tss Posted November 14, 1999 Share Posted November 14, 1999 I got my hands on "Punaiset panssarit", and there is quite a lot detail about steering systems of Soviet tanks. In fact, the discussion is more detailed than what I can translate with my English vocabulary... Most Soviet tanks from T-26 to KV-I used "clutch-break" system: the driver turned the tank by pressing clutch to remove the power from one track. If steeper turning is necessary, the driver could also break the track. The JS tanks had a different but related system where the driver could change one track to lower gear. The book explains that the "clutch-break" system worked well when the ratio of lenght of the track to the width was at most 1.4:1. The T-26 tanks had just that ratio and so they were quite agile. Of the larger tanks, T-28 had 2.71:1 and T-35 had 2.84:1. As result, those tanks were very difficult to drive in narrow and windy forest roads. The Finnish experience with T-28 was that driving it was physically tiring and on narrow roads it had to be driven at walk speed. For T-34 the ratio was 1.5:1 but because it had powerful engine there was no turning problems. The book also states that the turning radius was most often between four and ten times the width of the tank (about 10-30 meters), depending on the speed. - Tommi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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