Whats it like to drive a half track?

Discussion in 'Weapons, Technology & Equipment' started by kfz, Apr 12, 2006.

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  1. kfz

    kfz Very Senior Member

    Allways thought the half track a rather bizare bastard child of a vehicle, not one or the other. Considoring the popularity during WW2 it seems strange that they have gone completly out of favor.

    How do they steer? I cant get it straight in my head how one would ever be able to turn. Is their a differential between the tracked drive sprockets, there must be??

    Kev
     
  2. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Not necessarily. depends on the truck. Whole point of the 1/2track is to get maximum off-road ability without the full expense and complexity of a full track or tank chassis. Including much more than straight drive-trains starts to lose the cost/simplicity advantage.???
    Half and semi-tracks have intrigued me since I was a kid, myself and some mates keep an eye out for modern variants but other than the Landrover centaur of the 70s/80s? and a few bizarre vw camper mods we see nothing, It seems wheeled gear has become good enough to cover all but the most severely demanding terrain,
    struck me the other day that those heavy 6 or 8-wheeled AC's the Germans came up with (232, 234 and their ilk) were an evolutionary shape they got dead right, modern stuff seems to largely be a similar format.
     
  3. morse1001

    morse1001 Very Senior Member

    other than the Landrover centaur of the 70s/80s?

    is that the one with the individual trianglular tracks instead of the wheels. If so there are still some being used in the Forestry areas in perthshire
     
  4. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    is that the one with the individual trianglular tracks instead of the wheels. If so there are still some being used in the Forestry areas in perthshire
    The LR with triangular tracks is a Cuthbertson.http://www.4wdonline.com/LandRover/Series/Cuthbertson.html
    Picture below, this is a centaur
     
  5. morse1001

    morse1001 Very Senior Member

    The LR with triangular tracks is a Cuthbertson.http://www.4wdonline.com/LandRover/Series/Cuthbertson.html
    Picture below, this is a centaur

    That is what I meant! theY look rather strange!

    I remeber at turnhouse, a landrover chrashed just outside the main gate. the owner was A Sqn ldr at turnhouse, the driver was his son!

    What made it interesting was the sight of the sqn ldr berating his son as he lay on teh strecher. The landrover was in fact a prototype, which the Sqn ldr have recovered and restored!
     
  6. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    The landrover was in fact a prototype, which the Sqn ldr have recovered and restored!
    :eek: The Ultimate crime!...

    On halftracks, anyone else had the pleasure of seeing the Wheatcroft collections FAMO (sdkfz9) roaring about? It's the size of a terraced house turned on it's side...and it moves. shockingly good.
     
  7. sapper

    sapper WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    The night before my war ended I drove a halftrack back to HQ to get the next days battle orders, that was after midnight. I got it stuck in a tank track, so the next night I took a bike...Bloody fool.

    There is or was, a halftrack at the tank museum at Bovvy. When I look at it I cannot honestly beleive that I ever drove that bloody great thing, with a tiny slit with thick bullet proof glass to look through.

    Just looking at it, there is no way that a 19 year old lad drove that flaming thing at night. But I did, if I had stuck to it the next night, I would not be hobblin g atound on crutches today,and the "Desultory Shell fire" would not have got me.
    Famous last words..
    Sapper
     
  8. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Anyone know the MPG for a M3 1/2Track or a White scout car?
    Always fancied doing a tour round Europe in one.
    If I win the Lottery........................
     
  9. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    You're probably nearly talking GPM rather than MPG.
    Heavy tracked stuff's surprisingly cheap to buy but that seems down to the rather large bills for maintenence and the difficuilty of shifting such big components during repairs.(White Scout cars needing lots of work don't seem that steep at all) Lottery money really required for the stuff that'll fit in your garage, the prices asked for Kettenkraftrad's even in rusty 'only just running' condition are stratospheric. They must be the smallest halftrack?? got a great picture of one parked next to the FAMO, they look like they've been built to a totally different scale.
     
