Ex-military vehicles in civilian service. Feel free to contribute, just please number the pictures according to the sequence.


T-34 based Czech bulldozer (en.valka.cz)...

1.


...and it's IS based bigger brothers

2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.


8.


9.



There's a T-55 variant too

10.


11.


12.

Various Sherman based drilling/logging equipments

13.


14.


15.


16.


17.


18.


19.


20.


21.


22.


23.


24.


25.


26.


27.

M4 based variant

28.


29.


30.



What running gear is this?

31.


32.


33.

Russian 'Berge' T-55

34.


35.


36.


37.


38.


39.


40.


41.


42.

T-34 based extra-terrestrial firefighter...

43.



...and it's T-55 based bigger brother.

44.


45.


46.

Other T-55 based fire-fighting equipment

47.


48.


49.


50.


51.


52.

15, 16 and 17 have Sherman HVSS suspension with replaced springs. Some enterprising soul replaced the drive sprocket rings so it could use T142 M60 track.

One Sherman based one has four bogie units! The ones with the dropped rear idler could be M4A4 Israeli M50 based or extended suspensions to bear the weight of the huge rigs on top.

Some Sherman based ones look like they just used the track and bogie units on new extended and widened hulls. It also looks like some of the road wheels had their rubber removed as opposed to chunked off from wear.

And #31? I don't think there is one base running gear there, it looks cobbled together from bits and pieces. Some bits look like they came from an M24 or M41 and others?

Love 44, 45, 46. The "Big Wind". Google "T-55 Big Wind" for some cool videos.

The T-34 and its Hungarian firefighter team was deployed to Kuwait after Saddam Hussein set the oilfields on fire.

Converted M3 Stuart in Australia :

53


54


55


56


57


Sherman crawler tractor :

58


59 :


H.P.

Thanks, Frenchy! Could you please just number them for discussion purposes?

More conversions from Down Under. Matilda-based dozers:

60


61


H.P.

Wow, I didn't see this one coming! I wonder when this picture was taken...

I've found #60 here

Valentine-based...What ?

62


63


H.P.

And I thought Australian Matildas in Borneo in '45 was an oddity...I guess that bulldozer went through quiet a lot in its life...

Maybe the Valentine was used as a tree-crusher...

More Sherman-based crawler tractors :

64


65


According to the caption , the crane on the left is a NCK 205 on on a Chieftain chassis and the other is a Jones KL 11-7 on a Centurion chassis.

66


H.P.

Some interesting oddities in here, some of which I've seen before on other sites.

10-12 are interesting because that T-55 is clearly an airfield snow plough. But it's running on all-steel tracks, and so will tear up the tarmac!

13-27 are mostly forestry vehicles, some missing their various booms and arms. Many of them - certainly the red ones - look like products of the Canadian company Madill.

28-30 are based on the M4 HST, to be clear that it isn't the M4 tank.

The suspension in 31-33 looks strange because, in addition to replacing the HVSS springs with coil springs, the bogie shock absorbers have been removed and the wheels replaced with solid steel ones. The rear road wheel and idler are from an M26-48. The standard Sherman HVSS sprocket should have been compatible with that track type, but might indeed have needed the ring changed.

66 shows the 2 Kirkudbright Cranes, the first one being a Centurion chassis and the second a Chieftain as noted. They were used at the British MOD (PE) experimental firing range at Kirkcudbright in South West Scotland. It's a coastal range covering several thousand acres and something capable of operating on land, dunes, beach and shallow wading all at a decent speed was needed, hence building these special vehicles rather than just buying a commercial mobile crane. One of their main uses was positioning heavy target armour slabs for penetration testing. When that range closed as an experimental station and became a general firing range they may have been transferred to Eskmeals on the Cumbria coast, but were more likely sold.

Here are some more forestry-type conversions.

67. This is one of the Really Big Madill Yarders


68. This is apparently a recovery tractor for forestry vehicles.


69. This is a LeTourneau-built scrapyard crane.


70. This thing is allegedly also LeTourneau, and is clearly on an Allis Chalmers M8 HST chassis. Enormous backhoe excavator. Looks hugely top heavy and overloaded.


71. Another cut-down M8-based thing, possibly another forestry tractor

Here are some pics of the Shervick tractor. This was a UK post-war government-funded scheme by Vickers to convert M4A2s into agriculural tractors, primarily for use in Africa (although the last known survivor was in Belgium before scrapping).

Bizarrely, because the M4A2 GM 6-71 engines were "handed" left and right - although capable of being configured either way - Shervicks also appeared in left and right handed versions with the engine exhaust and air intakes reversed. Not also double return rollers on rear bogie.

72.

73.

74.

75.

76.

77.

78.

79.

80.

This image was tagged as a Sherman but is in fact an Australian Sentinel chassis. There were several hundred surplus at the end of WW2. Conversions of old tanks seems to have been commonplace in Australia: Stuarts, Lees, Matildas, Valentines, Sentinels all pop up.

81.

This very poor photo is a forestry conversion of an M3 Lee, or a very early M4.

82.

This was an attempt by the old British company Rotinoff to make commercial M4-based dozers, probably on M4A2 again.

83.

Talk about some extreme weathering examples!!

kool pics,my dad was a driller blatster and he used acut down bren gun carrier,but no pics .

84 Panther crane


85 FV432 funeral hearse