Taigen King Tiger question

[wibblywobbly]

I am pondering whether to buy a King Tiger, but I want the Porsche turret version. I have been searching high and low on the web but what I can't find out is whether the Taigen version has torsion bar suspension? There are plenty on Ebay but although they say 'all metal' etc etc, none of them mention the suspension. Can anyone tell me? I can see that the Torro lower does, but does the Taigen use the same lower hull, and if I built one from parts, does the HL KT slot straight on to the Torro lower?

The other requirement is to fit all steel road wheels so it would be way better if whatever I ended up with allowed me to bolt these straight on without having to change suspension arms.

My ideal solution would be a Taigen KT with torsion bar suspension that I can fit the steel wheels onto. If they don't come with low ratio steel gears (rather than metal) I can always swap them out.

Can anyone assist?

[jtracks]

I'm responding to the second part of your question. I called Erik at IMEX/Taigen because I wanted to put a Taigen KT Porsche turret on my Torro upper hull with the Henschel turret. Erik told me that they WILL NOT interchange. Here is his response.


Hello Joe,
Unfortunately the Porsche turret and Henschel turret are not swappable
between the two tanks. They have different gear ring sizes and would
require a decent about of fabrication to make work. This is also the
reason the 360 kits are not offered for the Porsche KT as well as they
need to be custom installed to fit correctly.

Erik Edwards
Tech and Tankologist
IMEX/Taigen Tanks
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[jackalope]

My King Tiger started out as the Porsche turret metal version. The lower hull does not have the torsion bar suspension, go look at Hermans Jagdtiger build to see the exact hull it comes with. It reminds me of the H/L Tiger lower with clothes pin style springs and metal arms.

The Torro King Tiger metal lower hull will in fact fit the Taigen King Tiger upper hull.

As for the turrets I'm not sure what Erik is referring to but I swapped from the Porsche Turret to a Henchel turret I bought from Dave and yes it fit just fine. You do need to remove the turrets armor ring from the upper deck and fill 4 small holes but then the Henchel turret drops right on.

And no the 360 rotation kit will not fit the King Tiger however you can modify the ring that came with the King Tiger and using bits of the 360 ring to make your own. Again just like I did with my King Tiger.

Anything else you need Mr.Wibbley sir I'm here to assist.

[wibblywobbly]

Thanks for the info guys, it sounds like I need the Torro lower hull, and the complete Taigen upper with the Porsche turret, and then get the metal road wheels, gearboxes sprockets, idlers and accessories.

I'll have to cost it all up and see what's what. RCTank.de have offered me a good deal on a full spec Late Tiger 1, so I may end up having to toss a coin!

Rob

[jackalope]

If you get the metal version King Tiger by Taigen it comes with everything you named minus the Torro lower hull. All you need do is buy a Taigen metal edition King Tiger and then the Torro hull to get everything you listed above. This is what I did.

[971wright]

Hi Rob I first bought the Heng Long King Tiger (Porsche turret) Had a few problems with lower so bought the torro lower from dave (the one I got had metal wheels arms and torsion bar suspension, the Heng long top fitted with just a little trimming , it also has metal tracks, Tamiya electrics and is un stoppable ,you saw it at Yorkshire meeting ran in the thick mud and loved it never stopped even with all the wheels full of mud. its has 4-1 steel gearboxes 480 motors .Only used one battery over three days its a 5,000map 7,2 volt .The most important thing is to set up the wheels sprocket and idler so they are inline , if there out the tracks jump off .

regards pete

[jackalope]

If you buy the metal edition from Taigen it comes with metal drive sprockets, metal road wheels with bearings, metal idler wheels with bearings, metal tracks, and metal gearboxes. All you have to do is get the Torro hull after getting the Taigen metal edition King Tiger and you have everything on your list you named above.

Again this is what I did and all the parts interchange right over to the Torro hull from the Taigen.

[Max-U52]

Rob, I also have a Taigen Porsche turret King Tiger and I added a Henntec idler system to it, along with Torro King Tiger tracks. I can now call it a very good tank and worthy of a hobby grade MFU/motherboard, like an IBU. As usual, I have lots of video of that tank, let's see what I can find real quick ...

phpBB [video]

Try that. She's a work in progress. Next will be paint, I think.

Too bad you're across the big puddle, cuz I have some cool spare parts for this, like idler wheels and what-not. Bad international postal rates!! But I'll be looking forward to seeing yours come together.

[wibblywobbly]

It looks good, so is it running on the standard HL style suspension rather than torsion bars? I can get one with metal sprockets/idlers and metal tracks for half decent money over here. Taking the cheaper option leaves me more money for electrics, and an Elmod would transform the way that the tank runs. 99% of use would be on a flat club meet floor, so if the standard running gear is ok, it could be the way to go. If it falls apart (which I doubt) I can always buy the Torro lower hull later.

[jackalope]

The stock lower hull isn't bad and if that's all you plan to do with it you'll be fine. It also has metal suspension arms and they mount to a metal strip on the inside of the hull. I ran mine around all stock for a while until after running through water and then into sand the stock gearboxes gave up. That started me down the slippery slope to the 25lb beast I now own.