  10. Gnomey

    Gnomey World Travelling Doctor

    I have heard it is less than or around 1mpg. (Wikipedia says its range is 280km)

    They probably are Von Poop. Anyways I want one...

    [​IMG]
     
  11. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    I have heard it is less than or around 1mpg. (Wikipedia says its range is 280km)

    They probably are Von Poop. Anyways I want one...

    [​IMG]
    And for an Aeroplane man surely one of those Replica 262's to tow about with it and be all smug and self contented with?:D
    They make a noise like a full size vehicle too, ground vibrating and everything...very desirable. though with the front wheel raised (only realised they did this recently)they look seriously hard to control.
     
  12. Gnomey

    Gnomey World Travelling Doctor

    Yes please :D Would need a Spitfire (and an FW190D-9) to go with it though.
    They do look hard to control which would make them all the more fun!!
     
  13. ComradeRomain

    ComradeRomain Member

    Isn't that quite a bit of machinery to move 3 people with nothing to protect them?? What was it actually used for??
     
  14. Gnomey

    Gnomey World Travelling Doctor

  15. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    It's officially a light artillery tractor and Ammunition carrier, in reality it was a jack of all trades, very desirable to both sides. chatting to owners it's not so good (nearly useless)towing a PAK 36 but quite tasty with a trail of those Infanterikarren(??) trailers, Watching 'em on off road courses they're very very good in quite extreme conditions. There're some good shots of them with spools attached for laying cables that shouldn't be too hard to Google up.
    Theyt lived on after the war as popular vehicles on french Vineyards, many that crop up were actually built postwar for this purpose.
     
  16. Herroberst

    Herroberst Senior Member

    [​IMG]

    Excellent to tool around the Italian Vineyards in...Can't think of anything better than a backseat of a Kettenkrad filled with Brunello Di Montalcino and the 1964 version of Sophia Loren.:cool:

    :cheers:
     
  17. morse1001

    morse1001 Very Senior Member

    and the 1964 version of Sophia Loren.:cool:

    :cheers:

    Any more of that kind of talk, Laddie. And its cold showers for the rest of the week!
     
  18. kfz

    kfz Very Senior Member

    Not necessarily. depends on the truck. Whole point of the 1/2track is to get maximum off-road ability without the full expense and complexity of a full track or tank chassis. Including much more than straight drive-trains starts to lose the cost/simplicity advantage.???
    Half and semi-tracks have intrigued me since I was a kid, myself and some mates keep an eye out for modern variants but other than the Landrover centaur of the 70s/80s? and a few bizarre vw camper mods we see nothing, It seems wheeled gear has become good enough to cover all but the most severely demanding terrain,
    struck me the other day that those heavy 6 or 8-wheeled AC's the Germans came up with (232, 234 and their ilk) were an evolutionary shape they got dead right, modern stuff seems to largely be a similar format.


    it must have some way to stop or slow the drive to the inner track in a turn other wise it would never turn. Ive ridden plenty of trikes without differentials (there banned now in this country) and they are lethal. you can have the bars over to full lock and it will go straight ahead!! Theres no way a half track with that much weight and traction would turn.

    I was reading into them little German half track motorcycle, i forget the name, and they had a complicated control on the handlbars that crudly cut power to the inner track, with a seperate clutch (like a tank). What wehere the Germans thinking!!!

    EDIT: Hey thats it!!!


    I must have look iuf I can get one of these driveing expereinces, sod the ferrari i wann go of a half track.

    Kev
     
  19. kfz

    kfz Very Senior Member

    The night before my war ended I drove a halftrack back to HQ to get the next days battle orders, that was after midnight. I got it stuck in a tank track, so the next night I took a bike...Bloody fool.

    There
    Sapper


    Sapper,

    Tell us about the bikes, im well into my motorcycles, tell is some bike stories!!!

    Kev
     
  20. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    DogDodger likes this.

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