Found my old field manual for the M110 and tracks are to receive a complete replacement at 1000 miles with trackpad replacement every 500 miles (our tracks had the rubber inserts), so The Dark's estimates are probably very close. This is considerably lower than I had anticipated. That makes wheeled APCs seem much more appealing when you consider how many miles you can get out of heavy truck tires. I know we swap out our tires at 100,000 miles on average (the guys supplying oil fields get fewer miles because the "non-super slab" highways are much rougher), and that's with 20+ ply tires that still have 1/8th an inch of tread. Even then, changing all 18 of the tires on a big rig will run you from $7K to $10K depending on the weight rating of those tires (heavy hauls handling more than 80K lbs gross vehicle weight can get REALLY expensive, as can Super Singles like the Army uses).
I wonder where the characters will find new tracks with a wear value increase every 100km to 150km. Just think about that range in the context of driving across California, Texas, or Poland. I wonder how many AFVs "threw a shoe" when their tracks wore out?
StainlessSteelCynic: I have had a very strange career. First, I grew up on a beef cattle farm driving tractors, welding, and learning skills that would probably make a "Prepper" jealous (canning, welding, tanning, rendering animals, and butchery). I then graduated high school and started my career by going to college (with our Forum's own Admiral Lee no less). I joined the Army Reserves to pay for college and because EVERY man in our family, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, has served in the Military. I was a Cannon Crewman there until we were disbanded in 1991 and I was retrained as a 77F (petroleum specialist) and eventually also as an 88M (heavy wheeled vehicle driver). I graduated (Criminal Justice with PA 120: Municipal LE) and went to RESTORE HOPE where I drove a Truck (HEMTTs and 5-Tons).
I then got off of Active Duty, came home, and joined an Armored Car company. I got my CDLA AND drove a big Truck. In essence, I drove people's SWAG (good/valuable stuff for those who don't know what "SWAG" means). SwagHauler was my call sign. I worked with guy's "call signed" Wrongway, Loose change, Big Green, and Crashbox, so it could have been worse.
Several months later, I then joined my County Sheriff's Department. I continued working armored cars part-time until I retired in 2012. I had also worked installing safes and fabricating vaults for several years (the company I drove armored cars for also built banks and depositories and they found out I could weld). There was that short "collaboration" with Dave (growls quietly). Dave convinced me that Protective Specialist work was the future. This was in the early 21st Century and the PMC craze was sweeping America. If you were ex-military or LE, they were paying big money for your services overseas. James Yeager was a PMC when he had his ONE shootout. So was Joe Teti of Dual Survival fame (or "infamy"). He convinced me to take a couple of trips to Africa (expending all my County vacation time) protecting young Christians on Missionary. Those trips SUCKED! I found out Dave was long on talk and short on planning. He also wasn't as good under pressure as I had hoped. He SERIOUSLY CONSIDERED shooting his way through a (then new) Boko Haram roadblock with just two single-stack 9mms loaded with ball ammo! He did give me one good trip to Afghanistan as security for a bunch of businessmen selling equipment to the new government.
When I retired from the County, I decided to become a "chains-for-brains" and have been driving ever since. In truth, Trucking SUCKS. the money just isn't there for the hours over the road. It does give me time to write and plan adventures though.
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