Hagglunds BV206 #H26

This vehicle is in a standard configuration with "trailer caboose" and is powered with a Ford petrol engine. The machine was allocated to K042 for our sea ice operation and glacier travel. A Maudheim sledge was lowed with up to 1800kg of cargo without difficulty up to Cape Roberts, partly unloaded then used within Granite Harbour. H26 generally performed very well without any significant mechanical problems. Ice studs had been fitted to the tracks prior to leaving Scott Base and these certainly improved vehicle traction on polished sea ice and on the 25 - 30° ice slope terminus of New Glacier.

Table 1. Vehicle diary Hagglunds BV206 #H26

It is not possible to accurately measure fuel usage in the field because we did not have a metering fuel pump and the vehicle tank gauges are not accurate. We used approximately 875 of Mogas and travelled 855 km giving an average fuel consumption of 1 litre/km which includes consumption while idling. A consumption rate of 1.25 litre/km should be a suitable figure to use for planning purposes.

This vehicle proved very suitable for general sea ice based work because it was reliable, comfortable, maneuverable and well controlled when crossing sea ice cracks. I would suggest however that some consideration be given to providing a choice of interchangeable modules for the rear caboose. For our sea ice operation a truck type flat deck with skies would be better to transport and operate some of our heavier equipment.

Our experience in extracting H26 from a crevasse has also indicated that rescue equipment should be carried and possibly some operating procedures reviewed. The electric winch on H26 was of little use when the vehicle is stuck and cant turn to level-wind. Consequently the wire cut itself during our first attempt to recover the vehicle. Chain hoists, TIRFOR hoists and a timber jack worked well during the vehicle recovery. It also became obvious that a Hagglunds te very vulnerable in a crevasse rescue situation if the hydraulic rams linking the front cab to the trailer are damaged either when falling into the crevasse or during the recovery operation. It is important therefore to move or lift the vehicle carefully so that the two parts of the vehicle remain in the correct relationship with each other. Any attempt to pull a Hagglunds out with another vehicle (such as a bulldozer) should therefore be considered very carefully to avoid over stressing the linkage system. Some consideration should also be given to page 36 rescuing the vehicle if it falls well below the crevasse lip. In this case some sort of lifting structure (e.g. like a davit) would need to be erected at the edge of the crevasse so that the vehicle could be lifted before being pulled out. Such a structure could be in a "bolt together" form that could be "footed" into the crevasse edge in a similar way to timber dead men. In our experience the survival box carried on the roof of the rear cab also caused difficulties because it was extra weight that was not required because we had our own camp equipment and also made the rear cab top heavy. Our camp equipment was carried in the rear cab which required careful unloading once in the crevasse. We may have been better off spreading our load onto a lowed sledge in this situation. It is also difficult to decide the best preparation for personnel travelling in the driving cab when travelling in areas of potential crevasses. The best compromise in this situation is to have all personnel wearing harnesses and have ropes available both inside and outside the cab to tie into.

In a deep field situation it would be likely that at least two vehicles of similar capacities would be operating. Our crevasse experience does however highlight the problems of a single vehicle operation even though we were well served by helo from Scott Base.

Maudheim Sledge

This sledge was purchased with H26 and is larger than previous maulheim sledges used by NZARP. It is a good size and robust for our operation and has polyethylene shoed skies which makes towing easy although the sledge should only be used on snow or ice. We did note however that a lot of the timber sledge components where laminated and were delaminating in places. The sledge could also have rings fitted to make attaching cargo straps easier.