page_title: Tank steering systems
section_title: Electric transmissions
hierarchical_section_title: Tank steering systems / Electric transmissions
caption_attribution_description: Information added by Wikimedia users.Türkçe: Nettuno Köprübaşı saldırısında mayını basıp terkedilen 653. Ağır Tank İmha Edici Taburu 1. Bölüğüne bağlı Başçavuş Gustav Koß komutasındaki "Elefant" (İtalya, 29 Şubat 1944)
context_page_description: Tank steering systems allow a tank, or other continuous track vehicle, to turn. Because the tracks cannot be angled relative to the hull, steering must be accomplished by speeding one track up, slowing the other down, or a combination of both. The half-tracks avoid this by combining steerable wheels and fixed-speed tracks.
  Early steering systems were adopted from tracked work vehicles, generally using a clutch to reduce power to one track, causing it to slow down. These designs have numerous problems, notably when climbing hills or running at high speed, as the reduction in power causes the overall speed to slow. Delivering power to both tracks while turning them at different speeds is a difficult design problem.
  A series of more advanced designs were introduced, especially through World War II, that maintained power to both tracks during steering, a concept known as regenerative steering. Some also allowed one track to move forward while the other reversed, allowing the tank to spin in place, a concept known as neutral steering. The first really successful system was the British double differential design of 1924, which was copied by both the United States and Germany.
context_section_description: Early steering systems were inefficient and lost so much power that they were ineffective for heavy vehicles. Holt Manufacturing Company (the ancestor of Caterpillar Inc.) whose track design influenced early tanks, experimented with a petrol-electric transmission in their Holt gas electric tank. A comparable design was used on the French Saint-Chamond and in turn adapted to be fitted in a test vehicle of the British Mark II series. None of these were particularly successful, although several hundred units of the Saint-Chamond were produced.
  While moderately successful, these early systems were large and extremely heavy; the one in the Saint-Chamond added five tons. The other designs, and follow-ons using a similar system, were generally dismissed as impractical.
  Some of the first attempts at new electric transmissions were made by the British early-war period TOG experiments, and by the Germans as part of mid-war experiments in heavy tanks. The most notable among the German efforts was the Porsche entry for the contest that would eventually produce the Tiger. The chassis from these designs were later converted to a number of other roles, including the Elefant (initially "Ferdinand") tank destroyer. This style of transmission was also used in the super-heavy Panzer VIII Maus. In practice, the powertrain of the Porsche designs proved even less reliable than the traditional type, and by the late war era the supply of copper was too limited to consider using so much in drivetrain motors.
caption: Porsche's Elefant tank destroyer used a petrol-electric transmission, but proved highly unreliable.
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