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- bsmart

When I get home I'll look at Hunnicutt again. The picture looking down at the drivers hatch with the gun barrel hiding most of it may give us enough clues (It has to do with the periscopes and braces to hold the hatch in the open position) but since it appears that the drivers cupola is the proper one for an M48(a0) the drivers hatch just becomes confirming evidence

I'm looking at my Hunnicutt book right now and when comparing pics, I don't see the brace that would support the driver's hatch on the Camp Dodge tank. I'm willing to bet that it is indeed a M48A0

I think so also, but I didn't want to commit without reviewing the picture of that feature.

Thanks for saving me the trouble tonight. I was just informed that my wife has planned that we will be seeing HARRY POTTER tonight so I may not have had time

Hi everyone,

John, the M48 at Volk field is an A0. When the M48's first came out there were two versions of the cupola, the one pictured here and then the enclosed version. They were on both small and large driver's hatch versions. To standardize ID the Army decided that all small driver's hatch tanks would have the open TC's cupola and the large hatch would have the armored enclosed type. M48A0's would be ID'd by the smaller Driver's hatch and open cupolas, A1's the latter. Officially they all were converted to match the designation. If it was done on all who knows. Side note, from what I remember the vision blocks on the small hatch would drop in order for the hatch to swing open. The large hatch models would have the supporting bracket off to the drivers right. It was needed because the hatch was raised much higher to clear the vision blocks.



About the little tensioning idler between the number 6 road wheel and sprocket. This was done away with and was removed when possible on both M47's and M48's. Not all were done for some reason. Some were just cut off (done locally) and the remains of the old arm are still mounted, while others were entirely removed to include the torsion bar and plated over when rebuilt.



Both these pictures are of the Volk Field M48.

M48 Trivia question, Why do production A3's have 5 support rollers like the A0's and A1's when they only put 3 on A2's and A2C's .

Joe D

- Joe_D

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M48 Trivia question, Why do production A3's have 5 support rollers like the A0's and A1's when they only put 3 on A2's and A2C's .

Joe D

Because the A3's were converted from A1's?

I guess that was too easy , Yep, from A0's and A1's.

Joe D

M48A3 can have both 5 and 3 return rollers, USMC M48A3 were rebuilds of M48A1s, Later Army version were from any M48s they could get their hands on, remember all M48A3s were rebuilds.
...One of the quirks of the USMC rebuilds from the Redriver prodction line was the engines were installed before the final drives were bolted on, because of this you couldn't pull the power packs till the ends of the final drive bolts were ground off flush with the nuts because they were too long and interfeared with power pack removel.
And then there was the "Red River" track used on the USMC M48A3 that was good for about three months operation and then fell apart.

- Joe_D

Hi everyone,

John, the M48 at Volk field is an A0. When the M48's first came out there were two versions of the cupola, the one pictured here and then the enclosed version. They were on both small and large driver's hatch versions. To standardize ID the Army decided that all small driver's hatch tanks would have the open TC's cupola and the large hatch would have the armored enclosed type. M48A0's would be ID'd by the smaller Driver's hatch and open cupolas, A1's the latter.
Joe D

Joe:
Thank you so much for the info! That really helps explain this one.
Hope all is well, and again, thank you so much for the info. Let me know if I can be of any help to you in your research.

Best,
John A-G
Iola, Wisconsin

John,
No problem. About helping out...... Wisconsin for some reason has a very high number of Tanks on display throughout the State, many (and I mean many) are M60's. When I was up that way I tried to photo as many as I could along with record the serial numbers. If you come across any I sure would appreciate the SN/RN's that haven't been listed in Neil's AFV Register. I got most within a 50 miles of Tomah.

Older Top, Glad to see you back contributing and good to hear you kicked the Big "C's" Ass. The only A3's I've seen with 3 rollers were AVLB hulls or the proto A3's they made from A2's. Wasn't aware it was a more common occurance, But then by the time I got in the Army only had A5's used used by the Reserves and the two Active Battalions in Korea. Tell me about rebuilt track. We got a batch of it in Germany that when you neutral steered the center guides would often snap off .

Joe D

Ya .. That Red River (rebuilt) was a pain and all the USMC A3s had it..
You know not much has been said about the M48A5s and I barrowed a A5 from the Arny reserve unit in San Diego and took it to 29 stumps to see how well it shot, it was a little close in side but I liked shooting much better than the M60A1s we had...That could be because my all-time favorite was that 90mm M41 gun, I could hit anything I could see, ya I know it was a little low on fire power but I could punch a hole in the lids from 5 gal GAA buckets easily at 1,200 yards.

- oldertop

Ya .. That Red River (rebuilt) was a pain and all the USMC A3s had it..
You know not much has been said about the M48A5s and I barrowed a A5 from the Arny reserve unit in San Diego and took it to 29 stumps to see how well it shot, it was a little close in side but I liked shooting much better than the M60A1s we had...That could be because my all-time favorite was that 90mm M41 gun, I could hit anything I could see, ya I know it was a little low on fire power but I could punch a hole in the lids from 5 gal GAA buckets easily at 1,200 yards.

I had time on the 90mm in the M48 and I second the fact that it was a world class tack driver for it's day...and the day after, for that matter. Nothing else with a rifled barrel equalled it for sheer reproducable accuracy.