We get a 36 tonne tank BADLY bogged... Taking Aus Army's $24M Boxer 4WDing

This episode, we're doing something a little different. We've teamed up with the Australian Army, and they're going to let us take on some tough tracks in these 8-wheel drive, 15 litre, V8 Monsters. Strap in, this is going to be epic. Jocko. Hey, Jesse. How are you, mate? What are you up to? Oh, just in the shed, like always, mate. What are you up to? That's the way, never ends. Hey, I'm in Queensland. Do you want to go for a wheel? Always keen for a wheel, mate. When and where? Yeah, sick. All right, I'll send you a pin. I don't think you've done these tracks before, so I'll meet you there. All right, I'll park up and jump in the car. Yeah, Jocko, I'm up. I've got that pin, but I can't see you. You got a copy, mate? What do you mean you can't see me? I can see you. Nah, can't see you, mate. Cannot see you. Don't know how you can see me. Hang on. How about now? Mate, you definitely showed up in style. Good to see you. Good to see you too. What's going on? You've got a bit of explaining to do, I think. Yeah, we do, mate. We do. There's something a little bit different. We are at the Wide Bay Training Area. I thought you'd figure that out. I thought I was going to the wrong spot, but then you popped out of that thing. Yeah, mate. This is what the Army's using today. And ever since driving the old Land Rover Parenti up in Cape York, I had such a good time in that vehicle. It's what they used to use, and I really wanted to see what they're using now. Bit of an upgrade by the looks of that. Bit of an upgrade from an old Parenti, mate. But we've got some G-wagons here. There's some recovery trucks. There's a whole bunch of different vehicles we're going to have a look at. And I thought we'd put them head-to-head against the GU, because you've built that thing. It's pretty capable, but... So the GU is versus all the Army cars? Yeah. Yeah, I thought that'd be... Oh my goodness. I might have made a bit of a competition to see who can come out on top again, mate. It's the Australian Army versus Jesse Gleeson. The Australian Army has 55,000 acres of land to play with here. They primarily use this area for exercising live fire training with field artillery, anti-tank weapons, and lastly, training their soldiers to drive heavily armoured vehicles, which is what the Army have invited us to do today. These soldiers and vehicles make up part of a squadron of the 2nd XIV Light Horse Regiment, Queensland Mounted Infantry, which until recently used the ASLAV to carry them through conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan. However, their current line-up of rigs represents a big step in troop protection and support. Let's get down into the details of what makes these vehicles similar to the average off-roader, then put them up against Jesse's GU to see how they fare. The G-Wagon. You've probably all seen these driving on the road in convoy and wondered what they're like as a four-wheel drive. They've outfitted the Merc with a compressor system, but this thing has hosing tucked away in the bull bar and the rear quarter, ready to go on the driver and passenger's side, making inflation quick and easy. A turbo diesel V6 powers this thing, and it's got plenty of torque for when and where you need it. You'll notice while it's outfitted with bar work, this variant doesn't have a winch. That's because when they get stuck, they're never alone, and they radio their mates in the boxes. And if they have to come get you, do you... How's it work? Do you owe them beers or something? Yeah, fair. Boxes of beer. Yeah, fair enough. Both these vehicles rock German drivetrains, with Jesse having converted his GU to a BMW engine, so let's see how they go. The tracks have been broken up into several stages of difficulty, starting at the easiest, stage one. The instructors gave us a quick run-through, just as they do with the trainees. And then, it was Jesse's turn. All right, mate, you're the first one off the rank. How do you reckon you're going to go? Mate, someone's got to set the fastest time, don't they? That's true, that's true. But the Perenti tailed you up in Cape York. The G-Wagon's probably going to tail you up here. I can't hear you. So, when you're ready, three, two, one, go. I've got to try and set the time, but these army vehicles are super quick, so I've got my work cut out for me. Here we go, we come up the hill nice and fast. Now, this downhill bit does look a little bit sketchy. Once I get square, I might even throw a little bit of relocker on, possibly. Bit of a drop-off. Gee, it's a bit wider than the G-Wagon, so hopefully it doesn't feel quite as bad. Maybe a little bit of a wheel lift. Oh, my God. Down the hill. How'd it go, mate? Oh, yeah, sorry, I haven't... Let me stop. Wait. I'll just stop it now. That's cheating, right? That's cheating. No, that's good, yeah. You set a good time, but we've got some military vehicles to point their noses up there. I reckon it's going to be interesting. We'll see how they go, eh? Ready? 