Hi guys,

I would like to know if the tracks for the M1a2 and Leopard 2 are interchangeable ?

Do they fit the drive sprockets ?

Gé

No, they are not the same.

The Leopard II track pads are wider and more rectangular than Abrams track pads. I think the track spacing is different too, hence not fitting the sprockets either.

Leo II


Abrams T158

Yes you can Standard NATO fit. Why easy repair in action. All wheels and track on NATO tanks are Standard fit

The Yanks say no.

British squaddie will have M1 up on brick and tracks gone under 30 secs and fixed to Challenger,

The French will just swap them at port.

The Italian's would leave you wine and the bear metal ones after burning rubber on the roads.

The Germanys will say I told you so.

You can also mix and match,

Where have you seen this ? You should be mistaken with the Warsaw Pact

I can tell you that Leclerc tracks are not interchangeable with any other Western tank tracks.

American tracks, german tracks - all made by Diehl

That and the initial idea that the Leo2 and M1 tanks should share equipment may be the source of the rumors. The german Wiki on the "Heater, Mobile, Tracked M1" even claims the XM1 used Leo2 tracks (Most likely only the design)

Guys,

I always thought that there are interchangeable since both types origine from one shared design ( MBT-70 ).
Am i wrong or what ?

Gé

I know this is not true. Abrams have 10 lug nuts on each road wheel, while the Leopard 2 has only 8 lug nuts per road wheel.

Abrams road wheel



Leopard 2 road wheel




Sprockets, track, return rollers, etc. are all different. They both may have started out similar due to the joint MBT-70 program, but once the program ended, both countries went their own way with future tank design.

Well, heck. P-bucket is doing maintenance right now. I have a pic of something I did just to see if it would work, in the interest of trying to use some Tamiya Leo2 tracks on an Academy M1. The models' tracks will actually work, and if you're just looking for the "look" of the Bigfoot tracks on the M1, they look the part. Of course they're not correct, but I had a couple sets of the Leo tracks laying around, and thought "why not?" I'll get a pic up as soon as P-bucket is sorted.
And in no way am I implying the this would work on the real thing, only a model.

The only picture I have now is not very good about showing what I'm talking about, sorry.

All I had to do was to take about .020" of material off of the inside of the sprocket teeth to get the Leo tracks to lay down. Pitch, on the models only, is close enough to fit. Keep in mind that this build is for a SciFi/WWIII campaign on ModelGeek only.
Edit: I also took a couple links out of the Leo tracks, don't remember if it was two or three, easy to do since they're made from Tamiya's glue-able plastic.