Tanks 104: The basics of armored vehicle tracks 

Happy track tension noises

To be fair, an armored train is an armored vehicle, and I’d love to see a video on those…

"Metal grip pads". Less like snow chains, a lot more like studded tires. Thanks for the content. 🤣

Not enough discussion of tracks coming off in deep,deep mud on a side slope. Preferably at night. That is when they are at their most fun. ;-)

Years back i had the luck that all the vehicle due to parade for "bastille day" (14th of july for us frogs) had to drive by under my windows. (get up early, sit at the café at the corner with your latte and croissant and you had a front row seat of you own personnal military parade! how the good old days!). At the end of the day, after all the Leclerc MBTs with rubber padded tracks left, there was always that patch of tarmac where they had to make it on the roundabout to get back that was like a plowed field. And since it is one of the main "gate" to the freeways leading to summers spots, it would not be repair until the end of september! Unfortunately road changes have since meant they come and go by an other itineary.

Ground pressure is critical on operations. In East Timor, the originally deployed AUSLAV, eight wheeled vehicles, were quickly withdrawn and replaced with the vintage M113 ( the tin can cowboy’s ‘sardine machine’ from my service) as the LAVs were destroying the local usually unmetaled roads, especially during the rainy season. What is really annoying is even authoritarian texts will go into great detail regarding the weapons, and armour, they may quote power to weight, rarely quote ground pressure, which is a critical number in mobility context.

Changing track pads on a M60A1 took 2 days for 2 people one hot Ft. Polk summer. All mechanical tools.

Only 8 minutes, was expecting 90 minutes

I would love to see more of this type of video! Just basic information and some important details about one aspect of tanks as a whole. I can see this becoming a series. Hulls, turrets, engines, cannons, etc. This actually answered a couple questions I've had lately about two tanks I've played in War Thunder. Was curious about what the Stuarts had on the sides of their turrets, and I didn't know why the Italian M36B2 had seemingly wider tracks on the older VVSS setup. Now I know it's grousers and "duckbill" extensions respectively. As someone who really loves tanks, but has absolutely no deep education on the basics like this, I'm really looking forward to more of this!

Anyone else want to see a new Chieftain series on trains and locomotives? I personally am psyched to know he's also a railfan. And i feel like him doing "Inside The Cab" videos would be just as amusing as his tank videos. But probably that's too much work for one man.

Chief, I'd like to recommend the Australian armoured and artillery museums RU-vid channel for the latest two videos they've released about some grant tanks that they found on a farm along with some intact parts. I've never seen someone so excited to find a dash or gun shield as these fellas.

This has been a long time coming, we all always knew this vid would eventually get made. Cheers Sir!

Perhaps you could also answer these questions in a second track video. 1) How valuable are tracks? Can the 50 cal or the DShK disable them under a couple of hundred meters? Will a main gun round that is poorly aimed damage the tracks and running gear to the point it will need depot level repairs? 2) What is SOP for a damaged/thrown track in combat? Do you maneuver your tank so that your tank is between you and the enemy? Does another tank provide cover for you to work? Or is the tank towed off the the battlefield?

We had one guy adjust the track tension with the road wheel pump. We kept the road wheel pump right next to our high angle primers and our boxes of grid squares.

It’s great to cover the basics for new viewers every now and again.

Rubber band tracks were also popular on the 1/144th scale improvised military vehicles of my childhood, most of which were originally dump trucks.

now I can keep track of the differences between one and two pins

The narrow tracks used in the 1920s and 1930s are also related to the Christie type running gear, since it was intended to transport the tracks on the track-cover while driving on wheels. A special case are the tracks of the Universal Carrier, which had to be laterally flexible in order to allow steering via lateral bending of the tracks.

honestly, listening to someone who served in the military is way better than some random "unknown expert" on youtube

Thank you for taking time to talk today at Aquino, it truly was my honour to meet you and talk. You are even nicer and more down to earth in person than you are in your videos and I am flattered that you actually enjoyed and laughed at the 1950’s Centurion hunting story I told that was conveyed to me many years ago by a former armoured reservist. Keep up the great work and I hope you get your heavy armoured battalion command sir.

The rubber tracks were surprisingly durable. When I was in Alaska in the mid 80s one of the local fishermen found a abandoned WW2 1/2 track and got it running again. There was some dry rot but they still worked.