3, 2, 1, go! He knows he's going to win, so he's just showing off. All right, see how this thing goes, eh? Wow, it loves it. I stuffed the time trial. I'm having way too much fun driving this thing, so I'm going to take it slow and check out this slippery drop-off ahead. Just going to have a look at this rock. Well, this looks pretty intense. It's quite slippery over there. I reckon I'll probably square off to it this way and kind of... Yeah, you can tell there's a lot of other vehicles that have gone through here, so I think you'll be all right if you just follow your ramp. Yeah, well, maybe hold on for this one, I reckon. The brakes in this thing are pretty impressive. Yeah, they're very good. How'd I do? Yeah, very good. Do you reckon I'd be qualified on a G-Wagon? Yeah, most definitely. Oh, happy days. More qualified than me. Not a bad time, but I reckon we should move on to the next stage. Okay, so maybe Jesse's GU isn't the average off-roader, but now that I'm G-Wagon certified, the army have offered me an advantage I cannot refuse. Wheeling the boxer. This thing packs a 15-litre V8 that makes over 500 kilowatts, and it needs it because it also weighs around 36 tonne. This, to me, represents the ultimate evolution of a four-wheel drive. Eight wheels, diff locks all around, and even four-wheel steering. It'll eat the GU for breakfast. We caught up with some of A Squadron who gave us some insight on these absolute behemoths. A major feature of these vehicles, modularity. They can have what they call the mission module removed from the main section and replaced with several different variants. Think of it like a canopy or toolboxes that can be swapped around on a tray to allow for many different setups. This boxer was outfitted as a CRV, which stands for Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle. Mate, seriously impressive, and I can see you've named it after Jesse too, the Aussie battler, but no, seriously cool. Thanks for showing us. No worries, mate. Thank you so much. Next up, we checked out the MPV variant, or Multipurpose Vehicle. The focus for this module is more suited to safe infantry transport. Pretty epic setup you've got here, mate. We really want to go through them a bit more because, obviously, for the people at home watching, take us through it. What's going on? Yeah, so this is the Boxer MPV variant. These are basically designed to move around troops in the back, provide a bit of fire support. We've got a .50 caliber machine gun on top. We've got a crew of three, a driver, a commander, and a gunner. Eight-wheel drive, four-wheel steer, so they steer the four wheels at the front. Central tire inflation system so we can drop all the pressures in our tires from inside the vehicle. The driver can do all that. You heard that right. This thing can inflate or deflate its tires at the press of a button. With modes for sand, mud, or gravel, the infantry don't have to waste any time managing pressures and can focus on doing what they do best. What's driving one of these like compared to, say, a normal road car or a four-wheel drive? Well, the seating position is quite comfortable. It's very similar to a four-wheel drive, I'd say. Yep. You're looking through the periscopes in your day-to-day life, so it's sort of like looking through, like, something the size of a rear view mirror. Normally, we would have six dismounted infantry-type soldiers living out of the back of here. These seats are designed to keep our feet off the bottom to protect us from any blast energy. It's all air-conditioned in here, so it's quite a comfortable environment in the back here. Wow. Pretty amazing in here. I think what's impressing us so far is the amount of similarities. I mean, there's lots of things that help them off-road with tire pressures and vision and traction aids and things like that, but the difference is way more power, way heavier, and way cooler. I reckon it's time. We get this thing out on the tracks. Oh, this is so cool. I don't really have high hopes for Jesse on this one. Let's give it the old one more, no more, hey? All right, you ready, mate? Yeah, mate, I'm ready. Three, two, one, go. Oh, quite flexy up there. Here's the big ewy point. I think I'm making good time, but I don't know. Not bad. Not bad at all, but I'm kitted up. It's time to see what the boxer can do. Jesse's in trouble. Mate, how do you think you're going? Look, I think I'm doing okay. You guys are definitely faster in some spots, but I'm trying to make up the spots in speed where I can, but it's fine. I think I'm going okay. Yeah, man. Yeah. Army guy now. All right, ready to go. Three, two, one, go. If you're wondering why