We would be driving GKN Sankey FV432 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC) on a three-day course at a site in Norfolk that offers both corporate activity days as Fantastic Days and the slightly more serious H-licence training as SVT. These companies are run by Tim Dockerty, a well-spoken, cheerful chap that, I was surprised to hear has no military background. He was, by his own admission, a stressed-out IT guy who opted for some self-help by buying an APC for use as a weekend hobby. Not only did it de-stress him but offered him a new business idea; tank driving for the public. Years later he’s still happy in his new line of work. Four of us – military vehicle enthusiasts Darren Livock and Ivan Collins, Driving Instructor Alison Thornton and myself - had enrolled on the course and we all had a lot to learn. The course started in the Dougal, a inflatable classroom; health and safety, how tracked vehicles work, APC maintenance, road safety, law about the use of tracked vehicles on the road and talk about the looming driving test. And yes, we would have to reverse around a corner!

Tracked vehicles are among the most capable off-roaders and pre-date the mass-produced 4x4 by a comfortable margin; a British agricultural company, Hornsby of Grantham, developed a caterpillar track that was patented in 1905. Hornsby's tracked vehicles were almost immediately used as artillery tractors by the British Army. The Hornsby tractors featured the track-steer clutch arrangement and are considered to be the basis of the modern crawler. Across the Atlantic The Holt Manufacturing Company became the Caterpillar Tractor Company in 1925. It became apparent that tracked machines with their ability to operate in difficult terrain would be ideal for use in agriculture and construction as well as being the basis for tanks, then a new fangled military device. The French town of Cambrai has the dubious honour of being the first town attacked by tanks. It happened in November 1917 when the British used tanks to break the German line and attempt to end the stalemate of the trench warfare that characterised the First World War.

Tracked vehicles offer better mobility than pneumatic tyres over difficult terrain, particularly in mud. Tracks are much less likely to get stuck in soft ground, mud, or snow, as they distribute the weight of the vehicle over a larger contact area, decreasing ground pressure so being ideal for heavy machines. Tracked vehicles ride over bumps and small obstacles in the way a boat rides over sea swells. Tracks are generally tougher than tyres since they cannot be punctured or torn although they do come off on occasions. Track systems have been continually developed and improved during the century since their invention. The tracks are moved by a toothed drive wheel known as a sprocket, driven by the engine and transmission and engaging with holes in the track links to drive the track. The drive wheel is typically mounted above the contact area on the ground, allowing it to be fixed in position. A non-powered idler wheel, is at the other end of the machine to allow the endless track to return but also allow the take up of slack in the track in the same way as a motorcycle drive chain is tensioned. Loose tracks can be easily thrown off the wheels. To prevent throwing a track, the track links usually have the vertical guide tongues engaging the grooves or gaps between the doubled road, idler and sprocket wheels. Some track arrangements, usually called ‘live track’, use return rollers to keep the top of the track running straight between the drive sprocket and idler. Others, known as ‘slack track’, allow the track to droop and run along the tops of large road wheels. The vehicle's weight is transferred to the bottom length of track by a number of road wheels called bogies. Road wheels are generally equipped with some form of suspension to cushion the ride over rough ground. Suspension design has been a major area of development and a pioneer was Walter Christie. The earliest crawler designs were unsprung. Later rubber-rimmed road wheels became a common feature of almost all tracked military vehicles, because they increase track life considerably.

The disadvantages of tracks compared to pneumatic tyres are a lower top speed and the damage that all-steel tracks can cause to the ground surface. Tracks can severely damage hard terrain such as surfaced roads. Indeed in the UK steel-tracked vehicles are restricted to 5mph on the road while those with rubber tracks are permitted to travel at up to 20mph. A compromise between the all-steel and all-rubber tracks for military vehicles to ensure smoother, faster, quieter and non-damaging movement on roads has been achieved by attaching rubber pads – referred to as ‘resilient material’ in DVLA-speak - to individual track links. Prolonged use places enormous strain on the transmission and the track components and as a result track maintenance and adjustment becomes very labour-intensive. In the case of the FV 432 a clenched fist between the top of the track and the hull is used as the gauge to check whether the track is tight enough and there’s fluid levels to be checked before the machine is used.

Operating the machine was easier than I expected; two levers allow steering and stopping, an accelerator pedal controls speed and after some intensive coaching in the subtleties of operating these controls it becomes possible to be remarkably precise with positioning the APC. We learned to manoeuvre between oil drums forwards and backwards with only a couple of inches to spare on each side and we learned how to gauge exactly where the rear of the APC was as we reversed up to marked out points. The off-road track was nothing difficult for the APC despite the presence of some big holes and tight corners and was treated as though it was public highway at all times to ensure that we indicated correctly when turning and stopping and of course gave way as necessary to the other APC using the same track.

The final day of the course was taken up with last minute driving practice and the driving test for each candidate. Not unexpectedly I found myself with a dose of pre-test nerves – confident that I could operate the machine but anxious about making a stupid mistake that would cost me the test pass. One by one we left the classroom and walked to the FV432 for our appointment with the examiner. DSA-registered Driving Instructor Alison Thornton said that ‘she felt more under pressure because of being a driving instructor as people would expect her know what she was doing but the course was fantastic and the best bit was actually taking the test.’ She passed, as did the military vehicle enthusiasts, Darren and Ivan, and I’m pleased to say that I did too. We were all pretty chuffed, had preserved the centre’s 100% pass rate record and Alison had created a new record by being the first woman to pass her H-Licence test at this centre.
Driving tests

In general, the minimum ages for driving on British roads are 16 years for invalid carriages and mopeds, 17 years for agricultural or forestry tractors, small vehicles and motorcycles, and 21 years for medium/large sized vehicles, minibuses, buses and tracked vehicles. Tracked vehicles fall into category H and require the driver to be a minimum of 21 years old.
    
FV432
The FV432 was designed as the armoured personnel carrier in the FV430 series. GKN Sankey started production in 1962 and ended it in 1971 having made approximately 3000. The FV432 is of all steel construction. Its chassis is a conventional tracked design with torsion-bar suspension and five road wheels. The 240hp Rolls-Royce K60 multi-fuel engine is at the front coupled to a semi-automatic gearbox and the driving position to the front right from where the FV432 is controlled by a pair of levers and an accelerator pedal; the levers facilitate steering and stopping. Directly behind the driver’s position is the vehicle commander's hatch. There is a large split-hatch round opening in the passenger compartment roof and a side-hinged door in the rear for loading and unloading. In common with such an old design there are no firing ports for the troops carried, British Army doctrine has always been to dismount from vehicles to fight. The passenger compartment has five seats on each side and these fold up to provide a flat cargo space.

Fantastic Days

Fantastic Days specialises in hosting corporate, private & public multi-activity events - also offering gift and incentive vouchers for a wide range of activities including hovercrafting, parabounce, military vehicle driving, clay pigeon shooting, airsoft, SAS skills, mini-diggers and team development initiatives. Fantastic Days, Soldierfield House, Mill Road, Little Melton, Norwich, NR9 3NT.
01603 812680    
www.fantastic-days.com

The company also offers H-licence lessons through its sister company Specialist Vehicle Training for professional H-Licence training in three day residential courses, like the one 4x4 magazine undertook. SVT is Driving Standards Agency (DSA) registered.
01842 879664.
www.svtraining.co.uk

Words John Carroll
Pics Claire Collins