Hundleby and Strasheim in their 1990 book on the A7V make the point that the original towing hooks were prone to breaking and these were
replaced by shackles. It isn't stated but seems reasonable that a shackle attached to the A7V frame is going to be fairly substantial and probably
would need a larger cover than the triangular cross section cover used on the hooks. There was an intent to replace all the A7V towing hooks but this was
never completed.
In the Tankograd book on the A7V Hundleby and Strasheim note that #505 had large rounded covers over the towing hooks. In the same book it's noted that
#528, #529, #563 and #564 were delivered with shackles rather than hooks and the covers have a curved cross section with a cut out at the back of the cover.
It looks as if there are 3 variants of cover:
- the triangular section cover used on most of the A7Vs
- the large curved covers used on #505
- the curved section covers on #528, #529, #563, #564
Regards,
Charlie
-- Edited by CharlieC on Friday 15th of June 2018 01:05:36 AM
-- Edited by CharlieC on Friday 15th of June 2018 01:13:03 AM
Which goes to show that you shouldn't judge a hook by its cover.
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