Transporteur de char

A tank transporter is a combination of a heavy tractor unit or a ballast tractor and a mating full trailer, hydraulic modular trailer or semi-trailer (typically of the "lowboy" type), used for transporting tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles. Some also function as tank recovery vehicles, the tractors of which may be armoured for protection in combat conditions. Used on roads, tank transporters reduce the wear and tear on tracks and the other components of the powertrains of tracked vehicles. They also conserve fuel, are less damaging of road surfaces, and reduce tank crew fatigue. Overall, they are more efficient at moving tanks at higher speeds and longer distances than the tanks themselves. Three chassis designs have been used, generally in this order over time as loads became heavier, although there are exceptions. The lighter tanks of World War I and the interwar period were carried on simple rigid flatbed lorries. As the weight of tanks became too great for lorry chassis, separate trailers were developed. These carried the entire weight of the tank on their own wheels, putting no weight onto the tractor unit. They are pulled by a ballast tractor connected to a drawbar. The simplest trailer designs have only two axles, but heavier loads frequently require more than this. Multiple wheels per axle are common, usually four, sometimes a hydraulic modular trailer is employed which can have 8 or more number of axles which are hydraulically steerable and height adjusted. One advantage of ballast tractors is that they are capable of double heading, where two tractor units are coupled to pull a hydraulic modular trailer. Other attempts have been made around 1942 with heavy-trucks, as known for the Dart T13 Tank Tractor. Some designs, such as the 1928 Aldershot design, grouped pairs of axles at each end of the trailer. Others, such as the 70-ton Cranes trailer used to carry the Second World War-era Tortoise heavy assault tank, had five axles, spaced along the length of the trailer.