RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Dumb question, but how do I confirm the ratio of my Mato Tiger gearbox. What does the ratio 3:1 or 5:1 refer to, ie which shafts within gearbox?

There's a remarkable wealth of knowledge here on RC Tank Warfare, so there should be no problem getting you some help. But for starters, bop on over to the "Introduce Yourself " section (viewforum.php?f=42) and give us an idea of what modeling and RC experience you have. Even if you haven't any, that just puts you in the league with many of us. After you do the introduction, you'll likely find advice galore and probably start a bit of good-natured fun, too.

I'm not so sure about the good-natured fun part...

I am going to make a logical (hence, likely erroneous) guess. The ratio refers to the initial pinion gear RPM (e.g. 5) and the final drive shaft RPM (e.g. 1). Nah, that would be too fast, wouldn't it? So someone has to have some "good-natured fun" correcting me, and then we will both know the answer.

From what I understand ratio here is misleading and should be called 3-shaft and 5-shaft. Long story short 3:1 is actually a 39:1 reduction and 5:1 is actually a 46:1? The best reduction comes from the 4 shafts aka 4:1 which are a 90:1 ratio that give a nice slow crawl with lots of torque.

awoychosky123 wrote:From what I understand ratio here is misleading and should be called 3-shaft and 5-shaft. Long story short 3:1 is actually a 39:1 reduction and 5:1 is actually a 46:1? The best reduction comes from the 4 shafts aka 4:1 which are a 90:1 ratio that give a nice slow crawl with lots of torque.

Wow, that certainly is misleading, I’ve been counting the relative ratio between pretty much everything and not making sense of it. I’m after the lowest gearing possible so as to get more realistic low speed performance, from what you say I need the 4:1 then. Thanks for thar advise

And note that even slowest stock gerabox is far too fast for replicating real tank. I.e real life Tiger's gearbox ratio was about 1:200. Angular velocity is the same no matter if it is a model or an original.

NYK999 wrote:Dumb question, but how do I confirm the ratio of my Mato Tiger gearbox. What does the ratio 3:1 or 5:1 refer to, ie which shafts within gearbox?

First things first, There is no such thing as a dumb question, Those come under the heading of Questions I wish I had asked
I have been on this Forum for a (Too) long time and I guarantee this question gets asked at least once a year and every year at least two definitive but entirely different answers are given ,
It is a good question but unfortunately the makers of our gearboxes are not playing fair with their declared ratios indeed the chances of Heng Long/Taigen/Torro producing a Tiger 1 with the turret correctly positioned and with only one spare aerial holder is far more likely than there is of a truthful Gearbox ratio declaration In the words of Kenneth Williams "It's a disgrace"

Having just removed the gearboxes I can confirm that the gearbox from my Mato tank is 140:1. So that is motor rotation vs. output shaft. So the question remains, what gearbox (make) would give me a greater reduction and fit?

Oh, thank you awoychosky123! I knew my "logical answer" above just "does not compute."

So NYK999, did you figure out the gear ratio by counting teeth until you went blind?

Jarndice: why would there be anything secret about the gear ratios HengLong, Taigen/Torro and etc., use? I cannot figure out any competitive advantage to keeping it secret. Do you have any idea why the hush hush and misleading way of putting the ratio?

P.S. Jarndice: no dumb questions...? You haven't been reading my posts, have you?