RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I recently sent away for HL upgrade strong springs and metal suspension arms, for my HL King Tiger. These are for helping of the heavy metal tracks that will be here soon too. I did this same upgrade on my Tiger 1, but since it already had the metal reinforcing bars inside the hull, and the susp arm bolts goes into, I figured that one was fine. However, my King tiger does not have these metal bars.

What I am asking, is there something I can add to the suspension arm area, or the hole or hull to give some more beef in this area so they don't tear out from the plastic holes one day? If anyone has done such an upgrade can you please tell me how, if not, ideas from the members of the forum please all ideas appreciated!
What answer could there be-metal inserts, some other metal reinforcement? Or are the plastic holes actually just, strong enough as is and I am just over-thinking this?

Here's the inside of my hull, the bulges shown by arrow, i think are where the bolt holes for the arms go,



Here's the inside of the kind of hull I DON'T have, for comparison, this one has the metal bar to reinforce the susp arm bolt holes, arrow

Even though my KT is a Taigen it uses the same hull as your H/L and mine came with metal tracks, suspension arms, road wheels and idler wheels yet my tank doesn't have any heavy duty springs and it runs just fine. I'm really not sure you need them unless you start adding weight to the tanks body that would require a stiffer suspension. The metal arms, tracks and wheels wouldn't mean you need stiffer springs. If I were you I'd run the stock springs as they seem perfectly fine in my KT. Do all your upgrades and see how it does with the stock springs is what I say.

jackalope wrote:Even though my KT is a Taigen it uses the same hull as your H/L and mine came with metal tracks, suspension arms, road wheels and idler wheels yet my tank doesn't have any heavy duty springs and it runs just fine. I'm really not sure you need them unless you start adding weight to the tanks body that would require a stiffer suspension. The metal arms, tracks and wheels wouldn't mean you need stiffer springs. If I were you I'd run the stock springs as they seem perfectly fine in my KT. Do all your upgrades and see how it does with the stock springs is what I say.

That's actually correct...wheels and arms are unsprung weight... in other words...adds weight ..but not to the suspension...anything above the suspension is sprung weight ...like steel gearboxes and metal turret ..being the heaviest upgrades you can do
Stronger springs put more strain on the mounting towers... the best you can do as a temporary stiffener....is to run plasticard...about 1/3 " tall the length of your hull..(where the arrows are)...then fill it with resin
There is another way I designed...but it's top secret lol...so pm me if you want that info

ALPHA

If you MUST use the heavier springs get some metal washers and drill a hole for the spring to go thru and then epoxy the washer to the hull that way the tension would be spread out to the whole tower rather then just the little hole.

jackalope wrote:If you MUST use the heavier springs get some metal washers and drill a hole for the spring to go thru and then epoxy the washer to the hull that way the tension would be spread out to the whole tower rather then just the little hole.

I found the weak spot on the tower is not the hole the screw goes into...but the base where it's attached to the hull...the heavy spring puts a lot of lateral pressure cause the tower to lean...it will crack at the base...

Thought yours had torsion arms Jack

ALPHA

ALPHA wrote:

jackalope wrote:If you MUST use the heavier springs get some metal washers and drill a hole for the spring to go thru and then epoxy the washer to the hull that way the tension would be spread out to the whole tower rather then just the little hole.

I found the weak spot on the tower is not the hole the screw goes into...but the base where it's attached to the hull...the heavy spring puts a lot of lateral pressure cause the tower to lean...it will crack at the base...

Thought yours had torsion arms Jack

ALPHA

The hull with the torsion arms is on its way Alpha but it came with a hull just like the one the OP shows he has. Which is why I have been saying all along mine might say its a Taigen tank but it SURE looks like a H/L! As far as I know the only hull with the torsion bars is the Torro hull, which is what I have coming.

Good Afternoon,
There are mulitple grades of Taigen tanks available. I know that the Tiger comes in three different versions of how much metal is on it and which running gear is used. The same must be going on with these King Tigers.
regards,
Painless

Simplest thing to beef up your springs is to clock them, when you remove the spring there should be 2 holes at different spots, choose the opposite hole from where your springs have come from. You can drill custom holes as well. Beware though, tighter springs mean more stress on both the spring and the Tank wall the spring is locked into.

FreakyDude wrote:Simplest thing to beef up your springs is to clock them, when you remove the spring there should be 2 holes at different spots, choose the opposite hole from where your springs have come from. You can drill custom holes as well. Beware though, tighter springs mean more stress on both the spring and the Tank wall the spring is locked into.

Yup ...clocking the stock springs is the easiest..and gives good results

ALPHA

jackalope wrote:Even though my KT is a Taigen it uses the same hull as your H/L and mine came with metal tracks, suspension arms, road wheels and idler wheels yet my tank doesn't have any heavy duty springs and it runs just fine. I'm really not sure you need them unless you start adding weight to the tanks body that would require a stiffer suspension. The metal arms, tracks and wheels wouldn't mean you need stiffer springs. If I were you I'd run the stock springs as they seem perfectly fine in my KT. Do all your upgrades and see how it does with the stock springs is what I say.

Jackalope, i half-regret it now but I found a great price on the springs and arms from my Friend Jack at Ali Express/Mato mart so i went ahead and ordered them...I know i'll regret it when i go to put them on, all 18 of em! But the price was so tempting I pulled the pin on it - <$22 for springs and metal arms. I checked, EVERYWHERE for these parts, some have the metal arms, for $20 shipped just for the arms, but NO ONE has the springs to buy alone. Anybody else on Ebay wants $45 shipped for the set...

Since i have done so much business with the salesman at Mato Mart on AE he went out of his way to get them for me, but he had to order the parts from another vendor, so you won't see these parts if you go to AE/Mato mart...after a few PM's we did the deal and now they're soon on their way.

I didn't get the KT suspension arms yet, this is just how they look like, just to have an image here


I installed the upgrade springs/metal susp arms on the TIger and you're right Jackalope, not a huge difference and probably could get by without them. But i wanna install these as apparently like Saul Goodman says I'm "immune to good advice". So long as the hull doesn't crack from the springs tension...that would be bad of course. I may use the glued washer trick, I'd need brass because I'm not tooled up (electric drill, no press!) to drill holes in steel...ah these engineering fixes, is this the real reason we do this hobby?

I hope I am not boring people that have read this far, if you are, i get it and you're excused-as it's getting to splitting hairs (to avoid the splitting of hulls? ha). The mad idea I came up with: looking at my hull, where these bolts go in the plastic on the inside, you can see they molded in extra plastic there. But it's possibly not enough to reinforce modded springs....I was reminded of Alpha's comment "with the stronger springs, the hull splits at the base of the plastic hull".

Possible mad solution, reinforce the plastic from the outside,using good old JB Weld. If you haven't used this yet, it's a kind of super strong, hard metallic epoxy.

Plan, make a "Dam" to hold the JB Weld, using tape, around the inside plastic protrusion (the one where the pivot bolt screws in)...Mix the JB Weld (Gonna need a lot of this stuff alright) turn the tank on his side, mix it, pour it, let dry, and see what happens. It's that, or I just install every metal arm (they do look pretty cool lets face it) and only use the strong springs for every second, or third susp arm. The idea with the resin and plastic card was a good one but after all the hull mods I have made, no room inside i think.