I drive this thing, it's remarkably similar to driving a vehicle, and it doesn't feel like you're driving almost 40 tons and have 15 litres of engine under your right foot. Oh, my goodness. I could not wipe the smile off my face. This was almost like a childhood dream, driving this thing, and even though vision was limited through the periscope, I had reliable comms from the commander poking out the top, who was telling me everything I needed to keep an eye on. And driving this was honestly one of the coolest things I've ever had the opportunity to do. Epic. Truly epic. That was so fast. I'm getting completely teared up. I reckon I want to go. Jocko, mate. Hello, mate. Another competition between us two. It's always a competition. It's good fun. It's kind of Jock's rules again here, you know. Yeah, mate, so you've won, but I'm going to ask you a question. I've tried my hardest to keep up, and you're tearing me up in these big machines. If I admit defeat, can I get a turn in there? Because all I've seen is you smiling. Mate, I've got to be honest. I was expecting this because, yeah, obviously the GU, you know, compared to the Boxer, it's a bit of chalk and cheese. Yeah, no real comparison at all. I haven't been able to wipe the smile off my face. So I've got you some gear, mate. So chuck one of them on and also chuck this on. Yeah. And you can have a go as well, hey? All right. Sounds good. Loving it. There you go, champion. You look the part now, mate. You ready to go? I feel the part. I'm so ready to go. Let's get in. Mount up. Let's do it. We've trained hard. We've both won some stages and both lost some. But now it's time for a bit of fun. These things can lock one side and do skid steers for a tighter turning circle. Check out this small town Wide Bay has for training purposes. Sick. And then, somehow, we got the Boxer bogged. All 36 tonne sunk down to its belly. These rigs don't have winches though. And that's because they don't need them to get unstuck. They call in backup from other Boxers in A Squadron who are never far away to whip out some of the biggest recovery gear I've ever seen. This is what they call a Boxer to Boxer recovery. This is pretty hectic. These recoveries are a lot more serious than what we're doing because there's so much more weight at play. Didn't take much for the big Boxer to go down, but these guys are training to get them out of situations like this and there should be no drama at all. Amazing how similar a lot of things we do in the bush are very similar here, but there's a lot more going on. This is insane. They made quick work of that. We then headed for another play area where I got it bogged again. In the driver's seat there is Jock. He had one job, driver in the truck. He's gone off course and he's stuck. Jocko, you can't park there, mate. But you might be wondering, who do they call when all of the Boxers get bogged? Well, they showed us that rig too. This behemoth here is the 42M Mann Rheinmetall Medium Recovery Truck. This thing sports a 10.5 litre diesel that makes over 2,000 Nm of torque. This thing can weigh up to about 90 tonnes. They have a crane up top with a serious winch that loops its rope through the front hoops across to a winch point and then back again for basically a double line pull. After they showed us that, we called it a day. Well, Jesse, I don't know about you, mate, but this is probably one of the coolest things I've ever done in the history of ever. I think it is the coolest thing I've ever done, mate. It's been unreal to see the capabilities of these things. They're on a totally another level. It's crazy. It was pretty cool being able to bring the GU in and go head-to-head, but when I saw these things, I knew I had no chance. But there are some similarities between us four drivers and these things. They've got diff lock, they can let down the tyres and pump up without getting out, so I'm pretty jealous about that. One thing I've noticed is there's no winches. They're that confident. They've got a big tow rope on the front, but no winches. They just go over in pairs. Of course, we wouldn't have been able to do this without all the legends at 2nd 14 Light Horse Regiment. These guys have probably one of the coolest jobs in the world, and they've been so awesome to us over the last couple of days driving these things around. Really looked after us. Yeah, they've put up with you, they've tolerated me, and we've had an absolute ball, so thank you so much. And of course, if you've liked what you've seen, check out the 7th Brigade Australian Army's Facebook page. You'll see more of these vehicles, and who knows, maybe they'll let us back sometime. Yeah, throw some comments down, tell them you want us back, because we're going to come back and drive some more of these things. I reckon they're super cool. Apart from that, we'll catch you next time.