RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hi- the smoker on my T34/85 has finally given up the ghost. Which smoker do you guys recommend for this vehicle, given the small space in the back it has to fit in? I use a Tarr on my Tiger 1, and wondered if one would be any good in the T34.

The smaller metal-boxed tarr might fit. Be forewarned, my experience with Tarr smokers learned me that they only start to work really well when using a voltage step-up module, set to 8,6v to 9v on the heater lead. At the normal voltage, none of my Tarrs are very impressive, tbh.

However, if You’re up to some soldering and wire snipping, the best (and cheapest) results can be had by taking out the smoker reservoir of a (new) Heng Long smoker, and put a small 2.5cm fan in place of the pump-array. With a bit of judicious cutting and filing, a small factor fan can be glued in the original place of the pump. Logically the pump and its motor must be removed from the housing, but the housing itself stays in place. Makes for easier montage in the tank.

There’s a description how to do that somewhere else on this site.

If that’s a bit too technical for You, the Taigen smokers -the clear ones- are Not too loud, and smoke very well.

Thanks for that. It seems that the heater element has gone- the piston still works, but it's not making any smoke. I was toying with the idea of replacing the element with a 15 ohm wirewound resistor, but it would be easier to replace the whole unit with a new one. I'll look out for the new Taigen one- most of those I've seen for sale so far weren't clear, though. I'm glad it's a quieter unit- I also have a King Tiger that I've yet to put in the show off section, within which I want to replace the smoker with a Tarr, as the stock one is so noisy it drowns out the new sound effects!

*edit* I've just seen the thread where the HL smoker is modified by a fan, and it looks do-able. I may replace the element with said resistor and try modding the case with a fan- it should be nice and compact if it works. If it does, I'll mod my King Tiger in the same way, and if not I'll get a Taigen smoker for the T34. From what I've seen, this modded unit fairly belches the stuff out!

The more recent smokers seem to have more robust heating wires. I’m using a voltage step-up @ 9v to the heater ( Not the fan! Split the wiring from fan and heater) in my T90’s fan-modded smoker, because @ 7,4v it wasn’t too impressive. @ 9v however.. my word, I had to open the windows. Dialed it back to 8,4 v for inside. The voltage step-up I use, came from Amazon, and has a digital readout of the voltage. Ideal!

Outside, even with wind, @ 9v it could still be seen clearly. No idea how long it will hold. Up to this moment it ran for about an hour altogether. Still working. I Dìd set the IBU2U ‘s pulse mode for the smoker when at idle.

Since the stock RX18 always runs the pump (fan, in case of anther fan-modded smoker) at full, there’s not a lot of risk of burning the heating wire in that one. The problem is more that the fan runs too fast, cooling the heating way to much to provide good smoke. Made the hole in the casing a bit too big, I guess.

Just went to ebay and got 2 fans, 25mm 12v, and a pack of 5 x 15 ohm 3 watt wirewound resistors, all for way less than a tenner, so I'll be trying this fix on the T34, and if it works, will do the same mod on m King Tiger. result!

All the parts have been delivered, so I'll crack on with this modification. Wish me luck!

This mod took a while to execute due to having to work out how to run the outlet pipes in the tank hull's cramped interior, but it WORKS! I also managed to put a tee joint on one outlet to facilitate refills via the engine deck cover, which is now removable. Now to do the same for my King Tiger...

I'm really interested in seeing some pictures of this mod too. My T-55 is due for some upgrades and it just doesn't look right without smoke billowing out of the exhaust. - Sorry, ignore that. I just found a thread that explains it in detail.