Hi all,
just a picture for those who are setting the tracks not according to the book


For discussion purpose.

Ya, but that tank just goes in circles when you do that (ha ha).

Or maybe you have to put them on backwards when operating in the Southern hemisphere.

Somewhere I remember seeing a photo of a Lebanese M50 or M51 with the tracks mounted like that.

It just could be a trick to deceive the enemy scouts studying the tracks in the ground

Looks like some kind of prank the mechanics would play on the tankers who don't check their tank's tracks much.

What it does mean, regardless of the "why it was done", is that sometimes real tanks do show up with "reversed" tracks.

You can be pretty sure that 1) the tank left the assembly plant wearing its tracks "correctly", and 2) at some later time, someone thought that it was appropriate to actually remove the entire run from one side and re-install it... This doesn't usually happen unless the tank needs major work on much of its suspension on one side, or the run was actually shed pretty completely, or the run was substantially worn out or damaged (NOT a few links or a simple track-break). And it is fundamentally true that the entire run WAS removed - only way to get the links all reversed. Of course, there ARE other "3rd" options to maybe explain this event; among them... this is a training tank being used by shop or recovery crew to practice track removal and replacement, there actually WAS some energetic shop crew who wanted to mess with some crew's minds, or maybe there are some true duds in the shop! Lots of stuff is "possible"!

A word of caution for the show-contest entrants; DON'T do this on your contest build unless you put a photo out showing that this did happen! Most judges won't know and will gig you for your "goof"!

Bob

Merci Olivier!

It's a Turkish M48A5 and I have the slingshot conversion for that one, I think my build will be inspired by this photo.


Cheers,

Christophe

Thanks for the interesting picture Oliver. Despite what contest judges would like to think when it comes to human beings and the things they do, anything is possible, regardless of if there is photographic proof or not!

I am way out of my element on this (ex-Navy) but would they have reversed the tracks to maybe even out the ware on them maybe to get a bit more usage out of them before being replaced ?

As a note and it is difficult to admit, I have put the tracks on backwards more times then I want to confess


Cheers

Look close at the right side track run. The links are going in both directions. The left side looks completely reversed.

built an old Tamiya Panther some years ago (with "rubber-band" tracks) and realized some months later I had reversed one of the tracks; still haven't corrected it; didn't feel like messing with it; to borrow a phrase "stuff happens"

I LOVE IT!!!

"Wrong-way Corrigans" of the world, UNITE!!!

LMBO... too funny.

Cheers,
Tom

Now what would happen really if the tracks stayed on backwards? Anything destructive?

As Oddball would say......You see, man, we like to feel we can get out of trouble, quicker than we got into it. Woof, woof, woof! That's my other dog imitation......

I don't know how it's done now, but when I was a tanker, we changed our own tracks. A fact that I'm remineded of everyday due the fact that the gunner managed to mistake my left hand for a end connector. Fortunately he could shoot better than he could use a sledge hammer.

Reading the technical evaluation for the British A13 Covenanter two of the brand new tanks delivered from the manufacturer arrived for testing with both sets of tracks reversed.
So it does happen even from the manufacturer.

Yeah... but we've all heard the saying:

"Two wrongs don't make a right"

Or is it 'don't make it right'?





Jeff

Well, just to clarify a few points. the M48 and M60 series tracks runs were often changed in the field by the crew. I spent five years as an Armor Officer and never once saw maintenance section personnel change tracks-- that's a crew responsibility. These tracks came in the supply chain as an entire run, and like almost all military equipment that moves, replacement is scheduled based on time and mileage. Individual track replacement is only done if there is damage to two or more track links, but more often than not, entire tracks are replaced because they've reached the end of their service life. I still have a photo of a minor track repair in the field after an M60A1 collided with another one at Fort Knox in 1976. I was riding in the loaders position in that tank, but we only had to break track for four links. However, as a young platoon leader the following year, my tank received an entire left side track run for scheduled replacement delivered on a dirt road in Germany during a REFORGER exercise. An inexperienced crew could easily get it backwards if they were in a hurry (we got ours on in the correct way in about an hour's time). In the "short run" (pun intended) when track gets reversed, there is really no harm done, but in the "long run" (pun intended) it will result in unevenly worn track and reduced transmission efficiency that can be potentially damaging. No doubt, when these guys got back from the field, some unhappy Platoon Sergeant made them put it back on the right way-- and since moving a ton of track around by hand is no fun the first time, doing it twice due to stupidity would be a really unhappy experience. Now, for a modeling equivalent, I was in a big hurry the night before a local regional IPMS show to get my Tamiya 1/35 M48 finished. When the contest was over, I'd won 2nd place in closed top armor. When I got the model home, I realized to my horror I'd put one set of AFV Club tracks on backwards exactly like the photo above! I don't think anybody even noticed!
VR, Russ

I remember back in 2005 I built a Pz.IV J, used a bad reference pic from a museum vehicle and attached both tracks the wrong way. Nobody at the AMPS Nationals noticed and I won a gold for it

Yeah, but if you are choosing to enter the realm of model contests and the neat thing you've done is indistinguishable from a mistake, you'd better have the photo.

If you want to build for your bookshelf you can do whatever you want. If you want to try and get other people to publicly say that your model is particularly good or better than someone else's, you have to do things a little differently.

The world is full of compromises.

KL

This was addressed above, but along those lines people have asked about putting new track on one side with worn track on the other. There were limits on the difference in wear that could be tolerated. For example, a difference of 1/2 in the track pad thickness on a Sherman would mean that the circumference of the track run on one side would be 3+ inches longer than the other. In other words, for every complete turn of the old track the other side would go 3+ inches farther. That will damage a transmission/final drive in short order.

KL

Oddball might also say, "Hey man I just ride in 'em, I don't know what makes 'em work."

Has there been any cases of too many links being put on?

Please tell me there is (seeing as I put too many on the right side of my T34 STZ).

Two wrongs don't make a right.
Three lefts do make a right though......