HL Abrams problems !

[dai phan]

Hi all

Got the tank yestersday. No body/barrel recoil, no cannon lifting. Turret could not do 120 wihout catching. Wires inside is tight like piano wire and stripped by a slight touch. Complete mess inside. 300 bucks down the drain. Nuff said! Dai

[dai phan]

The wires are so short that they pull the MFU to the turret causing massive binding. As such many wires are ripped out so I spent hours trying to put them back. The 6.0S MFU is fried so I had to borrow a 6.0 MFU from a T90. For 3 hours I have been trying to get the turret turning 360 w/o binding but most I get is 120. I wanted to move the MFU toward the front but the wires are too short. HL just stuffs things in there and if they bind, then tough it. Such pathetic poor engineering. I paid extra for the 360 rotation but now I barely get 120. Dai

[Model Builder 4]

Hi dai,

Sorry to hear of the problems with your new purchase, you will find though that a lot of the heng long tanks are the same regarding the wiring. As a 'toy grade' tank that heng long deems it to be they do not consider the purchaser opening it up regularly as we do with our tanks and that is why they have the battery box access underneath so it's easy to get to without opening the main body and pulling on the wires. The newer heng long boards have a lot of separate plugs for the different functions but on the older boards there was just an 8 pin plug running to a separate daughter board to power the turret functions, you can buy an extended version of this cable which relieves some of the strain off the cables when opening it up. Unfortunately though as yours does not come with this type of cable you may have to make some for yourself which shouldn't be a big problem if you can get the corresponding plugs etc and a soldering iron, welcome to the Joy's of tank upgrading

Cheers,Lee.

[jarndice]

Hi all

Got the tank yestersday. No body/barrel recoil, no cannon lifting. Turret could not do 120 wihout catching. Wires inside is tight like piano wire and stripped by a slight touch. Complete mess inside. 300 bucks down the drain. Nuff said! Dai

I would suggest to anybody who buys a faulty product that you do not open it up but just return it with a polite note explaining why and requesting a refund (YOUR LEGAL RIGHT IN UK LAW) or a replacement.
Do make a copy of all correspondence.
Who was the Dealer that supplied the Tank?

[dai phan]

Hi dai,

Sorry to hear of the problems with your new purchase, you will find though that a lot of the heng long tanks are the same regarding the wiring. As a ( toy grade ) tank that heng long deems it to be they do not consider the purchaser opening it up regularly as we do with our tanks and that is why they have the battery box access underneath so it's easy to get to without opening the main body and pulling on the wires. The newer heng long boards have a lot of separate plugs for the different functions but on the older boards there was just an 8 pin plug running to a separate daughter board to power the turret functions, you can buy an extended version of this cable which relieves some of the strain off the cables when opening it up. Unfortunately though as yours does not come with this type of cable you may have to make some for yourself which shouldn't be a big problem if you can get the corresponding plugs etc and a soldering iron, welcome to the Joy's of tank upgrading

Cheers,Lee.

The only way to solve the binding turret is to lengthen the wires and then move the MFU all the way foward. Then tuck the wires on the side. The way it is set up is disaster on the way and it did. The binding turret rips wires on its way even damaged one of the connecting (CN4) plugs making turrret turning impossible. I had to borrow a MFU from my Sherman. Just cheap enginnering. Dai

[dai phan]

Hi all

Got the tank yestersday. No body/barrel recoil, no cannon lifting. Turret could not do 120 wihout catching. Wires inside is tight like piano wire and stripped by a slight touch. Complete mess inside. 300 bucks down the drain. Nuff said! Dai

I would suggest to anybody who buys a faulty product that you do not open it up but just return it with a polite note explaining why and requesting a refund (YOUR LEGAL RIGHT IN UK LAW) or a replacement.
Do make a copy of all correspondence.
Who was the Dealer that supplied the Tank?

Toucan will not exchange for a new tank but will send you parts to fix it yourself. I wanted a new T72 ( complete lemon) but they could only send me new hulls and MFU. I think TH does not lose out with replacement parts but will if the tank is returned for exhange. At this time no more HL but I will focus on Taigen that I see has much higher quality. Dai

[Model Builder 4]

As Mr.Jarndice points out, if you receive something that is faulty or broken the first thing you should do is contact the vendor to notify them, once you have opened the tank up the vendor can void the warranty as they could say the damage was caused by yourself.

Heng long have come a long way over the last couple of years with their tanks, electronics etc but they are still classed as a budget tank compared to the competition and the quality control is lacking sometimes, that does not take away from the fact though that a lot can be done to them to make a decent tank with a little bit of effort and just looking around the forum is testament to that with some of the great builds people have achieved using these tanks as a base.

I am not sure of the selling laws in your country dai but if you are that unhappy with it and do not want to go to the trouble of repairing it yourself I would definitely demand a replacement or refund from the seller as the product is not fit for it's purpose

Cheers,Lee.

[dai phan]

Hi all,

Just ordered couple of wires set from Taigen so I can move the MFU to a better location. Dai

[dai phan]

As Mr.Jarndice points out, if you receive something that is faulty or broken the first thing you should do is contact the vendor to notify them, once you have opened the tank up the vendor can void the warranty as they could say the damage was caused by yourself.

Heng long have come a long way over the last couple of years with their tanks, electronics etc but they are still classed as a budget tank compared to the competition and the quality control is lacking sometimes, that does not take away from the fact though that a lot can be done to them to make them into a decent tank with a little bit of effort and just looking around the forum is testament to that with some of the great builds people have made with these tanks as a base.

I am not sure of the selling laws in your country dai but if you are that unhappy with it and do not want to go to the trouble of repairing it yourself I would definitely demand a replacement or refund from the seller as the product is not fit for it's purpose

Cheers,Lee.

I buy from Toucan Hobby and the post sale service is very good. If there is something wrong they expect you to open the tank and report to them the problems. Then they will tell you how to fix it including sending new replacement parts. I live in US and it is not practical to skype at 3:00 am. If TH allows return/exchange no questions asked then they would be out of bussiness in a month. I am thinking of just order through Amazon because the return/exchange is automatic although likely TH is the seller. Dai

[dai phan]

Granted, these HL tanks are pretty fun stuff but 90% you have to open up the tanks and fix things yourself. Likely you will need to add 50-100 USD for better replacement parts in order for these to run. Out of box w/o issues is extremely rare. If there is another company that steps in providing higher quality 1/16 scale tanks with HL's asking price, Hl will be blown out of water. Taigen tanks are very good but 200-300 USD more. Mato is known for tracks rather than their metal tank quality and Tamiya is out of reach and not practical for many. Dai