Post by whitehorse on Jan 26, 2020 11:00:10 GMT
If a hit just damages the tracks themselves, then the crew has (or should have) some spare track shoes (also called track blocks) on board, and is perfectly capable of repairing the track with tools on the tank as long as they have enough track shoes. It’s also possible to “short track” if there aren’t enough track shoes, by skipping the compensating idler completely. The compensating idler is the large wheel at the very farhest end of the tank in this picture. This restores mobility, but it leaves the track on that side very vulnerable to damage from rough terrain.
If there are damaged road wheels (those are the ones on the ground), the road wheel can be chained up out of the way as long as it’s not the first or the sixth road wheel. If it’s one of those, the crew needs to move a good roadwheel to the damaged spot, and chain up the suspension arm of the damaged wheel. You can do this with two roadwheels as long as they’re not adjacent, so you may need to go swapping good wheels around again, or even think about pulling a good roadwheel from the other side of the tank and chaining up THAT suspension arm too.
If the damage is to the suspension arms, they can be chained up out of the way.
Damage to the return rollers (the three little wheels at the top of the track) can be dealt with temporarily by just removing the roller, but that leaves the track VERY susceptible to road damage, and can result in damage to the rest of the tank as the track vibrates up and down in use.
The crew can do any of these things without outside assistance. BUT, and it’s a big one, they all take quite a bit of time, up to several hours. This isn’t something you do under fire. And other than replacing a couple of track shoes, the tank is going to need to go into maintenance for permanent repairs when possible.
