Bobcat modified to mobile artillery

[rickshaw]

.......those things are a blast to drive. Work the tillers just right, get it bouncing, and you can get all four wheels off the ground at the same time!

Ain't that the truth! 

I drove one while installing the world's largest wave-maker in Holland in the 80s. The sandy soil there made for LOADS of mini-sand-dunes and the Bobcat spent a lot of time airborne! 

When I was in the Army I drove for several exercises a Clark AWS35 rough terrain forklift.  It had four wheel drive and four wheel steering and no suspension beyond the rubber tyres.  I remember one rather late night driving from one unloading area to another at fairly high speed along a paved road.  I hit rather a large dip in the road and it went down suddenly, only to hit the bottom and then became airborne!  I shat myself and slowed down quite a bit after that.   

It looked rather like this one:

[Old Wombat]

Depends on which Bobcat product you intend using. They have a fair range in differing sizes:

Skid-steer Loaders;
https://bobcatofaustralia.com.au/bobcat-equipment/50/Bobcat-Skid-Steer-Loaders


Track Loaders;
https://bobcatofaustralia.com.au/bobcat-equipment/51/Bobcat-Track-Loaders


Telehandlers;
https://bobcatofaustralia.com.au/bobcat-equipment/78/Bobcat-Telehandlers


I rather like the look of telehandlers for weaponising.

Of course, you could always bypass Bobcat & go for CASE or CAT versions of the same things.

[Hobbes]

If we're allowed to choose why not go right to the top:



This is the JCB HMEE, a military-spec backhoe loader based on the JCB FasTrac. Top speed 80 km/h.

[Rheged]

I assume that people are thinking of the Bobcat  arm elevating rather like the FV1620 Humber Hornet Malkara http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/coldwar/UK/Humber_Hornet_Malkara.php

[maxmwill]

That is what I had in mind, then I began to think along the lines of the M50 Ontos, with arms off to each side. But then, with each arm articulated(hey, once you can get the hydraulics figured out, the rest can fall into place), the same set of hydraulics for the back could be used, as well.

[NARSES2]

Played with one of those, or something very similar. A couple of years ago me and my niece borrowed one from the farmer over the road from her/my brother's stables/riding school to bury a recently deceased horse. It was one of her favourite's and she didn't want it to go to the knackerman. Fairly easy to use when you got used to it. Said horse got buried with it's tack and blanket etc so I can just imagine what archaeologists in a thousand years or so will think about the religions being practiced in the North East 

[Old Wombat]

If we're allowed to choose why not go right to the top:



This is the JCB HMEE, a military-spec backhoe loader based on the JCB FasTrac. Top speed 80 km/h.

"Coz I think that's getting into the large-ish side of things, where you're almost at the size of actual missile/artillery carriers.

[maxmwill]

Which is why I began the speculation on an armed Bobcat(just had the mental image of a feline bobcat with a pair of Stingers, one to a side, which would be conceptually identical to the Soviet use of animals armed with explosive charges to scoot under tanks).

[Old Wombat]

I like the telehandler because I can see the arm being replaced with a magazine-fed artillery piece in the shoot'n'scoot role.

Between 6 & 12 of them disperse into an area with a fire-control vehicle of some kind, the telehandlers' drivers then switch over to remote control & the fire-control system takes over. The fire-control system, which has been given a target (area), fires a salvo, tracks the first rounds, corrects then empties the magazines in a time on target barrage. Then off they all scoot to get re-armed for the next job.

[maxmwill]

And with the length of the arm, the rest of the vehicle could remain further concealed and protected enough that it'd stand a better chance of scooting elsewhere after the full load has been extended.

And on that thought, and this is just a WAG, a modification of Stalin's Organ? With each missile programmed for a different target in a multiple engagement(lots of enemy armor)?

[Old Wombat]

Yeah, I can see that!

A box of fire-&-forget missiles, similar to the Javelin, on the end of the arm, with a targeting unit on top able to give each missile a separate target prior to a mass firing sequence. Then off he goes to re-arm & pop up somewhere else.

[maxmwill]

Exactly.

Now comes the fun part: finding a suitable kit of that or similar, and an old Stalin's  Organ kit of the same scale(parts). Of course, there might be need for other parts to modernize the rocket launcher tube area.

[Rick Lowe]

Then there's this, from the Battle Tech universe:

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Light_SRM_Carrier

Sorta-Kinda the same idea?

And don't bother with making individual tubes (unless you want the light, stripped-down look) - use Boxed or Podded missiles - then you only have to depict the ends of the tubes and the missile noses.
Or the closed doors.

Might be easier to make a box, than multiple tubes?

[Steel Penguin]

Rick, though that's "light " only in the definition that mechs go to 100 tons in the game, at 40 tons in game its not that small

[Rick Lowe]

Rick, though that's "light " only in the definition that mechs go to 100 tons in the game, at 40 tons in game its not that small

Fair comment.