New Boy

[Andy-T]

Hi there every one.

My name is Andy Tilbury, I live near Cambridge U.K.

My wife has brought me a Heng Long Tiger special edition with snow camo paint scheme for christmas from the good people at Welsh dragon Models, cant praise them enough.

I have only given the Tiger a very quick test and it was put back in its box until the 25th,,,, BOO HISS Gonna scream and scream until I am sick.

The Tiger seems quite good and is the up to date version with the new circuit boards and has HL metal gearboxes and I have ordered mato metal tracks and idlers. Question is, do I need to upgrade the suspension and are the HL gearboxes up to the job as I know they are only white metal?

thIs is not the only reason I joined this forum by the way, but I am sure its the best place for info.


Cheers for now Andy T

[Wizzard033]

Welcome to the forum Andy-T !

I have replaced all the plastic bits on my HL Tiger I with the exception of the arms. it was the basic model with Rx18 and S&S. I still haven't replaced the suspension on my Tiger and the road wheels are flexed out in an unnatural manor due to the weight of all the upgrades. The flexing actually makes the track pull off the sprocket when in reverse. I think a track tensioner is a must s well. You can get all the slop out of the idlers by using bearings in them. I also think that when you replace your gear boxes you should insure that they are aligned with the rest of your suspension.

[sparks]

Hi Andy,
Welcome to the forum
Bummer about having to wait for Christmas day

[Johnf]

Hi and welcome to the forum. You can go mad upgrading the Tiger. I have used the Asiatam metal Hull which includes lots of metal suspension upgrades. Asiatam also do Metal road wheels with bearings both early and late type. Be careful and do your homework as some items will not be compatible. If you go with asiatam they do pretty much everything. Have a look at some of my postings in the show off section. You can see these upgrades going together. My upgraded heng long now weighs 18lbs and drives really well with this weight. Only problem is the upgrades end up costing more than the tank. If you want the metal road wleels they are hard to get. Tankzone contacted me recently to let me know they had some available but I would'nt recommend them without metal suspension and hull. I usually buy from RCTANK.DE , They have a great range and Dominique is helpfull and has no problems dealing through english and as you are dealing in sterling against euro you get good exchange. Worth upgrading those tracks Idlers and sprockets but just make sure they are compatible with any future upgrades.

[oldfeller]

Hi Andy
Welcome to the forum , at the end of the day its how hard you want to drive them then learn
where to upgrade before spending a lot of money, don't forget to use grinding paste on you new metal gears
to bed them in.
Gerwyn

[Johnf]

Gerwyn,
Sombody said you can use toothpaste to bed in the gears. How dod you clean the gears afterwards. Do you need to strip the box down afterwards. Would this method prevent cavaties?

[oldfeller]

Hi Johnf
You could be right Mate. Don't know about using toothpaste when I use to decoke my car engines " in the good old days "
I used grinding paste rough then smooth to give a good seal to the inlet and exhaust vales, not only
that but " Sax " give me this idea to use it for bedding in the tank gears, still got some never threw any
thing away, not used it on my metal gears yet as I have not seen them since my Nephew took them with
the rest to mend my circuit board . Your right though, it could be a cleaning it off, I would
cover the motors in them small plastic bags, then use a stiff brush and water to wash it off then blow off
or use a kitchen roll to wipe untill its dry and clean then grease.
Gerwyn

[Andy-T]

Hi again and cheers for the welcome, Am I right in thinking that to get to the gearboxes I have to take some of the road wheels of to get to the screws underneath so as to get the tub of off the deck? Also, Is it good to lube the gears as well, say with motorcycle chain wax, this does not throw off the chain so I am thinking it wont come off the gears either.

Cheers for now, Andy.

[mt 1]

Hi there and welcome to the forum

[Johnf]

I think motorcycle chain lube might be a bit sticky and heavy. I use silicone gear grease. The one you use for airsoft gearboxes. Runs very smooth with that. As for getting the top off, I have the Asiatam easy opening version so do not know off hand but know there is a detailed posting somewhere. Do a search on the web for Heng long tiger hull. It should find it. I know the screws are above the wheels so you need to at least remove the tracks to access the retaining screws