tracked vehicle question?

[David Dunlop]

As Rob Love mentioned, here in Manitoba tracked vehicles are a " no no" unless it is a major construction vehicle 'helping to improve the local economy', in which case they turn a complete blind eye to it's presence on the roads and the damage done.

The law came into effect around World War One when roads were starting to improve and was initially geared to Agricultural Steam Engines with their huge cast steel wheels with heavy steel lugs. With the arrival of the tank in the war, a lot of attempts were made to convert farm equipment to tracks, but they still tore up the roads badly, so tracked vehicles were banned. This was the result of enough municipalities bitching up to the provincial government, who writes the rules via the Highway Traffic Act. Fast forward 30 years and a whole new family of vehicles arrive on the scene with fully rubber tracks (US Halftracks for example). You try to register one and the guy at the counter hears 'track' and automatically goes into rejection mode. And technically he is correct. The original law never differentiated steel versus rubber because there was no need to 100 years ago.

So what do you think the odds will be for the first Halftrack owner in Manitoba to get his vehicle registered? He's at the bottom of the latrine looking wayyy up at that shadowy government body looming overhead.