US FORCES tractor units

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Good afternoon to you all,

Trundling down the A14 Westbound earlier today, I was passed by a number of left-hand drive dark blue MAN 6x4 tractor units interspersed with three Galaxy 6x4 tractor units, all on what looked like US licence plates, and all pulling very long tandem axle flat trailers. Are the US forces in Europe now running MANs or are these Private Companies hauling on behalf of the US, like the Army Oshkosh tank transporters?

I would be very interested to find out - also I didnt get any pics of them, since I was in a LHD DAF with engine issues, and I was trying to persuade it to keep going at a reasonable speed without causing too much chaos!. So any pics would be welcome!!

I was passed by them cos I was only able to go at about 35-40mph so I apologise to those TruckNet members held up by me between 0800 and about 0915 on the A14,

Ed

2

I’ve seen them coming out of Raf Fairford and Raf Croughton. There used to be a proper yank cabover (a white painted Freighliner?) that regularly used the A40 but not seen it for a while.

3

Probably the Holiday On Ice crew.

4

EDSHARK:
Good afternoon to you all,

Trundling down the A14 Westbound earlier today, I was passed by a number of left-hand drive dark blue MAN 6x4 tractor units interspersed with three Galaxy 6x4 tractor units, all on what looked like US licence plates, and all pulling very long tandem axle flat trailers. Are the US forces in Europe now running MANs or are these Private Companies hauling on behalf of the US, like the Army Oshkosh tank transporters?

I would be very interested to find out - also I didnt get any pics of them, since I was in a LHD DAF with engine issues, and I was trying to persuade it to keep going at a reasonable speed without causing too much chaos!. So any pics would be welcome!!

I was passed by them cos I was only able to go at about 35-40mph so I apologise to those TruckNet members held up by me between 0800 and about 0915 on the A14,

Ed

I think you’ll find the MAN’s are, or were, the response to an attempt to get NATO forces to use common equipment. Most NATO forces now use some form of MAN vehicles. Even the British army have got some of them.

I think the Germans of course used them to transport their Tiger panzers, but I expect the French may have a French built (Renault/Saviem) version - but I could be wrong. I don’t expect the Americans will be taking them back to the States.

5

NathanB:
I’ve seen them coming out of Raf Fairford and Raf Croughton. There used to be a proper yank cabover (a white painted Freighliner?) that regularly used the A40 but not seen it for a while.

I think that one has been replaced with a Scania AFFES i believe

6

The MAN’s in question do indeed run out of RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath. They’ve been around for a number of years now. They’re normally driven by British civillians though.

7

I remember late 80’s to mid 90’s seeing freightliners running up and down the A12. If i remember rightly they delivered to the US airbases.

8

Muckles drove them out off RAF/USAF Lakenheath for a breif stint between race jobs, and that must have been about 5 years ago so theyve been kicking around for a while. The american AFFES are using Scanias between Mildenhall and Felixstowe now instead of the the freightliners :wink: