Upgrade?

[Baldrik]

I recently got a heng long tiger 1, i wish to upgrade tracks, suspension,sprockets, hull, wheels,gearbox etc.Can anyone reccomend which order to do this?? Thank youi

[superguybrett]

Hi, have a look at our vendors section of the forums you will find a recommended and blacklisted vendors, to help you find a good supplier.
But have a chat with forgebear on these forums or ebay http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/forgebear/, or try Steve at welshdragonmodels, http://www.welshdragonmodels.co.uk/.
Both very helpful, and have fantastic reputation and will be able to source parts you need.

[Baldrik]

Thank you superguybrett i will have a look

[Tankbear]

Depends how much you have/want to spend in one go.

You've got choice of keeping the HL chassis or upgrading to the mato or Asiatam/Taigan chassis.

If you want to stick with the HL (Mato is same but metal)
I say you best upgrading to the Hentec idler adjuster (£30) as chances are if you stick with the original the metal tracks will eventually rip the idler off the chassis (I done this with pastic tracks )

Next upgraded metal suspension arms and better springs (£10-15) this will allow you to use the original HL road wheels or upgraded metals ones (but make sure the axles will fit the suspension arms as some will not)

Final get metal tracks, drive sprockets and idler wheel (£50-60)

If your willing to spend a bit of money up front

Asiatam/Taigan chassis (£50) but none of the HL roadwheels or idler wheel will fit (different axle size) so you'll also need metal road wheels (£30-50) and metal Idler wheel (£10)

From there you can run with original drive sprocket and tracks or buy the metal upgrade kit (£50) I think Forgebear has them.

Finally the gearboxes.

The standard HL tiger is way to fast. So any reduction type (3:1 etc) gearbox will bring it down and give the tank more power to turn etc specially now you've added weight with all the metal bits (my tiger weighs 6.5kg!)

There is basically three types of gearboxes available steel, brass, black metal. I've used all three and say steel are fine but very noisy, brass quieter but brass is soft and i've bent the brass drive shafts all to easily. Finally black metal are best of both steel and brass strong and quiet. (ish).

Also with gearboxes 3 types to fit the tank. Long shaft, short shaft and low profile. I think from memory you need long shaft type.

And finally like I said the tank will be heavy with all those upgrades so I would recommend upgrading to a larger capacity battery, something like 3000mA upwards and you'll also need a better quality charger for the bigger battery as the HL one is rubbish and would take 8 hours or something to charge a 3000mA battery.

Hope that hasn't hurt your head to much

Ian.

[hitman1]

Finally black metal are best of both steel and brass strong and quiet. (ish).

What gear is this most of what i see are Brass...The Mato and Walterson Brass everyone scream are the ones to use....what is the brand your talking about for the Taigen metal tiger and where can i get it? I saw the the combo brass steel on Welsh Dragon Asitiams?

[Tankbear]

Pretty much all gearboxes (apart from Tamiya) will fit a HL or Asiatam or Taigen tank.

I think because the MATO and Waltersons have different fixing points so need to use the supplied mounting plate.

Ian.

[hitman1]

Spoke with your man from Eaby he has Asiatam Black Steel Gears but they are 4:1..little to slow..He said the Waltersons have more torque you just have to know what your doing to get them to fit in the Taigen tiger correctly...post his remarks...

hi there. I would suggest the black steel ones (item number 160966569367) as these will fit straight into your tiger. the waltersons come with better torque, but you would need to modify the base and the gears will need to sit very close to the sides of the tanks. they are not a straight, but they are a very nice gearbox. the mato brass gears wont stand the torque of heavy tracks etc as they are not as good a quality as the waltersons ones and some people have found that the actual gear box casing isn't strong and it can snap the shafts when the tank is running.

[Tankbear]

You can also upgrade the motors in the Taigen 4:1 to some quality speed 400 motors (need 2.3mm shaft)

I've the Taigen 3:1 black metal geraboxes in my KV1 (7kg in weight) and it runs great although feels a tad slow so going to change motors for a bit more performance.

Ian.