Half track snapping tracks

[Great War truck]

I know that sometimes the tracks on US half tracks just snap. I heard a horror story over the weekend of this happening and that the whole track ended up in the rear comparment. I thought that it would not be possible and that the track once broken would just run out, but then again as it's natural shape is a band might the end of the broken track rise up and land in the compartment with the rest following close behind it. A nasty proposition. Anybody come across this before?

 

Tim (too)

[TooTallMike]

The Red Ball Express guys had one go a year or so ago and IIRC they said it banged up under the sponson and then sort of laid itself along the road as the HT drove off it. I'll try and find the thread on their forum.

 

This is why we keep a close eye on the tracks of the two HTs in our group. Both have had NOS tracks installed in the last two years but they still have to be checked.

[abn deuce]

I had been told the same story a few times from Vets and from a friend of mine whom I helped restore a couple of Halftracks with , I have not seen it happen or found any evidence of it happening . When he last broke a track while on the way to a event the broken track remained on the ground ....safe enough but the empty Ben Hur trailer he was towing at 30 plus miles an hour was flipped on its side when it encountered the track , scrapped up a fender and the damaging the canvas and broke a bow or two while getting dragged to the shoulder of the road and put back on its wheels .Since he was only a few miles from the event he completed it with the front wheel drive engaged , did very little to the boggies in direct contact with the pavement.

[Joris]

Ouch, nasty stories....

[AlienFTM]

I'd imagine it depends whether the track snaps front or back, above or below the road wheels.

 

Certainly we heard heard stories in my day of tracks snapping, flying over the top of the vehicle and decapitating anyone who didn't duck in time. I cannot say I ever saw it though.

 

I'd guess it's more likely to happen in something fast like a CVR(T) (or a halftrack ...) than a Panzer, where there isn't enough velocity component in the kinetic energy to carry the track over the top. However, maybe if it splits on the rear-mounted sprocket, the turning of the sprocket might be enough to launch the track. I dunno.

 

Only (accidentally-)broken track I ever saw was an M60 A1 on the range road at Hohne. The track was laid out behind it and with no steering on that side, it right-turned into a centuries-old tree. What concerned me in this story (which I have no way of verifying) is that the impact was sufficient to crack the glacis plate.