Something I thought about while hauling a small load of stone

[maxmwill]

Many many years ago, when I was but a wee lad of tender years, and working as one of the yard men at a ornamental stone dealer, whilst having fun on a bobcat, a little tractor(for those who might not be familiar with it), as I was helping load a bucket load of crushed limestone into a customer's truck, I began to think about how such a nifty little bit of industrial equipment could be used as some sort of armor/light artillery.

In order to propel the bobcat, make it turn, as well as make it go in reverse, you have a pair of tiller arms you hold onto, must like some tanks have.

And in order to operate any hydraulic accessories, such as a bucket, an augur, or other which requires it to be lifted, you have a set of pedals.

And so, thinks I, how possible would it to have some sort of elevation, traverse, azimuth, or anything else needed for some sort of light cannon, or set of cannons, or any other ordinance that could be fired?

Being 17, and not having any kind of real world experience that comes with maturity, I ask forgiveness for being naive, and yet, lo these many years later, like any childhood memory that seemed to make sense at the time, I have always wondered if something like this could be fleshed out, or should I chalk it up to the same attitude that causes young boys to consider that the Transformers were really neat and something else?

[zenrat]

I got locked in a Bobcat once...

I can visualise a squadron of Skid Steer Loaders (to use the non-generic trade name designation) armed with miniguns making a cavalry charge against an emplaced enemy...

[kerick]

I think you would have to upscale to a larger machine to be useful but it sounds interesting. These machines are very maneuverable and impressive with a skilled operator.

[Hobbes]

Elevation is easy enough, but a traversing system would require a whole new superstructure, it'd quickly eat up the available load carrying capacity (a few hundred kg for the small ones)

[PR19_Kit]

Would you need a traversing structure though?

If you fixed the gun elevating bit or whatever to the chassis like that low profile Swedish tank, you could traverse the weapon by steering left or right with the stick things. It may not be that accurate of course but if it was good enough for Sweden etc.

[rickshaw]

That is exactly how many of the robots which use similar chassis work, Kit.  The problem with using this for a manned machine is that the man effectively doubles it in size.  Then you have the problem of armouring it.  Like the Bren carrier, it won't be able to carry sufficient to protect it against anything except the lightest of small arms and will give it's occupant an illusion of invulnerability (the British Army used to have a quiz where the question asked was, "Is the Universal Carrier an AFV (Armoured Fighting Vehicle)?"  The answer was no.  It wasn't designed to be one, it wasn't intended to be used as one but all too often it was pressed into service as one, despite it's unsuitability for the role).  Making it a robot or a remotely operative vehicle makes more sense.  It is expendable (albeit an expensive item) and it can be armoured sufficiently for the same size to withstand anything except an RPG or larger round).  Armed with a GPMG or HMG and several rocket launchers, it would make an excellent house assault aide. 

[maxmwill]

I think you would have to upscale to a larger machine to be useful but it sounds interesting. These machines are very maneuverable and impressive with a skilled operator.

Well, at the time, being a youngster, I thought that it'd be a "neat idea".

[zenrat]

I think at least 1 of the smoke jumpers in Planes 2 is a Skid Steer.

[Old Wombat]

Actually, not such a bad idea.

Skid loaders traverse quickly & efficiently around their wheel-base with no need of mechanical system to do it for them.
They already come with an elevation system (the lift-jacks for the front load) but I'd remove that excess weight, anyway, at the same time the working equipment (scoop, fork, jack-hammer, post-hole digger, etc) is removed, because it's much too heavy for the weapons system requirements.
They carry quite a lot of metal around the engine to act as a counter-balance to the front-carried load which could be drastically reduced to improve load carrying.
Some of them can already carry up to 75% of their weight as functional (frontal) load, as is.

Fit them with an electric-mechanical or hydraulic-mechanical elevating mount behind the cab suitable for carrying Mk.19 AGL, M2/M3 .50cal HMG or M240/L7 7.62mm GPMG & the ammo cans can sit on either side at the rear of the vehicle (where all that excess metal has been removed).
Alternately you could fit it with MANPADS and/or MANPATS.

Fit spaced composite armour around the operator (it will probably have to be developed for the purpose) or run it as a remote weapons system.

[Go4fun]

As Old Wombat said getting rid of excess weight is a great idea. Also by doing so the little bopper becomes even quicker and more maneuverable. I worked in a lumber yard where we had every thing from the smallest to the monster skid loaders that could reach three stories into the air and pick up half a ton at a time easy.
The only time I worried about running over the smaller skid loaders was when they were parked. A good operator could dodge and duck an empty one around where you would have to really work to catch one with another vehicle and hit it.As an ex-TOW gunner I would hate to try to hit one at any range if they saw the missile coming! Armor it up to HMG levels and let the guys with the RPGs go cross-eyed just trying to hit one!

[Thorvic]

Didn't the Battle Machine Brothers get the same idea and created the one man SWAT tank ?

[Hobbes]

Would you need a traversing structure though?

If you fixed the gun elevating bit or whatever to the chassis like that low profile Swedish tank, you could traverse the weapon by steering left or right with the stick things. It may not be that accurate of course but if it was good enough for Sweden etc.

I get the impression a skid steering vehicle doesn't have very accurate steering, it looks like an on/off system. If you want to hit a small target (e.g. an enemy tank at 2 km), you'd have to rebuild it to allow something approaching proportional control.

[Old Wombat]

A good handler can be very precise with a skid loader.

However, the point here is; "What can a skid loader carry that it can fire at a tank 2km away?"

Because there is no way a skid loader can carry a gun of sufficient fire-power to seriously threaten a modern AFV, the only possible answer is a MANPATS, for which a full weapon traverse system is not required. All that needs to traverse is the targeting sensor (& even that only needs to traverse by a few degrees, given the agility of the skid loader) which can be mounted above the cab, between the launchers.

[Dizzyfugu]

The question is valid, but I think there are too many disadvantages.
One is issue is power to weight ratio. Another is IMHO a very high CG (not good for stability) and limited maneuverability - even if you consider a one-man tank for urban warfare, I'd think that its operational area would still be limited to open space. Even if it is small you will hardly be able to enter a building and move outside areas where lorries etc. would be able to move.  Breaking through the floor is no fun... That's what is also frequently ignored in Powered Armor Suit designs.

Then I'd think that it would be hard to add a decent armor. There are almost exclusively vertical surfaces - you either have to pack (more) armor onto it (than on a sloped surface), and if you modify the overall shape to a more protective design, this will eat up space and increase overall dimensions.

[rickshaw]

Would you need a traversing structure though?

If you fixed the gun elevating bit or whatever to the chassis like that low profile Swedish tank, you could traverse the weapon by steering left or right with the stick things. It may not be that accurate of course but if it was good enough for Sweden etc.

I get the impression a skid steering vehicle doesn't have very accurate steering, it looks like an on/off system. If you want to hit a small target (e.g. an enemy tank at 2 km), you'd have to rebuild it to allow something approaching proportional control.

Well, skid steering seemed to work quite well for the Strv-103.   It's interesting how accurate you can become with practice. Swedish tank gunners could hit tank sized targets at 2,000+ metres with a fixed gun.

This is the sort of thing I'm visualising: