why is it that one Tiger has after the Drive Sprocket the inner road wheel and the other have an outer road wheel

That first Tiger looks like it has it's "travel" tracks installed. They were more narrow & they had to remove the outer wheels. It was to fit on trains.

You can see the 2nd road wheel in both pictures looks normal, just the 1st, 3rd, 5th etc outer ones have been removed.

I suppose in an urban environment the travel tracks would make sense to have, being lighter & not needing the reduced ground pressure....






Does anyone know if many Tigers fought with their travel tracks often?

Quite often in certain environments the outer wheel of the set behind the drive sprocket was removed to prevent mud and shale build up. In fact all the Tamiya Tiger 1 kits come with the parts to leave this wheel off right and left.

E

That is nice to know for the feature.would you know the sprue and part number.

I did it on my intial conversion. Not sure which sprue, it was a long time ago.

Try having a look at this website, some nice pictures & info on the different looks of the over lapping Tiger I wheels & suspension system,:
http://www.alanhamby.com/suspension.shtml

Besides weather conditions, I presume this answer from the website is also valid for why you might see less wheels or different looking configurations ...
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">
To reduce costs and make production easier, new steel wheels were introduced in January 1944.
Because these steel wheels could handle heavier loads than the earlier rubber-tired versions,
the outer row of wheels was left off, resulting in 2 wheels per axle or 16 per side.</div><div style="margin-left: 40px;">
Wheels shaded black were removed in January 1944.
</div>

~ Craig ~

It's on the "A" sprue, but is noted in the instructions as "not used".

Thanks Bob

Give that man a silver dollar... The interleaved road wheels rode great, but were a nightmare to maintain, keep clear of debris and worst of all repair in the field. leaving off the first outer road wheel allowed debris to be thrown clear of the tacks and road wheel.