The Tracteur Panhard-Châtillon ( was a conventional-cabin, all-wheel drivetruck produced between 1911 and 1918 by the French manufacturer Panhard. It was one of the first all-wheel drive trucks used by the French military.
History
In the early 1910s, after some French government-sponsored trials of new traction systems, a retired French militaryman surnamed DePort, which was the technical advisor of a metallurgical company called Compagnie des Forges de Châtillon-Commentry, decided to develop a new all-wheel drive vehicle. He partnered with the automotive company Société des Anciens Établissements Panhard et Levassor through its then manager Arthur Krebs The new vehicle manufactured by Panhard et Levassor, the Tracteur Panhard-Châtillon, was tested by a French government commission for the first time in 1911. Later, the truck, along with other vehicles designed for difficult terrains, was tested by the French military in 1911, 1912 and 1913. At the tests, the Tracteur Panhard-Châtillon achieved good results. At further tests conducted in 1914, however, it failed as the other vehicles, so minor tests were conducted afterwards. The French military requested the assembly of about 50 vehicles. The Panhard-Châtillons were the only hauling transports used by France for its artillery units that were not horse-drawn at the First Battle of the Marne.
Technical details
The Panhard-Châtillon had a sleeve-valved 8.8-litre inline-fourpetrol engine which delivered between and. At the early tests, it used a 6.6-litre inline-six engine which delivered at about 1,000 rpm. The truck had no universal joints and it mounted a central differential gear. It had a 3-speed gearbox. The Panhard-Châtillon had a four-wheel steering system by which the parallel wheels were linked, not the wheels on the same axle. This allowed the Châtillon-Panhard closer turning radius that comparable vehicles. The wheels were made of cast steel. The wheelbase of the truck was, the length, the width and the height . The heavier produced versions had slightly larger dimensions. It had a payload capacity of and could haul about 15 tonnes.
