Bradley Drifting

[rattlecan6104]

I can understand the operator stance on this, great skills create awesome warfighters. That being said, from a maintainer's point of view ( i am an EA-6B airframer) subjecting your equipment to excessive wear and tear has consequences, what if it threw a track, they are now a large nearly immobile bullet magnet. I hate it when our pilots have a hard landing or over G the jets, that causes extra inspections making our work harder, as if it wasnt hard enough. Te hard landing, it sometimes happens, but hitting over 6G's in a 3 g rated jet, thats just a cowboy in a flight suit.

 

[cjtroutt]

Well there hardley any ground pressure on tracked also rubber cleats water & mud on concreat also full battle rattle 72,000lbs + I would not want change tracks or half to recover it with M1070 M1000 system & M88.

 

[hasteranger]

For the non-hip crowd out there who needs a translation: "drifting" is the new, hip word for: skidding to an uncontrolled stop in order to look cool. Almost always ends up in an accident in the process.

No. Drifting is the process of sliding a car sideways while maintaining velocity via a variety of car control techniques. If you are out of control, youre certainly not "drifting" in any sense of the word. Youre oversteering. And if you come to a stop, youre not drifting.
Drifting is a form of motorsport that has a perfectly valid place on a race track and is entertaining to watch and truly shows amazing driving skill.

At most sanctioned drifting events I've attended, accidents are very rare, and when they do occur, are minor.

Compared to wheel to wheel racing I'd say drifting is about 100% safer.

Don't knock something you don't understand!

 

[daniel17319]

I seen rollovers that way, Ive heard it called power sliding when I was in. The BC must be an idiot to let his driver pull that off. Commanding officers are too busy with paperwork or whatever they do, to notice that. When I was a BC id let my guys drive threw whatever they wanted as long as it was safe and the vehicle was rated for that particular gradient. All drivers and crews should know basic info on what the vehicle can and cant do. For example how tall of a concrete wall can a Bradley clime etc.


Edit Changing track is a could training event for operator level maintenance and your not going to throw track powerslideing you throw track due to not maintaining proper spacing on the road wheels and shock and turning too tight in gravel sand or river beds.


ASK me how I know all this LOL

 

[silverstate55]

Rubber track pads & ice don't make good partners....the rubber loses the majority of its flexibility when it reaches freezing temperatures (i.e., running on ice) and it is very easy to get tracked vehicles sliding when on ice.

In 1986 I was stationed halfway up Mount Fuji in Japan. We hated having to go train during the wintertime, as the roads were frozen solid and even with 60 tons we had NO traction. We had several tanks come sliding down what used to be a dirt or muddy trail, but once it froze it was like a giant slide. We removed track pads so just the metal track grousers would try to bite into the ice; DIDN'T WORK. We then swapped every other center guide to face out, like wheel studs or giant ice crampons; STILL DIDN'T WORK! One M60A1 tank got so stuck in a snowbank after sliding several hundred feet downhill that we thought we were going to have to wait until the spring thaw to recover it....3 tanks + 1 M88 all cabled together finally pulled it free. Ice sucks when you're an armored crewman.

The year before, our sister company, Bravo, had a platoon out doing training in the wintertime...they tried negotiating a loooooooong straight downhill dirt trail that was solid ice, in order to go underneath a freeway overpass to another training area. The first tank instantly lost traction, and started sliding faster & faster downhill, spinning around & bouncing from one side to the other.....the underpass was wide enough for one tank to go through at a time, when this tank reached the bottom at the underpass, the nose of the tank had turned forward in time to strike the overpass abutment. The gunner had some fairly critical injuries & had to be airlifted to a hospital in southern Japan. There was a huge chunk of concrete torn out of the freeway overpass abutment, the Japanese highway authorities were really concerned that there might have been more damage to the structure. But in the end the concrete won, the tank crew lost. Every time we'd go through that underpass we'd stare solemnly at the chunk of concrete missing and pray for the injured crewmen.

In the end it's very easy to spin tracked vehicles on ice, and you'd never tell by looking at the track pads. That Bradley driver has some mad skills, that was cool!!

Of course I get paid to do this at my work in my company car....so I'm partial to this exercise!

 

[daniel17319]

Yah i remember that stuff too i was in Korea I remember slipping and sliding all over the road. Ill tell you what a bradley cant be beat going cross country speed wise etc. The wheeled vehicles are just to slow and aggravating to wait for. I never understood why the military wants to go to them so bad, if driven properly they dont tear up the road etc.

 

[zout]

As far as the Bradley - dumb idea.
As far as drifting - I do not see the big deal about any of it - flat track racing on a motorcycle - TT track racing on a motorcycle and 1/2 to mile on flat track with a motorcycle - years ago I use to drift all the time. I guess if ya stick another two wheels under it it gets more exciting.

I never saw the drivers in drifting stick their left foot out the door and slide it on the ground- sometimes even the knees slide the ground if your really good.

Besides that - watch the bikers in world wide events on big tracks brake an slide into the curves to they approach them nearly straight as well - now that is a sport. Then go back an do it in the rain.

 

[robert c neth]

there are to many other misuses of tax payer money to worry about this guy.who nows what may happen if they dont let off a little steam.i could give you many other stories like this when i was in the marines.