tanks are tracked vehicles that makes them maintenance intensive . Driving your tank hundreds/thousand plus miles non stop wold leave it in condition for being nothing more than a gunnery target . You would literally have burned out the transmission the engine & the tracks before you got to your destination
Four hours of maintenance for every hour of operation was our rule of thumb with the M48 and M60 series. The newer Abrams is better than double that, and much of the service it requires needs to come from battalion level maintenance technicians rather than just us ol' crewdawgs.
I've crewed in T55s as well. Also worse than an an M48A3 or M60A1, mostly requiring parts replacement, rather than adjustment, lubrication or component parts such as track pads or track center guides.
That sounds just like the initial case here.