Tamiya Centurion track ends breaking off
 

Hi everyone
I know that Fsttanks posted a picture of a track end breaking off his Centurion track so I found the following interesting and it may be of help. In Dr Robert Manasherobs books on the Centurion tanks of the IDF he mentions that the Israeli cents removed the track ends about every sixth link to make it easier to get at the pins. Sorry pictures aren’t better but you get the idea. It was a piece of info I didn’t know.
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ahh great if I bash enough my links will be more realistic to an IDF tank...LOL

How did I know Ian would be one of the first to reply😀😀. Mine arrives tomorrow.🥳🥳

I have now broken four ends off the tracks. Three on the right one on the left. All were my fault and could have been avoided with just backing off an obstacle vs trying to power through. None have effected the operation and the track still runs perfectly.

I had hoped this would be a thing of the past by running metal tracks, but the metal tracks had more problems then they are worth vs the stock tracks minor end link issue.

As I looked through the book more it seems the broken ends are common. Not going to post all the pictures but once you notice them it’s hard not to miss. I saw your track review and thanks for an honest unbiased review.
cheers
dave

Mr. Tamiya knew it all, that's why they used that brittle plastic for tracks... for realism! :rolleyes:

My highly modified Tamiya #56020 Leopard 2A6 has had aftermarket metal tracks of the sintered kind ( until I replaced them with steel ones ) and was capable of blowing them apart when something hard got between them and Drive Sprocket so cutting plastic some slack would probably be appreciated 😏

Tamiya’s hybrid plastic/metal/rubber tracks are the best in the business, I run them on three Leopard 2s, a Challenger 2, and Tamiya’s Abrams has a similar design.

Never broke any of them, and some are over ten years old.

100% agree and I would add the nylon M4 and M26 tracks to your list as well. Even the Centurion tracks are holding up rather well given how much abuse they are seeing in my hands. I would in no way call them brittle.

Thanks to you now I cannot unsee it. Although, it would appear it was a field mod that appeared later in its service, as photos of it in action don't clearly show the missing end pieces.

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