Design your own Technical

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atek3

atek3

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So many of you have at least heard of 'technicals', basically toyota pickup trucks with a machine gun/mortar/recoilless rifle on the back used by in countries too poor to afford real fighting vehicles. Pretend for a second you had some $$$ to design a street legal technical here in the US. What would you build? Some features you'd want, reliability, durability, protection.

Here's something to start with.

toyota tacoma

modestly lifted
beefed up suspension
beefed up brakes
run flat tires
aramid fabric in all the doors
Level IV glass/polycarbonate windows
up-armored engine compartment
ramming grade bumper
armored gas tank.

In the bed of the truck, handles for passengers to grab.
Pintle mounted M82A1 with Aimpoint for close work, and a leupold for long stationary work.

What else does it need?

atek3
 
Here are some inspirational pics.

TL001492.jpg


toyota.jpg


zpu2.jpg
 
I think that instead of armouring the gas tank, ala fuel-cell in stock car racing, you might just take some WW2 technology and make it self-sealing.

As for what I'd want, well, I like the idea of a pick-up design, so you only have to armour the cabin (to hell with the bed). But I'd put the kevlar on the floor, and hard plastic armour in the doors (dyneema, spectra, whatever). It has to be an inch thick, so it could work. I don't like the idea of bullet-proof windows, so I'd just wear goggles and put cargo netting in the windows and have steel armour plates that fold - as in the windshield armour folds onto the hood, the side windows hinge open like a pair of shutters. Steel can't be more than 1cm thick, obviously, but should protect against 5.56, and removing the glass spared a lot of weight.

For armament put a 14.5mm MG on a pintle in the bed, and keep a pair of launchers secured, 1 of each manpac AA and AT.

Manning the weapons is the job of the 1 or 2 short and skinny guys who sit on the floor in the cab with me, because I removed the passenger seats:) Ok maybe they can have a folding bench, but it can't get in the way, because there's a small door in the back of the cab that they crawl through to get into the pick-up bed.

And put inserts onto the wheel rims so you can still drive with a flat tire.


This is fun:)
 
For armament put a 14.5mm MG on a pintle in the bed, and keep a pair of launchers secured, 1 of each manpac AA and AT.
Click to expand...

Nope... Has to be legal. Unless you happen to have a 14.5mm MG that is class 3 lying around :)

atek3
 
...add a diffuser to the exhaust to manage your heat signature. Add "smoke" displacement to drop when you need to move position fast. :D
 
Legal? That ruins everything...

In all seriousness, i guess it would be like that guy here in denver a couple years ago, went haywire with a bulldozer made tank...

So....

Lets see. Take a diesel pickup, with an extra wide/long bed. Armor plate it, raise it ever so slightly.

Raise it about.... a foot
Add 1" armor around the engine, and along the sides of the bed. Put on plywood about and extra 2 feet above where the regular bed walls end.

Make the plywood about 1" thick, and add 1/4" thick steel on each side.

Add cutouts, 4, in the middle of the plywood siding, 2 on each side of the bed and one in the back.

The slits will be about 1" wide and 6" tall.

Add extra 1" thick plywood about 1 foot above the armored bed and the other 3 feet of armored plywood, and put a roof of about 1/2" plywood over it. Giving you an extra 3' in addition to the regular bed walling height.

Add swivel mount type things into each slit, with rubber padding, so that you can place a rifle fore grip on it to steady your aim.

Place bright lights on each side of your truck, giving you light vision all around for about 100 feet.

Allow for lights inside the truck bed as well. Have a chest inside with IED's (IE molotov cocktails)

Add a hatch at the top of the roof so your men can throw said IED's.



I think thats about all, also add runflat tires of course, and cup holders.
 
I like the tried-and-true designs, so what I would do is build up and LRDG Jeep with an obscene number of machine guns:
ArmedTruck01.jpg


And then find a handful of crazy British commandoes to run it: :)
OriginsDesertPatrol05.jpg
 
those pics don't look like toyotas. they're for sure not tacomas :)

reading torpid's sig made me think... you should send your tacoma to get bear coated!!!


and i was kind of thinking the technicals (as described in BHD) were used because they didn't have any money. they're dang near disposable. very different philosophy than you're talking about, where you're tricking one out.
 
1953 Willy's jeep
1961 Olds 215 cu.in. V8 aluminum block and heads with 4 spd tranny options(4bbl carb, hotter cam) with 4 spd tranny
1953 T20 transfer case with Warn anytime overdrive
Upgrade springs and Axles Dana 20 series with disc brakes
Replace underseat gas tank with fuel cell in rear
Add 3/8 Sheet steel belly pan and rock plates for engine, tranny, differentials.
Change steering to saginaw steering box and replace radiator.

