Hi all,
Maybe it's a stupid question, but I'm no expert and I was just daydreaming about new diorama-possibilities so....
is it possible for a Volkswagen Van (bus) to tow a m113? don't laugh please, I would be really pleased if it could :-)

thanks in advance

kind regards
Mark

i would say almost definately not,

an m113 weighs several tonnes, and most civilian vehicles can tow something equivelant to their own weight, another car etc, but not much more, so i very much doubt it.

an m113 could tow a VW though!

cheers

joe

I am not an VW expert but made a little search on Volkswagen versions and towing capacity of models like Kombi ,Transporter and EuroVan . it differs from 2000 to 4400 kilograms.
Combat weight of M113 =10400 kilograms
air dropable wieght of M113 =8440 kilograms.
so the answer is NO.btw that was not a stupid question,from now on we all know a VW can not tow a M113.

Hold on a minute here! If a 300 pound man can pull a truck in the "World's Strongest Man" competition, then I'd have to say a VW could move an M113...at least out of the middle of an intersection, if it were stalled (and in neutral). After all, we're talking about rolling weight.
I'm not saying that it would get very far, but I believe it could be done.

Hmmmmm I love love the smell of clutch plates in the morning.......it smells like a knackered engine!
I think it would struggle as the weight would all be to the rear and no
doubt would just cause the wheels to spin if they got moving

Now, if you got all of the hippies out of the VW bus and had them push the M113 while the bus pulled from the front...
Nevermind.
Shaun #:-) #:-)

A man pulling a truck is something completely different than a APC, once a truck is moving it will keep on rolling , but a tracked vehicle is more close to being a dead weight. So I think it is impossible.

This reminds me of the VW Taureg commercials, where the New Beetle falls over trying to tow a mobile home... then Taureg comes along and does it effortlessly... #:-) That'd be a funny commercial if they had it trying to tow a tank.... under fire....

Nah I don't think it's possible for a VW bus to tow ANY tracked vehicle.... it would make for a funny diorama of one trying to though... What's your plan for the diorama?

It depends if you strip down the M-113.
Remove the tracks,show the engine area open,and no engine in it, remove most interior detailing.And pose it going downhill.... #:-)

I agree with the others, the engine in those things ran about 60-70 bhp at the most. Tires on a truck present much less rolling resitance than tracks. When you see the strong man stuff, it's always something on standard wheels and a tracked vehicle, even a relatively light one.

Now, if you want an interesting dio, you could relplicate what one of the club members told about when he was in Europe in a 113. Some hot shot Mercedes driver didn't adjust for the much slower speed of a track. His car hit the left tarck quite squarely and self destructed while the track had minor damamge to the rear fender.

That much have happened quite a bit Al. My brother was driving an M60A3 in Germany and a German in a Mercedes buried his car under the front of the tank. Apparently the driver was drunk enough he didn't get killed.

Shaun

aparently those sort of accidents are very common,

a fried of mine who served on the warrior mcv's told me the most common thing was when german drivers drove to close behind them they had a tendancy to loose the front of thier cars.

anyone familiar with the vehicle will know when it brakes at speed it rocks forward onto its suspension quite violently, anyone driving close behind, who doesnt stop, ends up underneath the rear hull. when the warrior settles back, crunch!

cheers

joe

Well if you wanted to show the futility of the Beetle trying to pull an M113 you could show the chains attahed to the M113 and the bumper pulled off the VW. Now you and I know normally you don't attach to a bumper but if they were stupid enough to use a VW....

You could go ahead and model it anyway - caption the display "Tug of War?!?"

Gunnie

I think it would pull the 113...go ahead with the dio

hehe

I just found teh owners manual for a 1978 Microbus, one of the last of the breed, max towing weight of a trailer with brakes and a standard transmission, which had the heavier load lomit, was 2645 pounds/1200 kg. So the Microbus could not tow an M113.
Go to page 79 here
Microbus manual

Should the bales of 'rope' remain in the VW for the extra weight/traction? #:-)

However, I seriously doubt that the VW and a bus load of hippies would move the 113. Well, maybe down a steep hill... just maybe.

The hippies could always sit around both and levitate them both. Or at least levitate themselves. #:-)

THANKS GUYS!
Okay so I suppose my best choice would be to have the m113 tow the volkswagen. The idea for the diorama was a vietnam m113 with enigine trouble being towed by a volkswagen van with some USO musicians or (I prefer this variant) some playboy centerfolds. I guess I'll do the m113 (with centerfolds on top) towing the vw van, what do you think?

Mark

Ahhh.... I liked your first idea better... much funny that diorama woulda been #:-)

But your second idea isn't bad either.... maybe set it during Gulf War I, and/or along the lines of the movie "Three Kings", where US soldiers loot stolen Kuwaiti gold from Iraq... You could have the VW carrying the "liberated" loot through the jungle/desert... just a thought

BTW, where'd you get a 1/35 VW van?

I'm not sure about the likelihood of a van full of "bunnies" or musician/entertainers cruising around the highways and biways of Vietnam. Change teh locale to Europe/US and you have a very neat juxtaposition of hippie/soldier, galmour modell/soldier. Each would have an very interesting and unique flavor. Perhaps tricking out the 113 to look like its at a training facility with the hippies having trspassed/gotten stuck or the "bunnies" or college girls being helped along a road near Fort Knox, which was active as a training site during the late 60's. My wife went to school near there and the local soldiers often dated the local college girls.

I just stumbled upon this thread. Quite the discussion. Strange too since I noticed a full sized pickup truck commercial last night. It advertised that it had the towing capacity of 13,000 lbs which is the same as some odd number of refridgerators. Could have been a Hemi Dodge Ram, full size Chevy or Ford, don't recall which brand truck off hand.

I do know that 13,000 lbs is 6½ tons and that an M113 series vehicle runs about 11 tons. Heck, if a full sized civilian pickup can't tow that much, it is doubtful a microbus could.

Besides, towing a tracked vehicle is a lot different than towing a wheeled vehicle. There is a lot of inertia with all that weight resting on the run of tracks. Even a HMMWV could not tow an M113 and I seriously doubt a deuce and a half could tow one very far. I do know a 5 ton can tow an M113 or a Bradley though.

And this is interesting diorama idea!!!

Rgds,
Pawel

I'd go with skipping on the M113 and the VW Bus...

You bad, Kevin, you bad!