The Life and Times of a Tiger 1

[westyIII]

Fallout 4 is way to distracting, so limited progress, but progress non the less! Importantly, the tank is back in running order! Quick tests show the track slippage problem to be resolved.

Bent Fenders and a start of the simple 2 tone camouflage applied. I had already removed the headlight, and I may just leave it like that.

[westyIII]

9 years, 9 months, 9 days later…

This old Tiger was still soldiering on pretty well — right up until it met a rock. A pebble wedged itself in the idler, which threw the track and put a lot of strain on the drivetrain. The end result: one of the original motors cooked itself (likely the armature or bushings) and could barely turn even with no load.

That gave me the push to finally resurrect the project properly. By now, most of the other functions had packed in too — the main gun flash, recoil, elevation, smoker, and the sound was more crackle than engine noise. Time for a refit!

Planned upgrades:

Retiring the Taigen V1 electronics and swapping in a Heng Long TK-7.0 MFU + matching radio.

Replacing the dead motors with a matched pair of new Heng Long red high-torque motors.

Next step is working out where to begin with the Taigen → Heng Long MFU swap

Pics to follow!

[Stormbringer]

Nice Tiger and can see why you would update it

[Rob59]

I just ran into your topic, and I must admit that I am impressed by your video on the first page of this topic.
What did you do to keep the water out of the lower hull/mainboard?
Both must have been flooded, right?
Damn, that beast just kept going!

Looking forward to your rebuild and next videos!
Good luck,
Rob.

[westyIII]

I just ran into your topic, and I must admit that I am impressed by your video on the first page of this topic.
What did you do to keep the water out of the lower hull/mainboard?
Both must have been flooded, right?
Damn, that beast just kept going!

Looking forward to your rebuild and next videos!
Good luck,
Rob.

Yeah, all I did was mount the Mainboard, smoker and battery in a plastic takeaway food container, thats it. The motors and gearboxes ran in the wet, and I rinsed out after use, gave a squirt of WD-40 and re-lubed. The container didn't even have a lid!

Motors could get damaged, especially if they have circuitry on, mine didn't, though they are shagged now!

[Jimster]

I’m late to the game but great video.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

"Next step is working out where to begin with the Taigen → Heng Long MFU swap." That should not be too difficult. I put a HengLong 7.0 in a tank, and the only step that wasn't "plug and play" (even for a "plug and smoke" hall-of-famer like me) was soldering new connectors to the motors. With the new red HengLong motors, you won't even have that to do.

[MrChef]

Oooh resurrecting a Tiger project! And a nice one to boot!

That is a cool video but why is it mirrored?

I'd do Taigen V2 4:1 gears with the 380's. 390's IMHO are overkill.

I'd do the Heng Long TK 7.1. Very affordable with lots of options/controls and flexibility, plug and play easy and servo control ready. Then I'd do a servo barrel recoil and HL barrel flash and smoke.

But that's me and I'm very happy with that setup. I run it on 70% power and it crawls perfectly with loads of power and torque in reserve.

[Meter rat]

That is one cool video, and a rather nice Tiger.

[westyIII]

Small progress on the Tiger, managed to get the tank disassembled. And uncovered a load of surface rust on some of the interior components, so have started to clean that off.

It also appears the Taigen - HengLong 7.0 swap will be a little more involved. None of the upper body wires will fit into the 7.0 rx.

Step 1 is getting the wheels rolling, and the sound booming, then I'll tackle each component as they come. It appears the old smoker is not compatible as well.

All advice welcome, I do note the 7.1 board would have been a better choice, but I have a 7.0 now. Same with the motors! Gearboxes are running smoothly, so no worries there!