jackalope wrote:Even though my KT is a Taigen it uses the same hull as your H/L and mine came with metal tracks, suspension arms, road wheels and idler wheels yet my tank doesn't have any heavy duty springs and it runs just fine. I'm really not sure you need them unless you start adding weight to the tanks body that would require a stiffer suspension. The metal arms, tracks and wheels wouldn't mean you need stiffer springs. If I were you I'd run the stock springs as they seem perfectly fine in my KT. Do all your upgrades and see how it does with the stock springs is what I say.
Jackalope, i half-regret it now but I found a great price on the springs and arms from my Friend Jack at Ali Express/Mato mart so i went ahead and ordered them...I know i'll regret it when i go to put them on, all 18 of em! But the price was so tempting I pulled the pin on it - <$22 for springs and metal arms. I checked, EVERYWHERE for these parts, some have the metal arms, for $20 shipped just for the arms, but NO ONE has the springs to buy alone. Anybody else on Ebay wants $45 shipped for the set...
Since i have done so much business with the salesman at Mato Mart on AE he went out of his way to get them for me, but he had to order the parts from another vendor, so you won't see these parts if you go to AE/Mato mart...after a few PM's we did the deal and now they're soon on their way.
I didn't get the KT suspension arms yet, this is just how they look like, just to have an image here
I installed the upgrade springs/metal susp arms on the TIger and you're right Jackalope, not a huge difference and probably could get by without them. But i wanna install these as apparently like Saul Goodman says I'm "immune to good advice". So long as the hull doesn't crack from the springs tension...that would be bad of course. I may use the glued washer trick, I'd need brass because I'm not tooled up (electric drill, no press!) to drill holes in steel...ah these engineering fixes, is this the real reason we do this hobby?
I hope I am not boring people that have read this far, if you are, i get it and you're excused-as it's getting to splitting hairs (to avoid the splitting of hulls?
ha). The mad idea I came up with: looking at my hull, where these bolts go in the plastic on the inside, you can see they molded in extra plastic there. But it's possibly not enough to reinforce modded springs....I was reminded of Alpha's comment "with the stronger springs, the hull splits at the base of the plastic hull".
Possible mad solution, reinforce the plastic from the outside,using good old JB Weld. If you haven't used this yet, it's a kind of super strong, hard metallic epoxy.
Plan, make a "Dam" to hold the JB Weld, using tape, around the inside plastic protrusion (the one where the pivot bolt screws in)...Mix the JB Weld (Gonna need a lot of this stuff alright) turn the tank on his side, mix it, pour it, let dry, and see what happens. It's that, or I just install every metal arm (they do look pretty cool lets face it) and only use the strong springs for every second, or third susp arm. The idea with the resin and plastic card was a good one but after all the hull mods I have made, no room inside i think.
