LRDG Vehicles - Overview

LRDG Vehicles and Equipment
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Overview / Patrol Cars / Heavy Section/Royal Artillery / Weapons and Equipment / Patrol Structure and Camouflage Schemes

From the first Chevy trucks borrowed from the Egyptian Army to the comparatively late addition of Willy's Jeeps, the Long Range Desert Group selected their vehicles with two primary goals in mind: the ability to quickly cross desert terrain and the ability to carry enough supplies for prolonged desert campaigns without the need for refuelling.

All these vehicles were more or less heavily modified to meet the Group's special requirements, and the desert experience of LRDG founder Ralph Bagnold helped greatly in these modifications - not only did Bagnold invent the sand channels that today are standard equipment for every desert driver, he also devised a condenser cooling system that proved to be so effective it can be found in virtually every modern car's engine.
All LRDG vehicles can be grouped in three basic categories: pilot vehicles (Ford 01, Chevy 1311 15cwt and later Willy's Jeeps), which were lighter and faster than standard patrol cars, patrol vehicles (Chevy WB, Ford F30 and Chevy 1533 30cwt) which were often equipped for special tasks like carrying medical supplies or light artillery, and Heavy Section vehicles, heavy trucks that were used to carry larger amounts of supplies.
Apart from these standard vehicles, the LRDG also used a number of other, more specialized vehicles, but none of these ever appeared in substantial numbers.