I was under the impression that the wheels for the AFV Club Long Tom kit were incorrect for WWII, but I just ran across this pic on the 278FABn website:



It's in the same gallery as this one, so I assume it's WWII:



It was in this gallery:
278FABn

John

I'm seeing mixed bag of tires. Two heavy thread pattern up front and two civilian patterns to the rear.

I think the issue is less with the tyre design than with the hubs. I recall reading somewhere that the wartime ones had a different number of holes. There are lots of instances of wide variety among the fitted tyres, highway ones being more common than mud types.

Since trailers and artillery didn't require traction, civilian pattern tread were standard for all US towed equipment (including artillery) during WWII (exception might be the 240mm gun). This was partly due to efforts to conserve rubber, while providing enough military type tires for prime movers. What you see in the photos are replacement tires, probably taken from whatever was handy in the supply chain, including prime mover tires. Ampersand's feature on the 155mm gun have several photos of Long Tom's with military pattern tires replacing the civil type, as an expedient. By the time of the Korean War, most Long Tom tires were of the Military type, and used the later carriage. What's interesting in the first photo is the single "directional" tire ("chevron" tread) appearing in the photo-- that's not a commonly seen US tire pattern of WWII, but it was used on Long Tom's in the National Gaurd after WWII-- I suspect it's an aberration in the supply system, and the photo is a late WWII photo. The AFV club kit out of the box was likely patterned after Long Toms and 8" guns given to the ROC through the Military Assitance program (AFV club is a Taiwanese company) and as such it represents either a very late WWII or Korean War version-- these guns served well into the 60s. For an early WWII version, it requires both the early carriage and civilian tire/wheel resin conversion set.
VR, Russ

That's not correct.

- Combat MS tires were standard but Combat or standard construction HW tires were used as expedients. Eventually HW tires were superseded by MS tires to conserve rubber and reduce the number of tires in service. See the Notes on Usage section here.

- The 240mm howitzer and 8-inch gun wagons used earthmover tires that did not have the same designations or tread types as smaller tires. There was no "military" tread in this size.

- The US did not develop or field a 240mm gun during WW II.

- Take note of the original posters distinction between tires and wheels.

Hope that helps,
KL

KL

You are right as usual Kurt, I should have said 240mm "Howitzer" instead of "gun". For simplicity sake, I was referring to the tread patterns as the original poster did when mentioning "civilian tread" -- of course that is the HW tire, but most modelers won't know that-- and these tires were prevalent throughout the war, as seen on all types of artillery and towed equipment right up until the end.
VR, Russ

Great, thanks for clearing this up. If I understand this correctly;
The Long Tom and 8" howitzer could have both the heavy tread and the civilian tread late in WWII, and it is the number of holes in the hub of the AFV Club kit that are incorrect for that period.
Looks like 4 types of tires in the photo.

John