Military Snow Trac ST4 - which nation???

I recieved this photo from our member ARLOW up in British Columbia. They got it from a friend but have no source of origin so it is a bit of a mystery.

This appears to be a military spec'd Snow Trac ST4, it has the customary pintel hitch in the back used by NATO forces on other Snow Tracs. It also has the outside fuel tank and two spare track sections mounted to the front fenders ahead of the headlights, again typical of the military units. One intersting thing I have not seen before, at least not on military units, is the exhaust stack running up the back of the unit and exhausting at the roof line.

There is some sort of designation on the back. The letters are RABV. The A has an umlaut over it, so it might be from one of the Germanic speaking nations? Any clue on what that lettering means? Or what language it could be?

A few other interesting points, there are two cylinders on the drivers side, any clue what could be in those? There is a revolving warning beacon that appears to be mounted on a pipe on the drivers side of the unit, a large spare tire, and a white thing that might be a sled or carrier of some sort?

Could this be a military ambulance?

The picture can also be found at http://www.snow-trac.com/photos-military.htm

He says he got the pictures from Bob Persons and/or Lyndon Strother.

The registration plate looks to be a standard Swedish military plate, or maybe Norwegian. But in Norway there is no letter "ä" so it must be Swedish! Puh... did some really serious thinking there.

I can't really figure out what the RÄBV stands for though. The BV is probably short for bandvagn (band wagon??).

It's a Swedish Snow Trac all right. "RABV" is probably from RAdnings BandVagn wich is translated into Rescue tracked vehicle or something similar..... Looks like two fire extinguisers and a rescue sled amongst it's equipment, so probably from an airbase or so. Just a guess on my part though.... but definately not a Norwegian one.

SweGus said:

The picture can also be found at http://www.snow-trac.com/photos-military.htm
. . . The BV is probably short for bandvagn (band wagon??).

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I didn't even think to look there. But Warren has 2 photos of this Snow Trac posted. Good catch!

nwerring said:

It's a Swedish Snow Trac all right. "RABV" is probably from RAdnings BandVagn wich is translated into Rescue tracked vehicle or something similar..... Looks like two fire extinguisers and a rescue sled amongst it's equipment, so probably from an airbase. . .

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I was thinking the white thing on top might be a rescue sled of some sort. And the cylinders would likely be fire extinguishers if this is some sort of a rescue vehicle.

Both of you posted that it might be "BandVagn" and I could not figure out what you meant by that, but then it dawned on me. Band = Track .
So BandVagn roughly translates to tracked truck

These pictures originally came from Bob Persons, the owner of AKTIV. He said that this was a NATO Machine. It has a Tall Cab, and the Fire extinguishers, spare track sections, a "knock-down' strobe light mount, a cab heater, extra tanks, Shovel on mounts and a bunch of other extra equipment. They were nothing like the British military version. It is likely that this machine had a real Porsche engine. The Brittish machines had stainless steel lifting hooks, were 24Volt and had a dummy fan that contained no generator. They also had no Wing windows and canvas tops that were poorly designed.

I've seen the "lifting hooks" on some of the military units. Were those only on the British military Snow Tracs?

It cant be a NATO machine because Sweden has never been a member in that organisation. Sweden has since 1994 cooperated whith NATO in a program called "Partnership for peace" or something, but never before as far as I know.

Re: Rear Fenders:

I can't confirm where or who owned this machine, but I would guess that Bob Persons would know who the original purchaser was. I've owned 13 Snowtracs and worked on 2 dozen more and the one feature that this machine has, the rear snow fenders, would have been nice on all machines. Especially the Snow Master and Trac Master which tended to throw up a bunch of snow and road trash on the rear windows. Eventually they threw up enough snow to completely block the rear windows.

It would not surprise me if this was a last brave try from Aktiv to compete with Hagglund and Volvo to supply the Swedish and Nato military with a replacement for the M29 weasel. I know the Norwegian armed forces tried out a few SnowTrac's, but as soon as the Volvo/Hagglund Bv202 was ready, they bought that in stead. The Norwegian army SnowTrac's were standard civilian versions of the ST4 painted semi-gloss "forest green", but retained the red color inside. They were not used by combat troops, although we fitted both a 0.50cal machine gun and a MG3 on "mine" when I did my service.

nwerring said:

They were not used by combat troops, although we fitted both a 0.50cal machine gun and a MG3 on "mine" when I did my service.

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