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Challenger 2 question


noeyedears

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I am building a challenger 2 for the made in britain GB, and i have a problem I need advice on.

The idea is to mount this on a King trailer. the rear locations for the chains I am Ok with, BUT.... the front has the tier 1 armour as in the pic. this means the towing eyes are gone.

Can anyone tell me where the chains go when this is on a trailer for transport?

24005771649_8fde5bc5f5_b.jpg

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  • 1 year later...

TES-fit CR2 can't be legally carried on the HET Kings trailer in the EU as they're overweight and overhang too far, regardless of tie-downs.  Most CR2 in the UK aren't fitted with the various add-on protection kits anyway.  Operations would be different, of course.  

 

You'd only see TES-fit CR2 being moved in the UK behind a blue Metcalfe Farms truck on one of their low-bed trailers.  But even these seem to have the front armour removed to allow access to the lower hull front towing lugs.

Image result for metcalfe farms challenger

 

Your only real situation for an uparmoured CR2 on a HET would be Iraq, as we didn't take any CR2 to Afghan.  Or possibly Estonia: both HET and CR2 are there.  That's the wrong frontal armour in your photo for current fit AFAIK.

 

The HET trailer probably needs some work to see out the remainder of its service life or remain load-limited.  Being a PFI deal, complete trailer replacement 2/3 of the way through the contract would be difficult to say the least.   And competition law means we can't extend the contract, for example for a life extension programme, without fully re-competing it.  If we owned them, we would have more flexibility.

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Thanks for the replies, but im afraid it been finished for months so theres no changing it now ^_^

 general concensus was that the chains went through the larger holes, through the holes to the lugs or were wrapped around the suspension. (or indeed anything available)

Its not the full tes, just the first basic DL2 up armour package, and its on an in -theater Kosovo KFOR tank. so that solved both questions i think ;)

30606603541_322acbe7c6_k.jpg

30606614311_065151d0cc_k.jpgDSC03322 by omgpainful, on Flickr

 

look forward to seeing your builds!!

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Ah yes.  I was forgetting Kosovo.  In my simple mind I didn't think HET had made it over there and that it had been the swansong of the Scammell Commander.  HETs were delivered in 2003-4 and we were out of KFOR completely by 2008.  I don't know when the armoured units left.

 

After a couple of spectacular accidents with CR2 and CRAARV lost off trailers (see pic) the rules on tie-downs were tightened-up.  Wrapping round suspension or anything else that isn't a dedicated tie-down point would not be permitted now except for operational necessity.  When we did the deal last year to loan some UK HET to the US Army in Germany, tie-down schemes for US vehicles had to be designed and approved before we would let them loose - especially with 50% more BHP under the bonnet.

 

Bearing in mind that we demanded a completely new trailer from that originally pitched by FastTrax with their original M1070E1 pitch for HET, I find it hard to understand why we didn't specify that the entire width of the tracks had to sit on the deck and not rely on the outriggers that you have correctly depicted raised. Nearly half the width of each track overhangs the deck.

 

Note the attempt to gain a Tea Drinking In A Crisis badge ......... 

Image result for CRARRV accident

 

I'd love to actually make something instead of just buying it and stashing it.  Been retired for nearly 2 months and not touched one.  Now I'm looking at moving house so the time outlook isn't improving any.

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Maybe the HET never made it there, i have no idea, but i do remember having a pic of a near identical challenger on one, but obviously have no idea where that pic was taken. Lets call it modelers licence ;) .,
Thats the best (only!) pic ive seen of the underside of a king trailer:lol:.  i did think it odd to have half the tracks overhanging the bed, i thought at first it was a scale error between the two models!!

Tea makes everything better...except stupid design.

i have an antar mk2 and tasker trailer ill be sticking a chieftain arv on. if you have any pics of the bottom of those id appreciate them B)

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Ivan-O, speed was principally to blame here along with poor practice.  In those days, escort motorcycles were used.  But they had no right or power to stop traffic.  In this case they did stop the traffic on the roundabout to allow the HET a clear passage. That allowed the young driver, who had not driven a HET for 6 months prior to this trip, to carry too much speed onto the roundabout - at which point centripetal force took over and over she went.  Worse, we had no means of recovering it.  None of the military or contracted recovery vehicles had any hope of righting this.  A mobile heavy crane was needed, along with 3 more HET to remove the casualties.  What you can't clearly see is that this mess is on an overbridge, so weight was a problem.  It was lucky the CRAARV didn't roll over the edge onto the road below.  There would have been body bags.

 

I can't recall if the HET and trailer were deemed safe enough to move as a suspended tow behind a Tru-Hitch fitted HET tractor in the usual manner.  Now that would be a model!  Apparently it was held that the track overhang of the trailer bed wasn't a factor, it would have gone over either way.  But I still can't believe we ended up with a trailer too narrow for the main intended load to fit fully on.

 

In a very similar accident you may have seen a thread on another forum where the US Army managed to throw the only surviving T28 super heavy tank completely off the back of one of their HETs on a bend while taking it from the Patton Museum for external refurbishment.  More refurbishment may be required!  Apparently this irreplaceable 60-odd ton piece of history sustained only minor damage, landing on its tracks and skidding into a ditch.  There's another video out there of an AMX30 being loaded onto a trailer where the driver gets it wrong and the tank slips off the side and rolls over.

 

I don't know for certain whether HET did serve in KFOR or not.  I can't imagine we kept Commanders out there for 3 or 4 years after HET came in, assuming the armour stayed until 2008, but we did have more Commanders than their HET replacements.  That doesn't mean that a KFOR-marked Chally wouldn't have been seen on a HET in Germany or the UK after drawdown.

 

Regarding the Antar, I believe Bovington still run one - a Mk3 AFAIK.  No idea what trailer they have with it.  Might be worth contacting them?

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