Re: Bench testing cast track links [TANKS]

["Marc en Wendy" <marcmethorst-at-zonnet.nl>]

Frank wrote:

> You may want to consider putting a single piece of medium weight 
> fibreglass cloth in each tread when it is molded.

Hadn't thought of that yet, thanks for the tip.

> In our own "Tanner Testing" (ie. give a volunteer fireman your part and a 
> hammer), the cloth version held out the longest, far surpassing the resin 
> only treads.  Our battlefield testing over the last two years also shows 
> that the treads work very well on the field and have stood up to 
> everything we thrown at them.

I'll keep this in mind. On the TTS-system the treads are only exposed to 
wear and slight tear I guess since they are backed by a wooden inner tread.
A fully moulded track link has to withstand some more abuse because the 
links will be engaged by the sprocket. Also they are mechanically linked by 
a metal pin that will wear the holes in the link when sand and dust enters. 
This is already occurring on the plastic conveyor tracks on my StuG.

Marc 'would Willy Tanner do?' M.
The Netherlands