It is my understanding that nobody has ever got this to work.
The tank01.dts file links the skin files to it's self. Much like a web page works.
When the object was created the skins were added and a relative path to that file was created /tanks/skin.jpg

So we can change the location of the tank01.dts and the brainjar01.dts (as you already know)

This works with everything but the treads.
LightTank.shapeFile = "game/data/shapes/tanks/MAXTanks//tanks/tank01.dts";
LightTank.brainShapeFile = "game/data/shapes/tanks/MAXTanks//tanks/brainjar01.dts";

The problem is this.
If you break the path from the object.dts to the skin.jpg you loose the skin and get default grey, which is the default surface map for the object.

The tanktread01.JPG - tanktread07.JPG must not have the same path as Tank01.JPG for the tank01.dts

I tried going all the way back but could not get the treads to show.

LightTank.shapeFile = "game/data/shapes/tanks/MAXTanks/Contents/Resources/game/data/shapes/tanks/tank01.dts";

But in reality all this is moot because nobody will wait the hour for all those file to download anyhow.

The only way to do it is to make a new object.dts with your skins linked to it using a relative path Maxtanks/tanks/
Much like the jeep and the 187 space ship.
Then folks can pre download them and then you can control which tank they use with LightTank.shapeFile =

Until then I will only see the skins I put us in.

MAX