- WikipediaMRAP (armored vehicle)
Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles are a family of armored fighting vehicles designed to survive IED attacks and ambushes. IEDs cause the majority (63%) of US deaths in Iraq.
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A June 13 report by the Marine Corps Center for Lessons Learned indicated concerns about MRAP vehicles rolling over in combat zones.
The V-shaped hulls of the MRAP give it a higher center of gravity and the weight of the MRAP can cause the poorly built or maintained roads in rural Iraq or Afghanistan to collapse.
Of the 66 MRAP accidents between Nov. 7, 2007 and June 8, 2008, almost 40 were due to rollovers caused by bad roads, weak bridges, or driver error.
In many of the rollovers troops were injured, and in two separate incidents five soldiers have been killed by rolling over into a canal and getting trapped under water. The report said 75% of all rollovers occurred in rural areas often when the road is above grade and a ditch or canal full of water is next to it.
© Peter Dow
The CATAMARAN vehicle concept is the original idea of Peter Dow of Aberdeen, Scotland and was published on 26th July 2010. All copyrights are retained by Peter Dow.
- The lug welded to the vehicle side (left) bolts to the clevis (at "A" in the diagram) and before the nut is tightened the clevis can rotate.
- The clevis slots in and bolts to the box section (at "B" in the diagram). The clevis is able to rotate here too before the nut is tightened because the clevis is narrower than the inner dimension of the box section, height-wise in the diagram, though breadth-wise the fit is snug to allow the bolt to tighten when required without bending the box section.
- The connecting bar slots snugly inside the box section (snug both height-wise and breadth wise) and they bolt together (at "C" in the diagram) using holes drilled so that when the connecting bar is butting firmly up to the clevis it bolts together. The butting remains firmly the same independent of the rotation of the clevis inside the box section because the end of the clevis is shaped according to a circular arc centred around the bolt hole.
The procedure to connect the two Y-sides vehicles together is that you manoeuvre one vehicle to a position where you can loosely connect the bolts at points A and B so that the box section while fixed to the vehicle has some movement in two degrees of rotational freedom and the connecting bar is sliding inside both box sections at either end but not able to fall out.
This means that the vehicles will be separated by slightly more than the distance that they will finally be fixed at and typically a variable distance apart from front to back, bottom to top. There are too many variables to expect anything else.
If the Y-sides are too far apart then the connecting bars will fall out of the box sections; too close and the connecting bars won't fit between the ends of the clevises.
OK so you fit all the connecting bars like that then winch the vehicles together using two winches, firstly using winch anchor points low down near the wheels - low so as to mostly drag the vehicles together, not just tilt them over!
This will bring the vehicles together until you can slot in the bolts and put the nuts on in the lower connecting bars anyway.
Then you move the winch to higher winch attachment points near the middle and get enough tension on the winch line to bring the vehicles parallel and you can then slot in all the bolts in and tighten up all the nuts!
- blackdogI think the real question here is: will the CATAMARAN be able to carry Battle Boxes or M113 Gavins to the fight?!
- JimWebActually I think the real question here is - has he been skipping his medication?
- blackdogI think the real question here is: will the CATAMARAN be able to carry Battle Boxes or M113 Gavins to the fight?!
- Michel_KraussI made an check at the text at the for freedom forum also, and I would like to suggest some small corrections for the catamaran MRAP?
- first of all, the load at the steering axle is max 40% (this figure is lower for steering and driven axle's) of the GVW because the steering axle is not as strong as the non-steering one's
So the load distrubution have to be reconsidered
- Michel_Krauss- About the steering. Because you want to connect the vehicle's with bars, how do want to connect the steering mechanisme of the 2 vehicle's
- Michel_Krauss- Because all connection bars are intended to fix one vehicle rigid to the other vehicle, there will be serious trouble with overall road performance. Especialy at poor quality roads, which will give an lot of material stress at the joints;
- Michel_Krauss- - Problem may be the overall width of the vehicle in dagerous locations. For each side of the catamaran will be approx 2.5m, so 5m total for the 2 vehicle's add the connection bars of 2m each, an estimated total of 6.5m overall width
- Michel_Krauss- Final question: how those design perform in mountainous terrain ?
With it's narrow, bad quality roads and same quality bridge's ?
- C_Sherman
- Tanklord- blackdogI think the real question here is: will the CATAMARAN be able to carry Battle Boxes or M113 Gavins to the fight?!
Ah Hell No! Please Blackdog, you must never use the G word when talking of the M113. You have been warned!
Just kidding, but that subject is verboten here!
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