T he logging roads of British Columbia are among the toughest proving grounds for trucks, so a rig forged in this environment is one you can depend on. That’s one reason the Canadian Armed Forces chose the Western Star 4866S as the leading cab-and-chassis platform for its demanding Engineering Support brigade.

These HESVs (“heavy engineering support vehicles”) are designed for on- and off-highway service and have seen duty in far-flung locales (the Balkans, Kuwait) and close to home (in Quebec providing support during the ’98 ice storms).

“The truck is ideal for that sort of work because of its high ground clearance, all-wheel drive, and the ability to run under full load at highway speeds,” says Master Corporal Kirby Vincent, a heavy-equipment section commander from the #1 Combat Engineer Regiment at CFB Edmonton. “And the fact that it has air conditioning and a stereo doesn’t hurt.”

With all the flexibility designed into the chassis, these trucks don’t sit around long. The chassis is engineered to handle a standard 20-foot marine container, which serves as a jumping-on point for a number of military applications, including mobile command posts, medical facilities, and storage. As well, the military uses a flatbed pallet system designed around the same dimensions to move just about anything that can be tied to the deck.

So now we have a single truck serving several transport functions, but it gets better. With a small modification to the hydraulic system, the HESV can also be outfitted as a snowplow/sander, tipper box, or a three-way dump box. As you can see in the photograph, below left, the pallet-loading system (or PLS) lets the HESV tip freight at a destination, then hook onto a tipper box and drag it away. The PLS hooks to the front of the pallet and drags the pallet onto the chassis, just like a roll-off box.

Vincent says the only limits to what the system can haul are weight, vertical clearance, and the ability to tie the material down on the pallet.