Merkava Progress

[Mike Mangus]

 Over the past couple weeks since finishing the Spartan, I've been working slowly on the Merkava IV.  The torsion suspension was put in place, the road wheels were installed, and a mechanisim for connecting the turret rotate motor to the hull devised and implemented.  Oh, and a marker mount is partially installed (temporarily in place).  All in all, the tank looks pretty good ... and big! 

 I switched to Flickr to hold the Merkava build pictures.  Flickr isn't that great (I prefer Yahoo Groups file and picture manager) but works somewhat.  The link to the Merkava photo album is http://www.flickr.com/photos/39806147@N06/sets/72157620308016739/detail/.

 I'm very happy with the suspension and turret rotate.  The 1/4" diamter torsion rods seem stiffer than suggested on that torsion spring rate web site.  After putting the torsion suspension and road wheels on the tank hull, I stood on top of the entire thing.  The tank hull dipped about 1" under 220 pounds of me.  I don't think there will be any problems carrying weight and bottoming out the suspension.  Heh.

 The turret rotate came out beautifully.  The rotate motor is a 24v windshield wiper motor and gearbox.  The shaft goes through the middle of the turret plate and meshes with a gear attached to the upper hull.  Just to see how it worked, I stuck the motor wires into a 7.2v battery pack.  The turret turned smoothly without binding.  The turning speed seemed just right.  As soon as the speed control arrives next week, I'll get it all hooked up and get some video.

 After that, the build will take a break while we move back to the Unites States.  Once our furniture shipment arrives in the States sometime around October, work will commence again.  :)

 Hopefully, the Monster Merk will be terrorizing battlesfields starting in the Spring of 2010.

Mike M

[Derek Engelhaupt]

Very nice looking tank.  Lots of work in there.  Looks like a quality build.  Can't wait to see it in action.

Derek
T065

[Clark Ward Jr]

Mike, what kind of track system are you going to use?

And, are you up for a tank build session in October/November?

--
Clark in Georgia
M4 Sherman

[Mike Mangus]

 The original plan is to go with TTS style tracks like the Spartan has.  But I suspect the tank is going to end up heavier than planned (don't they always?), so I may switch to an attachment chain track system for the added durability and simplicity.  The suspension can easily handle it.  I suspect the motors will have enough grunt to move attachment chain.

 I'm good for a build session around that time.  We should be settled by then.

 Mike

---

From: Clark Ward Jr <ki4...@gmail.com>
To: rctank...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Friday, July 3, 2009 4:01:07 AM
Subject: [TANKS] Re: Merkava Progress

[Tango71]

Awesome progress and a very cool tank. Cant wait to see it done and
moving under its own power.

On Jul 2, 6:18 pm, Mike Mangus <mikem5...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>  The original plan is to go with TTS style tracks like the Spartan has.  But I suspect the tank is going to end up heavier than planned (don't they always?), so I may switch to an attachment chain track system for the added durability and simplicity.  The suspension can easily handle it.  I suspect the motors will have enough grunt to move attachment chain.
>
>  I'm good for a build session around that time.  We should be settled by then.
>
>  Mike
>
> ________________________________
> From: Clark Ward Jr <ki4...@gmail.com>
> To: rctank...@googlegroups.com
> Sent: Friday, July 3, 2009 4:01:07 AM
> Subject: [TANKS] Re: Merkava Progress
>
> Mike, what kind of track system are you going to use?
>
> And, are you up for a tank build session in October/November?
>
> On 7/2/09, Derek Engelhaupt <tan...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Very nice looking tank.  Lots of work in there.  Looks like a quality
> > build.  Can't wait to see it in action.
>
> > Derek
> > T065
>

[HV]

What keeps the torsion bars from rotating?

[Mike Mangus]

 The torsion bars are bent into a long "Z" like shape.  One end of the torsion bar slides into a vertical slot cut into the sides of the tank.  The main portion of the bar lays across the bottom of the tank in a slot.  The road wheel end is bent into a zigzag.

 If you look at the third picture down on this web page, http://www.rctankcombat.com/support-vehicles/SV015/, you can see how the torsion bar was bent.  Look down at the 6th picture on the page, you can see the top of the side slots along the inner side of the hull.

 The idea came from model airplane landing gear systems.

Mike

---

From: HV <henryve...@earthlink.net>
To: R/C Tank Combat <rctank...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 4, 2009 7:08:22 AM

Subject: [TANKS] Re: Merkava Progress