New WI Member - 1992 Medical Ranger Special Operations Vehicle

[MEDSOVowner]

Hello, I'm happy to join this Land Rover group and share some pictures and information of my new and relatively unique acquisition. I picked up this Medical variant of the 1992 Defender 110 Ranger Special Operations Vehicle, or MEDSOV for short. It was sold in 2011 by the US Government to a Wisconsin municipality about three hours north of me that used it as their search and rescue vehicle for ATV and Jeep trails. The stock MEDSOV has the ability to mount six stretchers: two over the hood and four in the rear, making it an interesting and outside the box idea for a search and rescue ambulance. Recently, they replaced it with a UTV and after making them an offer they found agreeable I happily took ownership of it.

They made some modifications to the vehicle after obtaining it - they had a fabricator create a roof and plexiglass windshield and add doors, as well as adding plexiglass shields on either side behind the cab to protect the stretcher area. They also bolted two seats into the back between the stretcher areas to allow two first responders to treat patients. Compare the pictures of my vehicle to the unmodified picture I've provided to get a better idea of what was added. For the moment I plan on at least removing the rear seats as well as the plexiglass side shields. Despite being the Medical version, this one came with the .50 cal machine gun mount which is removable.

This vehicle has just shy of 9,000 miles. We took it through some jeep trails and it performed admirably. While driving it home today it got just under 24 miles per gallon with a steady speed of around 60mph, which should hopefully be slightly improved after removing the plexiglass shields. The interior is typical military comfort - next to none! Seatbelts were added in keeping with state law but otherwise the cab is mostly stock.

Information on these is sparse, to say the least. Wikipedia says:

"In addition to the RSOVs with their crew-served weapons, each Ranger battalion has two medical variants of the Defender known as a Medical Special Operations Vehicle (MEDSOV). Instead of the weapon mounts found on standard RSOVs, the MEDSOV variant has fold-down racks capable of carrying six litter patients. Along with its transported casualties, a typical MEDSOV crew would include a driver, a TC and two or three medics to treat the wounded."

I'd love to get any further information from you Land Rover experts about these. Any thoughts, questions, or comments would be great as well!

 

[pfshoen]

Who built it?

 

[rocky]

That was a Land Rover RSOV https://silodrome.com/land-rover-defender-military-sov/ and https://www.americanspecialops.com/vehicles/sov/

 

[erover82]

Congrats. You've got a unique specimen there. Looks great for backwoods cruising and camping out under the stars.

 

[mitherial]

Very cool rig--a more-modern 'Pink Panther' style setup--All you need to do now is to acquire the matching M-60 and 50-Cal!

(As an aside, I've never understand why the US armed forces insist on giant vehicles like the Humvee and its successors for non-load-carrying vehicles; an uprated Jeep Wrangler would be considerably more maneuverable and much less likely to collapse bridges in non-developed countries)

 

[MEDSOVowner]

Congrats. You've got a unique specimen there. Looks great for backwoods cruising and camping out under the stars.

Thank you! I agree, it will fill that role perfectly.

 

[MEDSOVowner]

Very cool rig--a more-modern 'Pink Panther' style setup--All you need to do now is to acquire the matching M-60 and 50-Cal!

(As an aside, I've never understand why the US armed forces insist on giant vehicles like the Humvee and its successors for non-load-carrying vehicles; an uprated Jeep Wrangler would be considerably more maneuverable and much less likely to collapse bridges in non-developed countries)

Thanks, and that's a great observation. I had never heard of the Pink Panther Series before you just mentioned it, and it sure does bear a striking contemporary resemblance. As for the M-60 I'll see if my wife wants to let me drop the $40 or $50k or leave it in the kid's college fund...

 

[Rwollschlager]

This is the third RSOV I’ve heard of ending up in municipal hands. Very rare indeed. How did you hear about it? The first one I stumbled across was the Golden CO’s sheriffs department (pic attached), that has since been sold into private hands. The second I believe is at the Portland Oregon port authority. I thought most of them were destroyed. Great find!

 

[MEDSOVowner]

This is the third RSOV I’ve heard of ending up in municipal hands. Very rare indeed. How did you hear about it? The first one I stumbled across was the Golden CO’s sheriffs department (pic attached), that has since been sold into private hands. The second I believe is at the Portland Oregon port authority. I thought most of them were destroyed. Great find!

Great picture, and even better information. I wonder how they ended up in these municipalities as well, very interesting. As for how I found it - it was being sold two houses down the road from my family's cabin by the Search and Rescue Team. After giving it a once over, I had to make an offer!

You mention that most were destroyed - do you have any more information on that? Thank you for your time!

 

[Rwollschlager]

I would reach out to Stephen Peters at Safari HP in Florida. He went as far as building a total replica, and should have extensive RSOV information.

 

[chris snell]

I hope you don't get rid of the plexiglass. If it were mine, I would start by removing all of the SAR add-ons that Wisconsin added on and restore her to her former Ranger Regiment glory.

 

[Rwollschlager]

I hope you don't get rid of the plexiglass. If it were mine, I would start by removing all of the SAR add-ons that Wisconsin added on and restore her to her former Ranger Regiment glory.

so you’d start by removing the plexiglass?

 

[MEDSOVowner]

I would reach out to Stephen Peters at Safari HP in Florida. He went as far as building a total replica, and should have extensive RSOV information.

Thank you, I'll do that!

 

[MEDSOVowner]

I hope you don't get rid of the plexiglass. If it were mine, I would start by removing all of the SAR add-ons that Wisconsin added on and restore her to her former Ranger Regiment glory.

That's the plan, to remove the add ons, but I will want to leave or add something as a windshield. I was thinking about adding something that I could bolt on or off like a folding windscreen that would allow me to be able to take it out for a drive without wearing goggles.

 

[pfshoen]

Marshalls built the Pink Panthers and some other military variants.
Unusual for SVO to get that deep into a special order.
I'd remove what you don't need for your purposes, and add what you do.
But not mod it so it can't easily be returned to orig spec. Save all oem kit.
Bonhams truck sold for 49k gbp.

 

[chris snell]

so you’d start by removing the plexiglass?

Was that added by the SAR people? If so, yes.

 

[MEDSOVowner]

Marshalls built the Pink Panthers and some other military variants.
Unusual for SVO to get that deep into a special order.
I'd remove what you don't need for your purposes, and add what you do.
But not mod it so it can't easily be returned to orig spec. Save all oem kit.
Bonhams truck sold for 49k gbp.

That's my plan - take it as close as spec as possible but add enough to make it driveable.

I think the Bonhams was a prototype.

 

[Frenglish]

If it was built out of the UK it was either Ricardo, ABBA Commercials (built all the snatch trucks) or GKN