RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hi Guys.....here are some thoughts...well the thoughts of Mick anyway.......

I am not negative.....I may be old and crusty....but never negative.....but I am begining to waver a bit so I post my thoughts for your delectation and caustic comments.

I have a Tiger with CD turret, ElMod and everything metal that money can buy stuck on it, under it and inside it...weight 11 lb ish. I have blown the Afterburner once with HL black caps, and once with Jamara 480's. Now I run the Tiger without the Afterburner, with HL black caps and a 5400ma battery that lasts less than 20 mins and it won't climb over my foot let alone a small gradient in the woods. no battle system yet! Cost approx £800 so far including mistakes, and I have a massive bag of waste plastic components and motors that clutter my small shed. This tank is a pain in the neck because it is a source of financial worry, runs for a very short time and I worry in case I break anything off or blow a board that ElMod now don't make.

I have a PZ3 with RX13, standard white cap motors and gearboxes, metal tracks, a few aftermarket metal components making it overweight for un-cooled HL electronics. It is accurate in detail, is good to look at and it has the standard 2000mah battery but no battle system yet. Cost about £150. I run this tank for over 1/2 hour full tilt through the woods and mud, up all sorts of slopes shooting bb's at everything. I don't worry about it and it never faulters on the slopes....some serious slopes as well.


I know it is great fun to mod or change something, but I feel the cost is somewhat extraordinary considering my earlier statement about Tiger 232.

HL vs ElMod vs Tamiya.... a terific price differential and is it worth it? I have enjoyed every minute during the build of Tiger 232, and will probably make another ElMod Tiger..yup I bought 2 sets off Thomas. But I am wondering about the cost difference vs enjoyment....I now have to fork out for battle systems too.

How many of us stick with HL kit and not wory about busting it.... my grandchildren scream and shout whilst driving them so the ElMod sounds cant be heard....and the HL seerms to be like the old TONKa toys..unbreakable.

Food for discussion eh? I dont knock what anyone does or will do in the persuit of this hobby...I have HL and ElMod and enjoy both but I wonder how many of us...like me... look at the growing line up and wonder if we build expensive because "everyone else does" or because we get any more fun out of the expensive tank over the basic HL tank. Some of you are "modelers" first and battle players second......but can we hear the difference when it is 20 yards away so do we need to put the expensive kit inside.... do we??????

Go on....lets have some thoughts from you.......Mike   

Its a good point Mike. I think smiles per £ you cant beat the later HL tanks. Loads of funs and not too much needs doing to them. Thing is most of us love to tinker dont we. Its not until you do the dreaded "Lets add up how much i spent" that you realise just how much you've burnt through.

This could lead to a new section in the forum.... "Modifications I would'nt do again"  You know, the stuff that cost huge amounts of cash, took absolutely bloody ages with many cuts & bruises and you end up looking at it thinking, I realy wish I hadnt bothered with that.

Hi Mike You have raised a couple of good points ,all my tanks have Heng Long boards and I dont mind who drives(plays ) with them grandkids wife I dont mind .If I had El-mod or Tamiya inside I would be looking over there shoulder to see what there doing and saying dont do that .
  I have seen a couple of posts about the new El-mod and they dont seem to be as good as the early models of El-mod ,they eat batteries and blow fuses as soon as the going gets a little rough.
         I have a Tiger called the Toechusher (still not finished Rob) it weighs 18lb and has been runing around with Jamara 480 motors and a home made gearboxes O.K.I havnt had it runing for hours on end but about 30mins at a time testing things on the home made Suspension, this has enough torque to climb up a 4" high step by a step I mean a curb edge and it hasnt blowen the board yet by the way its rx13 with a fan .
        So I am confused yes El-mod and Tamiya have better sounds Tamiyas are to fast without modification but they are reliable (but expencive)so is it worth the money just for the sound if they are over 30ft away the sound is about the same with a battle system in, so I think I will stick with Heng Long and fit a battle system(Darkths)they have momentum and the silly recoil has gone and also the spin and have more money to spend on more tanks .


   regards pete

I purchased the latest Elmod system TTL unit, SB III, cost £200. Purchased a brand new Futaba 4 ch radio system TX/RX ( Recommended by Elmod ) cost £100, for my HL Tiger.  Guess what, after following their installation instructions to the letter, it was inoperable. Elmod tried to say it was my radio equipment at fault ! I said hang on, you recommended it ! The radio was fine, it could work an independent servo on all 4 Channels, and that was one of elmods own fault finding recommendations to test the radio was OK.

