Howdy from WA

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Mister Thrice
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Howdy from WA

Post by Mister Thrice »

Forgive the long winded intro, but, as an rc nerd without rc friends, this forum's gunna hafta do.

So new to rc tanks I haven't even gotten one yet... But, tax returns are only a few days away, and I got the green light from the girlfriend, so it's happening.

I've decided on the Heng Long Walker Bulldog, the 7.0 pro or whatever, with as much metal as they make for the bulldog at the moment. I asked around and was told by a few sources that the bulldog and the sherman had some of the highest ground clearance of the Heng Long tanks. I live in WA and I mostly play with my rc's in the forest, so every little bit of clearance is a bonus!! So I will start with the bulldog, but I see getting the sherman too! Plus, my big end goal, one of those all metal monsters. That's me white whale!

Been into rc cars since I was a kid, and just turned 39 in march. Got 3 rc cars currently, but all 3 are high maintenance divas, all of which I've fully upgraded, ESC's, servos, servo horns, aluminum kits, body kits, light kits, better shocks, all the shock oils, marine greases, many, many many many tires... But none of them can really make it an hour without one problem or another. I'm running out of things to upgrade and replace, and I'm growing a bit irritable with not having a reliable, go-to rc that I can 'bash' the way I want without having to order $100 in parts every week.

So I'm here to learn. How to maintain, tear apart, water proof, repair, replace, and upgrade the things I'm interested in doing. I want waterproof pretty bad, because WA is rain, and water. That's my first concern. Going to get and air compressor to help me clean it up after use, and possibly a plastic welder too, you can never be too sure. I wanna figure out how to upgrade the firepower too, for instance, steel bb's. I very much want to destroy an unopened can of soda with a single shot. That's my bar at least.

I'll shut up now. Thanks for reading if you made it this far, I'll mostly lurk and read, so you wont have to put up with too many tirades!

-T
“Don't slide down the rabbit hole. The way down is a breeze, but climbing back's a battle.” --Kate Morton
Tubby
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Re: Howdy from WA

Post by Tubby »

Welcome to the forum.

As to waterproofing, the Heng Long Bulldog is pretty good at resisting water ingress.

Mine has been up to its running boards in water and as long as it doesn't spill over into the chassis tub, it'll be fine. Hi

There are gaps however between the chassis and upper hull, so you might want to make some sponsons from styrene plasticard.

The other problem that you'll have is wheel bearings... The metal wheels on the Bulldog contain ball bearings, but they are NOT water proof.

The ball bearings are cheap metal sealed bearings and will seize after the first use.

Consider replacing them with rubber sealed ball bearings and smear a little bit of grease on each face of the bearings.

I did this with my KV-1 and now it'll go anywhere and tackle anything.

Also, grease the gearboxes (I use Lucas red and tacky) with a water resistant, anti wear grease and you'll find that they run quieter and will last longer.
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Son of a gun-ner
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Re: Howdy from WA

Post by Son of a gun-ner »

Hello and welcome to the forum Mr Mister Thrice :wave:

In my opinion, I'm afraid these tanks can be just as temperamental as your cars, especially when running on rough terrain. Also I doubt they'd have the same sort of grip on sodden ground or over rocks like a good crawler would with rubber tyres, they lack enough sprung weight to transfer to the tracks to make them work realistically.
But please don't let that put you off, they can still be great fun :thumbup:
As for your choices of bulldog and Sherman, I would say that even though the bulldog is inaccurate for scale and detail, it would probably be the best choice for the type of punishment off roading can bring.
As for the Sherman, even though I'm a huge fan (I have quite a few), in my opinion, it would be one of the least favourable models for rough terrain, not wide enough for its height and therefore would probably be a bit unstable.
But then again, it's your choice, and all depends whether you want it to look historically correct, or as a play thing :thumbup:
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Jimster
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Re: Howdy from WA

Post by Jimster »

Welcome aboard from Illinois! My first tank was a cheap Heng Long Tiger1 and I absolutely drove the dog pudding out of it. Pretty soon I realized that I got more satisfaction from trying to drive it at scale speeds and replicate the movements of a real tank instead of a Brinks armored car in a demolition derby. I slowly upgraded components to achieve the degree of realism I wanted. I still have that tank but all that remains of the original Heng Long is the upper deck.
Whatever your rc tank goals are I hope you enjoy this forum and your tank journey.
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43rdRecceReg
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Re: Howdy from WA

Post by 43rdRecceReg »

