Com-Central.net

- Jinx

Or MonoGavin?

Better not go there. "Sparky" would surely be enamored of such a "revolutionary" concept in AFV development, if only he could figure out how to mount 16" guns on it and still make it fit into a C-130.

David

- SFC_Jeff_Button

Is Boom Boom being worked on by an M578 or an M816 wrecker. Doug, you're right about those road wheels and track tension. Thtas the straightest "hanging" track I've ever seen, was it missing a shoe?

Hi Jeff! Hi Folks!

No, the wrecker was just setting on the other side of Boom-Boom. Normally there was a Sheridan over there, but sense it is not sticking out in front of B-B, I think it was someplace else at the time.

The wrecker is a M543 which is a version of the M54 6x6 cargo truck. The M543 is the father of the M923 5-ton wrecker that is in service now.

It is not a M578. The tracked 578 had a fixed length boom, where the M543/M923 has an adjustable length boom.

Sgt, Scouts Out!

Roy

SO,....if your 'track' was getting work done needing 'lift',......

Then you'd have to use .....(Warning!!!)

"BOOM BOOM's BOOM!!!!!

- Dontos

Roy

SO,....if your 'track' was getting work done needing 'lift',......

Then you'd have to use .....(Warning!!!)

"BOOM BOOM's BOOM!!!!!

OK, Don....you're being put on probation as of now.

WHAT!!!

WHY??

NOT FAIR....

(sniff, sniff...)

- Dontos

WHAT!!!

WHY??

NOT FAIR....

(sniff, sniff...)

Quit sniveling...if anything, I'm being lenient. You want I should throw you to these guys for that joke? I mean, we've barely been open for two weeks!

Mmm mmm mmm mmm mmmm mmmm......

Hi Folks!

Sense Doug pointed it out, I guess I should tell the story behind that non-TM standard tension setting.

The story before we did that:
The track tension adjuster was frozen and the track was a bit lose and was easy to pop off. The Troop motor Sgt told me to just take a shoe out of the track and make due until he could get a new tension adjuster in.

The story after that photo was taken:
A new adjuster never came in. After a few weeks the sprocket plates wore down to a point that hooks were formed on the forward drive side of the teeth. One day while out on a RIF the driver lost control and the vehicle stopped moving. A check around the outside found nothing. Opening the front engine hatch found the final drive on the engine side of the hull had broken. On the M113A0s and the M113A1s (I am guessing that the A2s and A3s might be the same, but I have not seen those yet) there is a drive shaft with a universal join that transferes power from the steer gear into the final drives which have the sprockets mounted on. The drive shaft that inserts into the top of the final drive fits inside a good size gear (something like 5 or 6 inchs) which turns an ever larger gear lower down inside the final drive. That gear that the drive shaft inserts into had climbed up and out of the caseing. I guess the hooks on the sprocket plates had grabed hold of the track and did not what to turn lose. The top of the final drive casing was the weakess point in the drive line and it gave way. Even for a M113, final drive cases are very heavy if you don't have a fork lift to help you lift them.

The lesson for current AFV crewmen, know your vehicle better that the motor sergeant does. The problem had nothing to do with the tension adjustment piston and would have been much easier to fix if we had known what was causing the problem.

Some more of my old history,
Sgt, Scouts Out!