PS Magazine - TB 43-PS-580
PS, The Preventative Maintenance Monthly
ISSUE 580
MARCH 2001
PS 580
MAR 01
21
M88A1 Recovery Vehicle…
Put Your Best Tow Forward
T
owing a 70-ton M1-series tank requires some serious attention to detail on your
part. Since the tank weighs more than your M88A1 recovery vehicle, it can gener-
ate some real problems.
Follow these safety tips or the tank you’re towing can push your M88A1 side-
ways, run up over its rear end, ruin its transmission or brakes, or even flip it over:
✪
Always use a third vehicle as a
hold-back vehicle—even when using
a tow bar.
Another tank works best.
✪
Allow no one to ride in or on a
tank that’s being towed.
✪
Use tow cables, not a tow bar,
when towing cross-country or over
rough ground. A tow bar will snap.
The maximum speed when using a
tow bar is 5 mph.
✪
Tow no faster than 2 mph when
using tow cables.
✪
Never make sharp turns or sudden
stops. Make wide, gradual turns in
first gear.
PS 580
MAR 01
20
M88A1 Recovery Vehicle . . .
echanics, easy does it with the aux-
iliary power unit (APU) when you
serv-
ice your M88A1 recovery vehicle.
You don’t have much room to work
on the APU, so it’s easy to slip and hit
the fuel sediment bowl, especially while
you’re draining or replacing the fuel fil-
ters. Since the sediment bowl, NSN
2910-00-571-5883, is made of glass, it
breaks easily.
A cracked or broken sediment bowl
causes more headaches than you might
realize. The bowl can only be replaced
by direct support.
A new sediment bowl is only $20. But
the costs are much higher when you con-
sider your vehicle will be deadlined until
the bowl is replaced.
So save yourself the time and money.
Use kid gloves when working on the
APU.
Watch out for sediment bowl
No matter which housing you have, make sure you install it with the drain hole
at the lowest point so that water will drain out. No hole? Drill one with a 3/16-in bit.
Drill hole
at lowest
side of
housing
Towbar snaps easily
over rough terrain
580. 18-21 (C)
2/8/01
5:30 PM
Page 3
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