I was researching the transmissions used in tanks, and noticed a detail in this wikipedia article Tank steering systems - Wikipedia (not a direct source, I know, but good for general information) that referenced the M1 abrams in the double differential section. would this mean the abrams gets regenerative steering?
interestingly, it also says that most modern tanks do not use the one track braking method, what would this mean for the modern tanks that do not have regen steering in real life?
You mean like the Regen steering currently being tested on a few MBTs on the dev server including the Abrams?
I am on the dev server, the abrams does not currently have the regen steering mechanic enabled.
if you were asking if that was what I was asking about, then yes.
I could have sworn they said that the Abrams was one of the test vehicles for it…
That is a resounding YES
any vehicle with a double or triple diff system should recieve this mechanic. Its sad to see so many vehicles stuck using a very primative 1930s style driving system which is blatantly wrong
8 Likes
is there any other modern method of steering, other than regen? I’m wondering if they started with the leopards because they have this special feature, and others have a slightly more primitive version, still better than one track braking.
the leopard 1 and 2 should be using a “regen” steering style too. Its only the russian “modern” MBTs that dont nowadays.
Britains had this kind of steering on tanks since ww2 with churchill and cromwell, this is a very common style of tracked vehicle steering. I believe the germans did with panther and tiger as well
1 Like
This is not entirely true
Russian MBTs do have a form of regenerative steering via dual side gearboxes (BKPs) acting as half-transmissions.
Regenerative steering is where each track is powered during a turn and receives different amounts of power, the outer track receiving more power and spinning faster and the inner track receiving less power and spinning slower. In a regenerative system, the average speed of the two tracks is equal to the movement speed of your tank when it started turning
In geared steering, like what Russian tanks have, the two tracks receive the same amount of power when turning, it’s just that the power is converted differently on each track. The inner track experiences a higher gear ratio, increasing torque but decreasing RPM, while the the outer tracks maintains the gear ratio it would have in straight line drive, with lower torque but higher RPM. If you were to do the average of the track speeds with this type of steering, it’s always going to be lower than the speed your tank had when it started turning since the only thing that happens is one track slows down.
Tanks from the KV-1S to the T-10 do this by having planetary gears, one for each track, which can provide different gear ratios with the use of different brakes and clutches (primarily direct drive, a reduction ratio, and just disconnecting power which allows for “clutch brake” steering), while on T-64 onward there’s just two transmissions, one for each track. This system does not allow for neutral steering since all the outputs come from the transmission (or transmissions), and unlike a double or triple differential design, there is no steering input that comes directly from the engine.
3 Likes
a rather agricultural approach but then again their engines are directly descended from the one in the BT7m
They dont have a system like whats being tested, would need another approach
Its alot cheaper. Which makes sense for the amount of tanks they require to produce.
Gaijin could implement it similarly, since it’s a change of torque per track.
But first let’s let them focus on adjusting the power per track right now.
not how they model it in game, its currently tied to the neutral turn gear ratio if i remember correctly from tinkering with it back when the elde SAM first got the system ages back. It is WIP so i hope they disconnect it from that so radii can be tuned without destroying neutral turning
I mean we also thought regenerative steering was impossible, and here we are testing it out in dev.
1 Like
Basically every us tank since pershing is using regen. there could be some trimmings but it’s good to see actual simulation than tonk cod
2 Likes
hope they don’t just forget about this feature and leave the leopards as the only vehicles with it
but seeing as a lot more tanks, even some older ones had it, it might just be that they are taking their time to research before they add it to every vehicle. and here’s hoping that doesn’t take two years to accomplish
Yes. I’d also like to see older vehicles(not just top tier) get it if they had it or a form of it.
That said, each type of steering system has its drawbacks.
For instance, vehicles equipped with internal differential gears—like those recently added to the DEV server—can suffer from internal differential slip if not properly designed, which may compromise the vehicle’s straight-line stability.
In fact, a significant number of WWII-era vehicles with internal differentials lacked countermeasures for this instability, leading to instances where the tank would veer off course or turn unintentionally depending on road conditions.
Another drawback is the limitation placed on the turning radius. While limiting the turning radius serves a useful purpose in real-world operations by preventing damage to the tank, in a game, it can simply become a source of inconvenience.
The M4 Sherman, for example, suffered from both straight-line instability and severe restrictions on its turning radius; specifically, it was constrained to a minimum turning radius of 30 feet.
They said it would in the english dev stream, but in the russian dev stream they never mentioned the abrams having it. And when the dev server went live, the abrams was not given it and it was not listed in the changelog as having it
Ah… So im not totally crazy then