I am doing an OIF1 tank of 1-64. They had the jerry can racks and the extended bustle rack. I am told that many crews used one jerry can rack to carry oil cans and such so it this stuff was easy to get at instead of packing them away in the bustle racks or elsewhere.

So, what do these oil cans look like? Are they the old fashioned round cans or do they have the more modern plastic version with pour tops or whatever? HOw large are they? What color are the labels? Do the labels go all around or only on the "front?"

Bob

Howdy Burik. If you are refering to engine, transmission/EAPU and hydraulic fluid they all can be packaged in metal cans. The cans can also be seen packed by the by the case on some tanks. The engine requires Turbo Shaft synthetic oil and normally is issued to crews in 1 qt cans., 24 to a case(cardboard). The can is is green in color with real fine yellow/gold lettering . It can also be had in pint and gallon cans. The hydrulic fluid, FRH also comes in metal cans. It is beige/pinkish in color with black letters and usually issued to the crew in gallons, six to a case. The 30wt or 15-40wt oil for the transmission and EAPU can be had in plastic 1 qt bottles, and metal cans from 1 qt all the way up to 55 gallon drums. On USMC vehicles the 30wt /15-40wt for the transmisson/EAPU is carried in a 5 gal plastic "jug" drawn from a 55 gal drum on the POL truck. There are of course exceptions to all of the packaging. I have been issued Mobil "Jet Oil" in a blue and white can instead of the usual green GI TurboShaft can. I have two good pictures of a can of Turbo Shaft on the right front fender of an M1A1. If you would like me to e-mail them to you for reference I can. Are you the same Burik who has 8000 pictures of 3rd ID Army Tanks in OIF on your laptop? I am sure that someone with more knowledge regarding Army practices will chime in soon. Out here.

That was great info Mike. I would very much appreciate if you could email that to me at:

[email protected]

Yes, I am the same guy with the photos, but not 8,000; more like 4,000. That book should be coming out later this year. Too bad I was not able to meet you at SCAHMS. It was fun to go for the first time. I was expecting it to be larger, though. I was able to even sell two of my pieces to a collector. It was also great to meet Gino and Jim there, although because of my screw-up with traffic I did not get to talk with them much.

I also saw somewhere where you are going to Europe to see some museums and such. I hope you are going to Normandy. Unbelievable stuff there.

Hopefully, Sabot and Heavy Arty will chime in on the oil can thing too.

Thanks.

Bob

Jerry cans were used for both oil and water, the metal with the shiny green paint was for oil. Plastic jerry cans for water, we usually double strapped them meaning we would attach the water cans to the lashed in oil cans on the side mounts. Depending on how long we were to be in the field, we'd try to throw a few extra in the bustle rack. FRH would usually be in our M88 since we would consume more oil than hydraulic fluid, if we needed it we called the retriever and they delivered (30 minutes or less even lol).

That's for the M60's, circa 1980's.

Robert,
I'll second what Mike Mummey said as to the oil/hydrolic fluid cans et al. We haven't used jerry cans for oil for some time since it is easier to get the oil in prepackaged boxes than to carry 55gal drums of oil around then transload it into jerrycans.

Thanks for the info Maurice. Jut so no one is confused by my question I want to be sure to clarify my original question.

1-64 had locally made jerry can racks for OIF1. They were designed to carry three jerry cans. Each vehicle got two racks. So, that meant they could carry six more jerry cans other than stuffing them wherever. I suppose in the desert environment it was recognized that the crews better carry more water than normal. And photos bear out that the racks were used to carry water cans as described by Maurice, and not the green oil jerry cans.

Anyway, many crews did not think they needed that many jerry cans onboard so they used the extra rack to carry the small oil cans as described by Mike. So, yes, the green jerry cans would have been used as Maurice describes, but I guess in a combat environment crews want to carry everything possible with them and not trust the maintenance guys, thus my scenerio I am trying to depict.

Some might think that the small cans would just pop out of the open-sided jerry can racks, but the crews placed CIPs over the open face to stop this.

I hope I haven't caused more confusion. Of course a photo would be helpful, but I can not post right now. Photos don't show what is inside the rack anyway since the rack is hidden by the CIP, thus my question (but you could see from above, so I need to model this).

