Which Truck or Tracked??

I would like to invite any Forum member to tell me from personal experience in the forces only.

Which mode of transport they personally used, which went through snow and ice when others couldn't make it. Experiences can be from UK or BAOR

I know tanks are NOT the best on ice! Nor is the Stalwart any good driving up a slippy slight incline on wet grass!

hi alan, i never had much trouble with the bedford 3 tonner in snow if you look at locations hinterstien you see we were pretty snowed in
and there is a photo of me stuck in the snow half way up a mountain but none of the other vehicles could get up there, now ice was a different matter almost lost it a few times.

the stolly was hopeless in the snow but the worst on the ice was the BSA b40 that i once rode in the snow and ice even though i was a motorcyclist before i joined up i had never ridden a motorbike in weather like the winter i was on excercise in sennalager and came off more times than i care to remember.

i still ride motorbikes now but have not been out on mine for over three weeks with this snow, shanks,s pony safer but still slippy

I was on exercise in the Escherhausen area. The RSM took his Land Rover into a copse and got stuck.We the REME fitter section were busy reinstalling some thrown 432 tracks.The RSM could not wait and summoned a Ferret Scout car. We knew something was wrong when we eventually arrived on location, and was greete by the RSM with cups of tea. In addition to the Land Rover ,the Ferret was now bogged down. No problem ,we had our 432 and the 434. I was driving the 432,and attempted to get in front of the two casualties, I threw a track. The 434 came up, went on the opposite side. First his transfer pump went, and there is not a lock off tap on the 434,so all of the fuel had to be drained into the sandy soil. Next the VM had to dig a tunnel under the hull to access the transfer pump. That completed ,the main fuel injection pump packed in. But before that we had called in a Stalwart and asked the driver not to come into the area.He ignored our warning and the Stally was stuck. The other card up our sleeve was the Heavy Leyland Recovery, attaching his winch to many a tree he managed to dragged himself into the area, but not before one of the trees that fell under winching jammed of the the front axle. Another Leyland came to the rescue, saw the carnage and legged it out sharpish. So now we have a Land Rover, a Ferret, a 432, a 434 ,a Stalwart and a Leyland Recovery in a churned up copse used by the locals as a recreational park.
Along came the ASM from Brigade HQ, with and old Bedford RL with winch. This vehicle saved the day by,dragging out buried tracks and even assisting the Leyland to break free .
The Bedford accessed the area by winching itself from tree to tree.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/belfast1970/3344895146/

I got stuck one winter day on the icy road at the back of Vogelsang Camp,with a loaded Beford MK. The Belgie army came to our rescue with their version of the Bedford RL and pull us to the top of the incline.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/belfast1970/3342578863/

I have said it here on the site before.

Generally, the old Bedford 3ton RL was probably the best all round vehicle the Army ever had. The GS 'version with winch' was absolutly great. Never figured out why the MK version did not fair too well?

The Leyland 6x6 Recovery was a total waste of time. It again could not drive through a level slippy wooded area without loosing traction. Of course with different tyres it would have faired better. Of course its winch and crane were superb, especially for the 432 Pack lifting.

The old Scamell (Knocker) Recovery was a really agile vehicle with a good winch, but lacking in those days a decent crane.

The best thing I ever drove when it came to getting out of trouble was a SWB Rover with, amazingly, a little Fordhouses winch mounted on the front. I once shackled the rope to a tree and pulled myself up a slippery slope unaided. Once word got round I kept getting collared to pull guns out of trouble. Eventually a S/Sgt in the LAD spotted it, decided that the winch was some sort of unofficial mod and it was whipped away, never to be seen again.
Spoilsport!
Baz

The only vehicle I drove for any distance or length of time in Germany was a LHD Bedford RL with a container body. I recall one particular scheme when the recce officer decided to locate us (Div Step-up) in a wood up on the Teutoburger. To say that it was muddy would be an understatement. My wagon bogged down twice before it was decided "to hell with it, build the HQ around it".

So far so good. During the rest of the day it rained heavily. We became Div Main, i.e. the staff arrived, and some time in the middle of the night we got the order to crash-out.

The staff disappeared rapidly enough, and some of the office vehicles got out OK. The 2 Sigs comms vehicles, both RLs, had no chance as they were way heavier than anything else at the location. Luckily we had a GS RL which had a winch and the young Sapper who drove it became an expert overnight hauling out the remaining staff wagons and the other Sigs RL, having never used the winch before in his life. Now that left just my wagon, which remember was bogged down before all this started.

Despite loads of digging the winch wagon could not cope and itself got bogged down. Next on the scene was a brand new AEC recovery out on its first ever scheme. That also manged to get itself stuck trying to recover the winch wagon.

