Ok we are now obviously going to look at the driver's cab on Tiger 1.
The first thing that is very noticeable, certainly for me when you get in,
there is the fact that the hatch is offset which is quite unusual and also it actually looks quite comfy.
Directly in front is also a steering wheel,
again quite unusual for any tank design to have a steering wheel there.
And what Ian is going to do now is quickly take us round and point out some of the major controls
that you find in the driver's cab.
Basic controls on the driver's compartment are, as you can see we have got a steering wheel.
That’s hydraulic inner power-assisted steering.
And also a secondary form of steering is like the old traditional way is the tiller sticks,
located by my right knee and my left knee.
Driving the Tiger, it’s quite hard to actually see out within the vision slot up here.
You cannot see any of the track guards or the front of the tank so I'm solely relying on people guiding me,
but once we are in the area if we have a display it's not too bad but in close quarters it can be a bit tricky,
so that's why we always have people on the ground so that I can visually see and in radio contact.
You've got to keep one eye on what's going on within the vision block outside
and the other eye you've got to keep an eye on the temperature, oil pressure and the revs.
Most important thing is the oil pressure.
We've got an oil pressure gage in here.
As soon as the tank starts it should be more or less off the scale so we’ve got a good pressure.
Another important factor is coolant.
Other controls are, to my right the choke lever.
Majority of the time we do give it a bit of choke and also when you go to start the tank,
I'll show you later on, in the firing compartment there is a priming unit for fuel.
Also in the driver's cab you've got the pedals down here.
Very close together almost like a Formula One sort of car, it's so tight,
if you've got big boots on it's quite awkward to drive.
You've got the accelerator pedal, brake, clutch just like on a car and also running right in front of you,
you've got the output shafts the drive shafts on the gear box through the steering assembly,
braking assembly, out to the final drives.
On my left we have got the hand brake.
I'll just pull on.
So you've got the main hand brake so that's there.
Also on the Tiger, when selecting gear what we have is a transfer lever which is situated here by my right knee.
Which indicates neutral, reverse or forward.
Also above that is an engagement knob.
You'd depress the knob in on the transfer box then you can engage forward or reverse.
Also here is the gear ratios.
On a Tiger you can pull away from 1 to 4, anything in between those are gear ratios, but depending on the terrain.
Normally, but, the Tiger has eight forward gears and four reverse.
Also in the driver's compartment as opposed to the other side where the machine gunner sits and the radio operator,
you have these filler necks.
These are for the final drives that I was showing you from the outside during the First Parade.
This is where you fill them the up, through these.
They are just vented.
They've got like a little vent tube on the top, but, that is where they are filled up from.
So, you know, they obviously thought of everything, to do, to make it so much easier to work on this tank.
Where we are now, we are in the fighting compartment.
Underneath our feet is the turret floor and housed underneath there is the batteries.
Normally on the original Tiger there would have been about four batteries, but this one,
we've been modified this one just to run on the two batteries.
So they would be under the turret floor.
They would be re connected and checked obviously to make sure they had enough charge to start the Tiger.
The secondary bit for the starting sequences.
Here we have a primer, a fuel primer, which can fill the carburators up with fuel
so what it usually takes is about six to eight pumps on the primer
then it gives it enough fuel within the carbs to start the engine.
So there’s the primer.
Down on into the right here is the fuel valves for the fuel tank.
There is one on the right here and there is also another one on the left over there,
but we do not use those two tanks.
It is just solely the ones on the right hand side.
So they would be switched to position 3.
Which is the main fuel tank.
Position 2 is reserve and position 1 is fully off so the fuel valves are always,
we always keep them off all the time until we use the vehicle.
So that would be turned on, number 3 to start the tank and also the main switch of it all is the master switch.
The main power.
So once that's initiated and turned on then it's down over to the driver to start the tank.
If there's any problems or there's anything that's going to happen or there is a suspect a fuel leak or a fire,
you turn the master switch off straight away and kill the fuel.
That's why when we first parade it and start the tank we've always got two or three people with you to help you out,
fire watch and for safety reasons.
So, right, if we take it from the master switch is on and the fuel is turned on
the next point of call is for me to start the tank itself.
So the first thing you've got to do obviously is check, make sure the steering is centralised and I depress the clutch with my foot,
making sure the tank does not move at all hand brake is applied as well.
On the side of the gear box here is a little black knob and that engaged,
when you push that can engage the forward or reverse motion of the tank for the transfer lever.
What I do is, I make sure the transfer lever is in neutral and then what I do is we've got the ignition panel here.
Hence the ignition key and then I click twice; one, two and then the ignition should come on and be ready for start.
Also there is a choke lever down to my right hand side.
I would give the tank a little bit of choke.
The guy in the back as well, they would prime the engine with a few pumps on the fuel primer
so the engines got plenty of fuel in it ready to fire up.
And then you press the ignition switch and then the tank would fire up.
Usually I take it up to about 1,000 rpm.
If I let the tank idle too much it, it sort of like clogs itself up, it starts to choke.
So it is nice to start up and give it a good 1,000 revs then it clears it out and it warms the tank up a lot quicker.
And then eventually I'll take the choke off and then she hopefully, she'll start warming up nicely then.
Just to get all the oils up to temperature because it is important that on the gear box on the transmission side,
that the oils are up to temperature.
If they are not up to temperature then it makes the gear selection very hard.
So basically that's it.