Factory &
prototypes
Drawings
New
Pictures
Sources / links
Illustrations
Modells
Survivors
About this site
Questions

The dry pin track-chain is one of the main features of the vehicle. The whole track layout is designed with simplified maintenance and rugied use in mind.

Spocket

Placed at the front of the track. Consisting of two rings with 15 teeth each, bolted on the outer end of two truncated cones. The cones are united in the middle at the smaller ends.

Idler

On the rear of the track, the idler. A cast center with spokes in a steel ring with rubber blocks secured round their peripheries by steel clamping rings that also act as guides for the teeth of the tracks. The mounting is on cranked axles and the track-tensioning device is the same as usual, a nut and threaded rod device with a shear-bolt.

Bogies

Two identical shallow, pressed steel discs with solid rubber rims are united into a pair and bolted to the hubs. These bogies are detachable without removing the hubs. Five of these pairs, three widely spaced and two narrowly spaced on each side. The mounting of the bogies is on taper roller-bearings on hubs. These are carried on radius arms, each separately sprung by means of a torsion-bar.

Torsion bars

The arrangement of the torsion bars is new. On the left they point forward, on the right the point to the rear. The torsion-bars are co-axial.

Track

Each link is formed by a main link, each carrying two spuds and two guide teeth, and an intermediate link. The intermediate links are secured on the outer side by a head and on the inner side by a circlip and pin. The links are 50 cm width. 55 sets form the chain, (Both sides the same number) hinged together by track pins. The guide teeth run between the wide spaced bogies and outside the narrow ones.

A good question leads to good info. What is the letters on the track link? A friend contacted Dr. Peter Schwarzmann, Autor of the very good book "Panzerketten". He replied "That's not (yet) in the book because it's too much a niche. The code is "eyo" and is the manufacturing code of "Wittmann KG, Gussstahlwerk und Tempergießerei, Hagen-Haspe.".