GREAT VIDEO= changing tracks on a Firefly tank

[Tankbuilder]

Ever wonder how to change the tracks on a Sherman Firefly tank? Here's an utterly fantastic video showing it being done! There are great closeups of the idler mount and the adjustments madfe to it. A superb video if you want details of the running gear of a Sherman especially closeups of the running gear in motion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8eaT3GEWQI

Cheers from Tankbuilder

 

[cb1]

excellent! thanks for sharing! it gave me bad memories of breaking tracks on our M2s.

it takes a full week to swap out pads on 4 vehicles when we did it. The whole platoon teams up.

 

[moon puppy]

Thanks Peter. Very interesting.

Hey that's cheating using the floor jack on that big wrench.

 

[wds]

It looks like it's a lot of work in a clean, flat, hard, dry shop even with the benefit of fork lifts, angle ginders, and a full stomach.
Can you imagine doing it in the field? (Cold, wet, muddy, (dark?) no power tools, hungry, tired, and maybe even someone dropping mortar rounds on you. Whew!

Thanks for sharing. I like to watch. :laugh:

Cheers,

Bill

 

[moon puppy]

Not to mention the floor jack and lift came in handy. You're right Bill but also I think those tracks may have been on this tank a long time for the bolts on the connector pieces to be seized up.

Wonder how it road with the new tracks.

 

[Tankbuilder]

Not to mention the floor jack and lift came in handy. You're right Bill but also I think those tracks may have been on this tank a long time for the bolts on the connector pieces to be seized up.

Wonder how it road with the new tracks.

Looks like it rode pretty well. They had it out and drove it through Bastogne in December 2014. You can see that the number on the side of the hull is the same as the video I posted earlier upthread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoVDzrMgTbk

Cheers

 

[moon puppy]

At about :26 and forward, look how the tracks slacken up in the turn, either the new treads are Michelins and really gripping the road, maybe the idler is too loose or is that normal?