In Fighting Form

Glen Frank is no ordinary fleet manager. An “advance booker” at Canadian Forces Base Borden, near Barrie, Ont., Sgt. Frank is responsible for making all the transportation arrangements for the base. He gets the call when the Army needs to move a 42-ton M1 Leopard tank to where the action is.

Now, Sgt. Frank is as proud of his fleet as any trucker might be, but I’ve got to tell you, his trucks are butt ugly compared to a large car with lots of chrome. But then most rigs don’t come with a sunroof that doubles as a machine gunner’s turret.

Sgt. Frank invited me out to his training facility to see what “real trucking is all about.” When he said I’d have the chance to put a Steyr 1491 through its paces, it was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. The Steyr 1491 is a 10-ton, six-wheel-drive machine that can be configured as a troop carrier, container chassis, tanker, tow truck, tractor, or crane. The highway trucks are useful for getting stuff from point A to point B, but when the going gets tough, the Steyrs take over. The truck’s 27,500-pound chassis can handle payloads of up to 22,000 pounds. There’s over 40 inches of ground clearance under the frame, and the truck can cruise through water nearly three feet deep. With the air intake placed up high behind the cab, the Steyr can wade into water well over six feet deep, although the driver might get a bit damp. Like I did.

Of Austrian origin but made under licence in Kingston, Ont., the truck has a 310-horsepower, turbocharged Steyr diesel engine and an eight-speed transmission, shifted through a “double-H” pattern. There are four gear gates with a hi-low range shifter in the neutral position between the 3-4 gate and the 4-5 gate. Each gear has an “invisible” hi-low splitter, like a 13-speed, activated when you stomp down on the throttle pedal. The transmission automatically selects hi-range for each gear unless the driver uses the “kick-down” switch to initiate a range shift. This feature is invaluable under difficult conditions, because it virtually eliminates the possibility of missing one of those shifts you really have to make. You can choose two-wheel drive for on-road use, lock up the differentials to get all four rear wheels driving, or engage the forward transfer case to get the front wheels into the act.

The cab boasts no creature comforts, except for the doghouse equipped with stirrups (for the machine gunner poking through the sunroof, of course). The steering wheel is uncomfortably large and thin-spoked. When those big front steer tires grab a rut, you have to let the wheel free-spin a bit or you might wind up in a cast.

THE WOW FACTOR

The Steyr will climb an astonishing 39-degree incline-an 80% grade. When Sgt. Frank suggested I drive the truck down such a hill, I refused at first. The thought of tipping the truck onto its nose just to get a good story didn’t seem sensible. When I finally got up the nerve, I could have stuck my arm through the windshield and touched level ground in front of the truck as we reached the bottom.

“The Range,” as it’s known at Base Borden, consists of sand dunes, forest, swamp, and forest trails. I drove along a trail that was flooded with three feet of water, obscuring stumps, ruts, and mounds. I bounced my co-pilot right out of his seat once and nearly crushed my skull on the roof on another occasion, but we made it through.

Greg Swain, a Toronto-area driver trainer, went with me to CFB Borden just so that I’d have someone to verify my story. He was the one who eventually brought the Steyr to its knees. He managed to make it two-thirds of the way across a bog before the muck grabbed the right front wheel and held on tight. The water was a foot deep in the cab before the truck stopped moving. Sgt. Frank suggested Swain didn’t hit the swamp fast enough. It took the 20-ton winch on a tracked armored personnel carrier to drag him out again. I guess the Steyr isn’t invincible, but it’s darned close.