ROSCOE, Mont. — The windshield was filled with nothing but blue sky as Bill Feeley drove his Extreme Hagglund up the 50-degree incline of a neighbor’s large dirt pile.
“They’re the coolest machine ever made,” he said over the roar of the low-geared diesel engine.
Feeley, 59, was demonstrating the capabilities of his all-terrain machine as his visitors pushed their legs out to brace themselves. He likes the vehicles so much that he builds, sells and rents them out, most recently this summer as transport rigs during the ExxonMobile oil cleanup on the Yellowstone River.
His business, Extreme Hagglunds, is operated out of a shop on his property along the East Rosebud River. Those driving down Highway 78 south of Absarokee, Mont., might have noticed one or two of his rigs parked as if defying gravity atop a 3-foot diameter cottonwood log in his horse pasture.
Made for the military
Feeley’s pet machine is a modified Bandvagn 206, a Swedish-made military transport vehicle that began manufacturing in the 1980s by AB Hagglund and Soner. The company made 11,000 of the vehicles, created to run like a mini tank in Sweden’s snow, mud bogs and even in water.
“They’ll go down a pretty good current in a river and come back up it,” said Feeley, who admitted they don’t do well in whitewater.
What makes the machines unique is their two-for-one power. A front fiberglass cab, which is waterproof, is where the driver and up to six people sit. Behind the front cab is a trailered vehicle that can be modified for several different uses. Originally it was designed to carry another 11 soldiers, but it was also set up to carry a missile launcher and radio equipment. Unlike a trailer, though, the rear unit also has power to its tracks. So while going up a hill, the trailer is pushing the front unit, one of the reasons a Hagglund can go where other vehicles can’t.
What’s also unique is the vehicle’s articulated steering. When backing up, there’s no need to worry about jackknifing the unit. The front and rear tracks are always traveling over the same ground. Because the cabs are fairly light and the tracks are 2 feet wide (the whole machine is only 6-feet wide), the machines also have a very light footprint on the landscape. That’s one of the reasons they can travel so well in the snow.
Tops for hunters
Feeley was introduced to the vehicles in Alaska, where he worked for 29 years as an equipment operator in the oil business. Hunters found the Hagglunds were great for getting into the boggy Alaskan wildlands inhabited by moose and bears, places where all-terrain vehicles often would get stuck.
About 10 years ago Feeley began buying used Hagglunds, most of which were beat up and in disrepair. He now owns 12. Unable to find some of the parts, he began making his own.
“We not only rebuild them, we try to make everything that fails on them a little better,” he said. “You can’t go down to NAPA and get a part for these.”
Feeley replaced the loud Mercedes engine with a quieter four-cylinder Cummins diesel and most recently mounted a Chevy Colorado pickup truck cab atop one of the two-track vehicles so he could have all the bells and whistles of a modern rig — air conditioning, heated seats and OnStar satellite guidance.
“Just because you’re moose hunting doesn’t mean you have to be miserable,” he said. “I learned that a long time ago.”
In a year, Feeley estimates that he and his assistant, Gordon Barner, can rebuild two machines.
“We take every one of these things down to the last nut and bolt,” he said. “All the wiring, u-joints, everything is new.”
Video proof
For the disbelievers in the Hagglunds’ capability, Feeley has posted numerous videos on his website showing: One of his rigs winching a diesel pickup truck up off a snowy mountainside where it had crashed, pulling two Jeeps at once down a snowed-in road, crawling across streams and up steep inclines.
“Through the website, I’ll get calls every day,” Feeley said. “We’ve created our own monster.”
The machines are so versatile that the U.S. military still employs them in Alaska and California. Hagglunds are also used at the United State’s McMurdo research station in Antarctica. And Xanterra used one to haul gear to its facilities in Yellowstone National Park in the winter.
Slow ride
The machines aren’t built for speed. Although licensed for the highway, Feeley’s Extreme Hagglunds top out at about 28 mph. He also has them licensed as amphibious vehicles. To prove their waterproof capability, he drove one into a deep ditch and then crawled up a steep bank to exit.
Built to military standards, the machines are rugged — the gears are all stainless steel. But such rugged construction doesn’t come cheap. The gearbox, if you can find one, costs $8,000 to $10,000, Feeley said. The rubber tracks are $5,000 and can be quickly torn up in rough terrain. After Feeley had finished his reconstruction of the Colorado pickup adaptation, he valued it at $150,000 with the attached trailer. The more traditional model he valued at $100,000.
Feeley is so convinced of the superiority of the Hagglunds to other tracked vehicles that he’s challenged SnoCats to climbing competitions and diesel pickups to pulling contests. He’s never been taken up on his challenges.
“If you have anything that will follow one of these, I want to see it, cause I’ll quit building these and start building them,” Feeley said.
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