The Governor has an Abrams tank in his arsenal now.
One of his henchmen was a tanker who drove it from wherever.
It has a range of 300 miles on a full tank.
What good is a tank that ran out of fuel?...and batteries?
OR- where are they going to get a tanker full of JP-5?
EDIT-
If I had to make a choice, I think I'd rather be with the guys who had a DR., Vet and First Responder (Rick)
who couldn't get even a rudimentary water treatment system going.
Instead of some bloodthirsty killer who showed what he was whit the hostages.
uh dude, it's tv. they can do whatever they want.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but they should kinda keep to real life...except in space operas.
DeleteBut a grenade down the barrel works, too.
IF the breach was open........... otherwise it would only degrade the barrel a little.
Delete...unless you were a clueless Hollywood writer that thought that grenades were mini-atom bombs..or something.
Roll a grenade down the bore WITHOUT pulling the pin.
DeleteThe next round fired will do the destruction; the grenade just initiates it. ESPECIALLY (but not exclusively) if the next round fired is a HEAT round. ("Silver bullet" sabots don't like sharing borespace with iron bodied grenades, either, and it tends to make the penetrator go all askew and do a number on the bore. . . but HEAT + HE grenade is bad joo-joo all at once - sympathetic detonations in teh bore SUUUUUUCK!) ;)
That engine runs on gasoline, diesel, kerosine and any jet fuel. There are restrictions on using the smoke generator with gasoline.
ReplyDeleteWe ran diesel but an aviation unit rescued an out of fuel tank in my platoon once with whatever the OH-58C's were running in '89.
A frag grenade going off in the closed breech might scar up the chamber a little bit; but there's a bit of a gap that's closed by the base of the round so a little puff will get in to the turret. Bad news if you're looking at the time.
I don't think I'd want to be near the tank, inside or out, if someone were to toss that grenade on the nose of a loaded HEAT round.
That breech is normally open if the gun is unloaded.
However, driving 300 miles on roads would be hell on the track. It's not just to save fuel that we use trucks and trains to haul tanks overland.
I never gave the tracks a thought. But then, I'm used to dirt work and they last forever on excavators and dozers.
DeleteLook at how much suspension travel construction tracks have compared to a tank and the expected speeds and you start seeing why tank track doesn't last near so long.
DeleteYou're overlooking an obvious explanation. The fuel tank on that Abrams was manufactured by whoever makes the magazines for their M-4s.
ReplyDeleteI didn't have an opportunity to watch the show but I happened to click through and noticed the tank. It was not an Abrams. More like an old M-60 which, BTW, was what my tank when I served. 300 miles is a LONG way for a tank to go on roads. The tracks have (had) hard rubber road pads for road driving but the tracks are like giant linked chains and they stretch, links loosen, bits fall off, etc. A lot of maintenance would be need for a 300 mile road march. Not to mention the diesel fuel needed. M-60s have a 12-cylinder diesel and probably get about 1 mile, maybe 2, per gallon. Dang thing weighs 53 tons.
ReplyDeleteOh, BTW, we never kept the breech open. The breech was opened only for maintenance and loading; far too much tension on the spring for it to be kept open and far too much chance for injury. The gun tube got a rubber cover and the breech was closed. Your first real test as a tanker was handling the breech. Difficult to open, heavy to drop out and reinstall for maintenance. And when you could drop the driver's floor hatch and reinstall it, alone, from inside, you were a tanker. Tracks were also very difficult to maintain, especially single-handed.
ReplyDeleteThings changed as far as SOP on the breech. I arrived at my first line unit the day they turned in their M60A3 (TTS). There was even a class about leaving the breech open instead of closed. And arguments from the "this is how we've always done it" folks. Their position was greatly enhanced because they had reasons that seemed to make sense and the new directive was a "shut up and do it" sort of thing.
DeleteReading your reply... I imagine the trail of wedge bolts that thing had to have left on a 300 mile road trip.
That's exactly what I pictured. Stopping every 5 miles and hopping on a bike to pedal back and retrieve all the wedge bolts and nuts, end connectors, pads and nuts. Yeesh..
DeleteThen again, no reason the trip had to be by road. t wasn't the fastest or prettiest thing going cross-country but there wasn't much that could stop it if you didn't drive like a dick. They were Xtreme off-road machines, no doubt about that.
I have no data to back it up but, other than cleaning and the occasional commo wire wrap, I always thought off-road was easier on the tracks than road driving. And far more fun for the driver. No picnic for the rest of the crew though.
It also called to mind track tightening; especially after you you've just put one back together. Nobody could use just that giant open-end wrench. You need a cheater bar - a big, strong one (which, of course, you had to hide for inspections since it was not standard issue). I recall one time when two of us were putting shoulders to that sucker and I happened to glance back and see Sgt. Cole, and e-freakin-normous man, standing there twirling one of the wrenches in one hand. He just smiled, chuckled, shook his head and walked away.
Three hots and cot and a paycheck. Life was simple then. Then again, nobody was shooting at us then.
Thanks for calling to mind some old memories that seem fond now. I did my four years and went on with my life.
BTW, I know nothing about the M1s. Did you have a breech that opened to the side or something? I can't come up with a good reason to leave it open other than, perhaps, to minimize condensation. But I don't recall condensation as a problem and it was always chilly and drizzly in Berlin FRG.
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