WORST 5 things about Chieftain | Richard “The Challenger” Cutland - World of Tanks 

Hey Tank Nuts! If you'd like to see Richards Top 5 Things about Chieftain, you can check it out in TANKFEST Online 2023! (Link in description)

Top 5 worst things about Chieftain? He always seems like a rather nice chap.

I think it's kind of annoying how every time you open a hatch on the Chieftain, it goes, "Greetings All!"

Next video, Nicholas "The Chieftain" Moran with the 5 worst things about "The Challenger"

Thanks Richard. The moment you said ‘First Parade’ my PTSD kicked in.

Richard brings a level of realism to the tanking experience that is right up there with Dags. Y'all are really stepping it up.

It's almost like Richard was in an abusive relationship with Chieftain. Lousy power pack, uncomfortable, unreliable, high maintenance, but he still loved it.

Richard’s video persona is uniquely unpretentious and accessible. He’s the “Everyman” of military tank commentators and I always look forward to his videos.

You forgot to mention the one thing that cancelled out all the comfort negatives. Yes, I'm talking about the tank's internal " BV " ( Boiling Vessel ). It would not be civilised to go into battle before you had a nice cuppa.

This was interesting from the user perspective. It would be interesting to have crew from other Cold War tanks, M-48/60/10/551, Leopard, T-54/55/62/72/10 and others do the same thing.

I like this take on the "5" lists. I want to see more of them. I'd suggest getting Stefan Karlsson to do the Strv103.

Unusually interesting - I love all of the Museums videos but I must say I particularly enjoyed this one, simply because this was a veteran tanker telling us about the "little problems" that are actually quite the hassle, and that nobody knows ablout except those serving in the vehicle. Being ex-armoured infantry myself I know a lot about that too, in the vehicles we used. If there is a wish-list, I'd like to chalk up a wish for more veteran insights of this kind please.

For a second I was like "WHOA! this LazerPig controversy has really escalated!" with that title hahaha

Ok but surely I'm not the only one who read Chieftain as The Chieftain the RU-vidr

Hi Richard, many thanks for your insights into why the Chieftain was a problem tank. It brought back many fond memories of when I was a crewman on Chieftain. Do you remember when you were preparing for a pack lift, some poor sod had to slide under the tank and remove the belly plate to get access to the flywheel bolts! I always tried to get the gunner to do it lol. Another good memory was track bashing and the application of putting the circlips onto the pins! By the way I served with the Blues & Royals, we initially had Mk5's then upgraded to MK9's. Never got the Stillbrew uparmoured version, 4/7th Dragoon Guards got them.

Didn’t know the chieftan didn’t have a heater!! Great video, I’m sure crews never nicked stuff out of one tank to make up the equipment set on theirs 😂

My father was an officer in iranian royal army before 79 and KIA during war with Iraq. His entire company was destroyed and i still have all his notes about maintenance and difficulties working with this tank

Seeing that background photo of a man with a sledgehammer working the tracks brings back memories. Memories of all the cursing when changing rubber pads on Leo 1.

I love this series of bringing in ex-crewmen to talk about their times in various vehicles! I would love to see a lot more of them!

This was a great brushstroke about life in the Chieftain. I'd love to see a much longer video that delved as deep as practicable into everything you've talked about today. Great video. Anecdotes are just that; anecdotes, but for most of us, I'll take a lot of them at face value. Without experience on the vehicle, anyone that served is a de facto expert.

