BigLorryBlog

Well I DID promise you I'd tell you all about my day down at Bulford Camp driving the wonderful OshKosh 1070F Heavy Equipment Transporter (that's HET to you). And here are two of them...getting rather wet. But first I need to thank John Rodell, ops director at Fasttrax, the people who own, operate and maintain the HET fleet of 92 Oshkosh trucks and King low loaders as part of a 20-year £290m PFI contract with the MoD. It was due to bumping into John at Truckfest back in May that made the whole thing was possible. So picture the scene if you will. It's Wednesday morning and I wake up in my modest hotel room in Andover...to the sound of heavy rain...oh boy that's a good start...I thought.

After a long chat with John who explains how the HET contract all works and how it came about I'm introduced to my 'minder' for the day. Ritchie Bridge is an ex-Army tank transporter driver (with service in Kosovo, Germany and Bosnia) and thoroughly all-round good bloke. With dozens to choose from in the truck park we pick-out our alloted ride. Only to find that the battery is a bit down---as the Oshkosh tractor provides a constant feed through to the trailer for a number of functions if you don't turn of the isolater switch it can be drained. But it's no problem as Ritchie simply uses the auxiliary power unit on the King trailer to 'jump' start the 1070F's mighty 700hp Cat C18 diesel and within moments it's roaring away merrily.

Climbing up into the HET cab is not for the faint-hearted! You need both hands and your brain in gear,especially when everything is soaking wet. This is Ritchie climbing into the business side. He took it out on the road first with me riding shotgun, then I had a spell on Salisbury Plain on regular Army roads and a bit of 'rough' stuff (well non-tarmac anyway).

This is what it looks like inside. Dig the monster steering wheel. Ultilitarian is probably the best way to describe the interior finish. Note the absence of any gearlever. That's cos it's got an Allison 7-speed World Series two-pedal box to make life easy... And the 6-man cab's big bench seat in the back converts into a twin bunk sleeper too.

Here's a view out the passenger side as we roll along the A303 towards Stonehenge---as you can see the rain was there all day. I'm pleased to find that the co-driver gets a suspension seat which was comfortable enough and for an 8x8 it rides surprisingly well too.

Having learnt to drive on Scammell Commanders Ritchie was clearly very comfortable behind the wheel of the 8x8 Oshkosh and he had the width of it pegged to the absolute inch. The 1070F's cab is 2.59m wide (3.67 including the mirrors) and on some of those Wiltshire roads you need to keep your wits about you. Fortunately all UK HETs have Eaton's VORAD sideways radar to help fill in the blind spots on the nearside. After trundling along the A303 dual carriageway for a while Ritchie then took us onto the two-lane A360---which was a touch more 'interesting'.

As mentioned Ritchie had the size of the 23m long rig (and the trailer is 2.89m wide without the outriggers) down pat---I just wish I coyuld say the same for the bloke in the Volvo artic coming in the opposite direction who decided he had all the room in the world, and therefore DIDN'T need to slow down as he approached us---before whacking our mirror and cracking the glass as he swept past (though fortunately not knocking the pieces out). Given that Ritchie had already pulled right over into the verge and slowed down as we converged I was left wondering why 'Mr Volvo' didn't do the same...Ritchie tells me that when they're delivering main battle tanks to the army the Fasttrax guys always carry extra mirrors for just such an occasion.  Just as well really....

Anyway we soon turned onto Salisbury Plain where it was Biglorryblog's turn. You'll notice that we were sans tank on the back---due to no fault of our own. We'd planned to load an old tracked hulk to simulate an Main Battle Tank (normally the HET carries a 70-tonne plus tank) but the Army was busy working in the area we planned to load it in...so we had to give that up.  And considering it was pelting down I for one wasn't too worried, especially as the unladen rig tares at 46-tonnes so it wasn't as if we were that 'unladen'.

Climbing into the driving seat and pressing 'D' for drive yours truly soon got things rolling. What's the Oshkosh HET 1070F like to drive? Well quite fun really. That steering wheel is enormous (think Routemaster bus) but it's precise enough and the Allison box takes care of all the gearchanges. The C18 sounds wonderful too and with the three-stage Jake Brake grumbling away when you take your foot off the throttle you feel like you're driving a 'real' truck!

After a short while Ritchie directed me onto an un-made up bit of road with a hard core surface on it...The Oshkosh has a neat Central Tyre Inflation System (CTIS) that's operated via a series of buttons on the dash. Press 'CC' for cross-country, 'HWY' for normal on-road driving (Highway) and so on. It can even keep a tyre inflated if a bullet goes through it. "Hold it to 20mph" Ritchie says to me as we trundle along the track...hmmmm...lulled into a sense of false security on what looked like a flat surface I soon have us up to 25mph, then 28mph. Only then we hit a series of pot holes and start that special 'bouncy' frequency that only seems to get worse no matter what you do. I look over to the left to see Ritchie pogo dancing over on the passenger side! Better slow down I think....

However, he didn't hold it against me (or at least I don't THINK he did). After re-joining one of the Army roads we then switched seats again before Ritchie drove me back along the A303 to Bulford. Now click through here for more [pix and another BLB special military pie quiz...