Tiger Tank ” Hand Crank Engine Start Up “

Hand-Cranked Engine

Batteries from WWII weren’t all that reliable, especially in cold weather conditions. To solve this problem, an “inertia starter” was mounted on the Tiger’s right side, driven by chain gears through a port in the rear wall. 

In this method, a hand crank turns a heavy flywheel at the rear until it reaches a high rotation speed. Then, the crank is withdrawn, and the clutch system pushes the drive pinion onto the flywheel. This would then spin up the pistons, which subsequently start the engine. 

One significant advantage of this method is that it doesn’t rely on a high-energy battery or a cartridge and works in almost all conditions.

An alternative to the crank start is the cartridge starter. These can create enough pressure to start the engine but entirely depend on the crew having cartridges on hand.