Eventually up turns "Grumpy" the venerable Scammell Explorer Recce, on its last scheme having been replaced by the AEC. In about 20 mins it had recovered the AEC, winch wagon and mine.

Took us nearly 8 hours to get on the road. We probably hold the record for the slowest crash-out ever.

The point of all this rambling is that I was so impressed with that Scammell and it was being replaced by the AEC, which in this instance couldn't cope. Now that's progress?

Cheers Mike

In its day, the Scammel was classified as Heavy Recovery ,while the Leyland was classified Medium, and later the AEC as heavy.
On our unit strength of vehicles, it was listed One Heavy Recovery deficient. One Medium Recovery surplus. We had a Leyland Recovery, so the Recce Mech pushed to have the medium Leyland withdrawn,and issued with the Heavy Recovery we were entitled to. Presumably an AEC . The Leyland was withdrawn,and we were issued with a Heavy Recovery........an old Scammell.

The Mageris Deutz LHD with the exhaust brake, great in the bad weather.

I have to agree with alan8376. I learned to drive and passed my test in a 3 ton Bedford RL (GS with winch). I went on to spend a lot of time in 06EK27 and in time learned how to make best use of the winch through both front and rear rollers to extricate myself from most sticky problems.
Before I took over the troop Bedford it had been used on a troop adventurous training exercise where the guys used one of the back wheels to power an improvised rope ski lift. Well it's what Sappers do best innit!

Some great stories and photo's here lads. Well done.

Apart for Rovers the only vehicle I drove was a 432, can't say I had a problem at any time. Threw a track a couple of times but that tended to be on the road rather than in the rough

jim wrote:

Some great stories and photo's here lads. Well done.

Apart for Rovers the only vehicle I drove was a 432, can't say I had a problem at any time. Threw a track a couple of times but that tended to be on the road rather than in the rough

I only ever got to drive 432s around the MT yard and park them up in a neat line. I never got on a course to get my track licence. The nearest I ever got to driving anything slightly armoured was a 'pig' or a 'ferret'.

I remember a chieftain getting bogged in on sennelager. I threw a track trying to get him out. Then along came a German leopard and dragged us both out of the hole.

BV Haglund, we had a stockpile of them at AMF for Norway/German winters and the Falklands and with their soft tracks could manage any incline upto 65% and beyond and.... it had a built in auxilliary heater and water boiler

Themaadone wrote:

BV Haglund, we had a stockpile of them at AMF for Norway/German winters and the Falklands and with their soft tracks could manage any incline upto 65% and beyond and.... it had a built in auxilliary heater and water boiler

Is this the articulated, tracked, x-country carrier? I think I came across a couple of them at Levanger in 1985.
Are our troops using somthing similar in Afghanistan called Viking?

That's right, the Viking has been uparmoured to be an all terrain troop carrier and it proves its mettle in the desert after being designed for the Icy wastes. A good piece of kit and incidentally the reason why the Marines use it - arctic warfare...

Viking? any pics.

I always fancied a cabby in one of those haglund thingies. Did you need a tracked licence for them.

jim wrote:

Viking? any pics.

I always fancied a cabby in one of those haglund thingies. Did you need a tracked licence for them.

Me too Jim. I'm sure someone will come along and tell us about any licence. There's a video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1xiL_ftLtI

Jeeesus, we were still driving Jeeps, they seemed to go anywhere we wanted, and our White Scout Car's did the job well too .. on the other hand our AEC Armoured Command Vehicles while they went most places were almost impossible to stop on snow and ice.

Len (Ciphers)
(I'm going to be a Colonel some day)

Jim, if your ever in Christchurch NZ you can go for a ride in one. they have them at the antarctic centre. not sure they will let you drive one though !!!!

Phlegmwahn wrote:

jim wrote:

Viking? any pics.

I always fancied a cabby in one of those haglund thingies. Did you need a tracked licence for them.

Me too Jim. I'm sure someone will come along and tell us about any licence. There's a video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1xiL_ftLtI

That looks fun!

Here are some pics and I recall having done a G class licence (but I also drove a 432 so did I need one for that beast, I dunno)

Any vehicle that is steered by its Tracks requires a Class H Licence.

about 2 years ago i thought it was time to get a new licence before it completly fell apart so i sent it off and got a new photo card licence, typical dvlc cock up it came back with no entitlement to ride a motorbike,well as thats all i have i got in touch with dvlc who said they had no record of me having passed my test in 1963 even though it was in my red discharge book, a month of arguing later and getting no where i re took my test,it seems this has happened to a lot of people,to cut a long story short my new licence arrived with group A MY entitlement to ride a motorbike, now here comes the funny bit all of a sudden i have gained a lot more groups i can drive including G and H never had them before.

Oldtimer, maybe you should invest in a Tracked Motorcycle?