Late Update Skinned Mesh Double Transform

I don't know if this is an issue in previous versions of Unity but I am currently using Unity 5 B18. I have a tank with a character that is parented underneath the hierarchy of the tank rig. I have everything synced up and works fine generally, but I use LateUpdate to aim the turret at different targets and it causes the driver mesh to rotate twice as much as the tank joint it is parented underneath. The animator node above the mesh stays in the correct spot though. Doing inverse quaternion rotation to counteract this isn't the cheapest thing to do and my hack workaround currently is to let the tank spawn and then parent the driver mesh to the top level tank GO so the driver animator still properly animates the character. Is there another way around this issue?