I see that Panzerart has a nice sandbag armor casting for the M551 Sheridan; however, I have yet to find any pictures of the Sheridan with any type of SB armor… any thoughts of its actual use? They don’t even show it displayed on the M551 on their product page.
RE35-503 Sandbags armor for M551 “Sheridan” - PANZERART - Model Resit Kits
There was some sandbag armor used on Sheridans in Panama during Just Cause, but not so extensive…. Mostly on the turret…
Funny that you mention it. I did a search and couldn’t find any images of Sheridans covered in sand bags either.
From what I understood about the use of sand bags particularly in Vietnam, was that Vietnam could be a very wet place and sand bags could easily become saturated and become very heavy. I read somewhere that this was a particular problem with the early gun trucks being built for convoy security and USMC LVTP5’s which carried sand bags spread out on the floor to protect the vehicle from mine damage. The added weight took a toll on the suspension systems of both vehicles. But I would think that the Sheridan would have been better able to cope with additional weight, but I don’t know that for sure. The greater threat to Sheridan’s in Vietnam was RPGs and I find plenty of images of Sheridans which had some sort of frame welded to the hull front and covered in with chain link fence.
Anyway, good luck with your research
Edro
