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Outsize Ajax


Kingsman

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I passed an Ajax on a (civvy) low loader on the M4 this afternoon.  It had the side armour packs fitted and I was staggered to see that it was signed as an Outsize Load, complete with escort vehicle!!!  And this is our new recce vehicle???  Brings an entirely new meaning to Recce By Stealth........   

 

It also means it can't be moved in that configuration without going through the Outsize Load approval rigmarole with Highways, Councils, Police.....  HET with a load up is outsize if for no other reason than being Cat 3 STGO.  But Ajax can't go on HET because it's too light to go as an STGO load, and you can't use STGO wagons to carry non-STGO loads anywhere in the EU.  Not in peacetime anyway.  Blue flashing lights in the rear view.  So that means LET, and one wonders if the trailer is sufficiently wide.  I suppose the tracks are actually inset quite some way from the outer edge of the armour.  LET will be - maybe by now it is being - upgraded to take a 40-tonne load, which covers Ajax. 

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  • 3 months later...

Not sure of the exact rules now but they have changed, if had a civvy escort vehicle then I suspect not large enough to warrant approval by highways, police etc as they are now allowed to do their own escorts.

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As far as I know from working on the HET project for a while in 2016, moves of HET and Metcalfe Farms wagons with CR2, CRARRV etc still require route approval by the relevant authorities in the UK and Germany.  If Ajax is to be outsize, then I imagine the same will be true.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Even in the stone age (80’s) if we wanted to move plant from Waterbeach we had to liaise and get a route with the RCT traffic office in Colchester. In BAOR however we just done our own thing with plant and tank bridge trailers.

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14 hours ago, Modelholic said:

Das,

Could you post what all the initials mean please.

I don't know a LET from a HET, but have an inkling what a STI! (is and the EU bit)

Tom

Tom,

Heavy Equipment Transporter which is the Oshkosh 1070F with a King trailer for all the heavy armour ans anything else that needs it,

Light Equipment Transporter at the moment this is a Seddon Atkinson unit with a 35t trailer. this is used by RE and RLC units for light armour and plant etc.

Hope that helps and if i have got anything wrong i am sure we will be set right. 😀

Ivan

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Apologies.  Yes, HET is the Heavy Equipment Transporter: our current tank transporter for loads up to 72 tonnes.  LET is its smaller brother the Light Equipment Transporter.  There is no Medium version.

 

Actually Ivan-o, the Seddon Atkinsons went out of Army service some years ago.  The current LET is another Oshkosh product.   The tractor unit is the same as that for the Close Support Tankers, a version of the USMC MTVR truck family.  I can't remember what make the trailer is, possibly Broshuis.  The 78 LET rigs are now being upgraded for a 44-tonne load, which is sufficient for the Ajax, 68 tonne gross train weight.  Hardly "light"............

 

Not sure if RAF 2MT Squadron still have any of the Seddons.  I believe they went for a Volvo rig instead of the Oshkosh as a replacement.  They also have 3 MAN HET rigs of their own as they have some things that cannot be moved on the Oshkosh HET for various reasons.

 

RAF and Army also rely heavily on civilian heavy transport from the likes of Kings and Metcalfe Farms, the latter being the current contractor.  Babcock are neither required nor permitted to use Service heavy transport since they took over the Defence Support Group workshop operations, and they use Metcalfe Farms too.

Edited by Das Abteilung
bad spelling!
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