CF HLVW Photo reference gallery

[rob love]

Originally Posted by Frank v R

this makes the future for the fleet look very good ie. when DND is done with them as 2 are on the road and plated,

Then is then and now is now. It was only 5-6 years ago you could buy a running leopard hull in the $14,000 range, or MLVW hulks for a little over 1K. We see very little green released these days. T

he HLVWs are really showing their age as well. Transmissions are very very hard to repair. The Cdn Army is short over 100 transmissions at present, and if the truck is not a wrecker, or a special variant, it will wait a long time for a transmission. Basically, they are driven as long as they will keep moving. Front suspensions have been found to have elongated in both the brackets and the frame. They were a great truck 20 years ago, but parts are becoming scarce and with the relatively small quantity the CF has, it is hard to get companies to produce just a hundred or so of anything.

[Scott Bentley]

Originally Posted by rob love

Then is then and now is now. It was only 5-6 years ago you could buy a running leopard hull in the $14,000 range, or MLVW hulks for a little over 1K. We see very little green released these days. T

he HLVWs are really showing their age as well. Transmissions are very very hard to repair. The Cdn Army is short over 100 transmissions at present, and if the truck is not a wrecker, or a special variant, it will wait a long time for a transmission. Basically, they are driven as long as they will keep moving. Front suspensions have been found to have elongated in both the brackets and the frame. They were a great truck 20 years ago, but parts are becoming scarce and with the relatively small quantity the CF has, it is hard to get companies to produce just a hundred or so of anything.

Sad but true.

I had the pleasure of driving a 10 ton PLS in Meaford back in the summer for the first time in nearly a decade. Great truck yes, but all the busted or missing plastic parts really showed its age. Something as simple as a broken driveshaft required deep reachback into the supply system, and IIRC, the final approved solution was to pull one from a truck in Petawawa and send it out in order to get it home. I realize its not exactly a tank, but I can't even fathom the amount of $$$ that would be required to keep one of these rolling in private hands after the hard years they've had.

[Robin Craig]

Another weekend and some more slides scanned.

My favourite truck in any fleet is always a wrecker because of it being a live animated all singing all dancing truck. I adore vehicles that work for a living and are all business.

The crane seen in the side shot at Chateau Montebello on 92982 in 1995 is only one of 3 business ends of the machine. the stinger arm on 93007 taken at Petawawa in 1994 is being readied for a casualty.

The HLVW fleet were as a whole painted in the factory in a camouflage scheme to the same pattern. Magnetic sheeting masks were used and they were supposed to be all the same as the signed off vehicle that was the standard.

That was great, but then when an overseas UN deployment had them all painted white, they returned and were painted monotone green (93029) in 1998 as doing the cam scheme over was too costly, and what if they when on a UN mission again?

For the D Day anniversary in Ottawa the CF supported the movement of vehicles. Here we see a wrecker 93090 lifting a universal wotsit onto the back deck of a trailer. Curiously I saw someone else attempt to load a Carrier to the same style of deck by driving it up and fail, but that is another story.

[Robin Craig]

Inevitably some vehicles are sent home on flatbeds as this HLVW cargo with crane is. It was more like a salt lick when I snapped 92601 on a civvy float. This is why our vehicles don't last when exposed to corrosion.

92421 seems almost pristine in 1994 taken at a display by 450 Squadron in Ottawa.

The fuel pods in the back of the cargo are 92516 in Ottawa in 1998, I am thinking this was before any of the tankers were built.

The all green wrecker with the cab flipped is 92893 and this was during a big exercise during 1998 in and around the Ottawa valley replicating Bosnia or Yugoslavia.

The under the cab shot of the engine is again 93090 but a year earlier

[rob love]

The change in paint schemes were not a cost saving measure, but rather a policy that B vehicles were to be painted the flat green. Perhaps it was because a B vehicle is supposed to be to the rear, and not treated as a combat vehicle. The days of having a sofskin like an Iltis or an LSVW in forward service are long over.

The fuel pods did not meet transport Canada requirements. They were removed from the trucks along with the pumps, filter units, and the entire cargo box. Those items were sold off through CADC, and the cab and chassis were sent off to be built into tankers. This occurred around 2002.

[Robin Craig]

I am absolutely tickled pink as to the information that is coming out and being woven around these pictures for all to see.

I am very grateful to all of you who post the knowledge you have on here

Thank you one and all

Robin

[Robin Craig]

I am now an active member of our volunteer Fire and Rescue department.

Just over a week ago I went one dark snowy night to a mutual aid meeting at a Fire Hall of a neighbouring department a few miles away.

Imagine my surprise when I walked in and saw her again!

She has moved stations but still with the same municipality, hence a different name on the door.

A new fuel tank was fitted a while ago.

Anyhow, she is still in service, just.

Robin