Weapons
Electrically triggered M2 mounted line of sight for driver
centrally located Pintle mounted M2 for passenger
Rear mounted rack accessable by passenger with the shoulder mounted rocket of choice either RPG or whatever the US supports now.

Utility trailer
50 gallon fuel cell with elec pump
extra Ammo and Food storage
 
What? 10+ posts and not one of you is suggesting a "one wheeled, two handled, armored...w/ a canned .22." This is not THR I used to know :(
 
I'd start with an H1 Hummer and add armor. I know of a Class III dealer that had a transferrable M2HB .50, so that would be the primary weapon for a DIY technical. (If I can afford something well over $125,000 for the basic vehicle and armor, I can afford the $22,000 or so for the .50.)

Probably put a bunch of slots in the side for AR15 pistols as port firing weapons . . . loaded with tracers and Beta C-drum mags, the operators might even be able to hit something. Ahhhh, what the heck, budget another 10 or 20 grand for some transferrable drop in auto sears.

I'd also get a smoke grenade / tear gas grenade launcher so I could shoot and scoot.

Or I could just buy something from these guys: http://www.ibistek.com/secveh.asp
 
Well first you get yourself a used Greyhound bus... I figure the drive train is in the back so you won't get it shot unless you are running away. Relocate the driver to somewhere amidships and armor it. Beef up the frame and I figure you can mount a M61A1 and 2.75 rocket launcher coax up front with limited T&E. Make it remote controlled and Optical/IR to the weapons operator seat. Then you have lots of room left over for a crew served MG or 2, A stinger Quad launcher, Maybe a TOW launcher, a big Mortar or small howitzer, and about six groundpounders along for the ride. (Note to self, play Highway to Hell really loud on bus PA system). Well, now all I need is an unlimited budget and I'll whip one of these up. :evil:
 
Ford Ranger 4x4, Kevlar on doors,floor and any other place in the cabin or under the hood where i could secure it. Self sealing gas tank, bullet proof windshield. No driver or passenger side window. Diamond plateTool box (painted flat black) secured to truck bed. Inside the tool box i would have extra kevlar,2 or 3 modified M1A's and a couple modified Ak47's.
 
If I was to build a reasonably priced urban assault vehicle, I would start off with a surplus Pinzgauer or find a surplus Unimog...or find one already decked out for surviving extreme terrain.

You can also occasionally find surplus deuce-and-a-halfs.

If I was limited to a Toyota, the first thing I'd do is strip everything out, and weld up an exocage. Rollcages are designed to keep you alive, but exterior rollcages keep the sheet metal, windows, lights, and other goodies alive and intact. They're tied into the frame at multiple points and reinforce the engine compartment as well. Guys with exocages have rolled their crawling rigs and started it right back up once it was uprighted.

Engine-wise, you want something simple like a dependable diesel or gasoline engine. Older technology is usually more rugged and easier to diagnose/repair with mickeymouse conditions. New engines tend to require a $10,000 computer to fix a $100 problem.
ARB makes great bumpers that are rockcrawler tested; you won't find a tougher testing condition for bumpers that see abuse. Beadlocked rims and tires are cheaper than a central-inflation system. Add a snorkel for water forging. Add a hilift jack, some blocks, pulling gear, a hydraulic winch forward and aft. That's just for starters.

I'm not a Hummer fan. It works well in general all-purpose offroad but gets outmanouvered and outgunned on real dicey stuff. Depending on where you're going, how extreme you want to take it (ie dealing with building rubble in urban terrain), it might be too unwieldy. IRS/IFS is nice for mild but there is a reason why you never ever see Hummers running trails at Moab or any offroad competitions. Rockcrawlers go solid axle :D Anything designed for rockcrawling will work fine for an urban assault rig.
 
I remember reading an article a while back about a company that up-armours vehicles. They took a Suburban, gutted the back, placed a split roof on top and a perforated steel floor on the bottom. They then mounted a 20mm on a hydraulic mount that would let the gunner stand up and provide 360 covering fire. The brass drops to the road through the floor. IIRC it was for an un-named gulf arab's protection detail.
 
here's me and a coupla friends a few years ago. I'm driving. the guy that owns the m-151 and 1919a4 also owns a ferret and m-114 with a turret mounted 20mm lahti, just to mention the most notable. this m-151 was made up of about three different jeeps, they were all cut up and he welded them back together and was able to make one running model.

122.jpg
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