RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

It is a first gen Tamiya Sherman, and I'm running the old drive gear set with the two stock motors with the two gears. My problem is that I'm running it with a sealed lead acid 6 volt battery.... The electronics (HL RX18) seems to work fine with the reduced voltage (6volts vs 7.2), but the motors run slower than they should. They are RS360 I believe. I'm looking at finding the equivalent in a 6 volt instead of the 7.2 volt.

So, any ideas? This is my favorite tank, but it is so much slower than my Dad's HL Tiger I or my Pershing....

Get Graupner Speed 400's in the 6 v variety. Every bit as good as the exotics, and quite inexpensive. Should work fine.
Sev

Hi There the speed400 6v is an excellent motor but they do draw alot of power.Just to let you know if your run time goes down this is the reason.

  regards pete

971wright wrote: Hi There the speed400 6v is an excellent motor but they do draw alot of power.Just to let you know if your run time goes down this is the reason.

   regards pete

So I would only have 8 hours of runtime instead of 12 hours.... DARN!   ;D

Sorry for being a smart a**, but that lead acid cell I'm using is measured in Ah, not mAh. Love it for charge time, and will be trying to fit another one in my (still kit form for now) Tamiya King Tiger!

My big concern is finding something that will swap out- there is no room for an RS540 motor, have to go with a RS360 (which is the stock motors) or possibly a RS380 and with a thick shaft! I'll need to check against the size specs for the Speed400 and see if they would work/fit. The gears are non-standard, and I don't want to have to try and make a shim. The KT will be easier- it runs off one big old RS540....

Been using Graupners for years now, never noticed a difference in battery life. I use 2500's and 3300's in my tanks, depending on weight. Been to Danville many times, and never had a battery die during combat, some of which lasted an hour of constant movement and firing.
Shaft size on the Graupner is 2.24mm. That would be listed "in the trade" as a 2mm shaft. Pinion is press on for stock Tam motors. After market pinions are readily available, usually from your local RC shop. And cheap. Brass is fine, as there is very little strain on the pinion.

I have an old clutch drive Sherman in which I use Elmod electronics. I removed the clutch system though and lowered the motors so each motor powers one track. I've had no issues with power - the tank behaves a lot like 3-1 HL gearboxes.

See this clip

Tamiya VVSS Sherman in the Snow

Cheers
Chris   

The Speed 400's are 380 size motors, so will fit anywhere that a 380 will. They are an excellent straight swap in HL tanks as they go straight in. Shaft size and mounting screws are the same. You get a hefty performance increase too, though that is with the 7.2v variant. My Bulldog runs till the sun goes down, even with a 2000mah battery.

grompix wrote: I have an old clutch drive Sherman in which I use Elmod electronics. I removed the clutch system though and lowered the motors so each motor powers one track. I've had no issues with power - the tank behaves a lot like 3-1 HL gearboxes.

Love the snow video. That Sherman looks very lifelike as well....should do a video of it doing more than just tooling around in the snow. It would look perfect!

Your description sounds just about exactly like I did, although I left the clutches in the gear train. My Sherman moves at about 3/4 the speed you show in your video, which is due to my running the lower voltage. So if I put in 6 volt 380's, it should work fine. BTW, my Sherman is slow but powerful- I think I might try a couple of HL stock 380's instead. I can always bump up to performance 400's in the future. I could not see any reason to replace the gearset from my old Sherman- it was in perfect shape and almost new, and seems to be well built. I'm planning on a simular setup for my King Tiger- it is a non-R/C motorized kit that came in the duffel bag. I've gotten all the R/C parts for it (gearset, turret rotation, muzzle flash), should work out well. I'm even going with the same 6 volt lead accid battery (at least, I was planning on it).


Thanks all!

I love the snow video I think we were all planing on doing one but when the snow did come in my area it was gone to quick to film anything

I wish that was the situation for me. We are heading out of summer now, by mid November we'll have snow and it will stay until mid April. Normal lows for January-February will be -20 to -30. And we'll get a week of -40. It's why I tank- gives me something to do inside the house!