Bob

Howdy Robert. You e-mail arrived my pos, will shoot the Turbo Shaft Can pictures electronically in the a.m. I even have a photo of a can of Mobil "Jet Oil" to send. I knew I took pictures of oil cans for a reason! Nice looking "Hog" you are building. I will attempt to explain in more detail your bustle rack load questions via e-mail. USMC and US ARMY Tankers pretty much use the same practices. The same Deadly Science. In fact the culture crosses all borders, languages and nationalites. Out here.

Sorry for jumping on the bandwagon, but as it seems that there are some "oil can " experts around here I've got a question : I've bought the "M1 accessories set" from Legend and the "Vietnam us common equipment set" from Plus Models, and both set include oil cans. But there's a visible size difference between them. Does anybody have some dimensions for these cans, for me to make a choice
TIA
Frenchy

Frenchy, I will go find my measuring stick and get back to you later today. Out here.

Thanks for taking time to help, Mike !

Frenchy

Enlightening thread. I'm an old M60a1 guy and we of course had 5 gallon jerry cans for oil. Interesting to hear that "modern" tanks are using small cans. Do the present day turbine engines use less oil than our big 16 cylinder diesels. When we added oil it was several gallons at a time. I sure would have hated oening up a bunch of metal cans when I needed a refill.....especially in acombat zone

I agree with ya there Steve, man those beasts seem to have gotten better with their oil eh? No more grabbing the jerry can and donkey ****, refilling and then needing to find the POL spot to get refills on the jerry cans. lol

Btw, Steve how come you haven't signed up for the Armorama's Finest campaign? Another M60 tanker would be very welcome, as is everyone of any MOS.

Howdy all. Most of the POL comes in cans now. From a pint tin all the way up to 55 gal drum. When a serviceable Abrams turbine engine(AGT 1500)needs some engine oil it is usually quarts at a time. No more grabbing the 5 gal can of 30wt and a Donkey Appendage at a short halt. I dont' want to hear you old timers cry, but I have not seen a metal 5 gallon oil can on the ramp since 1999. Frenchy, the oil(metal) and water (plastic)cans in the Tamiya 1/35 accessories sets(mm141, mm266) are in scale and correct. Here are 1/1 scale dimensions of the 5 gal plastic water jug: 6.5 inches wide, 19 inches tall, 13.5 inches deep. It can be had in black or a pinkish/tan color. The "Pepsi Generation" plastic fuel jug is 6.5 inches wide, 18.5 inches tall and 13.5 inches in length. It is available in either pinkish/tan or fake flower green. If you send me a e-mail I will send you some photos of both jugs/cans next to a ring tailed stick(ruler). I do not however have a GI 5 gal metal can to measure.

Old GI 5 gal metal can is pretty much the same size as current plastic ones.

Length: 13.5
Width: 6.5
Height: 18.5

They all still use the same jerry can mount, that is why they are all about the same size.

Thanks for the help Mike.....but I'm afraid we are not talking about the same thing ! I was asking about the kind of can that can be seen on the bottom right corner of the picture below (yes I know I should have show it in the first place )


Frenchy

Frenchy, the round can in the bottom right corner looks like the disposable type can for packaged POL. The can pictured looks like a Hydraulic or Brake fluid container. Something that the Maintenance boys would have on the M-88 or a Motor "T" contact team Hummer. Who makes that set? It looks pretty neat.

It' s made by a Czech company called Plus Models (set #127). The set includes decals for the fire extinguishers, Coca-Cola labels and for these "oil cans" as well . What makes me think about oil is that "15W40" is written on these decals (just like what is written on my own car 2-liter oil cans...). The set from Legend includes the same kind of cans but their diameter is quite smaller (and there's no decals sheet). That's why I was asking... (and the question still remains... )

Frenchy

It must be oil, I have never had a 15-40wt Coca Cola!

I received both metal 5 gallon cans and quart plastic bottles of POL from the 123rd MSB of the 1st Armored Division when I was in Baghdad(May 2003-March 2004). I also drew the same type of containers from the RSS of the 2nd Armored Cavalry in Al-Kut/An-Najaf (April-June 2004).

There were also 1 quart metal containers, 1 pint metal containers, 55 gallon drums just to name a few. I also received commercial packaged POL with arabic labels and us labels. Basically, the military shipped us whatever they could get ahold of.

Brent, thanks for the Intel update. I will get the set. Thanks for your continued service to our country.