RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Yes, that’s the one. I remember, this beautiful model and build now.

Thank you everyone who’s been responding so far, just to address a point; the issue has been there since day one, its just for whatever reason when driving the tank at full steam (like in the smoke video) its much less apparent. With that being said it has gotten worse since the tracks were painted so I will look at the suggestions to file away and see if that helps. I’ll also look at picking up some driveshaft supports as well.

I’ve taken things apart to get a better look at things and I think I might have found the main culprit; ultimately I’ve got a very poorly tank.

Whether its down to needing some readjustment or knackered components, the tank is listing to the left and there is severe deflection with the road wheels. In fact its so bad the outer row of wheels aren’t even touching the ground.






While I appreciate these are not precision engineered machines, the right hand side of the tank isn’t nearly as bad and is much more in line with what I’d expect it to be. It seems an awful convenience to me that one side more or less lines up OK but the other side doesn’t and that’s the one experiencing issues.



The suspension itself is soft, loose and has a lot of play which I suspect is part of the issue. If that wasn’t bad enough, some of the swing arms are showing signs of cracking where the grub screws go in.

I also discovered the left side idler tensioner grub screw has stripped and the idler arm moves freely, which isn’t going to help things I suspect.

The problem I’ve got is from the looks of things the torsion system would need replacing with the newer Taigen stuff, the swing arms will also need replacing because they’re cracking and are going to fail eventually, and while I could just replace the grub screw, these old style adjustable idlers are awful and I would prefer to replace it with the modern version. £14.99 for the collet repair kit, £14.99 for a set of new swing arms, and £34.00 for a Henntec adjustable idler system for a total of £63.98 + postage in total.

Or, I could get a whole new metal lower hull for £43.00 that includes all that stuff anyway, and I could swap the front end of the lower hull over from the existing tank (as it has the zimmerit on it and is painted matching the upper hull) and install driveshaft supports while I've had to dismantle the front end anyway. Then harvest the original hull for as many spare parts as possible.

What do people think? It seems wasteful in some respects but ultimately the hull and wheels are 14 years old and didn’t get particularly well looked after for a good deal amount of that time.

I firmly vote option 2.

Do you leave the tanks sat on their suspension when stored?

I always sit mine on blocks so the suspension doesn’t sag!

I would say its spent the entire 14 years of its life sitting on its suspension. Admittedly a lot of that was as an incomplete hull but it had other things on top of it at various times for extended periods.

I recently purchased a Tiger I and rebuilt it - needed new suspension bars due to this.

Get a new chassis or some new bars?

OK, we're in business. My new hull and axle bearings arrived today from Forgebear, and after fitting the wheels for a quick check I've found everything lines up perfectly, so once all is said and done I should have a very healthy running tank. I also found that the plastic frame has a lot of superior features over the old plastic frame, so I've made the decision to keep the new hull in its entirety and just transfer over the metal parts at the very front of the tank, as well as (carefully) removing the zimmerit and applying it to the new hull.

The latter part is quite a daunting task but I've successfully removed the final drive covers and the metal parts, so its going to be a matter of careful use of a hobby knife.

So the next question I've got is I'm struggling to find information about the best way to go about fitting the axle bearings - all I seem to find are posts about Heng Longs with plastic hulls. Could some kind soul link to anything that will help me with the process?

I've also noted I'm going to have to drill a hole through the metal part of the hull to fit the bearings. All my existing gear is set up to go through plastic, is there a particular type/size of drill bit I should use?

I'll be documenting all of this in my build thread as well.

Thanks.

Can't help with most of that but standard drills (high speed twist) will tackle most steels. There are some wood only bits, but most available kits are designed for wood and metal. If you've not drilled steel before, I recommend a small pilot hole and working up to the size required and a practice hole or two if you are able.

When you say axle bearings, do you mean multiple bearings for the road wheels. Or, just two bearings, for the two main shafts coming off of the gearboxes?

Son of a gun-ner wrote: ↑Fri Jan 26, 2024 12:12 am When you say axle bearings, do you mean multiple bearings for the road wheels. Or, just two bearings, for the two main shafts coming off of the gearboxes?

He means this=


While I have experience with axle support bearings like these with the Heng Long Tanks and plastic hulls, I do not have any experience with a metal hull like Taigen.

And for the record the above bearings will fit the Heng Long Tigers axle but require drilling the plastic hull to seat them.