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I just watched a segment of Mythbusters that caught my attention with an M551 in the teaser at the beginning.

The myth they were 'busting' was that two phone books with the pages interlaced could not be pulled apart. They atrted with one person pulling on each book then stepped up to 5 people on each side. The books would not pull apart. They then took two cars (generic frontwheel drive sedans) and ended up spinning the tires. This attempt was done on dirt.

So they went to Jacque Littlefields place. They had a short but nice photo shoot inside and outside (I didn't realize his buildings were set up as a U shape, I really want to get out there)

They hooked the books up to an M551 and an M113 FSV (The Aussie version with a Saladin turret) using the trailer pintle (I wondered if they should have used the tow hooks) and pulled. This was done on a paved lot.

I'll hold off till tomorrow to tell what happens. I will say that they upgraded the rig that held the rope/cable to the phone books from plywood and nylon rope to heavy metal plates and chains.

Anyone else see this? It was actually a pretty straight forward attempt to bust a myth and I think done in a pretty straight forward manner (I've faulted their methodology on some in the last few years but I think they did this one right)

And for anyone who didn't see it what do you think happened?

I saw the show last night too. The one thing I can fault them on in their experiments is that they changed the conditions from the cars to the AFV's. The cars tried to pull while on bare ground and the AFV's pulled from a concrete pad. I wonder if the cars could have done the job if they were on concrete? They should have put the AFV's on bare ground just to be consistant.

It depends. Were they trying to see if they could pull the books apart or show that tracked vehicles could do what cars could not? The substrate is really irrelevant in the former and critical in the latter.

I am curious as to their choice of AFVs. I wonder if there was any reason to choose those particular vehicles. Did they just happen to be the two most readily available? I can see not wanting to use some of the older tanks but I could see an M60 and a Soviet T-54 or T-72 being used.

I think the choice of surface for the cars was the one weak point in the tests. putting them on dirt pretty much guarranteed early wheel spin. but I wonder if it was done on concrete if there could have been transmission damage instead of wheel spin?

I'll wait a little longer before revealing the results

- bsmart

I am curious as to their choice of AFVs. I wonder if there was any reason to choose those particular vehicles. Did they just happen to be the two most readily available? I can see not wanting to use some of the older tanks but I could see an M60 and a Soviet T-54 or T-72 being used:

It is my understanding that the Littlefield vehicles are tested and then the fluids are drained for storage/display. These might have been the ones that could be prepped out quickly, plus they are pretty close in visual size.

Gary

I'm giving one of the tours Saturday morning at the MVTF. If Jacques is there, I'll ask why they chose the M551 & M113FSV. BTW, his daughter is driving one of the vehicles used in the show.

No one has made any guesses about the results of the segment so I'll finish it up. The did a quick synopsis of the weight and horsepower of each vehicle and did the obligatory photo shoots of the stars in teh hatches of the vehicles. The AFVs took a strain on the cable. There was a guage in the rig to measure the amount of force being applied. after a few moments of on screen pulling the phone books parted. The guage showed the effort was 8,000 pounds. As they commented later both cars could have been hung from the rig and it wouldn't have pulled the phonebooks apart. Earlier in the show they speculated that something other than just friction causes the large amount of force needed. These were 'City size' phgone books (I think the mentioned 800 pages). I suspect that a combination of the large contact area and the weight of the stack of pages along with the relatively rough surface of phone book paper is the reason

It was an interesting segment.