No offense taken and I am not going to say for a minute that I have the wheel geometry perfectly correct but . . .

In a turn, the outside wheels scribe a wider circle than the wheels on the inside of the turn and therefore do not angle as sharply.

Also, in a turn, the wheels on the second axle turn a bit more, relative to those on axle #1.

I may have over or underdone (or both) this affect but the above logic is what I was trying for. I was sweating bullets trying to get this to come out correctly.

CR@P - I'm WRONG!

I just rechecked my references and my second point is WRONG! Never trust your memory!

The wheels of the front axle angle MORE than those on axle #2 not the other way around!

The first point is correct however.


Now what am I going to do? - Gonna have to think about this one! - Back to the alignment rack!


This page is one-half of a WWII German engineering document covering the geometry of 8 Rad steering.

Since I am not having the wheels roll perhaps I can shave the wheel axles a little to reduce this condition.

Gotta keep moving . . . .


The Eduard pre-printed etch set for the HEMTT cab is quite something. Lots of printed labels and placards as well!

Not the first time I have had to deal with this 8x8 steering question. Not sure I did any better a job on this earlier MA3-537:




I think I definitely have a weakness for 4+ multi-axle heavy trucks.

Wanted to add some hint of electrical wiring running back to that bank of taillights:

Perhaps rather than install a complete radio just install the mounting base and speaker? I think I might be able to come up with a scratch built radio base at least.

As someone said early on; at first they had to check them out everyday and even dismount the aerials so a rack without a radio would not look out of place.


(Photos from the Prime Portal website; Taken by Don Busack - Shown here for discussion purposes only.)

Seams to fill:

Odd place to put ejector pins!

Be sure to remove these mold ejector pins from the inside of the hydraulic cylinders as they tend to block the full travel of the hydraulic rams and the rams often then can't retract fully when assembled.

Again I will say the pre-painted Eduard etch set is really impressive!

A word to the wise: Do not have even the slightest hint of super glue on your fingers when you handle the pre-painted parts because it will instantly lift the paint right off the part.

Live and learn!

Trying to finish building/installing the last of the torque control rods - the last step before being able to install the engine and radiator.





DONE - Now for the engine and the brakes!

Keep up the great work!

Now I have GOT to consider this as serious progress!

Early on I built the first cylinder only to immediately discover the problem with the internal ejector pins. I am afraid I have been shying away from taking on the rest of these hydraulic cylinders but now, finally they are complete.



I also replaced the cast on hydraulic piping with .015" plastic rod.

Interestingly, in this Italeri kit, the main hinges of the LHS and the larger hydraulic cylinders are fairly well retained but for some reason the pivots of the two smaller cylinders are not retained at all???

But of course they are on the real thing!





As you can imagine the ones on my model are now ALSO retained!



(Original un-cropped photos of LHS equipment are from the Prime Portal website as taken by Dieter Krause - Used here for discussion purposes ONLY)

There is enough accumulated friction in the entire assembly to hold a wee bit of weight. Also I have considered injecting a slight bit of Vaseline into the cylinders after painting to increase the resistance.

Minor F.Y.I. On shipping info:

For rail shipping or any other need where vertical height must be reduced; removing the upper stay bolt on the hook arm will allow you to rotate the arm back and downward.

If I had known this prior to assembly of the model I would have drilled out this top stay bolt and replaced it with a piece of plastic rod to allow me another way to pose the model.



Only found one photo showing this break down and now I cannot find it again so I altered the above drawing.
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Below is shown the shipping dimensional plate from the driver's side inside door. Note LHS hook in stowed position.



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Navy/Marine Mk?? 16.5 ton LHS I am currently working on:

I have been planning on just what I might do with the open engine cowl. I knew I could not simply use the stock cut-away hood piece as it is much too thick. I spent a good portion of
last night forming and shaping a thin piece of
plastic sheet. This morning I braced it in a
way I thought made sense and here it is.

Great work on the engine cowl Mike.

I was going to cast you a radio this weekend, but the family made last minute plans to go to Canyon Lake for some camping this weekend to get me out of the apartment. Well worth me going because Sunday night before heading to bed, I got a 10 lbs carp. Largest fish I've caught in my life.

Thanks Pete - fishing is always a more than excellent reason to not do whatever might otherwise be on your plate. Don't worry too much about the radio.

I appreciate anything you might do for me but the radio is a ways down on my list along with the winch and the gun ring. Gotta learn more about what is available to the model market and what is correct for the HEMTT with the SINCGARS. Right now I am still thinking of including only the empty power supply/amplifier baseplate and one of MikeyBug's speakers plus an empty antenna mount.

Mike, all I can think after seeing your work here is "I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!!"

You are building THE definitive HEMMTT!!

[quote]I have been planning on just what I might do with the open engine cowl. I knew I could not simply use the stock cut-away hood piece as it is much too thick. I spent a good portion of
last night forming and shaping a thin piece of
plastic sheet. This morning I braced it in a
way I thought made sense and here it is.

Doc - Thank You for your kind words. I certainly hope you are right. I hope the Dayton judges this weekend agree with you! (That is if I finish by Saturday morning.)

Engine installed, radiator still giving me problems, the air tanks have had piping installed. Tomorrow I must get those brake cylinders installed - they are too good looking and too visible to pass up!



(The #6 air tank is optional to only the semi-tractor. Otherwise all required air tanks are represented in the Italeri model.)

Thank you to everyone for all the support, information, encouragement, compliments and even spare parts that have been shared during this project!

Mike

Here is a question for the folks out there with hands-on HEMTT maintenance experience:

Why do the rear brake actuators have TWO hoses running to them? It is an air only system so why?

Is this a double actuator system with two cylinders per rear wheel? Safety redundancy? Parking brake?

Front axle brake actuators seem to have only one air line running to them.