery, air riffle shooting and clays there are few quiet days here.

So, don’t be put off by the time of year- there is ALWAYS something to do at Armourgeddon!