I used the Tamiya hull for my build and would like to remove the No. 7 skirt on both sides...does anyone have an actual pic of an Abrams with the No. 7 skirt removed? A close up hopefully??

Howdy 4th,

There are quite a few out there showing the Abrams sans the #7 skirt (seems like the vast majority of them ditched that skirt first thing!
But here's a pic of the #7 skirt attached, but in the open position. (also close up)

HTH

Tread.

On tread's photo above, the side skirt is easily removed by unscrewing the nuts and bolts along the hinge. The hinge itself (just barely visible on the forward inner edge of the skirt) remains on the #6 skirt. This leaves a small strip with holes (for the bolts) visible on the #6 skirt. The #7 skirt is either left in the motor pool of placed in the bustle rack or grunt rails. Small nuts and bolts are safeguarded so you can reattach the skirt later.

Thanks a bunch Tread!!! Thats the exact vantage point I wanted!! :-) Now I just have to drill holes into my sprockets! #:-) Do all HAs have those holes in the sprocks or did it vary from tank to tank???

Those D shaped holes are on all sprockets. I put a close up of the hole and hub on another thread. Notice that the sprocket (toothed part) is the newer type. The inner ring of the sprocket has scalloped cut outs between the retaining bolts. The older style is plain and smooth on the inside.

I do not know if any of the model kits come with the new sprocket style. I know that the Trumpeter, Tamiya and DML ones all come with the older style. I will have to take a look at my Italeri kit to see what's inside. The M1A2 I trained on in the mid 90s did not have the new style.

Edit: the Italeri kit comes with the old style.

The new Tamiya kit comes with both types of sprockets ( a nice option )

Howdy 4th,

Many thx for the kind words, but the praise should go to people like Sabot, who give of their time to provide all of us modelers priceless reference photos that we can refer to over and over again.
The photo I shared with you above, is from http://www.tanxheaven.com

The photo below is from our good member BroAbrams collection.

I post this photo to ask the question from both Rob or Turrettoad........what the heck is this!?!

Tread :-)

That is a drive sprocket ring, also known as the training wheels, it is used to keep the track in place when mud builds up between it and the sprocket, but it wound up only making it harder to fix the track when they are thrown. It is still used in some units.

Rob

Howdy Bro',

Thanks for the answer. I kinda thought that was the general idea, and I also wondered if that kind of design would work...............apparently 'not-so-good'.

Tread.

You familiar if those drive sprocket rings were used at all in Desert Storm? In paticular on any of thet tanks in the battle of 73 Easting?

I do not know for certain, but my guess would be no. Mostly they are used by the Marines, and not so much by the army.

Rob

The 2nd ACR came out of Europe and by that time all of our USAREUR units were equipped with Heavy Commons. When we had early M1A1s, we had the rings. When we drew Heavy Commons they did not have the rings. Based on this knowledge alone, I am making the assumption that the 2nd ACR did not have sprocket retaining rings on their tanks.

The Marines borrowed early M1A1s (non-heavy armor) from Army POMCUS sites in Europe. Those tanks had the retaining rings and in fact were among the tanks that the USAREUR units turned in when they tranisitioned to M1A1 Heavies.

The tanks I commanded during Desert Storm were Heavies as well and did not have the rings. There was quite a mix used during DS/DS but battalions tended to be pure M1A1 or M1A1 Heavy.