Hi

Does any one make there own tow cables?

How do they make them?



Jon

You can use picture hanging wire and small brass/aluminum tube as the collar to lock down the loop.

I use a very heavy nylon thread, 1/16" thick, and heat shrink tubing to form the ends. Paint it and it looks great.

Green Amphibian,

Can you please tell us where you buy the 1/16" nylon chord and show a picture of it? Thanks.

Frank

Picture hanging wire is the best....for ends (USA) use a piece of spue from model parts, drill a hole, elongate it to the tow hook dimentions, use a flat file to form the outside, heat the wire and melt it into the ends. Paint the wire grimey black with a bit of rust and OD ends. Bend the wire to conform to the stowage location. Easy make.

Hi Jon

I make my own cables using picture cable or any small cable I can find from the hardware store, I make the ends using copper or aluminum (aluminum is easier) tubing cut in half with a dremel tool. I lay the cable in the channel then bend the loop and tighten it up around the cable with flat nose pliers, a larger piece of tubing to slide the ends of the cable into and glue with JB weld or epoxy

Gary

I was wrong, it is more like 3/32" dia. Here is a picture of it next to a ruler. I got it at a sporting goods store in the fishing department.

Ace Hardware has the eyelets and cable as well as the crimps.  I'll never go t Lowe's for hardware again.  Ace rocks.

And that's a nice looking KT your are chewing on, Gary. Very nice.

Jon, a number of good responses on German tow cables, but which tow cables do you need? They are not international. I make US and Israeli. Here's my M-41 and M-46.

Looks like you have a large choice of methods and materials to make your tow cables. You of course can mix and match for what works best for you.

Guys...

If ya like the look of the cording, but the formability of wire, I've got JUST the ticket: wire-insert candle wicking! Michaels has it, and I've seen it in various sizes and in both pre-waxed and bare cotton. I've also found suitable wicking that was 'woven' enough that I could insert a piece of wire myself...

And neat thing... the wick takes any of the paints easily, just like dye. Same stuff in thinner diameters make great tie-downs. Even seen some flattish stuff that might be close enough to webbing...

Just another heads-up from Mr. "Outside The Box"...

WhiteWolf

Bill, You chewed me out for having my canvas and stuff on the out side of my tank,,whats up.
Mergen

Mergen, depends what you are stowing and where...not near heat, not blocking vision or entrances, not carrying what you don't need. The M-46 is an exact copy of mine in Korea, down to the USA # on the sponson boxes, with everything stowed as unit SOP. Camo net on right front, tarp on the other side by the driver, crew personal stuff in duffels on the rear top of the turret, out of the way. Rear of turret, the Yukon stove and/or jerry can with water. Jerry can/s with OE-30 oil on left rear by muffler, strapped in footman loops and strap, or rope when it broke. 9 spare cal 50 barrels in the right rear sponson, extra chow & C rats behind the radio, ocasional box on the turret by the loader. Everything secured against movement/loss.' First to go when receiving incendiary is the duffels.

. What did I gig you on?


Bill

You are good, It was my tiger I had alot of stuff on it to make it look in the filed. But you were right it was a little much. I loved those Ycon stoves and 505's the smell was great.
Gary

Yukon stoves are nic-n-hot, but have you ever seen one catch fire[&:][:@][] check the stowage on the photos I just added. Co SOP.

Bill

I thank you for your service before me, we all could learn alot talking to guys like you.
Mergen

Yes Ive seen them burn whole tents down, and dont for get the emersion heater, we thought the 4.2's were firing one mornning, but just the cook lighting them.
mergen

Now, talk about a suicide mission....be on KP on a cold morning and go out to light those $%*%#* emersion heaters[:@] I've seen that little 1 gallon tank go airborne a few times. Any of those devices depending on a gas drip was a built in "happening" and the Yukon stove was VERY bad, with that rubber hose, 5 gal gas can & metal clip as a feed...[:'(] Guys in today"s modern Army don't realize how good they have it. Next time I do a diorama on Korea, I think I'll add a blackend spot and burnt tent parts with a Yukon stove and collapsed jerry can with it. Hey, in mid 50s, that's all we had, and living in a tank at -30+, happy to have it. [X(]


Didn't mean to get off tow cables.....White wolf, nice idea, but I like the metal cables as they are metal, look the part and act like steel cables when you conform and mount them on the tank. A bit of grimey black and Rust all, and they look very real.

