About this detail of the Tiger
On this page I am building up plan diagrams that show many components of the tank in their correct place. Please bear in mind that some parts are not drawn yet.
The diagram above shows items at the bottom of the hull, in the middle. They consist mostly of torsion bars and floor stiffeners.
You can see (and purchase) some good photos of this area from the restoration of the Bovington Tiger. Go to page 12 of the Tiger Journal.
Note that the struts on the hull floor are made of at least two welded pieces, because every Tiger had a slightly different width. The manufacturers were allowed +/-5mm leeway when positioning heavy armour plates.
At the left (rear) you can see the firewall, which has two small siphons leading through it. These connected the floors of the engine and fighting compartments, allowing bilge water to be removed by a single pump in the slip ring transfer unit.
The diagram above shows items slightly higher than the suspension but under the floor. The diagram has a 1/35 scale in inches and centimeters.
At left, you can see the shock-absorbent mounting which is an integral part of the engine assembly and is bolted to the firewall. "The Tiger Tank: a British view" gives the precise dimensions for this mounting, which contained a rubber ring within steel sleeves.
There are four stowage boxes under the corners of the floor, and these are indicated here. They hung from the framework that supported the floor panels.
At the middle this area are two large boxes, the starboard one being used for stowage of ammunition and the other one for general stowage. Four narrow vertical ammunition boxes, not yet drawn, filled the spaces between the girders and the walls.
The complex assembly at the center of this diagram is the slip ring transfer unit. You can see the angle brackets at its base that are bolted to struts on the hull floor.
The diagram above shows the floor on which the crew stood. I have drawn only some of the removable floor panels, and I have only sketched the fixed framework in which they sit. I want to illustrate that the forward panels are asymmetrical, because the tank's gearbox is off-center. Each removable panel is made of diamond plate and has a finger hole; the turret floor is made of dot plate.
[1] Survey of Tiger 250122, at Bovington museum, by David Byrden