I served with The Queen's Royal Irish Hussars 1971 to 1983, started on the Mk1 as a Loader/Operator and then did my Crewman and decided to do Gunner Mechanic as my main trade. We had the 4 dot sight to start with which had very few graticles and you had to have a good memory for your sight picture and we were using the 0.5" Ranging Machine Gun. Personally, I did not have a problem with the drivers hatch because I found a silicon based grease that kept the mobility of the mechanism nice and easy. Hatches, yes a problem when doing gas training, we just used gearbox grease on the rubber closures. Couldn't do that on the episcopes and sights and so we used to put an extra rubber seal on each one (a pain in the neck getting them fitted). The Loader's viewport, which rotated 360 degrees and leaked like mad on the rotary base, we tried loads of stuff, none of it successful. Going cross country in the gunners position I used to put my feet on the firing pedals (one for the RMG on the left, I think it was, and the other foot on the GPMG) and then left hand on the elevating wheel and right hand on the rotation wheel and that kept me safe. Loaders side I used to get overallls with long legs and rolled my socks over the top and then the anklets (later we had putttees) over the socks, this meant you had nothing flapping low down. Upper body I mostly rolled my sleeves up and that kept everything clear for loading or travelling cross country, also used to close the guard. I had my BV's on the right and below the C42. The Leyland L60 bus engine was designed to leak and to self-seal, thus a dirty engine was efficient - but not clean - my crew managed to keep our engine for 2 years until a junior officer decided to be helpful and cleaned it, naturally it broke down. I remember Chieftain with a degree of affection and lots of cursing.

This could be the begining of a new serie... Worst 5 things of a specific tank. I would love to see more of this... (With T35 we might need more than just 5 things...)

My dad served in the 3rd RTR and said that when they were putting a tank on the range 'it had to be complete'. That ment that all the items required (CES) had to be in the tank. So, he and is friends would scoure their tanks for any broken items they had to exchange for the ones on the range tank that were working. :) .

MOAR Richard please, he does a great job on his videos.

This presentation is really great. Kicking off the series with Richard Cutland is brilliant. Thank you!

Interesting stuff ! Richard is a very nice person. Like his videos a lot. Keep ‘em coming 😉

I love the Chieftain tank very much, but didn't know it had so much problems...Thanks for sharing the infomations !

To be fair though the complaints about having to keep track of a lot of gear, having to perform a lot of maintenance, and general lack of comfort are not even remotely unique to the Chieftain tanks.

More of these videos with actual crew members. Enjoyed the T-72 video and now the one on Chieftain very much.

I still miss those days on "my" Chieftain 01FD02

Nice to see you again Richard. I still recall the day you went past my house in Waterfoot in an AMX 13!

Thanks Richard, it was great to hear your expert view here.

We got issued heated suits for a time, including insoles for our boots. They either fried you or popped fuses. Left mine unplugged usually and appreciated they extra layer of warmth in winter.

5 Worst things about a given tank! A great theme; I hope to see more of these.

A very interesting account by a former crew member.

Mid 1970's. Joined as a driver/op, 9/12th Detmold. Memories. Transferred to REME in 1979! Had 3 pack changes on my very first exercise.

Bottom 5 things about Nicolas Moran?

Excellent, remember being jealous of Tankies as a infantry soldier because of the four man compo packs which had the king of all rations "tinned sausages"😮

This tank sums up my pockets. I weigh 15kgs more with my clothes on.

The best description of a friend of mine who as a driver at the time was when I got back from an O group was “ he’s hanging over the engine like an oily bat”,good times nevertheless

As a former M-48 tanker, this all sounds very familiar.

We saw them often during autumn Manouvres in lower Saxony , the Tommys let us even inside their Tanks and we kids in early 70s loved the Chieftain, massive Vehicle , the Vibrations when they moved on Road only 1 Meter away from the Walkway, good looking Tank especialy when covered with camo net and Foliage and the Engine Sound, no other tank M-48,M-60, Leopard sounds as good as a Chieftain. And in the Air? We loved the F-104G Starfighter, its sleek lines, its speed and this Banshee like Howl (of the J79) especialy when they came in low level. Good ol days every autumn our region looked like a Warzone with all the Planes, Helos , Tanks and other Mil Vehicles

Come on Richard, you shouldn't bad mouth your co-worker like that. Nicholas seems like an okay guy. Joking of course. Wonderful video and presentation. Thanks to both the Tank Museum and The Challenger.

Aloha; well done sir. I know what it's like to criticize something you love. I greatly appreciate your honesty and encourage the Tank Museum to do similiar "first person" bottom five on other vehicles. Aloha.