Oh Bill, You are bringing me back a few years..... I love it!!!

"What did I gig you on?"

How many guys even know what a gig line is????


Thank you so much, Bob

PS My Dad often told me how they would heat their rations on the manifold of his 3/4 ton truck. He always liked to tell the story of how they had to by-pass a scheduled maint. stop due to icy roads and he forgot about a can of beans or such they were warming. The vent hole became clogged and the can grenaded all over the engine and gearbox. That truck never smelled the same again.

More recollections.
Sorry don't mean to get off the cable thread either but have to share my stories. When I retired from the Army in 2000, we still had yukon stoves, potbelly stoves and emersion heaters. The cooks had to get a class from the Motor Sgt and have it added to their equipment license in order to light them. In my last tactical unit, we didn't use the Yukons as all other equip ran on diesel ( the cooks had a ration book so the could get their gas on the economy). So we had the M 1941 Pot belly stovetove. Now they ran on diesel mostly ( some guys ran a slight mix of mogas with the diesel in the winter to get the fuel to flow easier). They would get nice and warm( when working properly) and would glow a cherry red that you could actually notice the temp differences in the stove and exhaust pipes that made them look translucent. Like I said they worked very good when you had a good carburattor ( once you found a good one you guarded it ) But I have seen my share of tent fires with them as well. If you had high winds, it would blow down the chimmney and keep the fuel from burning comletely. Once the wind let up, the unburnt fuel would ignite a boom and shoot burning soot onto the top of the tent. Boy oh boy does old Army canvas burn fast. Just some old memories.

Jim

Oh yes, the ol' potbelly stoves. they worked great in a squad tent..as you wrote, wind could change everything in a minute. I used to volunteer for agressor details..one of our favorite things was to pee or lay a pile in a #10 can and run thru an "enemy" tent and lay it on the stove without waking anyone up... After a half hour, it was worse that CN teargas.

Next was to find a tank with everyone asleep. Don't care how much a Bad A the CO was, you could always find one tank without a sentry or radio watch. Put a guard over the crew in case they woke up...then I'd lace a CN grenade to the inside handle of the driver's & TC hatches, leave them closed and exit the loaders hatch, and a couple red smoke grenades to the eccellerator linkage. BIG surprise when they had to get up and man the tank in a hurry.[:@] Wasn't anything I couldn't booby trap. We were against M-103 heavies in Germany..we spotted one in the treeline across the field that had no movement aroud it. on checking, we saw that the entire crew was down the hill in a Gasthaus for some bier and dinner. My loader used to work on M-103s and knew it , so we climbed in and removed the breech block, carried it (120 lbs) back to my tank, radio'd my CO, who picked it up and presented it to the "enemy" Bn CO. Things did NOT go well for the M-103's TC.

The good ol "real Army" that has since become very stiff and technology oriented. Do something like that today, and they'd have you up on charges.

Ya, they would, but it is still fun stuff to do! Not on the same level as tow cables though.

M-26 tow cables,,,,picture wire and leftover spue pieces. Rear of tank was damaged and had to be repaired.

Okay, I have to add my story about homemade tow cables. When Tamiya brought out their first full-option Tiger I, I bought one and decided to do what I could to improve the various parts (this was before anybody came out with aftermarket parts). One of the things I wanted to replace was the plastic tow cables, and I figured it would be cool to use real wire.

I had worked in various places in the Shipyard, and spent some time in the Crane Shop - so I knew what our cables looked like. Most of them were 6 steel strands wound around a central (flexible) core. I bought several coils of picture-hanging wire, and then - no matter how carefully I tried - could NOT get them wound by hand into something that was smooth, even, and realistic-looking. I eventually came up with a system where I C-clamped all 7 strands together and suspended them from a table. Then I used a plastic lid from a coffee can, and punched one hole in the center, and 6 holes along the edge. I fed one strand through each hole, and clamped a large fishing weight to the end of each strand. Then, I slowly turned the coffee can lid, and wound the outer 6 wires around the center one. Once I got the hang of it; it wasn't too bad. I had enough material to make four of them, and my girlfriend came to the conclusion that I was "completely nuts to have even gone down that road" as she put it.

It was an interesting exercise, but in hindsight; I wouldn't do it again - there isn't really all that much difference when comparing it with one larger single strand.