If the spare tracks need protection I would have assumed the spare wheel would also need protection.
Their mounting almost seems like an in the field mod.
Standard practice in the US is to use a track center guide to mount the spare road wheel. The Aussies appear to using the same thing. The top photo looks to be the bottom part of the center guide with a single nut holding the wheel on; the bottom photo looks to have the “tooth” portion of the center guide attached.
Ken
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I still cant get my head round the point that someone thought 2 lumps of metal needed protection. Unless someone has a track link fetish ??
Maybe not protection as such but
to prevent them from getting pulled off.
One image somewhere showed an empty holder.
The connectors on the upper track link gets pushed
on to two pegs. The track link is pushed on to these
pegs towards the turret front. Travelling through brush,
with the turret facing forward, the branches and brush
could theoretically sweep the track link backwards,
off the pegs.
I suspect the brush guard is there to prevent this
I wonder what would happen if the links get swept backward and then
pivot 180 degrees down and hang down below the edge of the turret
and then the turret traverses in battle.
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Or just fit them to the rear of the basket 
If they (links) did fall down or become dislodged it would depend I suppose on if the gunner/Comd has a full power traverse demand in or is slowly ghosting/scanning as to how much damage it would do or what it would get caught on. I would guess the linkages would snap before anything anything else so it would just become a loose item.
Hanging them on the rear basket!?!?
That’s cheating!
Solving a potential problem by a quick and easy fix
depriving some company of the profit from manufacturing
the complicated and expensive solution???
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Sure, just confuse everybody!
Ken
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I asked a friend of mine that serves about these. He believes that there is a designated maximum vehicle length for clearance for logistical transport. When the turret is traversed to the rear, the end of the basket to the tip of the gun barrel is the maximum clearance length and the basket is just proud of the vehicle front - therefore nothing can be added to the end of the new style basket. This is also why any spare wheel holders have been relocated to the turret sides and why the position of those vary - unit mods to comply.
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Next option… Bin the spare links…you never use them 
FWIW, a single spare roadwheel is now bolted (as standard) to an adapter plate on the turret roof forward of the CITV blank on the loader’s side. I’m pretty sure we don’t hang roadwheels from the turret racks any more. Also, Custom Hobby Decals (customhobbydecals dot com) here in Australia have picked up the old MouseHouse decal line and do AUSCAM Abrams decals for several squadrons in various scales - including 1:35.
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Thanks. Just for the hell of it will hang one spare wheel on the side and mount one on top of the turret.
Thanks for the heads up on Custom Hobby Decals. I’ve checked their site and they are in stock.
So what does the adapter look like?
Ken
It is also used on US Abrams now. You can see it in the pic below of the DEF M1A2 SEP v2 set, the three squares in front of the CITV. When the road wheel is mounted, you can’t really see the mount.
You can just make it out here too.
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OK, I just was curious if it was the US version or if the Aussies did their own, like on the spare tracks. Thanks.
Ken
Thanks for the images. I had a trial fit of a spare wheel and the bracket needs to be large enough and angled away to clear. ie the bracket has to attach to the four bolts in such away that the spare wheel clears the CITV blank!
But it shouldn’t be too hard to make up a bracket. Me thinks. 
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I love the blank adapter on the .50cal!
Ken
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Job done. Technically not spot on but ‘near enough’. Without a close up of the real thing it’s all a bit of guess work. I think there should be a plate over the top of the 4 bolts. But!!! My nuts are a but small. I have lots of 1/48 scale nut/bolt/washer sets but no 1/35 scale ones. So again ‘near enough’.
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