I am doing an Abrams for a vet and he tells me that his tank lost a set of roadwheels just before the Thunder Run into Baghdad. He does not have any photos but explained that all they did was tie up the roadwheel arm so it would not strike the track. Thus, I need to model an exposed arm. Does anyone have a photo or know where to look on the web for an exposed roadwheel arm?

Its not a pretty sight, but here is a pic that shows a torsion arm without the wheel on it. The SOP is to lash the arm up with 4 or 5 loops of 1" rope or better around the arm's spindle to a return roller arm or skirt bracket, whichever is convient.

Pretty big pic so I won't inline it here.
http://www.primeportal.net/pictures/m1_iraqp/m1_broken/Dsc04664.jpg

They probably had to remove the toorsion bar as well, otherwise the arm wouldn't have lifted so they could tie it up. This is a fairly easy procedure.

That looks like another fine example of Dynacorp maintinance...
:-)
I forgot about removing the torsion bar (not that he will have to worry about that on the model.

Alright! Thanks guys.

We had a M88 that had its hub bearings freeze up on the roadwheel arm, so we just a took a tourch to it to cut it off till we got the parts in

Hello James,
I remember when my unit started to have the roadwheels sheer at the spindle, it was a weird sight to see your roadwheels passing you by. What the investigation showed was that when the tanks went in for rebuild they would examine the spindle and if they didn't see any cracks they would let it go. As it turned out they would have microscopic stress fractures that after a few years of use result in a sheared spindle. I don't think that problem has really been corrected as it would cost too much money to xray them.

Semper FI
Andy