Nice one ‘Digny’, summed up the old girl very well!👍👏👏

Reminded me of my time as an Infantryman in West Germany in the 80's. Our tracks (M113's) had heaters that rarely if ever worked. And winter's are cold in Germany, especially if your stuck in a big metal box without heat lol.

Seriously thought you were here to throw shade at the Chieftain. Glad to see you were only throwing shade at the Chieftain. 😂

Not Being able to close a hatch...is a major fubar😂😂

Man, I remember "The Challenger" looking a lot younger back in the day when they, at least to me, exclusively covered vehicles sponsored by Wargaming

My childish side was secretly hoping the video was just The Chieftain being comedically roasted. But of course this is great too, lovely seeing Mr. Cutland again.

From what I can gather, the Leyland L60 engine was far more reliable when used in the Vickers MBT, which tends to suggest that much of the problem in the Chieftain stemmed from it being underpowered for a tank of that size (as Richard said). The Vickers weighed 38 tons, compared to the Chieftain at 55 tons, which also meant that the engines power could be downrated and the tank still be capable of good performance.

For a moment, I thought you were referring to Nicholas Moran (The Chieftain). Just picture the Flame war that this would ignite (staged)?

I love to hear fellow veterans complain about their equipment. There are always shortcomings, but if you don't work on or live in, or carry said equipment, you better keep your mouth shut. We may not like it, but that equipment kept us alive. Thank You for showing me the Chieftain.

"The maintanence of the Chieftan was a never-ending task" I think that statement applies to anything used by any military that has a price tag over 1 million.

Even the M48 has a heater. Keeps it nice and toasty. We never had an issue with crew comfort . The gunner and driver seats were very comfortable. The loader had a seat but was standing up most of the t ime.

I seriously thought for a moment I would get 7:30 of Richard Cutland slinging mud at Nicholas Moran.

Best I have seen in probably a year. Things wrong with Challenger probably next, love it.

Excellent Info

OK, I was a B3 Chieftain crewman I didn't work with the panzer for that long before I went off of to MT Troop. Yea tools, there were lots of tools I arrived in the Regiment just before we moved camp so one of my first jobs was helping prep for handover which involved checking all the kit was there. I remember there being a small issue as one of the drivers in the troop had cut a spanner in half so it was easier to reach something, long since forgotten what. . Hatch seals, I don't remember this being an issue or ever hearing about it being an issue, certainly never remember one being changed. Crew comfort I don't recall being that bad, the drivers seat would have been ok except the head rest always seemed to be 'bust' I do recall a panzer allegedly having a breech block in place of the drivers seat with a piece of wood on top, being used as a driver training vehicle when we were operating as a training Regiment! No idea how or why this ever happened but there was a panic on when it was noticed a breech block was missing I never saw it personally but why would anyone make that up and it has all the hallmarks of a classic bodge. As stated there was no heating, there were electrically heated suits but we were never issued with them "in case we damaged them", and had to reply on diesel smelling parkas that never had any buttons so invariably had don10 wire tied round the middle. In addition the tank featured a thing called turret air breathing, air was drawn through the turret to pre filter it. Lovely in a German winter drawing cold air through the tank. The driver had a control level to change the flow through the engine decks when closed down. Yea the L60 was crap I saw one drive 6 feet out of the hanger then grenade the engine. When I left in 83 we were required to join the reserve (not what was the TA) to make up 12 years of service. At one stage they sent us on a two week "event" in the mid 80s to Bovingdon which was the last time I ever drove a Chieftain, yep you guessed it, it broke down. The thing that always intrigues me is the much vaunted BV (boiling vessel ) something that invariably comes up in almost every article about Chieftain. I never ever saw it being used certainly not on any tank I crewed. Seeing as how it seemed to be such a handy bit of kit I asked why. The answer I was given was. The filler for water for the BV was as I recall on the turret roof not that far for the filler for the washer fluid container for the vision blocks etc. Someone correct me if i was just being wound up, either way I never saw a BV being used.