That was really quite well done. I hadn’t really considered quite how many different forms tracks could take. My favorite bit of track lore is still the T-34’s solution to keeping the track pins in place. No threaded end with a nut for them. There’s a metal wedge that knocks the interior head of the pin back in place as the track goes round. Not exactly a way to reduce the amount of noise the tank makes, but it works.

Ironic, given your joke at the beginning, I had always heard that the reason why German armor had an option for narrow track was because it made them transportable by rail, they were too wide for the wagons and tunnels with the size track they were intended to use.

🥺I seen the train and was looking forward to your armored train video.

Thank you! After all this time, I finally wrapped my two brain cells around 'track pitch'. One more ignorant question: Is 'metaled road' Euro-speak for 'paved'?

Your M1 model is still deadlined, the right side #1 torsion bar seems to be snapped.

The tracks on the tank go round-n-round.. ^~^ as long as your track tension is up to snuff... >~< so says the Chieftain. ^~^

I remember from basic watching the 3rd Herd which was returning from Nam running their M114's with the rubber band tracks with their narrow cleats which failed the test of combat in the rice paddies. Way too many recovery operations needed.

Is it bad I was sad when I saw it was only 8 minutes?

Honestly, in the 6 years I was an M-60 tanker in the Marine Corps (85 to 91) I can't ever remember throwing a track. I've helped other crews that had and the only times I've dealt with removing or installing track was either scheduled maintenance or a busted final drive. Maybe breaking track to get a roadwheel arm low enough to pull out a busted torsion bar. And nothing sucks worse than changing a torsion bar.

Fascinating and very informative. Question: did US surplus halftracks used for decades by Israel keep using surplus rubber band tracks or - recognizing how rocky so much of Israel is - replace them with purpose-built metal tracks?

This information tracks nicely.

Thank you, Sir! Geoff Who still remembers a warehouse full of track pads in FRG c. 1978.

This is the sort of detailed and higher-tier knowledge that isn't easy to just find, especially not as fast as you convey the info through this video. I thoroughly appreciate your expertise.

The chieftain keeps us on track.

I’ll probably have to watch this a few more times to absorb all the information. I really appreciate these bite-sized basics videos for people that don’t have super in-depth knowledge on tanks.

I wish I had this man as a Teacher in my early ages in school. Great video

Finally. We've been waiting years for the gospel.

Track Basics tracks always break at the worst possible place and time. Also dun fact car tires rotate just like tank tracks. At the contact point the wheel/track is not moving, but the tire/track portion 180 from from the contact patch is at maximum acceleration and from the 180 point it starts slowing down until it comes to a stop at the contact patch.

Alternate title "The Chieftain's on Track!"

Even the mundane can be made to be fascinating with your explanations.

Wait what? Where is my train video? :-)

Track Tension! Great stuff!

Tink , tink, thunk......

I do feel like this could have been an hour long deep drive and i would have been happy to watch it. Im sure this is an extensive subject when you get into the meat of it.

Thanks for all of the information that I needed for the moment, and I was able to get it within this moment. We live in a world of wonders and horrors simultaneously.

👍 Thanks for educating us in this free lesson

Hi Chieftain, thank you very much! More infos about tracks in under 8 minutes than in a dozen books I read about tanks ;)

Concise and very well done.

