https://www.fark.com/comments/12700728/158169922#c158169922
strathcona: Just about the only time the rubber pads come out is for maintenance or to install ice cleats, so you don’t have a 60 ton hockey puck.
As a driver of an M113, can confirm. Always had rubber pads unless ice cleats needed. And cleats limited to off-road. Every 5th (or 6th?) rubber pad would be replaced with a ice cleat. This was the Canadian Forces, so the track was the heavier style. Bitch to work on in the cold. I still have nightmares of removing a track in order to replace a bogey wheel or somesuch. In the cold, in the dark. All the fun of being a driver erased in one night.
CSB: one time on the Gaspe Peninsula, later winter, so no expected ice, so all rubber pads. We head down a steep road on the west side of a hill. Still snow & ice covered due to no sunshine on that side of the hill. I was being cautious, but the slightest pull on the left tiller bar resulted in the left track slipping and stopping. Then a slow turn to the left and the right track stops. M113 is weirdly quiet when both tracks aren’t turning. We did a 360 or more before sliding off the road. Good times!
