I have an old guardsman that's been hanging in the garden shed for years. it gets the occasional use as the shed is un-powered and always works well. the last few years its been ignored and due to the environment it lives in has deteriorated some what. so thanks to this forum sparking my interest have decided to clean it up and keep it on a shelf inside the house with my small collection of pressure lamps on the bottom of the tank is stamped 1060XA. what does this mean? would the 10 designate the month, ie October and 60 is the year as in 1960? XA being a model? anyway, gave the old lamp a bit of a once over. I used Autosol metal polish and finished with the same brand but in marine grade metal polish on the fount and I'm surprised it came up as good as it did. the frame I wired brush and emeried polished back to bare metal then sprayed it with heat resisting engine enamel. the globe seems original, a bit deeper than the newer globes and has a small crack, but I'm not worried about that and the hood is somewhat burnt but still functional and reasonable fresh kero and lit it. had it going for five hours last night and held pressure ok. slight leak somehwere near where the cock or vaporisor attaches but nipped it up with a pair of pliers. I'll order a service kit for it just to be sure all is ok and will use it on my next camping trip. have to say these old lamps seem easier to pump than the more modern lamps, or maybe the pump leather is just well worn in before shot after shot in action
@bonza The “1060” is October 1960. The XA is something we don’t know what it means. The model is the last of the variations of the Tilley X246. It’s good to get these these lamps going! Cheers Tony
Good works bonza and now it will give more good service and each time you look at it you will suffer a small sense of pride! Cheers Chris
@bonza David Shouksmith is alluding to the fact that the very first X246As were this type of Tilley lamp with X246A stamped on the tank like this: Does yours have X246A stamped on the side of the tank? Cheers Tony
no, it does not have that the side of the tank has TILLEY ENGLAND between those two words is the Owl logo stamped in the metal. to fount still has some stain patches that I may try to remove by using some wet 'n' dry but nothing else stamped on the fount except for the underneath base being XA1060. I thought that XA would be the model as in X246A but for reasons of economy they do not stamp in the 246? I guess there are variants of the same model another question for the experts. I have ordered from basecamp a washer set for the older 246 Tilley's, but noticed for sale on various online sites SP1 kits and considered one of these service packs seeing they include springs and things, but they do not seem to be model specific. are all SP1's the same across all the 246 variants?
Thanks, @bonza. You have the last variant of the Tilley X246 (as it is not stamped X246A). The SP1 service kits for the Tilley X246B will have a different rubber pip than that used in the X246. You are better off getting what you need from the Fettlebox or Base Camp. Cheers Tony
Yes, as Tony says. What you want is an 'old' 498 seal and washer kit. This contains the plain 155 seal for the NRV (non-return valve) at the bottom of the pump. The SP1 kits have the shaped seal for the NRV in the X246B, as, I suppose, do the 'new' 498 kits. This is what you want - Tilley Washer Kit - The Fettlebox The two plain 155 washers are at the bottom left of the image. One is for the NRV and the other is for the foot-valve at the bottom of the control cock (if you bother to change it - I never have) Hope that helps...
I am not alone in having suffered issues with the new SP1 springs. They are sometimes too strong for the NRV. Not an issue in the cock tho.
some good answers and suggestions here, many thanks. interesting about the springs in the SP1 pack. I bought this pack from Tilley early this year. fitted the new spring into the NRV valve within my old Tilley X246B complete with new seals and found it would not work being too strong, so had to put the old spring back in and all came good looking at the fettlebox I noticed they used Viton washers in their kits, which for this application is the best available in hot applications. I'm very familiar with Viton seals having being exposed to this material in the industrial world many times
