They’ve been around for a long time; modern versions with metal frames and rubber tires date back to WW2. Yet the default for infantrymen is still huge and heavy backpacks and equipment belts. What limits their utility that they aren’t used more regularly for hauling equipment?
Ever try to run pulling a hand cart? On rough, soft and possibly cratered ground?
Rubble filled streets or a jungle trail?
Read a book once, no idea what it was. About Marines in the Korea era I think…but they hauled bulky radios and maybe water by hand cart. Can only imagine how heavy the steel carts themselves were.
I’ve tried carting across very rough ground. It was impossible. Carting across smoother ground is easier…but then if its smooth enough for a cart, its just as easy for a motor vehicle.
THe pack method is better for stealthy movement in rough terrain where carts can’t go. first rough spot or doorway you hit, you’ve got to leave the cart behind
Oft published photo of members of the 4th Marines in the first Philippines campaign (early 1942) using hand drawn machine gun carts.
But I agree with previous statements that such carts were generally useful on some kind of road, and at least the US WWII ground forces usually had motor vehicles to carry heavy items on roads, as would also be assumed now. And even for armies of WWII less well equipped with motor vehicles, there were always animals to pull carts or carry the items. Then setting out across difficult terrain, carts didn’t work very well either.
Belgian dog drawn mg cart in WWI
http://f795fe2de91f50f91140-ecc7a1b539366e8f2ef544c76a8ee300.r44.cf3.rackcdn.com/images/Belgian_dogs_trained_to_draw_quick-firing_guns.JPG
As opposed to having 85 lbs on your back? When you could leave all the stuff you don’t immediately need and recover it later? (Or if you can’t you weren’t going to use it anyway).
Here’s one site about the carts used in WW2:
http://www.theliberator.be/handcart.htm
Apparently there’s interest in making updated versions’ this one is supposedly based on adapting stretchers/litters already in use:
http://www.combatreform.org/atac.htm
But I agree that the two-wheel versions might be challenged by terrain. What got me on this subject was a more bush-friendly version that might be more workable. They now make “monowalker” bush trailers that are essentially one-wheeled travois:
https://www.monowalker.com/images/galerie/sommer/6.jpg
They look like they can go almost anywhere someone could walk; and the model linked to is actually designed to fold into a pack frame so you CAN shift the load to your shoulders if you really need to.
I mean, if the army is seriously looking at exoskeletons to deal with load requirements you’d wonder if this would at least be worth a try.
A lot of our combat operations these days are in urban environments. You’re not going to be very successful getting a cart through a narrow doorway, or up a flight of stairs, or over a wall. Even the first potholed road you take it down is probably going to make you miss your backpack.
A convertible system will still have wheels, which adds weight, and one thing soldiers hate is stuff that allegedly makes their lives easier but in reality is just more shit to carry.
Plus it’s not exactly stealthy: a cart’s going to make more noise, risk reflecting more light, and create a larger visual profile than a backpack.
Well that looks interesting, but if it is efficient in most combat situations it would probably be used right now. My experience with a 2 wheeled cart was that I was always going over rocks and stumps that were at least a foot high. The contraption was always getting snagged and didn’t negotiate corners or get through tight spaces; I had to drag it over anything taller than the axle; which meant I essentially had to lift it over because it wouldn’t roll over things that tall. I suspect that terrain that consistently has obstacles more than a foot high would result in you basically dragging your monowalker.
sand would be a problem too.
I think its a great experiment for you to try out though. Build yourself something then load it down with 80 lbs of stuff and take it through various harsh environments that don’t have any paths, sidewalks or roads. I’d be interested to know if it works with some consistency. I suspect it will prove more difficult than it would seem.
I’ll note that part of my job is to help people get DoD funding for new technologies, and if you come up with something there is a path to have the DoD pay you to develop it, then they will buy the devices from you.
Do you think you could help me get funding for me to develop my new anti-infantry cart idea?
It’s the federal govt… I’m sure someone there will think it’s a great idea to throw money at.
How well is the cart going to work going building to building? I can’t it being able to handle corners, stairs, and doorways very well. Since fighting in cities is a really major part of the job of infantry, if the cart is a hinderance in that environment it’s probably useless overall.
Mechanized and motorized infantry have even better “carts” with motors and a lot better carrying capacity. The light part of the infantry is best employed in areas where modern mechanized forces have difficulty - swamps, rough ground, heavy underbrush/jungle, dense urban areas, etc. That leaves the window of places where a cart would be useful for them more limited. If they are operating in terrain where the cart can work acceptably they are at more risk from the heavy part of an enemy’s forces.
As others have already noted, carts and wheeled vehicles are suited to flat terrain like paved roads or hard packed dirt. They are practically unusable in most other terrain, incluing rocky, hilly, muddy, snowy mountainous, or debris-strewn terrain, which happens to be where most infantry combat occurs. While carrying 40% of your body weight on your back is not comfortable or easy, you can carry those kinds of loads over all but the roughest terrain; I’ve personally humped 30 kilos of folding kayak, paddle, food, water, and gear several miles of off-trail land and down a rough bluff to a remote beach without exceptional difficulty, a feat that would be impossible using a wheeled cart.
And infantry soldiers don’t carry “stuff you don’t immediately need” and generally don’t plan on returning to recover stashes later unless it is part of some kind of preplanned operation. The US Army has been looking at robotic “mules”–six legged vehicles that can traverse difficult territory and cary hundreds of kilograms of supplies–for extended duration treks, but they are very specifically focused on walking propulsion because of the handicaps a wheeled vehicle would have.
Stranger
They should save money and use actual mules. Far better performance in rough terrain.
Look, for instance, at the Boston Dynamics BigDog, a four-legged robot designed for use in rough terrain with a capacity of over 300 pounds,
But then you would have the animal rights movement to deal with - far scarier that any putative enemy.
Mules are temperamental, obstinate, require regular supplies of bulky, perishable food, and are difficult to transport internationally at short notice. Special forces units sometimes use pack animals to carry heavy gear and supplies over rough terrain where air drop is not feasible, but the animals are generally procured locally and accompanied by guides familiar with them.
Stranger
For each hand cart, there is a soldier with his hands not on his weapon… therefore a couple seconds (at least) behind his squad-mates in reacting to a threat. Not a good thing if the squad just walked into an ambush.
Wheeled carts are also subject to gravity, and will tend to go downhill much more rapidly/uncontrollably than a pack or ruck, if released on a slope without being secured.
Any place you can take a handcart you could take a jeep instead. I’d rather have the jeep.
Actually, you can get a Jeep or Hummer in places where it would be virtually impossible to get a hand-pulled cart into. Wheels are great on groomed or paved surfaces on moderate grade, but are pretty much useless otherwise.
Stranger