M3 Halftrack: Strength & Weaknesses (featuring Chieftain)

hello everyone short disclaimer here this video is sponsored by wargaming and here is Nikola smart just to prove it and we will talk about the benefits or the strengths and weaknesses of the m3 half-track which the first strengths to the m3 half-track is it just looks good there are some people who like to look at the German vehicle I'm sorry I vastly prefer the m3 and if you can't go into battle in style what's the point however if you think about it the m3 is really just another case of the American example of evolution of known product so there's an m3 Scout car around the corner you look at the m3 Scout car you compare it to an m2 half-track just behind the the ambulance here somewhere hiding way behind the ambulance you of course say they hit it off and if you look from the one to the other you're going to see the the family resemblance it's not it's almost like you take the back two wheels off the Scout car and you were placed on by tracks and if you were to look underneath if you were to put these things on on a lift and look underneath you're going to see that the mechanism behind is actually identical or is near to identical this makes no difference so anyway the the power transfer on this is not a complicated system that you would find on the tank or anything else so if you think about a 4x4 you got the engine goes to the transfer case and gearbox there's a drive shaft it goes forward or parish after gas goes to the go to the after wheels with the half track they've done exactly the same thing - is it a pair of shaft that goes forward it's selectable to engage or disengage in front wheels and there is a power shaft that goes to the back wheels these are basically the back wheels there is no fancy steering mechanism there's no anything else it's quite simply your rear wheel instead of being a circle this big is now a quadrangle I guess it is of much larger dimension so it's mechanically something that has already been in service with the US for years it's incredibly simple and it still does the job of getting you the extra traction of floatation of the half-track system plus of course does it say the front wheels will engage as for the body well there's all sorts of variants you can have a look I mean with the front worries we should add that the chairman's on the graphics like that's why I don't fancy doesn't have them doesn't have the forward did you just for steering and there's no power on and it's one of the main difference correct I'm sorry I have to wait and see what north is going on here I awarded one of my tank crew submariners dolphins for sinking in Abrams so I told them basically you can wear it for the day now obviously because it's not official US Army uniform or an award you got to take it off and it just happened at that day and Navy convoy it comes into the base and he sees on the e6 the submariners dolphins says are you a bubble head excitedly and of course my ECX tank commander does not actually know what a bubble head is he thinks it is some form of insult fortunately the disaster was averted by the intervention at the last minute of somebody else who actually knew what was going on or what the bubble head was but there are many of these strange traditions in the military that you've come across from time to time but back to the back to the wheels on the half-track and how they the 251 doesn't have it now there isn't unfortunately 251 here but I think Bernard is going to conveniently insert some footage taken elsewhere with the German q5 once this wasn't as if there is no merit to the German design of the body the armoured body particularly was very good the interleaf suspension again has those advantages in the interleaf but if you have a look at the front wheels they are there purely for the purpose two purposes one to stop the front end of the vehicle dragging into the ground and secondly to provide simple and slight changes of direction without drawing any of the power that was going through the powertrain but the tracks on the two five one are there like a tank tracks they have a powered steering system that when you turn the wheel hard enough over the track start operating at different speeds so all of a sudden you are now dealing with that the technical maintenance and manufacturing issues of a full tracked vehicle while still hobbling it with having wheels at the front never made in a man who sends to me but I guess it made sense to somebody before I say wouldn't a builder even also the maintenance on the track so if yeah if you look at a proper two five were not one of the post-war check variants but you know an original let's say 1942 two five one or two five oh you're going to see that each individual track link is lubricated the hinge is lubricated there's a little nut you got to open up and you got a pour the oil in and you got us tighten up the oil again and I don't know how many links to are on a two five one track but that sounds like a lot of work that I don't want to do okay it can be sure how it's done here no because the Americans are sensible and they just put a single piece of rubber band now there are disadvantages if you hit a mine or something like that with this you can't just insert a new link you need an entirely new rubber band and taking it off is a little bit irritating because you've kind of have to lift the whole thing off the ground and then you know that yeah kind of pry it off but a can be done it's not too god-awful also you need a lot of rubber which the Germans didn't have all yes the suspension system again it's it's a vertical value suspension system it doesn't quite look at because of the the small bogies but if you look like front you're going to see the volume Springs yes so again this is this is not new technology this is the Americans doing what they do best they take something that already exists they adapt it to modify it they improve it a little bit here and there and away you go so you start off you take you go from the m3 Scout car you enlarge effectively the rear wheels you get the m2 you the m2 yeah it's a little bit small let's make it a bit bigger they make it the m3 and then the m3a1 this is actually m3a1 I'm told from the Bell displayed it doesn't have a skate ring for the machine guns can't have everything like the German half tracks the American half tracks could do anything so the first tank destroyers they were half-tracks they were armed with the same 75 millimeter gun that the Sherman had and you know Sherman was not armed with an anti-tank gun then why do they put the same gun on