Miltary vehicles retuning from abroad

Some Canadian HLVW military trucks (Heavy Logistic Vehicles)  have been returned to Canada by ship in recent weeks. I first spotted three of them October 31 lashed down to container frames, but they had been in Halifax for some days then, so I have no idea exactly where they came from.

Because of the casual lettering applied to doors, I assume they were declared surplus before they left their overseas postings and have been returned here for sale. Alternately they may be ear marked for rebuild since they do not appear to be in poor condition.

Two for the price of one?

These trucks have been Canadian army workhorses since 1990. 1,212 of them were built by Urban Transportation Development Corp (Can-Car), based on the Steyr 1491 Percheron as the UTDC 24M32. 

Long overdue for replacement (2015 by some estimates) the process has started to find a new 16.5 tonne+  6x6 which may be delivered as soon as 2021. Military procurement being what it is, I am not holding my breath.

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Lashed and ready to go

A string of trucks loaded on flat cars is an unusual sight on the waterfront. Usually it is cranes imported for Canadian users. This time however it is several Canadian vehicles, probably heading back to their base in Grand Prairie, AB.  Belonging to to the Valard Group, a conglomerate of fourteen brands it is the Canadian presence for Quanta Services. They specialize in engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance of power and telecom transmission projects. I suspect these vehicles were working on the Muskrat Falls project in Newfoundland., and they were a bit of mixed bag.

Leading the parade was this twin steer tandem Western Star with a Manitex crane.

 Next was a twin steer Kenworth with a National crane and triple axles, followed by a modest Freightliner.

The last in line was another W'Star also a twin steer, tri-axle with Manitex crane, sharing its car with Deere a front end loader.

There were also a number of trailers and other gear loaded on rail cars behind the fence at pier 31, out of photo range.

The "Manitex" brand name on the crane booms appears to have been painted over with single coat of white paint, but was still visible. Based in Bridgeview, IL, Manitex was started in 1983 by Manitowoc Company and sold off to new owners in 2003 and is a totally independent and unrelated company separately listed on NAASDAQ.

Manitowoc acquired Potain in 2001, Grove and National Crane in 2002 and continues to make National Cranes for boom trucks in addition to a range of construction cranes and is active world-wide.

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