Once an Air Force base, now an event venue. The old buildings still scattered alongside the runway and a few military vehicles from bygone times are just sitting there as decorative items. For those who are topographically interested, google Vliegveld Twenthe. It was an ideal location for the splendid truck show I attended.
A bit sad to see this DAF YA 328 artillery tractor fading away. Luckily, there are still many others out there, often in an excellent condition.
Without any doubt, the YA 328 6×6 is DAF’s most legendary military vehicle ever. It was developed in the early fifties, yet one can say it’s an evolution of pre-war DAF military equipment and knowledge.
These were powered by a 132 hp, Hercules JXLD gasoline engine. The transmission was a constant mesh, ZF five-speed.
At the rear, the tow hook and winch combination, to which the gun was attached. The YA 328 was also built as a cargo truck (with a longer bed) and as a fire engine or crashtender (albeit in small numbers).
The truck’s most distinctive and famous feature was the so-called H-drive drivetrain, with drive shafts on both sides, lengthwise between the wheels and the frame rails. There was only one differential and the wheel travel of the rear tandem was phenomenal.
The real thing, its left side.
And the right side.
Left side, behind the front wheel.
On uneven terrain, the spare tires functioned as supporting wheels, rolling along just fine. They also protected the driveline.
Many YA 328 action videos have been posted on YouTube, like this one. These Dikke DAFs -their nickname- will soldier on for years to come, though all of them have retired a long time ago.
This must be an armo(u)red personnel carrier, or APC, in short. CC’s military experts can fill in the details.
The same applies to this lovely couple.
The former air base traffic control tower from another point of view.
There are eight of these old F-16 shelters on the premises. The 2021 Fiat Ducato 2.3 MultiJet II (140 DIN-hp in this van) was the smallest set of wheels at the show. Say, those are some serious LEGO bricks to play with!
Related article:
Museum Classics: DAF Museum Eindhoven, Part Two – The Military Vehicles
Nice post, Johannes. Thanks for sharing. I will certainly have to check that place out. Is this truck show still going on (probably not)?
That Dikke DAF is quite the beast. Very cool how the spare wheels have multiple additional functions.
Thanks Corey! It was the 40th anniversary party of the regional truck owners and drivers club, held on September 11 and 12. So the place should be completely abandoned by now.
That looks like a mig 21. Strange place for it to be.
Now thats a go anywhere truck the wheel articulation is incredible I can see why they were successful, just needed a diesel up front.
Great photos… liked the detail of that tough suspension
The APC appears to be an M113 with an unusual stowage box and exhaust arrangement. They were ubiquitous in NATO and allied armies from the 60s to the early 2000s and both the Dutch and Belgians used them.
The aircraft is almost definitely a MiG 21 trainer perched on a snowblower truck
APC is an ex-British FV432 Mk2. Like the M113 these were built into many variants including a mortar carrier, a Swingfire antitank missile launcher (FV438), an ambulance, a forward command post, several recovery/maintenance vehicles, and so on. Powerplant on the one in the picture is a six-cylinder Rolls Royce K60 multifuel engine, usually set up to run on diesel.
The running gear was also used as the basis for the Abbott self-propelled gun.
Some 432s are still in service with the British Army in their improved Mk3/”Bulldog” variant, many at the British Army training base in Alberta (BATUS).
This is one of those rigs that made every boy child think : I _GOTTA_ get me an Army truck !
The action video was great, thanx for sharing it .
-Nate
The European antique car club, CAAR [Club Ancient Automobiles & Rallys] used to plan and conduct large rallies every other year, one time going from central Europe to the Arctic circle, in 1991 they went from Amsterdam to Moscow and return. For the next rally in 1993, as the US rep for the club, I invited them to come to America and drive the old Rt 66 to the Pacific ocean. The club had a very large contingent in Holland, and because the tour would be the longest ever attempted [3,600 miles, or about 5800 kilometers], they wanted to create a rolling repair shop to fix cars while the group kept driving.
The Dutch government donated two of the longer box truck versions of these big 6 wheel trucks. They were both equipped with a comprehensive selection of tools and basic auto repair materials. One of the vehicles along on the trip was a Citroen DS that had been turned into a car hauler, and the suspension was capable of not only lowering to drive a vehicle onto it’s bed, but with some additional hydraulics, it could raise the bed up high enough to put a vehicle into one of the DAF trucks!
