For service in UK coast artillery installations the conversions were returned to the emplacements they had occupied as smooth-bores, mounted on the same wooden 'garrison sliding carriages' which slid back on their sloping wooden platforms on firing, to be hauled back to the runout position by block and tackle. Elevation was by quoin assisted by an elevating screw operated by lever and ratchet.

The increased power of the RML conversions soon prompted improvements in carriages, etc; all wooden parts were strengthened with iron plates. Each carriage was fitted with trucks which enabled runout by gravity; at the same time a buffer controlled recoil, the piston rod being connected to the front of the carriage while the cylinder was attached to the platform. The buffer was of the type proposed by Dr C Siemens in 1867, and consisted of a plain piston pierced by a number of holes running in a cylinder filled with liquid.

An elevating arc operated by a handwheel through suitable gearing was provided. The carriage permitted 13½° elevation and 8½° depression.

Although wooden carriages and platforms could easily have been constructed in New Zealand where suitable timber was readily available, it seems our Government was not prepared to meet the cost. The 1893 report on the state of the country's defence classified half of the 64-pr 71-cwt carriages unserviceable. They had simply been permitted to rot where they stood. In situations where carriages and platforms were not available and guns were exposed to the weather, garrison standing carriages of wrought iron were used. In addition to being better able to stand the weather than the wooden naval types they were an improvement on the latter as they carried an elevating screw operated by a ratchet. These carriages could be adapted for certain other guns, eg RBL 40-pr, SBML 32-pr.