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When did the wheel become lost to the Imperium? It seems every vehicle next to the Tauros is a tracked design. The Arkhan Land discovery must've been more significant than anyone thought, replacing wheeled vehicles with treads.

Why is the wheel such a rare item either in military or civilian use?

Ultimately, tracks allow for superior traction and enable a vehicle to overcome more obstacles. Since antigrav-technology has become so rare, it's the next best thing to make sure the vehicles of the Imperial military forces can get around on just about any world without much retrofitting (such as tire chains for arctic environments).
I'd assume the only advantage that wheels have to offer would be improved speed, which is not as necessary to Imperial tactics as it is for contemporary military forces. Or rather, when vehicles truly need to be redeployed fast, they're going to call in an airlift. Much more tricky to do that today.

Doesn't mean that some PDF might not use wheeled vehicles, of course.

That's just how I would rationalise what I've seen, mind you.

 Lynata wrote:
Ultimately, tracks allow for superior traction and enable a vehicle to overcome more obstacles. Since antigrav-technology has become so rare, it's the next best thing to make sure the vehicles of the Imperial military forces can get around on just about any world without much retrofitting (such as tire chains for arctic environments).
I'd assume the only advantage that wheels have to offer would be improved speed, which is not as necessary to Imperial tactics as it is for contemporary military forces. Or rather, when vehicles truly need to be redeployed fast, they're going to call in an airlift. Much more tricky to do that today.

Doesn't mean that some PDF might not use wheeled vehicles, of course.

That's just how I would rationalise what I've seen, mind you.

This

Apparently there are civilian vehicales with a name that coveres practically all of them (it escapes me at the moment though).

Trucks, cars, chimera versions, and other vehicales do have wheels. For a proper tank there is no such thing.

But i've read of cargo trucks in the IG , just like the large movers in the Army, I always envision them to look like the giant cargo truck the US army used in WW2, with 1 chassis that can be modified to your hearts content to allow for whatever you want. but since they never see combat they are not mentioned much. fancy passenger cars do exist for the elite without resorting to Anit Grav tech (which is hard to get as it is).





Otherwise in the millitary circle, wheels are not used for the off road capabilitys (like mentioned above by Lynata). Tracks are superior to wheels in this respect, expecially when the ground you are covering is covered in craters, dead bodies and who knows what else.

Some Imperial worlds see the wheel as evil, a path to Chaos.

Wheels are probably rare because the battles you fight in 40k are deep in combat zones, not usually near supply lines/depos where wheeled vehicles would be in more use. That said, if you do want to model a supply depot under attack go ahead and make trucks, cars and whatever you'd like!

Wheeled vs. tracked combat vehicles is an age-old debate in military geek circles. However all-wheel AFV's are fairly new. 40k was designed in an era where nearly every kind of combat vehicle out there was tracked. Not very difficult to see why GW went that route.

There is a reason many modern military vehicles have tracks. They allow for superior traction and can operate in all kinds of weather.

Wheels become pretty useless if you are in deep Mud or Sand. Wheels are actually only suitable for relativly flat hard surfaces.

Plus, a tracked vehicle can be much heavier then a wheeled vehicle. Better weight distribution. Its why all main battle tanks are tracked.

Wheels also are more resistant to enemy fire. A wheel can be disabled relativly easily.

And as many environments as the IoM drop IG regiments into, tracks are just an all round better option.

Another point is the only advantage that wheels have over tracks is that they are much more quiet on pavement. This is why we use wheels on our vehicles currently instead of tracks but I can't imagine that the IG cares much about having quiet anything.

 Hunterindarkness wrote:
And as many environments as the IoM drop IG regiments into, tracks are just an all round better option.

Indeed, better to not need them and be prepared then to drop a regiment down and have all their vehicles be useless.

Practicality isn't an issue in 40K, lol. This is a universe where it doesn't matter whether or not your super-heavy or titan is way too heavy for the ground/road/bridge to support.

The vehicles have tracks because that's the aesthetic that 40K is going for.

Tracks are just better to anything on the frontline unless speed is the major concern, and they got anti-grav for speed.

After all, tires go flat relatively easy. and you REALLY dont want a tank to be stranded because some dude with a shotgun took a shoot at your wheels.

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:
Practicality isn't an issue in 40K, lol. This is a universe where it doesn't matter whether or not your super-heavy or titan is way too heavy for the ground/road/bridge to support.

What makes you think they are too heavy for bridges and roads to support?

You do know that tracked vehicles exert very little ground pressure. And then the Roads in the Imperium are likely built to carry much heavier loads then roads in the 21st century.

A mountain bike puts down over double the ground pressure that an M1 Abrams Battle Tank puts down.

Across what, a few square inches at a time?

Irrelevent. If the tank would break the pavement the mountain bike would too.

Bridges are different as they care about total weight but that is easily solved by the Imperium building its infrastructure to carry massive loads.


Survival manuals tell you that if you fall through Ice on a river or lake, crawl out of the hole in the ice and continue to crawl on your belly till you reach safety. Thats because you distrubute your weight accross the surface and it can carry you, where if you stood up all your weight would be on one spot and you could go crashing through again.

Right, it's not about ground pressure. It's about load bearing. No matter how wide your elephant spreads itself, it's still going through the ice.

And in the case of the Imperium, the Ice is probably 10 feet thick and has lots of Skulls. No way the Elephant is going through that.

Because wheels are easily disabled, Tracks are not

 Grey Templar wrote:
And in the case of the Imperium, the Ice is probably 10 feet thick and has lots of Skulls. No way the Elephant is going through that.

Imperial Engineering: When in doubt, add more skulls.

 MajorStoffer wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
And in the case of the Imperium, the Ice is probably 10 feet thick and has lots of Skulls. No way the Elephant is going through that.

Imperial Engineering: When in doubt, add more skulls.

Don't forget rivets.

 Trondheim wrote:
Because wheels are easily disabled, Tracks are not

Not 100% true. A well-aimed rocket will wreck a tread very nicely. Your tracked vehicle will only be able to go around in circles after which. Taking out one of eights wheels on a combat vehicle won't do as much in disabling it and it will still be able to move, for the most part. Also, from experience, replacing a busted track is a CRAZY job compared to replacing a wheel.

Bear in mind that a lot of IFVs these days are designed with very, very, sturdy wheels. Think about Strykers and how often those get immobilized by IEDs - not very often.