Wheels for the famous Tamiya Sherman

The main difference between the two suspensions is that the VVSS has only six wide road wheels per side and the HVSS has 12 narrower road wheels. Of course the springs and what have you are mounted differently and the tracks are different as well. I think either suspension would work with your 105 build. If you go HVSS the road wheels with the conversion will have inside detail on them. I believe that your kit comes with the VVSS. As to roadwheels, I'll have to dig around my spares box to see what I have. I know I've got about 200 Sherman road wheels, but I don't know how many with inside detail I've got.

Tank Workshop makes a couple sets in resin for the VVSS suspension. The Tamiya kit is a VVSS one. They sell dished or stamped road wheels. As far as I know, their stuff is currently available. I know I picked up another item from them earlier this year.

http://www.tankworkshop.com/Shop/picserve.cgi?picserve=0026.jpg

http://www.tankworkshop.com/Shop/picserve.cgi?picserve=0027.jpg

this is a VVSS bogie

and this is the HVSS suspension bogie

After digging through my spares boxes the onle two sided Sherman road wheels I've got are Italeri open spoked wheels. They're not really appropriate for a 105 Sherman, you'd most likely want stamped or dished wheels. On the other hand if you rework the wheels you have you really only need to re-do four of them as the others won't be visable unless you display the tank upside down. Tank Workshop makes some pretty good Sherman accessories and road wheels are among them.

HVSS is the later style suspension and stands for Horizontal Volute Suspension System. In this photo, you can see the volute spring (the big, fat round item between the road wheels) is mounted on its side, horizontally. It is not the type included on the Tamiya kit.

VVSS is the older style and comes in many different variations. VVSS is Vertical Volute Suspension System and the springs are mounted up and down, or vertically. These are the original M3 style springs used on initial M4s, but you can see the spring mounted vertically in the small photo on the left above.

This is the Tasca set you probably want to use for the Tamiya M4A3 105mm. It is a fairly late WW2 tank, but uses a later style VVSS than what is pictured in the above photo (the M3 style).
http://www.missing-lynx.com/reviews/usa/tasca35008reviewcs_1.html

Bottom line is that you want the latest style of the older type of suspension.

Thanks a lot guys, I've got some thinking to do. I've got several plans in mind....