Welcome, Mr Mr Mr! :wave:
All your RC experience will stand you in good stead when it comes to exploring, and customising, tracked vehicles :thumbup:
Some start the 'midlife crisis' at your age; but given all the great distractions you have, and those that are coming your way- you'll probably never notice it :thumbup:
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please"- Mark Twain.
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jarndice
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Re: Howdy from WA

Post by jarndice »

Welcome to the Forum :thumbup: :wave: :clap:
If you have a penchant for r/c and water you will find a number of builds of a DUKW otherwise I would avoid water,Long Grass and Sand because any or all of these natural elements will be the cause of visits to the Bank and extended workshop rebuilds.
I think I am about to upset someone :haha:
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BarryC
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Re: Howdy from WA

Post by BarryC »

Welcome sir! :clap:

This is by far the BEST RC Tank web site there is.

Barry
"Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail."
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Mister Thrice
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Re: Howdy from WA

Post by Mister Thrice »

Well I feel like I just got about a books worth more info from a 'hello there' thread than just about any other forum I haunt and ask my pointed questions to! Thanks, all, mighty big of you!

Tubby - Duly noted! As an odd duck with far too many hobbies, longboarding is still one of them. I truly appreciate your statement about the bearings. Though I am an old school Bones Speed Cream kinda guy, it's my grease of choice for all thing bearings. Got the girlfriend an eliptical that she wanted and was quite frustrated to see these beautiful massive bearings dry as a bone... So I ended up using almost a whole bottle to get that thing right!

Nice tip about the gear box though, and the lucas red & tacky... gunna pick some of that up before i order the tank!

Son of a gun-ner - Do you think that the added weight of the metal tracks, idler wheels, a 7500mAh battery, and maybe some additional dead weight would help the tracks 'actuate' a bit more on their respective terrains? Been curious about that too, and weight placement within the chassis, forgive me for lack of proper terminology here.

As far as 'bashing' goes, with the tanks, It's going to be more about obstacles, and 'perimeter checks' (my premeditated excuse to go play with my rc tank), shooting cans, a lot of pictures for comic art I like to do (big time Dark Horse Comics fan here, Tank Girl (obviously), Predator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator, etc), and the r/c tank, 'accurate to scale' or not, still provides an endless canvass for sci fi tanks, and comic tanks, etc) and mostly just cruising around, which, in of itself, will probably be a more often than not satisfying time as my cars I walk away planning when I get to buy it's next parts!

Truly appreciate the info about the Sherman though. May skip that for now and go straight to the all metal after this Bulldog experience...

Jimster - Thank you! Yeah, I got my other trucks to actually bash and haul tail with, they're too fast for me to even control yet, so a tank is going to be sweet, smooth sailing!

43rdRecceReg - I'm planning my midlife crisis in another 10 years, big plans for that! This is just my now hobby I have the time and currency to expand on a bit! Glad to hear the wrench time with the trucks is going to help pay off with the tanks though, nothing like a diverse skill set to help the times when...

jarndice - Appreciate the advice, thanks! Yeah not looking to clean long grass outta tracks anytime soon... Moreso looking to terrorize my girlfriend daughters, squirrels, and cruise around some really nice scenic paths I got around here. Leave the stunts & tricks to the monster trucks!

BarryC - So far as I can tell, I'm going to have to agree! For that matter, better than just about all the other forums I'm on as well!

Thanks again all, and see ya around! I'll be back with questions real soon...
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jee
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Re: Howdy from WA

Post by jee »

Welcome and have fun!
Regards,
Jaap :wave:
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EAO
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Re: Howdy from WA

Post by EAO »

Hello Mr. Thrice,

Glad you found the Forum. Best one out there! I've only got one tank :{ , a Taigen Tiger 1, all metal. With my upgrades it weighs in excess of 15 pounds and pretty much rumbles around like a real one. I run NiMh 5,000 MaH batteries which also help keep the weight up there too. The more weight the better the traction, sometimes at the cost of other parts however! As Jimster noted, I too am a fan of trying to get the best scale speed out of these things. I've got a video of it pushing through deep snow that I'll upload if I ever get more time. :lolno:

Where about's in WA are you? I'm guessing you're out on the coast? We lived in the Seattle area for 12 years before moving back to the Mid West.

At any rate, glad to have you aboard!

Cheers,
Eric.
"You can always tell a German, you just can't tell him much." Anonymous.

German cars, German girls, German beer, German firearms, German Shepherds, German motorcycles... Not necessarily in that order though!

UP THE IRONS!
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