What Is This?

[Tow4]

Driving from Reno, NV to Boston, MA this week I stopped in Wendover, NV for gas. While I'm filling up I look over the wall into a casino parking lot and see what looks like a tank sitting on a trailer. I obviously had to go have a closer look.

After closer inspection I think this is probably a powered gun of some type. I've looked around but haven't be able to find a match. At first I thought it was a M109 Howitzer but that's not right.

 

[bearboley]

Looks like a m48 hull

 

[Ruppster]

Looks like a U.S. tank modified to look close to a Russian SPH (self propelled howitzer) for training purposes. Something like maybe a 2S1.

2S1 Gvozdika - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But that's just my guess, I was a Zoomie (Air Force) when I was in and ground targets weren't my specialty.

 

[wreckerman893]

Some sort of modification.......could be an OPFOR vehicle and may have been headed for the National Training Center at Fort Irwin (located in the first ring of ell).

 

[USSR]

САУ 2С3 «Акация» - Self-propelled gun "Acacia"

 

[tamangel]

some vids.. same one...?

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C0quCPpkzU[/media]



and some translated info:
http://translate.googleusercontent.....shtml&usg=ALkJrhjcNo-U7Sfk17FYgAfT_sdz9R4zPA


Mike W

*******

 

[RedbeardTheZombieHunter]

Looks suspiciously like a movie prop to me! I could be wrong, but I doubt it!

 

[Tow4]

САУ 2С3 «Акация» - Self-propelled gun "Acacia"

That looks like it except the tracks, road wheels, etc are different.

I have to agree with some of the other posts; it looks like a movie prop or some kind of bastardized tank.

 

[ryan77]

Looks like something a Abrams can turn into swiss cheese!!!!

 

[M1031CMT]

Yeah looks like a movie prop. Look at the end of the barrel in the last picture. The muzzle break (or whatever it is called) looks like it is made of really thin metal.

 

[eaw46]

Even if it is a prop still want it. Eddy

 

[Danl]

Danl M915A1

Yeah looks like a movie prop. Look at the end of the barrel in the last picture. The muzzle break (or whatever it is called) looks like it is made of really thin metal.

looks like the Barrel is full of concreat as well

 

[timntrucks]

a light weight movie prop would not need a trailer and tractor with all those wheels. this this is sitting hard on those tires.

 

[silverstate55]

It's an M48 hull; you can even see the original glacis plate & driving lights through the open "hatch" in the second & third photos...the M60-series has 3 return rollers, the older M48s had 5. It has the newer non-directional track, but it definitely looks like a movie prop....possibly a German tank? Or a 2S1? From a distance it roughly looks like it could pass for an Afrika Korps replica (remember the props from the movie Patton?).

I have doubts about it being a long-term runner, the way the rear exhaust is blanked off/rerouted....even if it's rerouted, that's a lot of backpressure for extended periods in the hot Fort Irwin desert.

As for weight, it's porbably around 52-55 tons as you see it.

My vote is for movie prop.

 

[USSR]

It is possible that this prop ... For a film about the war with Libya or Egypt or Afghanistan - where our (Soviet) Self-propelled guns were many ...