this is WTF the M-10 Booker shoulda coulda.
middle steelies retract or lower as needed. Make them also optional run treads just between the two steelies as needed for extra traction as needed, and other wise tread hangs as slat armor. Make the steelies double as fuel tanks like that Trail Breaker phat mini-bike OR even as floats for an amphib, powered by paddle tracks. Since the tracks would be optional only used for extreme traction/ground pressure needs, they could be "paddle" and not good for normal hard roads.
Already under 8' wide and 20'1" long so with a few tweaks it could fit inside a 20' Contex box, and or ride on any normal heavy duty car carrier or car trailer.
Unique double ended design good for pushing mine clearing gear, as well as towing trailer even at same time.
even comes pre-engineered in comfy APC config, with PORT HOLES!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Panhard_EBR_ETT_at_Mus%C3%A9e_des_Blind%C3%A9s%2C_Saumur%2C_France_%2853355356230%29.jpg
I'd bet it would be easy to stretch by adding a phat full width section between the two middle wheels for XL version with bigger gun or AD missiles or more grunts or special unit like headquarters or medical.
Every element of the Panhard EBR's drivetrain is lovecraftian. Including the fact the engine is a flat-12 that sits under the floor.
And sadly this is why despite being an excellent cross country vehicle it is not a viable combat vehicle.
Similar to BTR but for different reasons.
You'd think so many wheels would enable it to risk itself against mines. Withdraw for repair when it loses an axle. But instead the whole works get gummed up.
in theory, if done right, a wheelie could be more combat worthy than treads because you SHOULD be able to lose a wheel or two and still roll but you lose one of 100 tread links and its game over.
Best of both worlds would be return of Christie drive & suspension.
torsion bars and swing arms make more sense to me. drive for non-turning wheels could even be chain in enclosed box from central E-motor or mechanical from engine, since they'd only be used on soft ground situations and not too often.
Torsion bars ruin the floor by their penetration, one reason M113 die so easily to mines. Suspension should be completely outside the hull and should not interfere with or compromise vee-hull optimization. The Davis suspension is long proven but he inventor is either old or dead (I've not kept track).
No, /k/ are to infantile to care about more than what looks cool and even worse are not ashamed to be childish, which is completely degenerate in an adult for children are lesser creatures.
>Torsion bars ruin the floor by their penetration, one reason M113 die so easily to mines. Suspension should be completely outside the hull and should not interfere with or compromise vee-hull optimization. The Davis suspension is long proven but he inventor is either old or dead (I've not kept track).
run T-Bars under the Vee-hull and use the side Vees for fuel or battery storage.
To make the bottom of hull smooth, run first layer of outer armored floor under the T-bars.
>Christie drive & suspension.
Frick internal volume, amarite?
OP here on other PC....
perfect, the 2024 version would be hybrid, with all wheels indy-electro, so the flat engine would be mated to a phlat batt-pack for limited full EV and powering various equip.
Or maybe rear wheels mechanical and everyone else hydro like a GradAll forklifts wheels.
This would work.
When I look at the articulated vehicles built as evaluation platforms in the 60's and 70's,
Then look at everyone howling to make loud declarations of x being impossible and y being unstoppable,
I wonder at how fricking inert Industry has become, how totally plastic and flimsy. Intelligence has regressed.
This is actually a pretty cool idea that would be more workable today with modern technology. Get rid of that insane mess of driveshafts and differentials, make it a diesel-electric and have each wheel independently powered by an electric motor.
I'd go with E-wheelies on outer turning wheels for freedom of movement, then chain or MC toothed belts on middle wheels for low cost, weight and max power.
also a SPG 155mm version. aim it with computer guided E-wheelies then lower and lock the steelies to the ground, for full Ground to Gun lock.
I think you might be on to something there. We need a /k/orporation, there's a place in the MIC for some of the weird ideas that get dreamed of here.
>make it a diesel-electric and have each wheel independently powered by an electric motor.
It's supposed to weigh LESS than the M1, anon.
Turbo-electric then
I guess you could even go full tracks with the middle steelies keeping track on track OR have 4 treads with each one rubber tire and one steelie, so you be on treads but also able to lose one.
T-that's a Styker Mk2 TRUCK, you motarded, Muhreen death cult frick! You can't go airmechmobile into a 3D maneuver battlespace like that, and that is why it will FAIL!!! Stalling bureaucratic "generals" REFUSE to acknowledge the BattleBox as the way FORWARD, instead focusing on CARS!
What's the turning radius on one of those?