We brought about 150 vintage vehicles thru the port of Baltimore, and about 450 people came by airplane. We drove down to Washington DC, where we had the cars on display at the Washington Monument before heading off for Chicago and the start of Rt 66. The trip took almost 2 months, with plenty of sightseeing, parties and parades every evening. And yes, there were some minor breakdowns, and the trucks sure came in handy. They were able to work on vehicles in the back of the trucks as they continued with the rest of the group.
Unfortunately, I heard that a “less than honest” vintage car shop in California, who had offered to let the trucks sit on a side lot for a few weeks until the ship arrived to take them, suddenly demanded way too much money for storage costs, and they refused to let the trucks go. So once the ship had sailed, it became too costly to pay for the shipping costs for a second time.
Somewhere in the Los Angeles area there are probably two big 6 wheel DAF military trucks sitting. Hopefully the guy who kept them, discovered the trucks were never legally imported into America, as they came in on a special visiting vehicle exemption, and were required to be exported within 6 months, so I’m sure there will be taxes and penalties owed, to title and register them in the USA. I’m told that if DOT or EPA finds out who has them, or where the trucks are located, they will be impounded.
Thanks for the story Bill. Would it be hard to register and drive one of these in the US, or is it just a matter of it has to be at-least-25-years-old? Some of them ended up in Canada, as far as I know. All of them are in private hands here now. Just like the much smaller YA 126 4×4 (also with H-drive), they certainly haven’t become rare yet.
Regarding the “comprehensive selection of tools” you mention, there was the special edition YA 328 toolsetwagen, picture below.
Source and more YA 328 pictures:
https://www.legervoertuigen.nl/ya328/uitvoeringen/uitvoeringen.html
I can take a shot at the purpose of the piggy-back jet.
The truck looks North American to me. I believe it’s an Oshkosh. Appears to be a bit of Detroit Diesel visible at the engine enclosure. It probably started life as a flight line snow auger and maybe doubled as a crash truck?
The jet I can’t I.D. My guess is that it’s mounted there to use as a blower. Maybe to clear runways of snow, water, or loose material? Maybe a draft blower for the big autumn bonfire? lol
Using the complete jet maybe in keeping with KISS philosophy. Low level of skill-set needed to configure it and plenty of more jets in the surplus when it’s time for another.
All of this is hunch, feel free to shoot me down if you know a better explanation.
The jet is a Russian MiG-21, the most produced supersonic plane ever built, and still flying 60 years after its debut. Your guess that it’s used as a blower is pretty wild, but then I know how you roll.
The jet was bought from Poland and is mounted on that truck as a promotional display for the airport exhibits. That’s why the name of the airport (VLIEGVELD TWENTHE) is painted so prominently on its sides.
If you’re sure of that I’ll take your word for it.
However, jets repurposed as blowers aren’t unheard of.
Remember the Kuwaiti oil field fire extinguishers?
The DAF is quite a wonder, and very cool. Amazing it appears that wire, albeit, thick wire, holds the suspension from drooping too far.
Surely that shock absorber has a gigantic amount of work to do? Doesn’t it have to damp rebounds from the entire weight of the drivebox ‘box and beam thingy between the wheels, as well as the big wheels themselves?
I wonder how they got the MIG? Remember when the defecting Soviet pilots played hardball and insisted on getting 75 bucks -firm- for the MIG? lol
The Oshkosh is no throwaway swing-axle Cold War relic either – that’s still valuable rolling stock. How’d that get slipped out of Lend-Lease? lol
I wasn’t rolling THAT far out there. ¯\_(⊙_ʖ⊙)_/¯
Google offers up a bunch of other jet-cum-blower examples.
“During the 1960s a number of MiG-15’s were used by the Polish State Railways to clear the tracks of ice and snow. The rear fuselage and wings were removed and the engine was operated from the cockpit. Similar set-ups were used to remove ice from railroad tracks and railroad switches in the permafrost areas in Siberia, and even in East Germany during the harsh winters.”
https://aviationhumor.net/mig-aircraft-jet-engine-snowblowers/
Closer to home, one of these days we should get our CC man-on-the-ground in Chicago, Mr. Dennis, to visit Roosevelt and Canal for a look down into the rail yard to see if the fuselage-less jet blowers are still there?