How to tighten tracks?

[SteelBird]

This is what they looked like with just one extra link.



When I took a link out, I had to compress the suspension to make them fit. After running for a while, they loosened up enough to not compress the suspension.

Vow, that's even looser than mine. Removing one link should be no problem but my tank after removing one link, the tank still run well but the suspension system stops working because the tracks have no room for jumping up and down.

[ALPHA]

Do you have a photo of it sitting on the tracks?

ALPHA

Here's a photo of it sitting on its tracks. However, I can't remember well in this photo I had removed one link from each track or not. I'll take a new photo later on.

That looks way too tight....if that's after you removed one link...and the photo with that slack is after...personally I would say that's just about right...German tanks should have a nice droop behind the sprocket...not a straight profile like in this photo

ALPHA

[SteelBird]

Here's the tank sitting on its own loosen tracks.


Tracks closed up

[Max-U52]

That doesn't look all that bad. The tracks on both my Panthers are pretty loose but they drive really well and I don't have any trouble with them. No thrown tracks or anything like that. Are you having any problems? Does it throw tracks or bind up or anything? Here's my Panther G, still stock Taigen electronics, drives really great and is tons of fun. You can see how loose the tracks are, yet you can also see it drives just fine. It's also good in rough terrain. Have you got any video of yours in action?

[ALPHA]

Yours has an unusual amount of play....I have had two of those PanTigers...and none were like yours....but yup...the tensioner would be your best bet
This idea just popped into mind....you could try clocking the suspension arm springs( make them stiffer)...doing this would raise the height of the chassis...it might be just enough to take up that slight amount of slack

Good Luck

ALPHA

PS. I'm pretty sure your wheels are also in the wrong order ...so you can correct that when you clock the springs

[SteelBird]

That doesn't look all that bad. The tracks on both my Panthers are pretty loose but they drive really well and I don't have any trouble with them. No thrown tracks or anything like that. Are you having any problems? Does it throw tracks or bind up or anything? Here's my Panther G, still stock Taigen electronics, drives really great and is tons of fun. You can see how loose the tracks are, yet you can also see it drives just fine. It's also good in rough terrain. Have you got any video of yours in action?

Actually, my PanTiger has (stock plastic) track problem out of the box but you can also say that it is design to work like that. In the user's manual, it restricts to drive the tank on sand, rough terrain, water and mud. However, I think that if only drive on smooth surface then I can just buy a Ferrari. So I took it to rough terrain, just the empty land in front of my office. The tracks throw off after running over some large stones and grass (cut off grass get into the tracks). So I decide to cut off one link from each track and it became too tight that it perform like without suspension. And then the steel tracks arrived. The steel tracks are as loose as the stock plastic ones. I guess they are all from HL. I had more problems with the steel tracks, sprockets and rear idlers. And I solved them one after another. Including realign the idlers so that they are straight line with the sprockets, and I never had a thrown track after that. Is the problem solved? I'm not sure but I just feel that the tracks are too loose.

I have more problem driving the tank at low speed. The tank spins rather than turns. If you want it turns you have to give it more speed and it goes too fast. And very strange: on smooth bricks (very smooth) in my room, the tank turns by one track running and the other not running but on outdoor crude bricks (not so smooth), the tank turns with both tracks running, just one faster than the other. These make the turning radius different largely. That's why I have another thread titled "How to make tank slow".

I'm not good in making videos nor I have any good video editing software. I'd try to make one but maybe with raw video only. I can't promise.

To ALPHA, because I wanted to drive the PanTiger in water and mud so I tried to waterproof it by sealing off all holes in the lower hull. By doing so, I removed all road wheels including suspension arms. I had to admit that when installing them back, the arms and wheels are a bit abnormal. I don't know why! I also moved all switch below the hull to higher places. Further, You can't clock the springs because they are already very tight and the plastic arms are too fragile. Finally, the plastic arms jump up and down within a limit, no matter how much clock the spring, the ground clearance won't be higher.

I'm planning for a new tank, maybe a ZTZ-99A (not the ZTZ-99). It has been one of my favorite modern tanks. A hobby shop offers me a broken ZTZ-99A at US$40 (conditions: single gearbox, single steel track, no radio, no smoking unit, no speaker, no MFU, one broken front idler holder (the hardest place to restore), no battery, lack of on turret decor, many lost screws). I'd like to bargain him at $20 and try out my hand skill.

How I tried to waterproof my tank (note the left side with holes not yet sealed, right side holes are sealed)


Main switch has been moved the rear, no need to turn the tank up side down for switching on/off. Battery charging plug added, no need to remove battery for charging anymore.

[ALPHA]

Well it sounds like you know what you're doing...but I would at least correct your wheels....the tracks might have a better profile once you do

ALPHA

[SteelBird]

Here's a short video of my Pantiger. As you can see I had a hard time to control it at low speed. Further, the BB bullet is actually smaller than 6mm as claimed. Here is also a comparison between the yellow BB bullet and steel 6mm ball.


Yellow BB bullets compared to 6mm steel balls

[ALPHA]

Looks like it runs OK to me ...have you tried it outdoors yet?


ALPHA

[SteelBird]

Not have a chance to take it out door yet. I've been so busy with programming recently. Maybe after the new year I will have more time. My Pantiger has new problem popup everyday, that's why I'm thinking of getting a new ZTZ-99A