In the game Snow Run there is a special mod truck. The truck, called the Sterling T26, was a special tractor developed by the United States for transporting heavy tanks. With its unique steering mode and unique transmission system, the Stirling T26 mod has a lot of popularity. In today's article, we're not going to talk about games. Let's step into reality and discover the past and present and uniqueness of Stirling T26.
The top is real** and the bottom is the game screen.
If you want to talk about the Stirling T26, you have to go back to the 40s of the last century. During World War II, the U.S. Army had a number of heavy tractors for the transport of heavy armored vehicles such as tanks. In 1942, the United States began to develop a new M26 "Pershing" tank, and its 41-ton weight made it difficult for the US Army: although the existing M25 tractor was capable of towing this class of weight, it had a small safety margin and could not tow heavier tanks. In order to leave room for the development of tanks in the future, the Americans decided: to develop a newer, more capable heavy tractor with better off-road performance.
American M25 heavy tractor.
In October 1943, the American Council formally proposed a new plan for the development of a heavy-duty tractor, and the relevant technical specifications were disclosed. According to the needs of the U.S. Army, the new heavy-duty tractor must be 8x8 all-wheel drive and the air weight must be controlled within 12 tons, so as to bring excellent transportation capacity and off-road ability. The development of the new car was entrusted to Wisconsin-based Sterling Motors (Stirling Motors). And this company has lived up to expectations, meeting the needs of the U.S. Army with "imaginative" technical solutions.
At the end of 1944, a prototype of the first Stirling T26 heavy tractor was built, which was subsequently sent to Texas for field testing in early 1945. From the outside, the most special thing about the Stirling T26 is that its two front axles also have a twin layout, and the steering angle also looks weird. And that's what sets the Stirling T26 apart.
The Stirling T26's twin front axles are designed with a "trolley" type bogie design, with two front axles mounted in parallel and connected to the frame by a rotary table. The rotary table rotates the entire trolley structure to achieve the steering function. In addition, to meet the military's 8x8 drive needs, Stirling designed a chain drive system for the T26 heavy-duty tractor, which is connected to the engine and gearbox by a metal chain to output power.
This special structural design makes the Stirling T26 heavy-duty tractor have several outstanding advantages. First of all, the front axle of the vehicle can also be equipped with twin tires, so that the vehicle ground contact area is larger, thereby reducing pressure, improving off-road performance, and enhancing the passability in muddy road conditions. At the same time, the twin-tire layout allows for a stronger carrying capacity, which makes it possible to transport heavier armored vehicles in the future.
Gears and chains can be seen in the later modeling diagram.
In addition, gearing was already an outdated technology at the time, but Stirling Motors stuck with it. The reason for this was that the car's designer, Steve Hodges, believed that the quality of the steel at the time was relatively low, the structure with the axle drive was more complex, and reliability could not be guaranteed. It was for this reason that the retro chain drive system won the repechage race on the Stirling T26 heavy-duty tractor.
In extremely muddy conditions, the Stirling T26 is also capable of installing a track kit. This kit enables the dual front axles and twin rear axles to be combined into separate track groups, thus further improving the vehicle's passability. This special package also benefits from the vehicle's "trolley" double front axle structure.
The boxy two-row cab without doors is also a different kind of scenery.
In terms of drive, the Stirling T26 heavy-duty tractor is powered by a Lafrance 300E engine, a V12 petrol engine with a displacement of 12The four-litre production produces 280 hp and 702 Nm of torque, mated to the gearbox and transfer case, with a total of 20 forward gears and three reverse gears, giving the car a top speed of 56 km/h. The development of heavy-duty diesel engines in the United States is relatively late, and this heavy-duty gasoline engine can be called an "oil tiger", consuming 100 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers, which is one liter of oil per kilometer.
In the case of no load, the weight of the Stirling T26 is 12 tons. With the addition of flatbed trailers and Pershing tanks, the total weight of the connection reaches 817 tons. Under such high loads, the sturdiness of the vehicle's frame is put to the test. As a result, the front end of the Stirling T26's frame has been tweaked to a stepped design to better distribute the weight.
In the early stage, two basic Stirling T26 heavy-duty tractors were built, one equipped with a steeplechase container and tarpaulin, which can be used to transport all kinds of goods. The other is equipped with equipment such as a saddle and is used to tow the tank for testing. The long development cycle made the Stirling T26 heavy-duty tractor miss World War II, and the higher fuel consumption and lower speed made the military put higher demands on it.
In 1947, an improved version of the Stirling T26: the T26E1 model was born. It gets a more powerful Ford GAA V8 petrol engine made from all-aluminium and has an 18-litre displacement, producing 500 hp and 1,424 Nm of torque, boosting the car's top speed to 67 km/h.
On top of this, the Stirling T26 series is also derived from the T26E2, T26E3 and T26E4 models. According to the data of the United States *** Expo, the T26E1 has produced 3 units, with two configurations: tractor and truck. T26E2 produced 2 units with a wrecker configuration. The T26E3 and T26E4 are available in two configurations, a tractor and a truck, and they use the Fuller 5M920 and 5A920 gearboxes respectively, one of which are built each. With the addition of 1 prototype, the production of the Stirling T26 series is only 8 units.
Although production is scarce, there is still no denying the technical characteristics of the Stirling T26 series models. However, it is still a model born at an opportune time. It had a long development cycle, and after World War II, the U.S. Army turned to more lightweight, nimble, and versatile trucks, and the expensive bulky model was abandoned. At the same time, the Stirling T26, as a heavy tractor, could not tow the T28 and T29 heavy tanks that were being developed by the United States at that time, which also drew an end to its subsequent development.
Although it was short-lived, the Sterling T26 still made a lot of impressions. Including its unique "small car" type double front axle, as well as gasoline V12, V8 engine, chain drive and other structural features, all represent the United States in that special era of heavy-duty towing solutions. Although it did not fulfill its intended historical mission, it is still worth remembering. Thank you for reading this article! If you want to see more interesting and informative commercial vehicle content, don't forget to ***!
Text: Heseaotter