OK, it's been 25 years and I'm a little hazy. Remember end connector pullers, tanker bars, using the sprocket. and tow cables. Could someone refresh my memory. Thinking about doing a diorama can't remember what if ever we did with a tow cable? Remember fighting the track over return rollers with tanker bars and reattaching with end connector pullers and something else. Anybody still have a copy of FM 22-10 (Vehicle recovery manual----right?)

Try the Reimer DIgital Library, they'll have the latest and greatest in PDF format, and most of the manuals are avialable to the genreal public, if not PM me and I'll see what I can come up with.

If the tanks you worked on where anything like our 113's, you probably used a "Track Jack" to pull the track the last little bit, enabeling a lucky guy laying on the ground to beat on an end connector onto the broken track... how much I don't miss the track maint.... as they say, every hour of cross country becomes 4 hours of maint!

Cheers!

On M-60A2's,we used a stout rope and pulled the track back on by the manual.we attached the rope to the "bar" that went through the center of the block. We looped the rope around a support roller and tied it into one of the holes in the sprocket hub. Giving the engine the gas dragged the track end up onto the rear support roller.Usually there was much clangin and bangin till it got caught by the sprocket teeth.
after that,the sprocket could push it along to the support roller. And a crewman would lift it over the next roller,and the sprocket would push it some more.When the front idler was met,it would be fed down and around,about 1/2 way to the 1st roadwheel.
Then using the tanker bar,the lower section was lifted up. Then we used the track jacks to winch the ends together. And in my unit,we attached the centerguide first.then the outer end connector,and finnally the inner one.

thanks tankcarl...that's the way we did it...with a rope not a tow cable and centerguide first

The rope method is still used. On M1s we have a "come along" that attaches to the side of the hull to walk the track back onto the support rollers. The method hasn't changed for the M88A1 and AVLB chassis.

PM me your snail mail address and I'll see if I can mail out some of the recovery manuals. We still run about 4-5 H8 ASI recovery classes, but only one of those is for the tracked MOSs, the rest are wheeled.

Blaster,did I ever tell you the story about the time we ripped a sprocket off the final drive during Reforger 76?

The only other thing we ever used the tow cables for other than towing, was to attach them around a log then wrap them around the track , and use them as a unditching device.