M3A4 Hand Cart, Utility - A nice metal fabrication project.

I was browsing through some of the WWII militaria sites and chanced upon this beauty. It's a battle proven design, more so than the tactical wheelbarrow.



Via: http://www.questmasters.us/sitebuilder/images/1943_John_Wood_M3A4_SN_17826_001-627x326.jpg

More pictures (including WWII operational images) can be found at....

M3A4 Utility Hand Cart

The advantage of this trailer is that it could be drawn by a quad bike without too much difficulty, or hand drawn by bipedal grunt power.

Alternatively, the M18 Paracaisson Cart might serve as inspiration for some enterprising home workshop engineer. (I can see some corrugated iron roofing going MIA in the neighbourhood!)





Via: United States Airborne 75mm Howitzer M18 Paracaisson Cart

and

Via: The M9A2/M18 paracaisson - MILITARY VEHICLES - U.S. Militaria Forum


Via:https://handcartz.smugmug.com/HAND-CART-GALLERYS/M18-and-M9A2-PARACAISSON/M9A2/5063523_mnVzrB#!i=304664906&k=Q6N47LZ

Edit: Useful modifications might be altering the drawbar to adapt it to being pulled by animals like a dog cart:


Via: Animali nella Grande Guerra

or drawn by goat power


Via:File:StateLibQld 2 242645 Young boy with a goat cart on a Mount Isa street, ca. 1936.jpg - Wikimedia Commons


If the M18 Paracaisson Cart were to be made water tight, and be augmented with an outrigger...the cart could be used to ferry equipment and supplies across rivers and streams.



Via: https://inlanding.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/ph350_corrugated-iron-canoe.jpg?w=800



Turned upside down, and supported by a framework of poles...the cart could form the roof of an improvised bush hut.


Via: Garden Shed With Rowing Boat Roof Isle Of Mull Scotland October Stock Photo | Getty Images

 

You gotta love ex-military equipment.
How much for the pack Howitzer?

 

I like the idea of the 75mm pack howitzer....it may not have the range of the 105mm+ ordnance, but it is certainly a versatile piece of kit that still has a role I believe. Particularly so in mountain warfare environments such as Afghanistan.

 

Love me some of that. Been looking into some projects along this line, gona have to see what I can scrounge up now.

 

The main body of the above paracaisson cart would be 60% complete simply by cutting a section of 30" culvert in half

 

I want some of those shinies...

 

Use a 55gal steel barrel. Already has both ends, and would be much more stable than split culvert.

 

Both would work just fine, but the stability or Rigidity would come from both the corrugation of the culvert and the dividers as well as the end caps.

 

Interesting concept... may be modified out of lighter /more common current materials....say a plastic barrel, or water cube on a tubular frame.... take the concept and think out of the box....

 

Or this.....

 

Yeah, ask the French how effective a howitzer can be, against a mountainous area fortress that has been labeled as impossible to defeat. The VC just took the guns apart, transported them, piece by piece, then reassembled them on site and showed the French that NOTHING is undefeatable!

Battle of Dien Bien Phu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I had that same thought when I read Chell's post