Hello,

I am looking for further information on the equipment stowed on front of the LAV “Land Shark” below (Kosovo, 1999):



1) Am I guessing correctly that the long poles below the exhaust are tow bars with clevises? There is more pictures available if this “series” and none of the other vehicles seems to have – as far as I can spot - similar bars anywhere. So is it a field modification (there seem to be welded holders) or just dedicated vehicle within the unit was equipped in such a way?

2) Is the round object on the right side above the poles some sort of cable reel?

Thank you in advance...

-Ales

Just looking at the photo I would say absolutely on both the tow bars and the cable reel.

The pictured tow bar variant appears to be lighter than the one fitted to the M88 ARV ("Medium tow bar" ?)....

Frenchy

Yes, that is a tow bar. Usually it is kept on the LAV-R or on a Log variant. They definitely cobbled a mount up, for whatever reason.

The spool is slash wire, relatively light gauge wire used by the Comm guys. Its just tied on the front because space inside is at a premium and we always did roll like a band of Gypsies!

Thanks a lot!

It looks like that Trumpeter has released the tow bar as an extra set:

http://www.greatmodels.com/~smartcart/cgi/display.cgi?item_num=TSM6612