Ah, Chieftain, the first british MBT and one of the first true MBTs worldwide. Addition for context: no, Centurion was universal ie both cavalry and infantry tank, specifically MEDIUM universal tank. It served alongside HEAVY universal tank aka Conqueror. Chieftain replaced both. Just like how T-64 replaced both T-10M and T-62. Or how M60 failed to replace both M103 and M48, MBT70 failed to do it again and finally as a result M1 replaced them all. AMX-30 and Leopard 1 are technically first modern MBTs simply because France and Germany didn't have heavy tanks in service.

Nothing beats hearing from the people who actually used a particular piece of kit, you get the extra insight that only comes from living with and using something day-in & day-out: manuals and "official" reports etcv are valuable resources, but the end-users' experience is the unvarnished truth.

Good one, really enjoyable.

Pretty much applies to most armoured vehicles in my experience. They are a pain in the a*** when you have to service and maintain them. When you are a soldier it's just a job. And when some **** steals a spanner CES checks become a nightmare. I was on wheeled AFVs and CVR(T) for twelve years, and I don't miss them. Tanks are just more of the same. However, if I get a whiff of AL39 I do get a bit nostalgic.

Thanks!

In re item 5: Did Chieftain crews follow the ancient military custom of making up random, completely fictitious items with vaguely plausible names and tasking the new guy with finding/accounting for them--e.g., relative bearing grease, headlight fluid, grid squares (box of, 50 each)? :)

I've read that the Germans admired the Crusader tank for its great speed. In that sense its ironic that post-war the British decided they wanted to have the tank that gave them such nightmares in the war, the Tiger tank, and the Germans concluded that quality, as in armor and a BFG did not win them the war, so they went for quantity, lots of speedy tanks instead. So the UK developed a British Tiger tank with the Chieftain, as big, with a huge BFG, and as reliable as the Tiger, and the Germans built a Cruiser tank instead with the Leopard 1.

Given the moniker, and the years spent in the hull of this beast; I suspect there's plenty to complain about 😅

I had no idea they didn’t have a heater. I was in the Canadian Armoured Corps in the 80s on the Leopard 1. We had great heaters.

Great video! Picture trying to train a tank crew in all of this and then how to work together in combat. Then teach them coordinated combined arms warfare. Not doable in a few months. This will give you some idea of the issues being faced in Ukraine. I imagine that Abrams, Challenger and Leopard II are even more complicated machines.

I've heard that the Chieftain was a perfectly good tank for its day. Just tow it to a prepared entrenched position and it did its job well. If that position became untenable, all you had to do was tow it to the next one and you were back in action. 😄

The other weakness with the design IMO is the suspension - a Horstman type. This at a time when Vickers were building their MBT tank series with Torsion bar type suspension.

Could you do a comparison to challenger like this, would be really interesting.

A Challenger appears!

I thought this was going to be a beef video at first.

Anyone who knows me will tell you that anything that comes with a cup of tea maker gets a big plus from me. Perhaps that's why the Centurion and Chieftain remains my favourite post WW2 tanks. Here in Australia we rate the engine and transmission as the 2 worst things about Chieftain. We were shopping for a replacement for our Centurions. Very quickly the choice came down to the Leopard 1A3 and the Chieftain. The Chieftain was an early favourite as it ticked all the boxes. Fire-power outstanding, crew protection right up there. We could see many years of service from it. The Leopard 1 on the other hand was a minor improvement over the Centurion. However both still had to go through trails against the Centurion. This big issue was the Australian bush as it is cruel to very thing. It shreds tyres that are supposed to be puncture proof and that's just the beginning. The Leopard 1 definitely proved it was an improvement on the Centurion. We never really got to see what the Chieftain had to offer as it spent most of its time in the British repair tent. If the engine didn't break then the transmission did and vice versa. So it failed all elements of the trials. Even on the shooting range as it had to get there under its own power. So at the end of the day we went with reliability and chose the less capable Leopard with some regret. You mentioned you started as a gunner and then became a driver. Was this common practice and were you trained to be able to sit in all positions? I greatly enjoyed your frank and honest video that was based on your actual experience.

Now we need a response video where The Chieftan gives his 5 worst things about Challenger

To be fair about the leaky engine the same was true of the Harrier jump jet. You knew it was full when it was leaking

Who, Nick? Seems like a swell bloke. Has a nice hat.

