Question:

Are all HEMTT cab interiors pre-painted green? With all the reference photos I have found so far the inside of the cab is green! Are there any HEMTTs with sand colored interiors?

No to say that there isn't any.. But I never seen one.

I was afraid you would say that. Well I guess I am going to have to back up a few steps on the cab and take a slightly different direction. Fortunately I had not glued in any of the pre-painted pieces from the Eduard set!

Way back on page, I don't remember which, I spoke of a persistent problem that the new Italeri rubber tires do not fit their wheel rims properly. I also said I was working on a solution.

The first photo shows one example where you can see the bead of the tires ARE CONSTANTLY riding up on the center raised portion of the wheel drums. It is not that the tires are not the right size it is that the shoulder of the molded wheel drum is not pronounced enough to keep the tire bead on the edge of the rim.

At any given time on an 8 wheeled vehicle this affect is going to be happening with at least one of the new Italeri tires. If a competition judge sees this it will be ruled as improper basic construction technique and your model will be dropped a level or removed entirely from the running for something that really is not your fault. I like these new tires but I think you are going to have to do something about this or switch to resin tires!

The second photo shows you my solution which is to glue a .020 x .040 thousandth strip of plastic around each side of the rim to help lock the bead where it is supposed to be. Not to worry, when mounting the tire in the first place as you can easily stretch the rubber just a little bit further to rise over this new rim when putting the tire on.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BEFORE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AFTER . . . . . .

Great idea. So you're going to try the screw technique to depict tire sag?

With this problem about the tire bead I am more inclined to grind a slight flat into the bottom of the tire and leave it at that.

Also for the moment, my plan is to pose the HEMTT on a mirror, in the position as though loading or unloading an empty flatrack therefore not much weight on the tires to make them bulge.

I know you are disappointed.

Took my sprue cutters and cut off a section of the big tread blocks on the tire one at a time and then smoothed things a bit with rough sandpaper. Now the tire can stand on its' own!

OK, here's a question:

You are a HEMTT driver. You have a spare. You also have the equipment to unload this very heavy spare tire and bring it to the ground, Now what do you use to jack this massive truck up to change the damaged tire?

Also, where is this jack stored on the vehicle?

I never recall seeing a jack or tools to take the tire off.

Not saying that they didn't have them. I just never ever seen them.

Every time these guys would be in the field.. They'd have a unit with them that had a HEMTT wrecker.

So I'd imagine the mechanics in the wrecker would come in and change the tire. I could be way off base on this.

There is at least one quick release air connection just under the battery box. The manual mentioned checking tire pressure and refilling when necessary. However it said nothing of a jack or an air wrench in their tool set. They could easily be carring an air driven bottle jack plus an air driven impact wrench for the wheel lugs but here I am the one that's just guessing.

From the TM under "Basic Issue Items"- 12 ton MANUAL hydraulic bottle jack. Also 50' of quick disconnect air hose, a tire inflator hand valve, lug wrench and a jacking baseplate for use in soft ground conditions.

Mike, the jack, air hose, inflator-gauge and other tools would be carried in the BII box right next to the fuel tank.

Dustin I did try putting an insert into the tire to cause bulging but again it pulled the tire bead away from the rim. No dice.

Hope I get Brownie points for trying.


There is a popular TV commercial where a kid sticks a quarter of a sliced orange in his mouth and then smiles. (As we all have done at one time or another.) His mouth and cheeks bulging gave me the idea for bulging the tire but it turned out that if I made the insert big enough for the viewer to notice the bulging it pulled the tire bead away from the rim.

Drawing showing installation of PTO and accessory hydraulic pump on transmission:




. . . . . . . PUMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PTO Gearhead . . . . . . . .

From TM 9-2320-279-10-1 :














I've skipped a few steps but you can find the whole procedure here

H.P.

Somehow I missed these pages Frenchy - Good Work!

A cool technique to depict tire sag with rubber model tires is to glue a resin or styrene block to the rim with CA glue where the inside of the sagged area of the tire would be. Make it a slightly smaller size than the inside dimension from he rim to the inside of the tire. Slip the tire over the rim and block, then pour some CA glue inside the tire so the end of the block and the inside of the tire glue together while slipping the rest of the tire over the rim. Hold or clamp everything until the glue sets on the inside of the tire and you'll get a realistically sagged tire. The smaller the block, the more sag or deflation you'll have.

Cheers
Bob

Bob, you got me thinking again about bulging those tires! I'm thinking just to super glue that block to the inside of the wheel rim. then once dry put CA on the top of the block (the side that contacts the inside of the tire) and hold it till dry and you're there.

Today I finished those nine tires with their enlarged rims.

Now I am finally getting around to doing that front end alignment. That work is really slowing me down because I gotta cut the steering CV joint ALMOST all the way through, block it to a new angle, glue it and then wait till the plastic hardens again. I then finish with a coating of CA for extra strength at the joint. For now my hands are tied!

Front end steering corrected. Also the chassis has been completely painted and weathered. Still need to add the front tie rod, brake actuators x8, air lines and some electrical wiring to the tail end!



Please Note: On the model the front tires are NOT interchangeable with rear tires though they WILL install incorrectly! The center hub sticks out more on the rear tires.

On the real HEMTT the center of the wheel drum is off-set from the center of the tire. The off-set goes to the outside on the front four tires and goes to the inside on the rear four. The spare will fit anywhere but you have to pay attention to which way you face the wheel drum when replacing a flat.

OK, got the corrected front tie rod in. (Thanks again to my spares box and some old Italeri Deuce parts.) Also added a couple more torque rods and the engine dipstick.





(Regarding that front axle tie rod: Italeri gives you another totally straight tie rod just like the one on axle #2 and puts it out IN FRONT of the first axle. That is totally wrong! The #1 axle tie rod needs to have that offset bend in it in order to step over the driveshaft AND it needs to be in a protected location BEHIND the #1 axle! If you can find or make a substitute tie rod it is easy enough to just swap the left and right axle end plates to then mount your new tie rod behind the axle.)

Close up of the completed first and second axle steering tie rods.

I said changing inside cab colors from sand to green would set me back a bit schedule wise. I am all caught up now and making some headway on the Eduard etch set.

Michael, not to nit pick your work.. Because you do amazing work... And it may just be the camera angle, but the front alignment still looks off. Looks like the left side isn't turned as much.