Tamiya Tiger 1 Conversion to Late tiger 1

[Dogberry]

I am converting a Tamiya Tiger 1 to a Late Tiger 1. One job is changing the Tracks Road Wheels Idlers and Drive Wheels.

The last time I did this I bought Road Wheels from Wechoe and tracks from Manhunter. No problems. Things have changed.

I have seen there are plenty of options out there, however I have also read that these wheels do not fit the Tamiya chassis. My question is why won’t they fit?

I am a fairly competent modeler with access to a lathe etc, so of it just a case of making new axles etc, no problems. I have also read that certain tracks will not mesh with Tamiya drive cogs.

Can anybody please advise me on this.

[John Glover]

Hi Mate ,Taigen Tiger 1 tracks will fit the Tamiya drive sprocket. Dave at Forgebear has stock of Early and the Late type[cleats] and advertises that these fit the Tamiya sprocket. John at East coast armory uses these in one of his Late Tamiya Tiger1 video builds and talks about using the Taigen tracks . As far as a late center cap goes MK modellbau sell them plus RC Tank.de. Hope this helps Regards John.

[Ad Lav]

I don’t think Wehcoe stuff is around anymore.

Henntec did a set but they aren’t available until ten people want them.

Tamiya king tiger wheels will fit but you’d need to use both sets of wheels and spacers/shafts to make one good set.

[tomhugill]

Ludwig shimmed the axles on a set of taigen ones for a friend which I installed, need to drill out the arms 0.5mm but worked ok and much cheaper than the other options

[Muncheberg]

I have a Taigen Late Tiger. I’m trying figure out how I can get the steel wheels mounted on a Tamiya Tiger. I have measured the wheel shafts. Tamiya are 3.5mm diameter, Taigen are 2.5mm.

I don’t know how to take the Taigen wheels apart, or how they are joined together. Are they force fit or glued together? I have been unable to pry/pull them apart with my hands.

One idea is to attempt to transfer the entire Taigen torsion bar suspension, swing arms and road wheels over to the Tamiya aluminum hull pan. For this to work the Taigen torsion bar rails would have to be a drop-in replacement for the Tamiya torsion bar rails. I haven’t gotten around to actually trying this yet. The Taigen swing arm stays look very similar to the Tamiya stays, so I wonder if they are bolt in swappable..

The obvious inaccuracies of the Taigen Tiger turret and cupola are what makes me want to do this swap. Taigen screwed up the turret so bad, I deem it unfixable and I hate looking at it. In contrast, the steel wheels look good enough to satisfy me. Even the chassis I can live with, but that turret, no way!

[Muncheberg]

Ludwig shimmed the axles on a set of taigen ones for a friend which I installed, need to drill out the arms 0.5mm but worked ok and much cheaper than the other options

Are you talking about putting a 0.75mm wall thickness sleeve around the Taigen shaft, which would increase its diameter from 2.5mm to 4.0mm. Then drill out the hole in the Tamiya swing arm by 0.5mm, enlarging it from 3.5mm to 4.0mm?

[tomhugill]

Ludwig shimmed the axles on a set of taigen ones for a friend which I installed, need to drill out the arms 0.5mm but worked ok and much cheaper than the other options

Are you talking about putting a 0.75mm wall thickness sleeve around the Taigen shaft, which would increase its diameter from 2.5mm to 4.0mm. Then drill out the hole in the Tamiya swing arm by 0.5mm, enlarging it from 3.5mm to 4.0mm?

Yes indeed

[Guido Henn]

Hello,

the Taigen wheels are glued together with a kind of glue, to separate the halves you have to heat the wheels, then the glue gives up.

I have done this several times to put turned axles inside.
But be careful, the wheels are sometimes not drilled in the center, if you insert axles corresponding to the ball bearings, then the fun begins with wobbling wheels.

For some wheels the fit of the ball bearings had to be reworked on the lathe.

with kind regards, Guido

[Dogberry]

Hi Guys,

Thank you all very much for your replies most helpful. It looks like a set of Taigen wheels and then spending some time on the lathe fitting new bearings and making new axles.

[Muncheberg]

Hello,

the Taigen wheels are glued together with a kind of glue, to separate the halves you have to heat the wheels, then the glue gives up.

I have done this several times to put turned axles inside.
But be careful, the wheels are sometimes not drilled in the center, if you insert axles corresponding to the ball bearings, then the fun begins with wobbling wheels.

For some wheels the fit of the ball bearings had to be reworked on the lathe.

with kind regards, Guido

Thanks for the info! So they, ARE, glued together! I’ve noticed that some of the close-together wheel assemblies wobble if you roll them on a table top. When they were glued together, the spacing was not uniform between the two wheels all the way around.

Also some of the torsion bars/swing arms hang up during movement. As in push up on a road wheel station, then release, and the wheel will remain raised up off the ground. I have to then push the wheel station down to get it to drop back down on the track. Have never had this happen on a Tamiya torsion bar suspension tank.