The Trado was a truck manufactured by DAF in the Netherlands. It was named after the co-founder of DAF Hubertus van Doorne and captain engineer Piet van der Trappen (Trappen — Doorne).

Design

The Trado consisted of a leaf-springed bogie with two actuated road wheels that could be easily attached to, driven by and rotate on the back axis of any commercial truck, thus adding a "walking beam" to the vehicle that significantly improved its cross-country performance.

Trado III

The Trado III suspension system, an improved version, was a considerable commercial success and applied to many existing and new civilian and military truck types.

Pantrado

The armoured vehicle projects had the designation Pantrado in common, a contraction of the Dutch word ''Pantserwagen'' (armoured car), and Trado. The Trado III suspension could be fitted with a track on the lines of the

Kégresse track A Kégresse track is a kind of rubber or canvas continuous track which uses a flexible belt rather than interlocking metal segments. It can be fitted to a conventional car or truck to turn it into a half-track, suitable for use over rough or soft ...

, changing a vehicle into a

half-track A half-track is a civilian or military vehicle with wheels at the front for steering and continuous tracks at the back to propel the vehicle and carry most of the load. A half-track combines the soft-ground traction of a tank with the Car handl ...

Pantrado 1

The first project, the Pantrado 1, envisaged a very long type with a good trench-crossing capability, brought about by applying the principle of the articulated vehicle: it was to consist of two fully tracked truck hulls attached back to back, connected by a large horizontal articulated cylinder. The full track was to be achieved by extending the track over the rubber-tired front wheels. The cylinder could be split, creating two tanks, each with the engine in front and the fighting room, crowned by a gun turret, at the back.

Pantrado 2

The second project, the Pantrado 2, was in the form of a single half-track.

Pantrado 3

The third armoured project, called the M39 Pantserwagen, or Pantrado 3, dispensed with the track option entirely and was a pure armoured car. In view of the intended reconnaissance role of the vehicles to be procured, the

Royal Netherlands Army The Royal Netherlands Army (, KL) is the Ground warfare, land branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. Though the Royal Netherlands Army was raised on 9 January 1814, its origins date back to 1572, when the was raised making the Dutch standing a ...

was only interested in this third type. In the autumn of 1937, the army ordered a single prototype to be built; Van Doorne and Van der Trappen had indicated this could be finished quickly as they had already prepared the manufacture of a demonstrator vehicle. The claim to superiority to British design was based on the use of a welded

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

construction combined with a consistent use of the

sloped armour Sloped armour is armour that is oriented neither Vertical and horizontal, vertically nor horizontally. Such angled armour is typically mounted on tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs), as well as Naval ship, naval vessels such as battl ...

principle, which was predicted to lead to a much improved weight-efficiency. This type did thus not utilise an existing truck chassis, as was common for contemporary armoured cars.

References

{{Reflist DAF vehicles Automotive transmission technologies