Broken xmas present, one unhappy child.

[Sweeneyuk]

If anyone can help it'll be greatly appreciated.

I bought a HL tiger 1 for my son (& myself obs) but after 5 mins use on gravel and short grass it's unusable.

Started to click when turning like sprocket or gears were jumping, then idler wheel came apart and then track came off. Tracks seemed very loose to start with.

All within 10mins.

Rather than send it away is this a common fault and what can I do in terms of upgrades to cure it.

Have seen metal idler and sprocket being sold on eBay but are there cheap versions I should avoid?
Should I use metal tracks? Change gearbox?

I want to be able to use it with my son without it breaking regularly.
Do I need to waterproof switches on base?

Son is gutted he can't play with his xmas present so any help to get it fixed asap appreciated.

[jackalope]

Very sorry to hear your son is having problems with his Tiger. It'd help to know which version Santa brought him then we can recommend upgrade parts and where to buy them from as there are many shady vedors out there and we don't want you guys to have any more issues.

[wibblywobbly]

If it has plastic gearboxes then the clicking is nothing to worry about, they have a slipper/ratchet in them to prevent the gears getting stripped.

The idler halves are glued together. so that can be repaired with superglue. To get the track back on, push one of the pins out and split the track, then reassamble with it in place. A bit fiddly, about 7/10 on the difficulty scale.

Common fault? Yes, quite common. They aren't really designed for running on grass, the second you try and turn you are putting enormous sideways strain on the tracks, wheels and sprockets. If you want to run off road, things get a tad expensive, steel low ratio gearboxes £30, metal tracks and sprockets and idlers £50-£60? You then do all that and find that the mechanics are up to the job, but then blow the board because that isn't...and a Clark board is around £80?

If you keep it all standard and only run it indoors, the standard set up will last well.

Hope that helps.

[Sweeneyuk]

Thanks for replies.

It's a heng long from an eBay seller. Paid £85, has smoke and fires bb's (untested firing so far)

All plastic.

From a little reading I have seen that even upgrading the gearbox/track and wheels might stress the plastic frame, is that right?

I was hoping he could use it outdoors, need the space for him to practice let alone fire the bb's.

How do I know what are quality parts and where should I buy?

I built an avante racing rc car when I was 12 but stupidly gave it away to a young cousin in my early twenties so have modest modelling abilities.
Really want to build a decent tank.

Thanks for help.

[SteelBird]

I have two Heng Long tanks; Pantiger and Leo2A6. One upgraded with all metal part and the other is complete stock plastic. I don't know if I am bad luck or anything, my experience with Heng Long is that all my two tanks will throw tracks when running on unpaved surface, especially grass. Regarding frame stress, since you have the Tiger1 which uses the same chassis as my Pantiger, I have my Pantiger upgraded with metal tracks, metal roadwheels (including sprockets and idlers), 4:1 gearboxes, and track adjuster. The whole tank weights about 5kg. The frame is still solid after a year.

As a new hobbyist, my suggestion to you is do not pour too much resource into one tank. I don't think the thrown tracks problem can be solved by metal upgrade as my example. I can't solve my own problem until now. Instead, you should try to find out why the tracks are thrown and solve it. Plastic tracks are also very durable. And yes, if you have enough resource, simply go to a professional model.

[jackalope]

You can dump a small fortune into one of these tanks so be careful! All of mine can run through anything I can throw at them outside but each one has surpassed the $1000 mark.

[SteelBird]

You can dump a small fortune into one of these tanks so be careful! All of mine can run through anything I can throw at them outside but each one has surpassed the $1000 mark.

That's where the problem come. And if you want to dump $1000 into a Heng Long to make it Mr. Bravo, you not only need $$$, you'd also need skill. That's why I'm thinking of getting a Tamiya for my next tank. Of course, I'm not Bill Gate, so next year too.

[wibblywobbly]

One way to reduce the turning friction when you have plastic tracks is to chamfer the edges of the track cleats with sandpaper, this way they don't dig in when you turn. The problem is caused when you have a tank that has cleats on the tracks. If you were driving something like a Bulldog or Sherman, that doesn't have cleats, you would find that it will run around on grass, or any surface, without missing a beat, as the track pads are flat.

Plastic tracks are quite strong, it takes a lot of abuse to break one, after all Tamiya have been using them for decades. Sure you can spend a fortune on metal parts, but it will make the tank heavier which is counter productive. If you go down that route you really need low ratio steel gearboxes (not the HL metal ones that are very noisy and not low ratio) and aftermarket electronics and that means even more money, plus diving into the world of wiring. The effect of low ratio gearboxes is ultimately decided by the tank that they are fitted into. as the diameter of the drive sprocket plays a part in the gearing. Low ratio gears in a KV2 which has a huge drive sprocket will work better than in a tank that has a small one.

Don't assume that fitting metal tracks and running gear, metal hulls etc, will make the tank run on grass. Yes, it might run ok, but you will also find that the grass gets picked up in the tracks, roadwheels and sprockets and will eventually clog everything up. For those of us that attend outdoor meets at shows etc, the first thing that is done is to mow the grass, strim it down, and try to get to bare earth for roadways. We all know only too well what grass will do to a tank, it's a pain trying to get the tightly wound stuff out from between roadwheels etc. Metal bits or not, Tamiya or Heng Long, they all detrack if the forces acting on the parts are going in the right direction, it happens on the real ones too.

A plastic hull appears flexible when you have taken the upper hull off, but that is because they are designed as a rigid box section. When the upper is screwed back on the whole hull is a solid box again and it will hardly flex at all. Metal hulls usually clip together, hence they do not have a box section design, so the metal is what stops the flexing. Another way around it is to simply get a rectangular sheet of 3mm alloy and bolt it to the underside of a plastic hull.

It's well worth trying the cheap fixes first, if they work then you have saved yourself a fortune.

[SteelBird]

Yeah, I feel that we shouldn't spend big money for things that we're not certain. Sometimes, offroad trucks seem have better cross country capability compared to tanks.

[Tiggr]

A Taigen Tiger (mostly metal) is more robust than an HL equivalent but it will cost you £230/240.
I've now got 3 of them (plus a few others) all are very good performers both indoors and out.
They are in a different league compared to the same HL Tiger I have which is the same as yours.