What's driving a tank like?

Mike S your right on the money and your memory is good! I drove Sheridans at NTC for two years and even though it was 19 years ago, I remember the feelings.

The first I notice after I unlock the driver's hatch and swung it open was the large black opening. The smells vary: if you had a fuel or oil leak, just cleaned your vehicle, or if someone was cooking inside. You can enter for the front (driver's hatch) or through the turret weaving through the turret screens (if you kept in place). Some tanks would have to turn the turret to do this.

The layout for the driver was a T-Bar (like a tricycle's) for steering, large office desk-style seat with collaspible back rest and escape hatch under my feet. The instruments with large and simple: fuel, engine temp, battery charge, oil pressure and speedodmeter with odmeter. I have a few switches like the start and turret power. At my feet were the brake, gas pedal and the light dimmer. The "parking brake" was mounted right under the steering T-Bar. Also, the CVC (tanker helmet's) commo cable hook-up box to my right near the floor. and the NBC filtration system. To my left I remember an area to store our cots, but normally was used for missile rounds and the emergency internal fire extingusher pull yoke. The gear shift lever was to my right mounted and it had reverse, neutral, 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear. If you put the tank in neutral if I remember, you could pivot steer causing the vehicle to turn 360. There was even a place to hang a little oil can, place your weapon and numerous sticker and data plates around me to my left, front and right.

I was hot as hell in the summer and freezing in the winer (I never had a working till I left in JUNE 1990 lol) in the tank. Once the hatch was close you have three vision blocks to look out of if we drove buttoned up. Boy, did that suck! We also never used night vision since we simulated being the Russians and the BLUFOR (aka good guys who came to train) felt that would be an unfair advantage since we were the home team.

I didn't fire anything while driving (except my personal weapon out my hatch when neccesary lol), that was the gunners and tank commander's job. You can drive the tank on your own, but you can see except right in front of you and to the left and right 90 degrees. Backing up and driving around people and obstacles will get people if not you hurt or killed. You have to have some one on the ground or some one in the turret guiding you, especially if engage in a fight. I keptmy tank clean inside and we normally washed them everytime we came out of the field and when we had to pull certain types of maintenance. Not everyone followed this logic and there were some filthy azz tanks I saw and still see.

For light we had several dome lights with three positions: off, on-white light, and on-green light. I had the most room to move about compared to the other two to three crew members in the turret. I froze in the winter and wore a sleeping bag around my legs, cold weather gear on my body, gloves on my hand and put large pieces of packing foam on the floor to keep the cold from seeping up through my feet. I also wore civillian "Moon/snow boots" when I could get away with it lol. We carried extra fuel cans (normally 10 gallons) and extra oil (engine 10W and transmission 1540). I was responsible for the maintenance and had tools to fix things, change track shoes and check the serviceable of parts on the tank.

I will post the basic info for what I drove. I have been in American M60s, M1A2s, German, British, Russian and French tanks thoughout my career. Either as a passenger or just for a tour.

M551 Sheridan Armored Reconnaissance Airborne Assault Vehicle

Type Armored Reconnaissance Airborne Assault Vehicle

Place of origin United States

Service history

In service 1969–96

Specifications

Weight 15.2 tonnes

Length 20.6 ft (6.3 m)

Width 9.1 ft (2.8 m)

Height 7.5 ft (2.3 m)

Crew 4 (Commander, gunner, loader, driver)

Armor Aluminum armor

Primary armament: M81E1 Rifled 152 mm Gun/Launcher

20 rounds

9 MGM-51 Shillelagh missiles

Secondary armament: 7.62mm M73/M219 machine gun 3,000 rounds (early)

7.62 mm M240C machine gun

3,000 rounds (late)

.50cal M2HB machine gun

1,000 rounds

(We didn't used armed verisons. Nor the ones at JRTC in FT.Chaffe, AR then moved to FT.Polk, LA). Ours in our brigade, in the infantry and armor battalion, were gutted, modified to like Russian T-72s, 2S1s, ZSU-23-4s or BMP-1s. They had full firepower in Vietnam and The 3/73rd AR, 82nd ABN (no longer active as an airborne tank battalion) had the last real ones and they were used in Panama 1989 and Desert Storm 1991.

Engine General Motors 6V53T, 6 cylinder, supercharged diesel

300 hp (224 kW)

Power/weight 19.7 hp/tonne

Suspension Torsion bar

Operational

range 348 mi (560 km) when fuleed to the max

Speed 70 km/h (43 mph), 5.8 km/h (3.6 mph) swimming

More info:

http://www.eaglehorse.org/4_ftx_gunnery/equipment/...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M551_Sheridan

http://www.thetankmaster.com/ENGLISH/AFV/M551_SHER...

Wow all these questions. Not sure I remember them all but I'll give it a whirl. First off the best way to enter the driver's compartment is through the turret believe it or not. The gun has to be over the back deck at the time. Once in the driver's compartment you have to adjust the seat back and open the hatch. You pop the dogging lock on the hatch and turn the hand crank until the hatch locks in the open position. You've got pretty much the same guages as you would have in a big truck. You flip on the master battery switch and press the engine start button and hold it in for a second or two until the turbine catches and begins to spool up then release. There are only 2 pedals, a brake pedal and a parking break pedal. The throttle is on the steering t-bar in front of you like a motorcycle throttle. The shift is a little lever in the middle of the t-bar. The transmission on the M1 series is automatic so you pop in in drive crank the hand throttle and go for it. You steer by moving the t-bar from side to side. Driving it is awesome. You can either drive with your head popped up out of the hatch or with the hatch closed using the periscopes in front of you. The tank commander helps you with which direction to go in.From there on you sit back relax and follow directions and try to stay awake. My drivers used to tell me there was a real problem with staying awake in the M1. You can drive the tank on your own but its not a good idea. You can reverse, the transmission is just like any other vehicle except it's about the size of a volkswagon rabbit. The interior of the tank is cramped and there really isn't a heck of a lot of room to move around. The Tank Commander and Platoon Sergeant if they're worth their salt will make the crew keep the interior clean and there isn't an awful lot of light in there. In my day the fuel tanks held 515 gallons of diesel fuel and they could travel aboutg 250 miles on this. A tank crew if four people, a commander, a gunner, a loader and a driver. Well I hope that helped, its about all I can remember, I never really spent much time in the drivers compartment. I may have gotten some things wrong from faulty memory but Rawrbert and Zengunner8 can correct me. Have a good day and good luck on the story. If you think I might be of any more help you can email me through my profile. Again good luck to you

Oh I forgot, this is for the old

C'mon rawrbert and mike golf pitch in

Only guys can serve in fight MOS's and using/firing them is personally essentially the most excessive and exhilarating enjoy ever, peculiarly while the enemy is capturing at you. I bet cross to a kind of tank using civilian trade matters or attempt to persuade every person that you just must be allowed to be a tank crewwoman.

well you can be a gunner the driver or the commander all the driver dose it follow commands like go left stop and that stuff

so I would be the gunner