the tank destroyer answer me that came with a Sherman 76 always is I'm pretty that's a 76 is on the m18 so you're not convincing me here but I digress so the Germans came up it was like nineteen different variants of the two five one yeah more it's anyone ridiculous the Americans did it just as much you got 105 s he got 75 s he got mortars of different types he got the troop carrier you've got recovery you was a slave and he aircraft what sir no the Germans had the Americans on that one yeah that was the flu I think the Americans thought if they were gonna go up that close to the enemy they wanted something lots and lots of armor all around you probably with rocket artillery neither they're stupid see fools mmm I am NOT going to say that nobody didn't nobody tried to put Rockets you know into a half track one other thing you do this long enough you're gonna learn never say it never happened because someone somewhere is gonna come up in 20 years with this little duck small postage stamp photograph from some personal collection somewhere and it comes up it says see he's wrong yeah Walmart opposite the same is his cap nice nice gob it's got nothing that didn't exist it's a certain degree there was say I my dad used to subscribe to Model Railroader magazine and they had a section way back in today called a prototype for everything and this was aimed at the people that send a model kit into a into a competition and the judge will look at it and go that would never happen and it's it's something like let's say this star if you put too much decal setting solution it'll start to melt in a model that'll never happen in real life right and then somebody will take a photograph of a real piece of equipment where that is exactly what it looks like happened it just melted so if you're gonna do that my recommendation is at least put a photograph of the prototype just to give the middle finger to the judges I like making models but sometimes they come I used to be good at making models now compared to the people that are at that I'm seeing out there it's got my techniques of stayed in in 1980s and people moving it wedding 2010 techniques with filters and I saw some videos a one guy I think putting a panther in a in a water or Navy to stuck in the water like you know fun it from this it's like one one to 72 scale or something he made everything like with water and then he added Leafs and then he added furnishing to the because the the grass which looked perfect it was not it wasn't brown enough and everything I was like yeah the hell that does I mean is it something to the point of why am I doing this hobby I give up I'm obviously so so it's so outclassed but the other thing about making models is that you enjoy it it's supposed to calm you down it doesn't yeah PA doesn't meet peace B or PC you accidentally snip the wrong thing and they are they're trying to goo back together it goes flying off there and you realize you need four hubs and you only have three and that ruined the entire last 3d I'm sure there were people watching this and know exactly what we're talking about yeah but back to the half-tracks I think I've rambled on long enough suffice to say that the half-track they this this could do everything and also it's street-legal in a lot of states oh that's nice but a license plates front to back I've been told the trick is what you do is you submit the photograph from the front so the DMV doesn't realize that it's got tracks so they just see the wheels at the front and I think they're good so I have heard although there are some states I think you can make it tank street-legal as well not all of them we'll see so anyway tracked like this I think 90,000 is probably the going rate for one around now and I know thousand dollars it will fit in your garage you've got a good sized garage I do not have $90,000 they don't have room in my garage should said I would do should set up a GoFundMe you don't I'll settle for an m3 Scout car honestly you can use it a bit more anyway how much dear about eighty thousand so it's not much in a difference but it is cheaper to run now again maintenance it on this is easy because it's a car affecting you look underneath it is car you look at the handbrake I kid you not the handbrake is a simple disc brake on the prop shaft your only trouble is going to be where do you get new new tires are new rubber for the track yeah so the Israelis of course use these for many many years and there was for a long time a large supply of Israeli half track track that would come back for the collectors market that has now since run out so people are starting to get a little bit worried because they like driving the things too dry it's like a regular truck and of course it starts to wear out where do you get new ones well now you have to start this new cottage industry of making new track but at least it's pure rubber with camper with metal inside so it's not all that hard you make probably someplace in the Philippines I think there's one now that vulcanized is rubber for Sherman trackpads because that dick again you run the Sherman enough it's gonna wear out and you can't go to the factory for new track pads so cottage industry starting up for half-tracks as well and speaking of tracks this brings us to responds of this video the free-to-play game lot of tanks which made this trip and collaboration possible in the first place now if you want to get started with world of tanks they provide a special code for new play as they gives them immediate access to the T 127 tank 500 gold premium currency and 7 days of premium time if you use the link in the description ball of Tanks features over 500 tanks including the Panzer kampung sex tiger the t-34 the Sherman the Matilda and the s 35 so if you want to ambush one or more of the million players worldwide head on in of course you can also charge in and deal it out up close and personal oh yes check out the link in the description for the sponsorship and also a big THANK YOU to Mike skip Mason forever off and everyone else from Volvo trauma and of course chieftain thank you very much it's all next time bye as always sauce are linked in description thank you for watching and see you next time

Channel: Military History not Visualized

Views: 301,897

Keywords: Military History not Visualized, Military History, mhv, M3 Halftrack, D-Day Conneaut, M3 Halftrack Strength and Weaknesses, M3 vs. Sdkfz 251, Halftracks, WW2, WW2 Halftracks, Chieftain, Nicholas Moran, Wargaming, World of Tanks

Id: M4iX1qOGIJo

Length: 12min 47sec (767 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 04 2019