I found elmod extremely frustrating to deal with. Just ask Wibbly/Rob. After spending £300 and having problems, you don't want 7 days to go by and then receive two sentences of help. I asked for a refund and finally got one, although they kindly reduced it for what they said was re-packaging costs. (I wonder which poor sod received my re-packaged system)

I decided to get the new HL RX18 Board plus TX/RX complete for around £65. It went together ok, the only problem being was that I found you have to make sure that the plug in connectors are well seated. The Tiger ran fine no problems (Its stripped again at the moment undergoing a late Mk build)

So there you have it. I cant see, apart from the sound system how the new Elmod is worth £140 more than the new HL set up. there again you would probably say I was biased because I received a duff system. But let me end on this note, its a lovely feeling having a complete HL RX18 system and £135 left over. Also, what a relief, to get shot of the elmod system and get my money back !!

My message to Elmod would be, If its not broken (The old system) then refrain from tinkering with it.

STEINER  

Well I am amazed cos I thought that I was perhaps alone in these thoughts. I really thoughty that I would get butchered by you all......

I have spent many months building Tiger 323 and this PZ4 project meanwhile I have hammered the PZ3 expecting to break it....I bought it to keep the kids amused and interested during my expensive tank builds....but I can't break it, it is amazing. I think that HL realy got their stuff rite and Tamiya have the fat wallet brigade by their wotsits. I will be at the front of the queue for the HL Sherman and the Panther then hopefully a Chally sometime.

I am deffinately going to buy a Basic tank from Howes for £40, throw the shell away and use the mechanics to build a scratch built Challenger 2 this summer, I have suddenly realised how much fun I have had and it realy doesn't matter how accurate it is... but how big the grin is eh??

Anyone know where to get plans for the Challenger 2 please, and what would be the best donor tank for wheels and suspension?

Mike

HL gets my vote, Tonka Toy too right

Well how much of an input can i have never owned Elmod (and from what ive read over the time may not bother )

Johnmar78 worked through all this a year ago with elmod as he kept killing his boards and we figured it was down to wheel/track alignment even after thomas sent him, a personally uprated board to try 
Im wondering here all the metal add ons put on how many people actually align the running gear or now this may need doing 

even the new asiatam lower hull isnt correct as the rear idler needs moving out by 3mm not a lot but imagine the pull and friction on the tracks there which is in turn transferred to the boxes then the motors then last but not least the boards wont matter how many fans/heatsinks you put on them death will probably result from this

so before we kill off elmod please guys have a real good look at your running gear if your using old style h/long gear on a tiger then before you buy elmod get an asiatam lower hull apart from a few minor bugs it is the best aside a tamiya we can get

personally i still like the 13s at least i can fix them but that said ive only had one go and it was one transistor
the 14s can have issues with the fets overheating and sliding themselves down the drive board resulting in a short circuit and with a similar system in the 18s its possible they will go that way too again never happened to me although i did get a 14 supplied with the pins on the fets soldered together not a good start but at least i spotted it and corrected it before damage was done

think i will go with pete on this and stay h/long boards with dbc on board

hope this has added a bit more to the debate 


Kind Regards Rob

I've got the ThinkTank Module and the Blaster III, but haven't been able to fit them yet. After all the comments from the board, im starting to worry that I should've gone for the older boards.

Well, i've just ordered a Futaba 6ex to go full prop on them, lets hope it wasn't a waste of money.

Cheers,
Rik

Rik
wouldnt worry mate but just check your running gear first as i said

the way i tell if all is ok is by grabbing a track and if it doesnt move with a bit of force to pull it through the gears then something on the driveline isnt quite right

you could be on to something here rob, i have the old elmod in both my tiger1 and pershing, the tiger will pull up steep slopes with ease, but i took the time and aligned the wheels, the pershing is only running standard gear and struggles at the moment, also the tiger was running hl with elmod and seamed to struggle but when i ripped the hl boards out and went full elmod the tank was transformed and runs like a dream .
another point to make is make sure you run your gearboxs in untill they turn freely and also run the motors in without any load on them first

thats my experiance anyway
all the best, ice