help with gearbox supports

[tanktop]

hi i need a little advise fitting gearbox supports for tiger1 to an aiastam huul , in need to know if ihave supports in the correct posion before i drill the holes i want to make sure i miss the nuts in photo 2.

gearbox supports

photo 2

please advise Thanks Chris.

[Saxondog]

Their may be an option you have not considered, not needing the supports? Ive had the Asiatam hull for almost two years and their is zero hull flex.I have the older Asiatam gearboxes,metal drive sprockets,tracks,idlers and early model wheels. My Tiger is 20lbs and has alot of pulling power but I have never needed extra support.

That is just another point of view,the supports can't hurt but I just don't see the need? cheers Saxondog

[tanktop]

hi sax i see what you mean but i think the supports will help , i have had an a problem with fitting the new aistam gearboxes,
the problem being right hand side gearbox fiting into the aiastam hull only 1 of the screws line up with baceplate, causing the gearbox to move the driveshaft out of alinement. so i will have to remove gearbox and baseplate to drill a new hole in the gearbox to stop the movement
i have asked myself do i i try to improve the alinement and make things beter .
Chris

[Saxondog]

This is a problem that Asiatam has not resolved? Well I had the same problem and had to drill the holes. But be careful as the plate is not very thick so you can use the self tapping metal screws or tap them all to 3mm and use threaded bolts.

The problem is alignment, you can mark the plate with the corner of the gearbox,then make a cardboard template of the bottom of the gearbox. Place the template on the plate and drill the holes, then place the gear box in place and install the screws.

I tried to drill the holes by marking the holes only on the plate but did not feel they were right. The template worked perfect, once the gearbox is attached properly they will be very ridged.

So the real problem is the plate not the gearbox,so fix the problem correctly and you will have no need of a brace.

[wibblywobbly]

I am amazed at Asiatam as well, why don't their gearboxes slot straight into their hulls? As to why all the manufacturers don't simply use the HL hole alignment is a complete mystery to me?

[tanktop]

aisatm gearboxes are desined to fit hl hulls , the aisatam hulls haeve a diffrent suspenion layout so not all th hl holes line up with the aisatam hull . all aiastam need to do is make 1 more hole in the gearbox to fix this problem .

[Tankie]

Having played around a lot with gearboxes, there is a simple reason for the non compatibility, which is also present on HL (old) PZ3 vs Stug and that is the need for the screws to be accessible from the top for a screwdriver. If you move the gears around (ie to 30:1 ratio) or to move the motor (as on the Stug & later HL designs with the same gearbox) it means some of the holes have to move too. Its not Asiatams fault, HL old vs new gearboxes are different too, its just the different position of gears.

Re the bearing, I made my own & carefully araldited them on since I didn't want to remove the gearboxes and it works fine. I would say external bearings are worth having because the gearbox bearings are quite close to each other and therefore suffer quite a lot of stress (whip)from a relatively long shaft with the sprocket even further out - at least you are getting a bearing near the wheel this way. I also made a bar up to tie together the two gearboxes across the top, again to stop flex movement on my plastic hull. This may not be necessary with asiatam gearboxes because they are a thicker gauge metal, or with a metal hull, but it only took me a few minutes to make and fit so why not go for belt and braces.

[tanktop]

it see a little strange to me that aiastam cant seem to get there act togther, i have an aisatam tiger1 hull , and the new aiastam gearboxes from welchdragon, i would have thought that they nave made the new gearboxes conpatible with there hull , it's not a case of that theres no axess for fixings because there is spac,they just seemed to have foggton to make hole in the right place.
there is a hew hole in the baseplate but no hole in the gearbox to line up with it , looks to me someone sliped up, or maybe just lost the plot . i still think the gearbox suports are agood idea so they are going to stay .
chris