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Few manufacturers mean that they are very expensive (generally custom made today, in one case I've seen by a shipbuilder), which limits commercial usage. Beside
by jcrawfordor 6y ago
Few manufacturers mean that they are very expensive (generally custom made today, in one case I've seen by a shipbuilder), which limits commercial usage. Besides that simple issue though I think it mostly comes down to poor maneuvering on hard surfaces which somewhat limits them to snow/sand/mud, and the drivetrain is probably more delicate and difficult to maintain than tracks which discourages military use. One of the big advantages of tracked vehicles in a military context, for example, is that they do not get flat tires. A rolligon could easily lose an entire bag. I'd imagine they probably carry spares and tools to swap them but no one would want to do that on a battlefield.
From what I have read, they are, in general, not really designed for survivability like most off-road vehicles we think of, but rather for payload. So operators send them in groups of two or three because they do get stuck or require repairs en route from time to time.