Copyright 2009 by Brandon Cope

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Saurer SdKfz 254 armored artillery post

The SdKfz 254 was a strange little vehicle. While halftracks were a compromise between tanks and trucks, wheel-cum-tracks vehicles combined both types of propulsion, running on tracks off-road and wheels on road. This required heavy and expensive gears to raise and lower the wheels ftom inside the vehicle. There were very few designs that used this kind of configuration (the Swedish L-30 tank being another) and it proved to be a technological dead-end.

The vehicle began life as the Austrian RR-7, developed as an artillery tractor. After the Anschluss, 128 were produced for the Wehrmacht, but the role was changed to artillery observation. Better radio equipment was fitted and the passenger space was reorganized for artillery spotting.

The driver sat on the right with the engine to his left. He had a small door to his right. The observer had a hatch in the roof and there were double doors for the rest of the crew in the rear.

The SdKfz 254 had a crew of five: driver, commander, forward observer and two radio operators. The SdKfz 254 used 2.1 gallons of fuel per hour at routine usage.

Subassemblies: Small Halftrack chassis +3, two tracks +2, four wheels +1..
Powertrain: 53-kW gas engine with 53-kW tracked transmission and 53-kW wheeled transmission and 21-gallon standard fuel tank; 4,000-kWs batteries
Occupancy: 5 PS.  Cargo: 4 Body

Armor
Hull: F 4/50, R,L 4/25, B 4/25, T 4/20, U 4/20
Tracks: 4/15

Weaponry
None fitted, but an MG 34 (Ground LMG) was sometimes carried internally and fired from the observer's hatch if required.

Equipment
Body: Medium radio receiver and transmitter, small radio receiver and transmitter, precision navigation instruments.

Statistics

HT: 9
HP: 300 [body], 19 [each wheel], 85 [each track]
 
On wheels

Very High Ground Pressure. 1/4 Off-Road Speed.
 
On tracks

Very Low Ground Pressure. 4/5 Off-Road Speed.

Design Notes
As a very unusual vehicle, some twists in the design system was required. The light halftrack chassis was chosen since it worked better for weight and volume than any of the tank chassis. A Medium Weapon subassembly was bought to represent the wheels (while a halftrack has a pair of wheels, they were ignored for this design). For performance numbers, it was treated as wheeled or tracked (not halftracked)., except for ground pressure: the halftrack suspension area was used for tracked ground pressure and the Small Weapon subassembly area was used for wheeled ground pressure. Final price was increased by 50% to account for the mechanical complication.

Wheeled speed was increased from the design speed of 35 mph. Loaded weight was increased by 4%.

Variants
The RR-7 artillery tractor (1938) carried 6 cramped passengers and lacked the medium radio set. 12 were built. Some sources incorrectly call this the RK-7.