- oldertopRear grill doors on M48s don't automaticly mean "diesel engine powered" the hump (rear deck) and grilled doors where first intorduced on the M48A2 powered by a fuel injected gasoline (MO gas or 80 octain ) engine (1790 AVI-8).
The rear grill also vented the exhaste gas and reduced the infared signature, the hump or rear deck also reduced the signature.
The engine had the oilcoolers in the top surounding the cooling fans, this did away with the "wing" type cooler hanging out on the sides of the power pack....But what it really did was give the A2 135 more gal of gas with the form fitting engine compartment fuel tanks and a cruising range of over 100 miles for the first (with out hanging drums of gas out in the open over its ass).
- oldertopRear grill doors on M48s don't automaticly mean "diesel engine powered" the hump (rear deck) and grilled doors where first intorduced on the M48A2 powered by a fuel injected gasoline (MO gas or 80 octain ) engine (1790 AVI-8).
The rear grill also vented the exhaste gas and reduced the infared signature, the hump or rear deck also reduced the signature.
The engine had the oilcoolers in the top surounding the cooling fans, this did away with the "wing" type cooler hanging out on the sides of the power pack....But what it really did was give the A2 135 more gal of gas with the form fitting engine compartment fuel tanks and a cruising range of over 100 miles for the first (with out hanging drums of gas out in the open over its ass).
- oldertopOne thing that maybe a ID key is the M2 sky mount on the commanders postion, the only time I've seen a mount like that is on M51 heavy trank recovery vehicles, these mount have a spring loaded balancer system to make tracking aircraft smoother.
- bsmartI just checked Hunnicutt and it appears that the 50 cal mount may not be standard. Hunnicutt says the Chrysler designed commanders hatch had 4 periscopes at the base. I don't see any on this one and they are pretty prominent in pictures in Hunnicutt. So it appears that the original commanders cupola (both the open and armored versions are called cupolas in Hunnicutt being referred tto as Chrysler or M1 (Which was desined by AAI)) was replaced at some time in the past with the one shown here
Also all M48(a0) had the small driver hatch. Looking down from above the left side of the small hatch is more rounded than the right side where the pivot post was. The large hatch became standard and all large hatch were equiped with the new M1 cupola and designated M48A1. So it would be interesting if you have any clear pictures of the drivers hatch to see which kind it is.
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