Heng Long Plastic vrs Metal

[michaelwhittmann]

Plastic vrs metal.

Drive wheels, tracks, gearbox, etc.

Is the metal steel or some alloy?

Does metal add anything beside cost and weight?

Thx to all.

[Jimster]

I like metal on all running gear components but I prefer plastic for hulls, upper decks and turrets for ease of modifications and saving weight for the internal components.
I admit that my Tiger hull is the Taigen plastic/ metal hybrid.

[jarndice]

Taigen/Torro or Heng Long Tiger 1s look like a model when they are on a plastic hull with Plastic wheels and tracks but change them for metal and the Tiger just looks right,
I like metal Turets but Jimster is correct the extra weight being imposed on top of the ABS Body is an invitation for failure of any plastic parts beneath the turret, If you are going to take your Tank cross country then an ABS turret might be the better choice,
One thing I would insist on is metal wheels and tracks demand metal gearboxes and I do not mean the HL pot metal boxes.

[michaelwhittmann]

Jardice, what is wrong with HL gear boxes?

I guess not all metal is created equal.

[tankme]

I personally like my wheels to be metal as I think it makes the suspension just work better. The lighter wheels can have more of a tendency to walk over guide teeth and the extra weight helps keep them in contact with the tracks due to gravity. No scientific data, just my own observations. I think metal tracks just look better running, but there are certain tanks like the Challenger that seems to run better with the plastic ones. The metal is some allow and depending on the batch can sometimes be brittle, but Taigen replaced my brittle ones at no charge when I told them. They acknowledged there was a bad batch and offered replacement. Most of the metal parts currently being produced have bearings installed while most of the plastic parts are using bushings (plastic or brass). Metal idlers are definitely stronger than their plastic counterparts and there is a high level of stress on the idlers. Return rollers...don't care either way.

[jarndice]

Jardice, what is wrong with HL gear boxes?

I guess not all metal is created equal.

Heng Long make some top quality gearboxes BUT if you buy a cheap new Heng Long Tank the gearboxes are made from a product commonly known on the Forum as "Pot Metal" it pretty much self destructs over a very short period,
Nylon Gearboxes from the same company are far superior even though they have been on the wrong side of much baseless comment.
When you see an advert for a Heng Long Tank that contains the words "With Metal Gearboxes" run for the hills or at least budget for an upgrade.

[Model Builder 4]

As jarndice mentions, the cheaper so called 'metal gears' from heng long referred to as pot metal are best avoided, on the other hand if it is advertised as having steel gears then you should be ok but I would still check with the seller that they are actually steel as some may still advertise the pot metal as so. The pot metal one's have a whitey dull silver finish and have a cast like quality to them of which chunks can break off while the steel gears usually tend to have a bluey black finish and are much more robust as you would expect, hope this helps

Cheers,Lee.

[Pavel]

It's simple, the word "metal" is not a lie, because it really is not plastic!
It is an alloy of aluminum and silicon (sand), in the most common case it is a powder part, sintered under pressure.
Only if the description text contains the word "Steel".
You can count on real METAL.
The alloy has a nasty feature, even without being subjected to loads, temperature, pressure differences, after a few years it simply crumbles, from the slightest loads.
My Tiger stood on the shelf for 3 years, I decided to roll it on the floor, the tracks crumbled like husks.
I play airsoft, I haven't used pistols for 5 years...
They crumble before my eyes (plastic ones have been without problems for 15 years)

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning,
There must be different grades of the alloy used to manufacture 'pot' metal. I have had small parts from Mato crumble easily (Hull detail on the M36 B) but have never had a track failure such as described by Pavel. I'll have to keep my eyes open for this issue.
regards,
Painless

[Pavel]

Yes, Heng Long...... And I'm not the only one, I would show you, but I throw away the trash right away...
The tracks were bought separately for a lot of money, now I've changed them to standard plastic and put them back on the shelf...
The "metal" gears basically go straight to the trash, if you don't want to get a breakdown one day, I use steel everywhere, I don't even look in the gearbox compartment, I only change the battery....

Apparently they use the worst alloy for toys...