Planning an M1IP from Canadian Army Trophy in '87.

I see spare road wheels stored on the top of the turret, port side. They aren't mounted to the manhole cover, as these M1's didn't have that yet.

I know that you can use a track tooth to clamp through the hole and around railing/basket as shown here (although I think the tooth should have gone perpendicular to the railing):



However, I don't know of any fixture to secure a road wheel too on the upper part of the M1 turret other than there's four bolts there. I can't imagine removing one of the bolts to put a longer one in and use for mounting.

I've only been personally intimate with the old M60A1's and never had hands on experience with the Abrams. Any info on how the thing is secured there would be great!

Howdy Bruce, those four bolts are used to mount a turret lifting hook. They are long enough to mount the spare roadwheel. And I like the look of your 'Sixty', nice touch with the gumby boots in the grunt rail.
Outta here, Mike sends . . .

Bruce,

As Mike said, they are attached with bolts that are already there for lifting brackets.

This earlier thread covers the Road Wheel Mounting on M1 Turrets.

I too like your M60.

HTH

That's exactly what I was looking for. I tried a search but didn't see that one. I was thinking that those four bolts held something internally and not available, but makes sense since they are just mounting points.

The bolts that ship with the tank are simply plugs for the holes. They are too short to mount sprockets and roadwheels. Usually for a sprocket & roadwheel combo the crew can use sprocket bolts or center guide bolts. For just the roadwheel you'll need a few washers to keep it tight.


I know a lot of modelers mount roadwheels to the bustle rack rail directly adjacent to the sponson boxes, but I've never seen that on a real tank. It is just too tight a space to get the bolts in there.
Most of the time the spare is mounted to the top bustle rack rail aft of the sponson box. The key is to keep the roadwheel high enough so that it doesn't catch/drag on the back deck.

This won't help for your build, but for those building the latest 4ID tanks, this is what I saw a few days ago.

I like your Sixty, and the Masster camo. Where did you get the rubber boots for it?
Ken.

Thanks... The boots are just cut off boots from a donor figure and then heated up to smooth them out and mash them down. Before warming a boot over a candle, I sanded off distinctive lacing and such. I also made the top of the boots concave so that when heater end and mushed it looked like they were hollow at the opening.