Couple of track anecdotes, to wit: We did a road march around the British MTA (Major Training Area) of Bergen-Hohne in our freshly issued M60A1 RISE Passives (C/2-1 Cav, 2ad (FWD)) which were the first time we had seen the track with replaceable pads, T142, I think? Turned out the adhesive attaching the pads to the backing plates was bad and we spent our road marches with the loader facing rearward on the lookout for flying track pads. These were quite weighty and capable of injury if they caught you unaware. actually batted one away once, ONCE! ouch. During a REFORGER exercise (same unit) in I want to say '81 we were motoring through some Ballpeenhammersdorf outside Hanover when we had to make a right turn on a cobblestone road. Rubber pads notwithstanding by the time the troop got through we had pushed all the cobblestones to one side and dug an impressive gouge. A couple hours later some bright light decided we were in the wrong place and ordered us back to our starting point. coming back to Ballpeenhammersdorf we now took a left turn and undid all the work a repair crew had done to repair the original damage. I'mna pretty sure they were not amused. Bonus anecdote not strictly track related: Approaching ENDEX we were ordered to convoy to an assembly area where we would wait our turn to railload. We had to cross a canal and the only bridge for miles had a weight class of '5'. About the only vehicles in a cav troop that could safely cross a weight class 5 bridge were the jeeps. My PSG, hard charger that he was (future TRADOC Smaj) ordered me across the bridge. Being a freshly minted buck Seargeant I said 'roger' loader, gunner, get up here with me on top of the turret and traversed the turret to make it easier for the driver to bail, just in case, don'tcha know. Took it across at about 10mph and made it. turning onto the road paralleling the canal I turned to look back waiting for the inevitable oh spit moment. Miraculously everyone made it while I watched pieces of the underdecking fall off the bridge into the canal. Fast forward a month was playing a monster panzer leader/panzerblitz game (4 players, 1 American armored div, 1 British armored div, 1 Russian mechanized corps, 1 panzer grenadier div. each enters from one side, massive catfight in the middle, no allies (officially, but skullduggery is always afoot). Anyway, one of the players was a Lieutenant who was also the Bde's maneuver damage officer. I casually related about the bridge. I'd never actually seen someone turn white. He disappeared and came back in a few minutes with a map. 'Which town Sgt A?' That one sir *points* "Gotta go, see you guys later, clean up before the Major gets here. He has a temper and I won't be here to run interference." Yessir. It was Sunday morning and we'd just pulled an all-nighter playing the game and had just returned from breakfast. Found out later from him that he'd gone to the town in his POV and found that the bridge had been repaired, bill for the work submitted so everyone was more or less satisfied. Back in the mid-70s we had something called 'Brigade 75, 2AD, 1st and 4th ID(M) fielded a fourth brigade that would rotate in and out of FRG on a 180 day TDY rotation. Eventually some bright light figured it would be cheaper and less disruptive to make the now independent brigades permanent so 2AD(FWD) was actually an independent brigade until 2AD deployed when we were supposed to link up and deploy with the parent division, which we did once, ONCE. Can't speak for the mech bdes. Thus endeth the interminable 'anecdotes' related by a 66 yo armor has-been. Gimme a step ladder, I can issue a fire command. Gunner! HEP! Schoolhouse! Fire Fire Smoke! But all the new electronics? Not my M1, looks the same, not the same. Taught the M1a2 to Kuwaitis, current M1A2 SEP whatever is not the same tank. It look similar but someone would have to carry me and I be old and stuph.

I once saw an M578 recovery vehicle lose an idler/roadwheel doing a pivot turn on top of a hill at the Yakima Training Center. The road wheel disappeared down the hill, bouncing over the rocks and sagebrush. The crew just shortened the track over the remaining four roadwheels on that side, and made it back to our trains area.

One of my cousins was sent down to the port at Townsville to pick up a a reconditioned 113. They noticed it had no rubber blocks but decided to drive back any way. The cops arrived at the base shortly after they did.

The reason for the rubber in a live track is that it deforms, twists, allowing the track links to hinge ( a bit) while the pin does not rotate in a bushing or something. The pin is vulcanised to the rubber. As the pin does not rotate is does not wear out. Therefore live tracks last far longer. Its the same principle as the silentblocks in a cars suspension.

I missed regular Chieftain content. No hate, just highlighting it's good to have it back.

Early to an upload! Thanks for the content, Chieftain.

These videos are always good at keeping my attention. Not too short while keeping it informative and entertaining. I've just got one suggestion, in addition to the video title style making a playlist of the whole series could be worthwhile. I had a look through the playlists to check if I had missed watching any (to check if I remember/see the red indication how far I played the video) but couldn't find a playlist, so ended up putting "tanks 101", "tanks 102", etc manually into the video search and found one I didn't catch at the time or youtube forgot to inform me there was a new video.

Thank you. Good video. Straight to the point, as usual.

Great work as usual. Legend man.

Great video, Nick...👍

This brings to mind a story that I heard from an old work mate who had been in the REME. While on a joint NATO exercise (possibly in Germany, not sure), there was a steep, icy, track to get to the top of. The German tanks got half way up, then the tracks just slipped. The Americans tried, and slipped at the same point. Same thing with the UK contingent. Everybody decided to bed down for the night, to try again the next day. There was one smarmy bastard, universally disliked in the UK troop, who said he had an answer. After all else had failed, they asked him: Reverse the tracks on the tank, but go up forwards. So during the night, they reversed the tracks on one tank, as a test. Sure enough, straight up, no slipping. All the UK tanks were sent up this hill before they let on how it was done. Is this a tall story? I don't think so, as it was mainly about the UK crew eating crow as this smart arse was right, and milked it! Would it have worked sending the tanks up in reverse? I have no idea. But to me, it sort of makes sense.

