Hydraulic-Jack Shelters: Level in 12 Minutes on Any Terrain
Deployable shelters are only as fast as their setup. Here's the engineering behind self-levelling jack systems, and why we designed a hydraulic corner-jack shelter that a single operator can level in a quarter of an hour.
A forward-operating shelter is judged first by how quickly it becomes a level, sealed working volume after arriving on site. Every extra minute of setup is a minute the mission is not yet active.
The 15-minute target
Our design brief was clear: from truck arrival to level, sealed, powered shelter in under 15 minutes with a single trained operator. The current production units hit 12 minutes in customer trials.
Four synchronised jacks, one power pack
- 600 mm stroke per corner, 5-tonne capacity
- Electro-hydraulic power pack mounted inside the shelter
- Single-operator level-control panel with attitude readout
- Bellows-sealed jack apertures retain IP54 through extension cycles
Why bellows matter
Any moving penetration is an ingress risk. We tested three sealing schemes — labyrinth, brush and bellows — and only bellows retained the cabin's IP54 rating through 1,000 cycles of dust-and-water exposure.
What ISO envelope buys you
Fitting inside a standard 20-ft ISO envelope means the shelter uses existing logistics equipment worldwide — twist-locks, container spreaders, rail flat-cars. The programme cost saving over a bespoke logistics chain is enormous.
