The story
On 8 August 2011 an ARGO 8x8 amphibious vehicle helped repair the power grid in Radzików near Błonie, outside Warsaw.
Over two days and nights the area around Radzików (25 km from the centre of Warsaw towards Poznań) was hit by a storm and heavy rain. The river Utrata burst its banks, and a lightning strike burnt through a power line supplying several hundred homes and businesses, causing real financial losses with every hour for property owners, companies and the electricity distributor alike.
Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that the water level at the poles, and for several hundred metres in each direction from them, made it impossible for PGE's service crews to intervene.
The ARGO 8x8 was the only vehicle that could cope in such conditions (mud, marsh, reeds, tall grass and ground flooded in places to a depth of 110 cm). The task was precisely defined: to carry three people from the service crew with the necessary equipment (many kilograms of gear and steel cable), then find the broken ends of the stranded cable and pull it to the right pole, and moor at the pole so that the service technician could climb onto it safely. The manoeuvre had to be repeated at three different poles.
The service crew were delighted with the capability and versatility of the ARGO 8x8.
Watch the film: perhaps you too have a transport problem in really difficult terrain?
The vehicle performs in mud and in water alike, drives over rocks and fallen trees almost a metre in diameter, and in winter crosses deep snow, travelling on top of the drifts on tracks. It climbs gradients of up to 45 degrees over any terrain, however difficult, in all four seasons — and where you can drive no further, you float, as in the case described here. Photos from the operation below.
