billpe wrote:Depending on what you're running on, metal tracks aren't always the best option. Lots of guys who battle them on grass will use plastic tracks.
I second that, I ditched metal tracks long ago, as they create too much friction when fitted on a heavy tank. It's a lot easier and cheaper to keep the tank plastic, as it will ride over terrain rather than dig into it. I have happily run plastic tanks, with plastic tracks and gearboxes for hours over some really rough stuff, gradients etc with no probs at all. If using plastic gearboxes just take them apart and glue the slipper clutch solid to stop the clicking noise.
My view is that if it isn't broke, don't fix it. Once you start beefing up one part of a tank, more stress is put on the rest of it, so bit by bit you end up buying tracks, sprockets, suspension, road wheels, gearboxes, hulls and motors. A £60 tank becomes a £250 tank that sits on the bench 90% of the year?
Tanks that have tracks with flat pads, eg Bulldog, Leopard will turn a lot easier on grass than those that have cleats eg Tiger, Panther etc.
Using paintball in an HL tank is likely to gum up the works. All of the clubs that battle ditch the standard electrics and fit aftermarket boards that support IR. Eg Tamiya, Clark, IBU2, Elmod. as this gives you realistic sounds as well as a host of other features. Eg battle damage, programmable for number of hits a tank can take before it is dead, and so on.
The HL 2.4ghz is incompatible with aftermarket boards, so it works out cheaper to buy an HL tank without electrics and install aftermarket electrics of your choosing. You can still have airsoft on the IBU2 and Clark boards.
If all that you want to do is play airsoft amongst yourselves then yes, just buy ten standard HL tanks on 2.4ghz, but bear in mind that if you decide to switch to IR then you are going to have to throw away the boards and tx's, and install something else. Going back to my first point about cost, if you keep the tanks plastic then the money that you save on buying metal upgrades will pay for new electrics?
