Today we are going to talk about ATV quad bikes

Thread

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Quad bikes (or small all-terrain vehicles) are in common service with a number of military forces to provide mobility and logistics support, generally dismounted forces, light role infantry for example.

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The Quad Bike is another British invention we failed to exploit. The Standard Ultra Lightweight and Jungle Airborne Buggy were produced in 1944 and 1945 but the end of the war doomed it, they never went into serial production.

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Although a number of 3 wheeled small ATV’s were produced by Sperry Rand and others in the USA in the sixties, Honda produced their first in 1969, the ATC90. The first four-wheeled ATV was launched in 1982 by Suzuki, the LT125D.

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Driving motorcycles, especially off-road in challenging circumstances, requires not inconsiderable skill and experience, and they do not have a great deal of load-carrying capacity, both weight and volume.

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Quad bikes, on the other hand, can tow trailers with significant loads and although driving quad bikes off-road safely, is far from a trivial task, they do seem to have displaced motorcycles in most forces, the UK no exception.

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Before the training pipeline adapted, it was reported that over half of all quad bike drivers had fallen off but by mid-2015, the MoD-owned approximately 900 quad bikes, the first models were off the shelf petrol engine designs from Honda and Yamaha

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Following work on the Resolve/Roush DRV that used diesel or JP8, one of the first UOR’s was fulfilled by Roush, taking the standard Yamaha Grizzly 450, adding a NATO hitch, winch, run-flat sealant for the tyres, IR lighting, left-hand throttle and other minor modifications

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In Afghanistan, Quad Bikes proved to be enormously useful for running replens, casualty evacuation, transferring stores to and from helicopter landing sites and a million other odd jobs.

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They were especially useful in close terrain, narrow tracks and such like but in the Green Zone, with its many drainage and irrigation ditches, mobility was often impaired.

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To address this, lightweight gap crossing equipment (Gap Crossing Capability Short – Quad (GXC(S) Quad)) was obtained from Mauderer in Germany, or aluminium ramps to you and me.

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A couple of trailers models (SMT 171B and SMT 120B) were also obtained from Logic, bringing the payload up to approximately 150kg, including the ability to carry stretchers.

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There is not much more to say on Quad Bikes, they are simple, cheap and effective at what they do but there are a few areas where perhaps their utility could be extended.

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Gap crossing; a number of systems now exist, including the General Dynamics Quad Bike Bridge, MSS Defence GXS Rapid Deployable Gap Crossing System, and of course, the @easibridge Tactical Assault Bridge

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Transport; stacking pallets and ride on trailers are an improvement over using plain GS type trailers

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Air transport is a little more challenging but AAR Corp has the answer, the single and double ATV container. With forklift pockets and full compliance with aircraft cargo floor rollers it makes transporting quads by air extremely easy

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Air despatch and internal carriage on in-service helicopters is also an option, and there are even inflatable small craft that are optimised for quad bike RORO

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As usual, there are a plethora of options to enhance utility and improve mobility

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Tracks for use in deep snow

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Plenty of trailer options

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And another

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How about a trailer/boat combo?

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There are even small plant options

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They can even be fully loaded with all the latest ISTAR technology

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Quads continue to be widely utilised, simple and effective, cheap and easy to deploy, what is not to like? Let me leave you with this, perhaps the best quad accessory you can get

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