RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

One frustrating wear that I have experienced in my Heng Long tanks is in the suspension arms. The wheels grinds them in the lowest part of the arm. In my panzer III I replaced all the suspension arms with the metal version and I bought a new set of wheels. Surprisingly the wheels wore the metal suspension arms too. It seems that ABS plastic is stronger than the metal... The only way to prevent this is fitting bearings in all the road wheels.

This is not the best pic ever, but look at the gap between the axles and the wheels:

That sure is a lot of wiggle room. By the looks of everything it’s seen a lot of service! Almost needs miniature grease fittings.

Son of a gun-ner wrote:
@Timbo68, I was going to get 1mm galvanised sheet cut to size for the bases of all my tanks, but the two sheet metal places nearest to me have gone out of business and closed down during the lockdown.
I was also considering having galvanised steel tubs made to replace the chassis of Heng Long Sherman's.

It’s been getting more difficult. I have a good sheet metal supplier which used to have a great offcuts bin where I picked up a small supply of sheet aluminium and brass of various thicknesses, but the bin is no longer there. Locally, I have a wonderful old-fashioned engineering works which hides in a shed. They will happily guillotine metal sheets to size for the price of a pint. I’m sure some Health and Safety jobsworth will soon strap them with rules which will render the business uneconomic and put some people out of work.
My old Dad used to say that “All change is for the worse...”. He had a point, I reckon.

Jimster wrote:That sure is a lot of wiggle room. By the looks of everything it’s seen a lot of service! Almost needs miniature grease fittings.

Yep, this old tank has more miles over his shoulders than all my other RC toys... together. It was my first tank and it has been used and abused by the whole family, lol. This one was also the one that gave me the inspiration to create my own stencils. Small review of it here: https://radindustries.wordpress.com/201 ... i-l-recht/ Disclaimer: The turret numbers there were made with my early 100% hand made stencils and with the wrong materials, so it cannot be compared with my today's standards. In fact, the tank is at this very moment submerged in abrasive products for a total repaint, but it service period is over. It has served long and brave enough and it will be keept as static.

About fitting grease between the axles and wheels, well, I have found that the oil/grease plus dust or sand creates grindpaste, which after my tests definitelly resulted to be way, way worse than running it dry. So don't forget, ladies and gentleman, if you are going to drive your tank, fit bearings!

Bearings are also not very good at riding in sand, dust or mud. They seize too quickly due to dust/dirt being pressed into them and their seizure. Brass bushings are much more durable. I did one in my son's tank and so far they have not disappointed. Pictures in the link with my thread ( second half ):
http://rctank.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?f= ... 2&start=80
Grease in the suspension axles and wheels is also a bad idea. For the reasons described above (dirt / dust) the grease becomes an abrasive paste and very quickly destroys axles and bearings.

I love this, well used and then creatively "fixed". My Tiger 1 looks pretty virginal compared to some of these war wagons! Although the metal hull bottom does have lots of wear to it, as the rocky terrain here in the Ozarks does inflict plenty of wear and tear.

Now if you wanted to see something really ugly, I could dig out my old RC planes and show you the true horror! It was amazing that they still flew with all that extra epoxy on them! Trim was my best friend as they "dog tracked" through the air! But once again, I digress!

Cheers,
Eric.

I would love see some of your battle weary aircraft, Eric.

abramsky wrote:Bearings are also not very good at riding in sand, dust or mud. They seize too quickly due to dust/dirt being pressed into them and their seizure. Brass bushings are much more durable.

I totally totally agree

Jimster wrote:I would love see some of your battle weary aircraft, Eric.

I've been thinking about where they are most likely located for the last month or so. I think they're in tubs under the basements steps? I know that there are modeling tools and supplies that would prove helpful with these RC tanks (well except for the prop balancer) , so next rainy day maybe I'll brave the brown recluses and dig around a bit.

Cheers,
Eric.

Watch out for those pesky copperheads my good friend! (We get an occasional snake in our basement)