Stablizing a tracked vehicle.

[airrj1]

I have a puzzle for everyone out there. How would you go about stabilizing a tracked vehicle such as this:

http://www.aad.gov.au/asset/images/363_ul-Nodwell.jpg

http://www.foremost.ca/veh_nw110.php

I am not so much interested in vertical stabilization such as with a car, because there is no suspension in it. I am mostly interested in fore and aft and side to side. If you are not sure if the vehicle brakes will keep the vehicle from rolling forward and back, how would you stop it. And on ice many track vehicles will slide sideways because they have nothing to stop them.

Any thoughts? Suggestions? FYI the enviorment that I am in has very little available for natural anchors. So it makes things even tougher. Thanks for the help.
R.J.

[ellwood1]

Tensioned buttress system is my first thought, free standing if sliding was not and issue. Staked if sliding was an issue. In soft stuff you would need to build a base for the struts first. If you don't have struts experiment (durring drill) and you could probably find a solution with 4X4's. On extreme slopes you could use a winch to prevent further downward movement, use caution that your winching vehicle has more than adequate traction and weight. Main point is to experiment with different ideas and see how much time is involved with each and how well it stabilizes the rig.

[mikeyboy411]

Just a few thoughts.......

Not sure how well it would work, but what about low pressure air bags? Not sure of the tension strength of the bags, maybe somebody could educate me.
How feasible is it to remove the tracks? I know in the past, we have been shown how to remove the tracks on our tracked vehicles (there are some awesome oppurtunities when working on a Military Installation).
What about a picket system?
At first, I thought of "Air Shores" but decided to shoot down that idea due to not having a stable surface to inflate and secure the feet of the shores. If able to that could be another option is you are able to secure the shores to the ground the feet/cleats are on.
Here's another idea, ask the manufacturer...... You may get a cool free piece of equipment or get to name a tool after ya......... SMILES.......

[SBrooks]

Pickets / Snow pickets next to the lateral edges of the tracks if sideways sliding is an issue. Similar fore & aft if longitudinal sliding is an issue.

Chock the road wheels between the wheel and the track for rolling issues. You may need a 'custom' wooden chock that will fit, and you may need to use several of them. The road wheels are the wheels that the vehicles moves on, and are the 4 bottom wheels in the picture. The other two wheels are power wheels and idler wheels.

Standard box crib at 3 or four ponts underneath, with wedge shims, to keep rocking to a minimum. Alternatively you could use rescue struts fore & aft, if you have a large enough base. You might consider making a thick plywood auxilliary base for your rescue struts, perhaps you could modify one to be used with airbags & your struts.

Honestly, I wouldn't be too worried about 'rocking', you've probably got a low speed incident, or a rollover. In the first case, it's not too much of an issue; in the second, the thing is probably planted in the snow and stable, and/or time is an issue do to the nature of the accident your probably remote location.