Quote:
Originally Posted by Robin Craig
The Kenworth Pallet Loading System (PLS) vehicle was a brute just to look at, in my mind a purposeful truck if ever I saw one. Im not saying it was any good, I am just saying it looked good.
Apparently it lacked some lift capability, there are tales of them lifting the front axle off the ground when loading sea containers filled with beer but I wasn't there.
The flat racks or pallets were capable of being cross decked to the trailer that was towed behind. There was a method of shortening the drawbar to get it within range.
The reason I group the Western Star truck in with the Kenworth is that one was responsible for the genesis of the other. Major Paul Fredonburg was the project officer and at the time a fellow IPMS member. He runs a model making company called Trackjam.
Paul was the one tasked with creating a better engineer support truck, and through the grafting of an HLVW dump box to a highly modified PLS truck the basic template was set down for what was sent out for tender to become the Western Star HESV.
The truck with the flatracks is 81716
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Ah, the Kenworth PLS. I'm intimately familiar with those beasts....
From what I understand, the Kenworth PLS were purchased at the tail end of a Marine Corp contract and served as a stop gap until the HLVW came on line. We used them as heavy bridgers for MGB, EWBB and later M700 ACROW into the early 2000's. They were also used for moving Shipping Containers, and up until the SHLVW came on line, was one of the few trucks equipped with the rollers for moving Sea Cans. Although incredibly powerful highway truck, these things were terrible in field conditions. Turning radius was measured in football fields, there were no real provisions for black-out operations, and the suspension was so stiff that crossing even small ruts nearly guaranteed banging your head off of the roof of the cab. Did I mention you couldn't fit a rucksack in the truck? Add to it the PLS trailer (Knight Industries) with the pivoting front axle which towed beautifully on the highway, was all but impossible to back up in field conditions without jack-knifing the front axle. Reloading the trailer was performed by dropping the tow-bar and backing up to the trailer and performing a crossroad. The system was pretty slick and we still use these trailers with the HLVW PLS, albeit the trailer has since been modified so that the trailer front axle can be locked in order to allow backing up in rough terrain. Thank god that dump version never came on line....