"The space heater constantly blew fuses" - the prince of darkness strikes again, I guess....😂

I can't help but wonder how much better the Chieftain would have been if Rootes, Napier or Rolls-Royce had been awarded the engine contract. Leyland had zero experience of this category of two stroke diesel

Given the climate of Europe on the whole , it's almost staggering how no provision was made for a heater for the crew - I mean, first Napoleon and then Hitler found out it gets really, really cold in Russia in the winter and it's just not a secret that this would have been the UK's primary concern enemy in the Chieftains era, and arguably still even today. Not having a key crew survival function available given that reality seems woefully short sighted .

Damn! When I saw the title, I thought this was the Tank Museum having a pop at Nick Moran. I am disappointed - I was looking forward to a good fight!🤣⚔🤺

You missed out the two ten packs of Herfy for the CES.

Good job

Anyone who has owned British cars of the 50s-70s would well understand how many of these minor aspects were so overlooked, like there was no proper engineer available to attend to minor details.

The Chieftain best tank in the world in it's time but only as long if it didn't break down

I think you missed the point there, Richard. They were asking you to dish the dirt on Nicholas Moran 🙃

My prediction for this list; 1. The engine 2. The engine 3. The engine 4. The engine; and 5. The engine

I thought this would be a video roasting The Chieftain which would have been funny, but this was nice too

We need The Chieftan to do a reaction video

Hello everyone, I grew up in northern Germany and the first battle tank I actually saw from the inside wasn't a local Leopard 1, but: the Chieftain! It was during an exercise probably between 1983 and 1985 (Reforger?) in my village. I suspect this tank and other vehicles were stationed in Hildesheim (BAOR, Tofrek Barracks, 1st Royal Tank Regiment). I remember well the driver's lying position. After around 40 years, however, I can report what was most impressive to me: the soldiers stayed in position under the cover of a farm for several days without any activity. As children, we were naturally curious and proudly presented our school English to the soldiers. We were allowed to climb on all vehicles. After a few days, the canned food became too monotonous for some soldiers. I organized enough potatoes (thank you mom!) and was allowed to steer the tank for around 150m while lying on the driver. Of course, the driver took over the main tasks. The officers were probably absent for a few minutes... :-)

It appears that many Designers and Builders of AFV's (and Aircraft) never had any intention of actually being seen dead or alive in their specific product. Good thing that the BAOR never had to use this, their mainstay Battle Tank in anger. Could have made for a great pillbox in the Maginot Line though ..

Apart from point 1 - I wonder how many other tanks suffer from the issues described in points 2 - 5? Most of them I'd bet!

Reminds me how no-one talks about Merlin engine run-away, such that the prop's would come off.

As a REME gun fitter I only done a small amount of work on Chieftain, I just wished the turret floor was cushioned as I seemed to spend a lot of time upside down under the gun. And why does everyone complain about the L60 power plant, it kept my mates on the FRG busy going backwards and forwards with their 434s. I am sure most L60s done more miles in the hull of a 434 than in any Chieftain.

Universal tanker woes...but at least you Brits could brew up a warm cup on those cold days in the field...

For God’s sake, be honest. The L60 design was fine, underpowered by modern standards but was successfully uprated. The problem with the L60 was RED ROBBO at British Leyland. It was them that built the L60. I was at the FVRDE and helped rebuild new L60's that hand been thrown together with stripped threads and liners misaligned, etc, etc. One of ours came back from tests for the Shah of Iran that had done 4000 miles in the desert. Upon lifting the louvres it was solid sand, how the thing even ran I will never know. 8 times as much as any Tiger ever did. The first time I had a chance to drive a Chieftain - the started fell off. No doubt by someone who could not wait for his cuppa ?

Despite all the years it takes to design and develop a new tank, it seems a few flaws will always get baked into the mix. Like people, no tank is perfect.

Never truly appreciated how lucky we M60 tankers had it compared to our British allies. ;-)

Yes. I also thought it was about the man, not the machine