A useful primer. Thanks for posting.

The most Chieftan video ever?

That was very interesting. Thank you for sharing that.

I almost want to build a tracked vehicle now. Almost

Always interesting and informatieve Chief.

Cheers Chieftain. Thanks for the info. I liked the way the later Shermans had the extra track bits you could put on. Big finkin that one was.

Wow

Greetings from the Old Country, Nicholas. You're some boyo with your tracks 🙂

Merkava Track was tested up at Gowen Field in the early 90's just chewed through the basalt rocks in that area

It is a very interesting video and basically you have highlighted the basic difference between a fully metal track and the rubber padded tracks. It always come in my mind the Sherman with the the two types of tracks., that said the crews always complained the lack of handling, even on relatively low slopes on wet grass with the relatively narrow rubber tracks but generally much easier on hard roads. Good job as always 👍👍👍

It was indeed informative. Prior to this video I had mistakenly believed that duck bills were the same as grousers. Thank you for clarifying that.

Great video, thanks

This is a great video. It'd be awesome to get more video's focusing on specific components of the tanks, the reasons for different variants and a history of improvements.

It was quite interesting and informative indeed. I hope you'll make more videos in this brief, informative fashion discussing other tank related topics.

Oh the nightmares: Throwing Track to both the inside and outside back in 1984 and breaking track in the mud of Hohenfels. "Fun" times.

Very intersting and informative. I really need to look at this topic myself.

Another good day

B 1/185th once went to Minnesota in January for a winter AT. Needless to say, the ground was frozen hard. The tanks slipped and slid over almost every surface, so we refeversed every 10th centerguide. It worked like a charm, but the horns of the guides ended up getting bent and deformed the hole assembly, we had to cut a lot of them off. That took a while with 14 tanks and two torches.

Many people are not aware of the interesting “pivoting pads” (my term) that were added to artillery wheels in WW1 to try and reduce ground pressure because of the omnipresent mud.

As for the rubber pads on tracks, not just to protect the "civil" infrastructure - they provide more grip on paved roads, as in towns in Western Europe, but also don't tear up the roads, and so making it more difficult for your supply trucks to follow you. Still, in 5 years in the Army, we never changed the pads - just replace the whole track, and if someone wants to put on a new pad on a track block back at the depot, well, so much the better for the crew that next uses that track block -

I remember 2 things about track from WW2. Duckbills was one and when the Germans saw the T34s off road driving performance in the snows of the East they saw a “waffle style”of track which was superior.

Finally a video about tank tracks lol😅

Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.

Truly the maddest of lads. He’s gone and done it.

Bit of a physics note; tracked vehicles are still wheeled vehicles. The amount of roadwheels and I suspect their lateral width and diameter still matters for ground pressure, as the contact patch load is distributed around the roadwheels. The track does not completely evenly split the load as some sources seem to imply. I'm pretty sure there's easily-obtainable mathematical formulas to calculate the approximate contact patch load for tracked vehicles, and I've seen a few FEA sims that insinuate this.

Informative as always.

Look up the Canadian M113A3 track i thinkbyou be in love. TLAV. The track is fixed easily by strapping metal bars to fill in the gap. It is tensioned by grease gun. And 2 good tech can change the track in 2-3 hours. The chains are 6-8 inchs long attached by bolts to the side of the track. Fantastic system

A good video. as a USN vet a learn a great deal from them.

I'm thinking the cut at 3:35 was to remove an impromptu 3 hour lecture/rant about track tensioning 😁

I would gladly listen to a history of train tracks lol.

Hey wait a minute....where's my track tension lecture! LOL

Another great video. You mentioned reversing center guides for traction on snow/ice. Thing is you just can’t reverse the center guide. The center guide is too tall unless cut down and will make a nice cut in fenders and sponson box’s. I know in the M60 series we carried sand bags full of cut down center guides in the mid 70s in both ROK and FRG and in the mid to late 80s in FRG. Never did put those on but we carried in case needed.

Very interesting!

WOO I LOVE TRACK LORE!

And the Russians used a log for extra traction.

I find it funny the rubber track hasnt changed all that much. They basically got it right with the M4 and just made it wider for the new tanks.

Thank you very much

Europe has lots of miles of metal roads. They use up million pounds of gravel in maintenance :) Was under impression that tanks do more damage to paved roads with their tracks.

Good info.

Aaah, changing the rubber pads on a Leo 1 track brings back fond memories of godforbidden cursing ! 🤣🤣🤣