RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Does having metal gearing mean I need metal sprockets? If I need metal drive gears do I need metal tracks? Or can I use a metal gearbox and plastic drive gears with rubber treads

If your running plastic tracks the tank will generally be quite light weight and plastic gears should be okay but depending on the driving will probably eventually break.

If you go metal tracks you quickly wear out plastic sprockets, so metal sprockets should be on the shopping list. And the extra weight from the tracks will probably quickly destroy the plastic gearboxes.

I know a lot of people on the forum say upgrade to metal gears, but the plastic isn’t that bad you could probably run the tank for some time before wear away, and the plastic run much quieter and probably a slightly longer run time as the tank is lighter.

so what if I did the metal gears and plastic sprockets and tracks, would that work out?

As for the plastic tracks and sprockets it depends on which tank you are getting. The tracks on the tigers and panthers are fine being plastic where as the ones for the pz III and iv are weak and you have to be careful with them. The tanks with wide tracks seem to be ok using the plastic tracks. It really does depend on how you want to use the tank. I don't recommend metal tracks if your going to run it on a hardwood floor and if you are running outside the metal tracks may be the way to go. I run metal tracks on all my taigen/heng long tanks but run the stock plastic tracks on all my Tamiya tanks

Hi Have you been in touch with Rich , the guy who runs the meetings in your area , if so would be better to go to one of the meetings ,see the guys there a chat with experienced tankers will save you a fortune , they have gone through all the mistakes . They will tell you exactly how to set up your tank and best running gear for your area , different setups for different conditions if your running in long grass you need to set up slightly different to running on loose dirt.

regards pete