*This message was transferred with a trial version of CommuniGate(tm) Pro*
They are pretty good in a variety of terrain. I spend 5 years stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska, at a
detachment that had a couple of these that were made by Bombadier. They had a 6 cylinder Ford engine
hooked up to a C-4 auto transmission. While they would take you through anything they didn't do it
quickly. The top speed was around 12 to 14 miles per hour on a steep downhill. Steering was by two
sticks, each one hooked to a control valve. There was a hydraulic pump on the engine that provided
pressure to the system. Then on the rear axle there were two disk brakes, one on each side, that the
control sticks went to. Steering was anything but smooth because when you applied the brakes to one
side it slowed the whole vehicle down. The tracks were pretty strong. They consisted of 4 wide
belts, two to each side of the bogie wheels, with L shaped bars going crosswise. While the L shaped
cleats worked great in mud and snow they were horrible on ice or icy blacktop. A quick jab on the
brakes to one side would put you in a spin as you only had a very small contact pattern when going
sideways since they were designed to provide traction when going forwards or back. Also dangerous
when trying to drive sideways on an icy slope. Plus with the engine being between the driver and the
front passenger during warm weather the cab would get rather toasty. You had to close the windows
every time you went through mud because the cleats would fling the stuff everywhere. I found this
out the hard way as one of the tracks had a hatch over the driver and the first time I hit a mud
hole at speed I had it open. I had large chunks of mud raining down on me in a second. The only
problem we had was with the bolts that held the cleats to the rubber belts as they were always
coming loose. It wasn't too bad if the loose bolt was to the outside but if it was on the inside you
usually had to have one person get underneath with a wrench while someone topside tightened them
down. Never had a track break though. Besides the Snow Cats we also had a couple of 8 wheel
amphibious Argos. These were much better for all year use as the tracks could be removed in the
summer and the regular tires had ribs that acted as paddle wheels when you were in the water. You
just didn't have much heat when you had to go out to the field when it was 20 below zero out. 8-)My
unit also had us trained to drive the SUSV's as a back up but they never got any. They were great to
drive. They had one piece tracks with no metal that allowed a top speed around 45 mph. They also had
a regular steering wheel hooked up to a hydraulic ram that provided for really smooth steering. My
wife asked me if I was going to buy another ATV when we got back to Alaska and I told her I would
rather buy an SUSV. Now if I can only find one at the DRMO that hasn't been burned out.
Bryan Rupp
KBYRDDBYRD@aol.com wrote:
>
> Hello friends, In the never ending search for OD junk, I found an unusual "
> off the shelf MV." The thing that makes it so unusual is not what it is but
> WHERE it is. It is a LMC 1500 Snow Tractor, not unusual if you were in the
> far north but rare in Middle TN.
===Mil-Veh is a member-supported mailing list===
To unsubscribe, send e-mail to: <mil-veh-off@uller.skylee.com>
To switch to the DIGEST mode, send e-mail to <mil-veh-digest@uller.skylee.com>
Send administrative queries to <mil-veh-request@uller.skylee.com>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jan 05 2000 - 22:42:36 PST