I was driving thru beautiful Rural SE NC, and spotted this doohicky off the side of the road. From a distance it appeared to have an M113chassis, but closer inspection put the lie to this quickly. For one thing, the road wheels are pneumatic tyres, the treadsactually bow out to receive the wheel bulge, and the deive sprocket is some sort of Orange Plastic...

It would appear to be some sort of off-road vehicle for working on powerlines, very useful in the eastern swamps (excuse me, the natives call them Marshes... ). I was wondering if this thing was based on any military chassis at all? Why the pneumatics- just to comfort the riders?

At any rate, any input would be welcome. Anyone interested in more photos( I've got about 30 more)just PM me. Some good shots of mud/straw caught in the tracks, for weathering freeks.

Power companies use them for repairing / setting new poles etc... in the swampy areas and Wehre normal trucks won't go..... Some Loggers use something simmilar as well.

We see these things in So. Louisana all the time. The have a very low lb per sq ft rating on t hose treads. Some of them can roll over the marsh where a man can't walk. Power companies, survey crews, the oilfield, quite a few types of industry utilize them down here.

That's the old "charriot" from the old TV show Lost in Space. When the show was canceled the Robinsons sold it to the utilities co. to help recoup some lost revinue.

ROFL!!!

Monte - you get my vote for funniest reply in ages.

Cheers,
Jim

I don't know the use of it but the chassis looks close to that of the Hagglunds BV204 (if I remember well the number) multipurpose carrier.

I think Robert was looking for some connection to a military vehicle. But I think it's a track system based on a civilian design.

Anybody else have more info? It would make a great scratchbuild!

Cheers,
Jim

Up here we would call that a "Hi Ranger on a Nodwell"
used for getting us linemen to the job site in swampy and snowy conditions. The high rangers are either mounted on these or a truck body, the nodwell design is from 50s and was developed for the oil industry and I don't think it has any relations to military vehicles, although the military did use them.
These things a virtually unstoppable , but boy if you get it stuck you'll be there for ever!
Bruce

Heres's a example of a miltary application:


this could make a cool scratch build, lots of info on the general design.

Bruce

Is this a great site or what? i just knew somebody would be able to identify even so esoteric a vehicle as this!

My thoughs exactly, Jim!

Slug, great shot! notice the similarities/differences in the two?(e.g.# & type of roadwheels, height of ride,Chassis length, track type...)
Any more info on military usage? as to who in addition to the USARP( )used the thing? The type in your photo looks like it would be very useful in the arctic/Antarctic regions. I was thinking that this would make for a relatively painless scratch for the Mud,Sweat,&Gears campaign. So refs are welcome!
( I have another idea on the back burner, [Thanks Tread! ], but it would take a LOT more than this, and lttle to no refs to be found...)

Looks like the same sort of chassis they use for ski hill groomers. Not so much the newer ones but I have sen older ones that looked like that.

I don't think its based on any military chassis but who knows.

At first, it reminded me of the M76 Otter :


But, on reflection, the chassis seems to be longer, and the Otter's ground clearance is higher....So the M76 should be crossed off the list of suspects ! I'll do better next time...

Frenchy

I'm not sure Frenchy if I would cross it off the list, by the looks of the otter its has its roots in the nodwell, these are amphibious which explains the differences in chassis, I guess we need more input.

This one is refered to as Nodwell RN110B:


cool stuff

Bruce

USARP = United States Antarctic Research Program.

The vehicle is/was a civilian sno-tractor variant, with lineage in design back to the Otter and the M56 Scorpion SPAT (harkening to the air-inflated road wheels).

Gunnie

The North Carolina Forest Service keeps a similar vehicle at our local airport, Dare County Regional.

It has the same running gear (two orange sprockets, 4 wheels, wide track) as yours, but our cab is different and we have no crane but do have some "gear" on the rear deck.

Instead ours pulls a plow to cut fire breaks in the marsh/wetlands around here. Plow is on big wide wheels.

It was made by Bombardier, Canada.

I'll do pix if anyone is interested (I would have had a pic here but I forgot camera when I went over today).

John

You're probably right.
I checked my proposal and I must admit I was wrong. It is definitely not a BV206.
Sorry for misleading anyone

Anyhow, it should be a fantastic scratchbuilding project. My hat off if you manage to complete one of it.

Thanks everyone for your replies & comments. It would appear that there is some connection to a military forbear. Anyone have any more info about the "Nodwell' or Its use with the USARP? I haven't had a chance to do any 'net searching but would be interested to know if anyone out there has any personal experiences with said model/organization. Still think Mud, Sweat & Gears would be a good place for this ?
Picking up some Evergreen sheet on the way home tonight...

I think these are two diff vehicles.

Look at the tracks.

LogansDad's "crane" & my (no pic) "plow" tracks "lift up" both to front & rear because sprockets appear to be smaller & their axle is mounted higher than the road wheel axles.

The USARP & other mil vehicle tracks "lift up" in the rear (same reason as above), but the front "sprocket/track" appear to sit on the ground as if the sprocket were bigger and/or the sprocket axle were about same height as the road wheels.

Now I'll have to get pix of "ours" -- I'll be at the airport tomorrow -- and I'll trry to get a data plate or manual or something for model numbers.

Regardless, you could really get into these things, making variations.