Ryan's M3 medium

[cantankrs]

Well Adrian's right (as usual) - the track frames for that style of track still have rubber donuts in the guts, so your problem moving it is not seized tracks - if it were a Matilda or Valentine or Bren Carrier then yes they rust up.

If anything in the bull gears or tranny is jammed then you may have to split the track front and rear and anchor the top track in place so it doesn't damage anyone and tow the hull onto a float. Then try and drag the remaining two bits of track up underneath the hull onto the floor of the float so you can get it home. Splitting it after all these years is the next problem as you probably don't want to cut it cos then you need some bits to replace it. Phill and I know a chap who winched (dragged) a Grant hull onto a float and then had to get it off later. Heavy metal can slide scarily easily on a steel deck but the owner of the float may not be interested.

Can you post some pics of what's left inside both engine bays and the rear of the hulls at some point so we can try and help identify what engines they probably had?

As far as I can gather, depending on the manufacturer there may be a number stamped into the top edge of the towing eyes at front and rear of the hull. I've read that only 1 in about 3 manufacturers did this. Since many of these did a lot of towing in private use the towing eyes may instead be mutilated. If the diff housing has been swapped out then the numbers would be different front and rear.

If either of the hulls is a Petrol radial then it has twin doors or at least a square opening you can step into at the rear. Look centre top edge of that back lower hull corner casting and there might be a number stamped into it with letter punches - I'd be interested to know what the number is cos I'm trying to find if it's a part number or whether some hulls had their number stamped there.

Alex