Major Rob,

Do you still have this M548A1 around at your motor pool? I have one AFV Club kit on my workbench and want to add some details to the main cargo doors - they are just flat plastic inside in the kit. Could you please take a picture or two of the inside of these doors and add to your gallery? Pictures in your album only show this part from outside of the vehicle.

Also do you know what is about the additional raised floor part in AFV Club model? Was it really used? The M548A1 on your pictures does not have it. I'm not sure if you are familiar with the AFV Club kit - there is an extra part for raised floor that raises it to the "seats level" - it creates larger flat surface between bed walls, that is level with the bottom of main large cargo doors.

Thanks in advance!

Best Regards,
Pawel

Pawel,
if you're interested in I've got 30+ pics of an Italian M548. If you like I can arrange to post them somewhere, just let me know...
Ciao

I have the AFV Club kit, but have not looked at it very closely. I still have a couple of M548A1s and I do not believe that either have this false floor depicted in the kit. I'll have to check an old manual to see what's the deal since I don't have any operator experience with the artillery ammo carrying vehicle. I can take a shot of the crew doors for you.

Thanks Rob! I knew we can always count on you :-)

You mentioned taking pictures of crew doors - I meant rear cargo bay main door. We may mean the same thing, but wanted to be sure

Rgds,
Pawel

Pawel,
here's your link. There's only one pic of the back but does not seem to have the raised floor. Tell me if you need more views, because on sunday I'll be in a place where I can find as many M548s as I wish and I can shoot pics as well...

http://test.cavalleriaitaliana.it/m548/index.html

Ciao

I took several shots of the cargo doo, I was mistaken when I read your first message but took the right shots after re-reading your second post. I took photos of the door opened and closed, the top edge, bottom edge, hinge detail and the rubber stripping. Although it is a very large door, it is just made out of thin aluminum and isn't even as heavy as the hood of a normal sized car. Much chipped paint on one of them and the aluminum underneath is bright and shiney. I know I have an older technical manual somewhere that may shed some light on the false floor issue.

We used the false floor in some of our M548s especially when transporting pallets of mines. the space under the floor was accessible for other storage such as pickets for fencing and barbed wire.

I uploaded about 10 photos of the rear door. I noticed some are similar to photos that were previously uploaded. I'll delete the lessor of the two photos sometime soon.

M548

IIRC, the false floor was used to help utilize the cargo area more efficiently for transporting artillery pallets and the like.

Rob,

Excellent pictures! :-) Thanks a lot again. It looks that after all AFV Club has this part almost correct - except for those three holes and some rivets it is just a flat aluminum plate indeed...

Rgds,
Pawel

Fabio,

I checked you pictures - they are also good and will also be very useful in my project. Thanks a lot!

Regards,
Pawel

In the IDF these vehicles are called Alphas and have the that raised floor they also have a split door in the rear and the hoist attached to the canvas supports as depicted in the kit.


Shiryon