Talk:Half-track

Half-track

Given the importance of half-tracks in World War II, and the large variety of WWII material already on Wikipedia, I'm surprised there wasn't already an article on them. --Carnildo 03:55, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Merge/contradict

This article currently specifies that half-tracks have caterpillar tracks, which excludes Kegresse tracks, but this contradicts the info at Kegresse tracks. Meanwhile, this article goes into a bit of Adolphe Kégresse history, and links to Adolphe Kégresse, but that just redirects to Kegresse track. Perhaps everything should just be brought together? ENeville 04:47, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Nonsense. Kegresse is just an unusual kind of caterpillar track. —Michael Z. 2006-10-26 21:48 Z

No merge seems to be indicated. I have created a special article for Adolphe Kégresse himself, thus removing the unequal redirect. And moved the track article name to Kégresse, the correcter spelling :o).--MWAK 09:43, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Oops!

I came here to look for half-track protection scheme, as used on the C64 for example. Nothing there... -andy 80.129.109.188 20:39, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Changes made to last section, and changes still needed

1) I've done a straight copyedit on the "WWII half-track" section -- hopefully without changing the meaning. The following sentence needs to be moved near the top of the article, but that will cause other rewrites which I'm hoping someone else (an expert? someone who drives halftracks?) can do: "It is not difficult for someone who can drive a car to drive a half-track, which is a great advantage over fully-tracked vehicles."

2) The article should state, soon after the beginning, and quite methodically, the relative advantages and disadvantages of "fully-wheeled", "fully-tracked", and "half-tracked". The statement "being able to carry its own payload where wheeled vehicles could not go" is vague, and slightly misses the important point that each vehicle type is better at some things than other things. (That is, one might use a half-track, not because a wheeled vehicle could not go there, but because it can carry a larger load, is faster, is better in wet weather, etc.)

3) It then needs to be pointed out that sometimes skis are used instead of wheels. The initial picture of the Kegresse half-track using skis, and not wheels, is confusing, since the article starts by saying half-tracks have "regular wheels". Although it's historically in sequence, most half-tracks before snowmobiles used wheels. It would be nice to have picture of a snowmobile to accompany the Kegresse picture.

Alpha Ralpha Boulevard (talk) 02:23, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Why did they fall out of favour?

The article comments that they fell out of favour, but why? There are explanations as to the advantages of a half-track over fully-track or fully-wheeled vehicles, but nothing about the disadvantages... -Ellisthion (talk) 11:33, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

Good point! I don't have a ready reference, but I remember reading something about this distantly ... if someone else can find a reference. There are two problems: 1) A half-track also has the disadvantages of both wheels and tracks, the tires are not as rugged as tracks, the tracks are not as quiet as tires, and not suitable for high speeds or delicate uses, 2) The system is inherently more mechanically complicated. Any basic auto mechanic will have an idea how to fix a flat tire, but ... a broken track? Cheers, Alpha Ralpha Boulevard (talk) 12:40, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

Differing fore and back tracks

I just saw a machine with different forward and back tracks: for removing asphalt. The front treds were individually covered by a smooth material, while the back treds -- where the asphalt had been removed -- were more exposed metal. This isn't exactly the motivation of half-tracks as commonly understood, but it does seem related. Cheers, Piano non troppo (talk) 16:37, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

What makes "Komsomolets" a halftrack?

I don't understand why the Russian "Komsomolets" is classified as a half-track when it looks like fully tracked vehicle. Maybe it should be removed from 'Halftrack' article? Mishaimpsbl (talk) 00:08, 27 August 2010 (UTC)