Which Heng Long tanks to avoid?

[dai phan]

Hi all

I have 11 HL tanks and 1 Taigen. The worse offenders with poor engineering are the T72 and Abrams. On the Abrams the wires are too short pulling the MFU/cables against the turret assembly. As it turns, it rips out cables and it short circuited the CN4 connection. The T72 has flaw in the forward hull design causing the breaks at the idler wheel positions. All brand new tanks with less than 1 minute drive time. Any HL tanks like this to avoid? I am focusing on Taigen tanks as they are much better quality. Dai

[43rdRecceReg]

Whilst there's much to like about the revised series TK6 Electronics in the latest HL offerings, the intermediate connectors such as the 8-pic daughter board + ribbon cable are now absent. They provided greater length in the wiring harness than the direct-to- MFU connectors do- an arrangement where each individual component connects directly to the MFU controller, that is.
The solution is to extend the offending short wires. A pain, yes, but the overall improvements delivered by the new control boards make the TK 6.0 presence desirable.

[abramsky]

Hi all

I have 11 HL tanks and 1 Taigen. The worse offenders with poor engineering are the T72 and Abrams. On the Abrams the wires are too short pulling the MFU/cables against the turret assembly. As it turns, it rips out cables and it short circuited the CN4 connection. The T72 has flaw in the forward hull design causing the breaks at the idler wheel positions. All brand new tanks with less than 1 minute drive time. Any HL tanks like this to avoid? I am focusing on Taigen tanks as they are much better quality. Dai

Hello Dai. I think that no matter what model Heng Long produces, there may be a problem with each of them. After all, they are designed and assembled by the same people. Personally, I would avoid the smallest WWII models due to the fact that the same electronics and cables are crammed in smaller hulls than modern tanks. But there is no rule here. It all depends on which batch of production you will hit the model from and how creatively the HL employee approached the assembly. I don't know what level of quality Taigen presents, but I am used to repairs and I consider it an integral part of this hobby

But as someone else wrote in your other thread before. HL for a relatively low price can be an excellent base for converting into a hobby grade model. It all depends on you.

[jarndice]

Whilst there's much to like about the revised series TK6 Electronics in the latest HL offerings, the intermediate connectors such as the 8-pic daughter board + ribbon cable are now absent. They provided greater length in the wiring harness than the direct-to- MFU connectors do- an arrangement where each individual component connects directly to the MFU controller, that is.
The solution is to extend the offending short wires. A pain, yes, but the overall improvements delivered by the new control boards make the TK 6.0 presence desirable.

Being incredibly lazy But knowing that sometime soon I shall have to take my Heng Long Abrams out of its box and give it a run are replacement "Extended" cables that match the plug and sockets of the Tank available so that I can spare myself the problems that DAI has faced and simply open up the Tank and swap over to the replacement longer cables ?

[abramsky]

Being incredibly lazy But knowing that sometime soon I shall have to take my Heng Long Abrams out of its box and give it a run are replacement "Extended" cables that match the plug and sockets of the Tank available so that I can spare myself the problems that DAI has faced and simply open up the Tank and swap over to the replacement longer cables ?

You should buy fwe cables with JST 2 pin plugs without any problem. I don't know about the availability of 2PIN plugs for LEDs because they look like servo plugs but have 2 wires. The easiest way is to convert the 10-15 cm servo cable extension ( male to female ) from 3 pin to 2 pin ( disconnect one of the 3 cables and cut off one of the slots in both plugs ). Additionally, if you are planning to mount the MFU on the front of the hull, you may need new engine cables. You will need 4pcs 4mm banana connectors (male) and some 14-16 AWG silicone cable. That should be enough.
Or you can only buy the correct plugs and do some soldering work. It all depends on you.

[lmcq11]

To me, the worst is the Walker Bulldog in terms of design. Some examples;
- Chassis made higher so that they could fit a smoker between gearbox at the rear, resulting in a totally deformed hull. All due to the choice of a high gearbox to fit a smoker in between.
- Communication problems between the upper hull and turret designer that obviously did not share the right specs for the turret ring dimension, resulting in a much reduced turret ring size and as a result, overall wrong turret dimensions and wrong armor angles as well.
- Suspension fully based on dampers, which did not exist for roadwheel 3 and 4.
- Use of wide M26 roadwheels, too wide for Walker Bulldog. Resulting in tracks that are way too wide, then resulting in fenders way too wide as well.
- Wrong embossed stiffener for the fender stowage, inverted V instead of the trademark X.
- Driver's periscope installed outside the hull and looking at the sky for birdwatching.
- Mixture of Walker Bulldog early and late production components.

Design of this vehicle show one bad decision after another, resulting in a vehicle that could easily have been correct if they simply had discarded the smoker and use a ruler for the rest.

Louis

[jarndice]

Being incredibly lazy But knowing that sometime soon I shall have to take my Heng Long Abrams out of its box and give it a run are replacement "Extended" cables that match the plug and sockets of the Tank available so that I can spare myself the problems that DAI has faced and simply open up the Tank and swap over to the replacement longer cables ?

You should buy fwe cables with JST 2 pin plugs without any problem. I don't know about the availability of 2PIN plugs for LEDs because they look like servo plugs but have 2 wires. The easiest way is to convert the 10-15 cm servo cable extension ( male to female ) from 3 pin to 2 pin ( disconnect one of the 3 cables and cut off one of the slots in both plugs ). Additionally, if you are planning to mount the MFU on the front of the hull, you may need new engine cables. You will need 4pcs 4mm banana connectors (male) and some 14-16 AWG silicone cable. That should be enough.
Or you can only buy the correct plugs and do some soldering work. It all depends on you.

I said I was lazy because I really want to avoid doing any extra soldering if I can find cables that were already finished,
Now it looks like I shall have to get soldering or I could always leave it for another day

[BarryC]

Looking for connectors and cables, try here.

http://www.hansenhobbies.com/

Barry

[Son of a gun-ner]

Looking for connectors and cables, try here.

http://www.hansenhobbies.com/

Barry

Or the component shop in Britain

[Son of a gun-ner]

To me, the worst is the Walker Bulldog in terms of design. Some examples;
- Chassis made higher so that they could fit a smoker between gearbox at the rear, resulting in a totally deformed hull. All due to the choice of a high gearbox to fit a smoker in between.
- Communication problems between the upper hull and turret designer that obviously did not share the right specs for the turret ring dimension, resulting in a much reduced turret ring size and as a result, overall wrong turret dimensions and wrong armor angles as well.
- Suspension fully based on dampers, which did not exist for roadwheel 3 and 4.
- Use of wide M26 roadwheels, too wide for Walker Bulldog. Resulting in tracks that are way too wide, then resulting in fenders way too wide as well.
- Wrong embossed stiffener for the fender stowage, inverted V instead of the trademark X.
- Driver's periscope installed outside the hull and looking at the sky for birdwatching.
- Mixture of Walker Bulldog early and late production components.

Design of this vehicle show one bad decision after another, resulting in a vehicle that could easily have been correct if they simply had discarded the smoker and use a ruler for the rest.

Louis

But it runs quite well for a Heng Long

My pick for worse Heng Long tank has to be the Porsche turret King Tiger. Got two with the same problem with the same idler, both need a track tensioner to stop the tracks being thrown. I also have a third K T with a Henschel turret, but I haven't given it a run yet.