May 13, 2023, it was cold and should be even colder . . . .
The plan:
My brother Andreas and me, we build a raft from existing materials with enough buoyancy for the 1:6 tanks as the next attraction. There are only 8m to bridge. Nobody has that!
Building the raft:
The pipe frame made of 160 gauge sewage pipes with a middle footbridge was quickly built. For better buoyancy we added 7 Styrodur plates. As driving surface a thin galvanized sheet and ready for the first test in the pool.
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Everything was prepared, Stephanie held my cell phone to film.
The raft lay proudly in the 12 degree warm pool water. The buoyancy was gigantic thanks to the installed Styrodur plates.
We knew that we needed a ramp in the front and in the back, so that the raft was stable and would not capsize. Andreas held the raft and I rode it very slowly. Andreas waved for me to keep going until he could no longer hold the raft. Unfortunately there is no picture material of this
Sorry, no photos.
The dive:
I quickly rushed to the raft to hold the tiger. I put very uncontrolled and fast the remote control out of the hand, which turned due to the rapid putting down on the control sticks. Yes, then the tiger drove unstoppably slowly and fully under power into the ice-cold pool.
Thanks to its 150kg, the bottom 1.60m away was quickly reached.
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Within seconds, Andreas and I were running. The concrete pool had to be drained and the excavator with ropes for salvage had to be brought in. We opened the drain pipe and found that the tiger had made itself comfortable on the bottom drain. Ropes we had, the excavator stood there and Andreas climbed into the ice cold pool. After the shock Andreas did not notice what 12 degrees water temperature mean and he even dived. Ropes drum and the excavator fetched the cold tiger slowly from the water.
Now first of all the main switch off.
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Cover off, wet vacuum on, suck out the water. Remove the brand new LiFePo4 24V, 30 Ah battery, all electronics, all motors, all cables and off into the oven at 50 degrees. The Animatronics driver also went into the oven.
We cleaned everything, chains down. Naked and sparkling clean was the Tiger.
All in all, the Tiger was under water for about an hour at full power.
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Just like last year, we signed up with Kees for the Armortek group.
This time, a week after the sinking however without Stephanie's beloved Tiger 1.
The first morning at the museum site we met to unload the tanks. My brother Andreas opened his trunk and there it was, Stephanie's Tiger in all its glory!
Andreas told us that he invested hours after work, piece by piece, breathing life back into the Tiger. First the driver moved completely, then Andreas assembled the receiver group, the sound, etc., until everything worked.
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Ideas with water and tanks we do not develop any more for the time being.
At least 60 min under water, 50 degrees oven temperature all night, clean the electronics with contact spray, oil and grease for the chains, etc. and the Tiger lives again.
Likewise, the new battery works perfectly after drying.
It is amazing and at the same time a good quality judgement that after this dive the whole Armortek electronics including motors and everything is running again under full power.
For this once again thank you Andreas!
A bunch of Tiger and Panther variants, Leo II, Famo, 222s, a few 88`s and smaler ones like Hetzer, Stug III, 251, etc.