RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

well am planning to build one anyway next month
am going to hopefully buy a HL tiger body (or tank if i cant find just a body) and just upgrade it have estimated it to cost around £100 which is handy as thats what i should have to build it.
Am going to get metal tracks, metal sprockets & idlers, metal suspension bars and metal gearboxes, looking at prices on tankzone and ebay i should have enough money is their anything else important i need? i know alot of people have done super tanks so i hope someone can help (Y)
cheers

thats how i started on my tiger but the buget went out the window , but thats a good start with that lot added you will have a good running tiger
regards, ice

I would recommend not buying an HL Tiger as you will end up replacing most of it. It may sound extravagant but buying the Asiatam lower hull will give you a very good base to start with. You can then pick up a broken upper hull, or even a complete Tiger for very little money, and use the bits from that as your model for detail work.

If I had known at the outset what I was going to end up doing I would have taken this route, and in all honesty i would have saved myself a fortune.

The Asiatam hull is amazing value for money and as solid as a rock, it isn't an upgraded HL. The whole thing is brilliant quality.

Just by watching Ebay, especially the 'newly listed items' it is possible to find all sorts of bargains.

My Tiger cost me more than I dare to think about.... :~

Rob G

How about we stick to the budget here guys? The asiatam hull costs 100 quid by itself! :~

Michele, please explain to us what you intend to use the tank for, as your last post on RCU makes me wonder if you are not better off saving up for something more expensive.

Thanks,
Mart

I bought a Tiger 1 off ebay cheaply because it had been returned to the vendor and they wanted to get rid of it quickly, there was nothing wrong with it. The vendor said that the BB gun did not work so after inspecting the wireing, I just switched the switch in the loaders hatch to the on position and low and behold it worked, cost about £45 with postage.
after a while I decide I wanted to get rid of the BBgun and install a recoil unit and muzzle flash led so after another search on ebay I got the recoil unit and muzzle flash for about £50,
then I heard about the Asiatam lower hull which was duly bought for about £100 with postage and the swap over from plastic hull to the Asiatam took place
I then after a while decided to change the road wheels to the later type and again went on to the internet and got a set from Rccommand for about £45
also got a set of metal track off ebay for £75 and fitted them to the tank
I blew the RX13 board in the tank because of the metal tracks hull and road wheels, so replaced that with an RX18 board for about £40
added a 40mm fan to the RX18 board for about £8 with postage
some where amongst this list of mods is a set off 3:1 ratio gearboxes for about £50 cant remember when I got them for the tank probaly after I got the tracks and wanted to give it more tourque for climbing up grassy slopes and banks
failed battle system instalation £100 that I gave up on.
so the final cost
£ 45 original model
£ 50 recoil
£100 asiatam hull
£ 45 road wheela
£ 75 metals tracks
£ 40 RX18
£ 8 cooling fan
£ 50 gear boxes
£100 battle system
£513 = total cost

not bad for a broken second hand tank off ebay
oh and it's last outing at Swindon, I broke one of the idler swing arms where the shaft enters the hull, so that adds a few more pounds to the bill. so it does not do much off roading or long grass at all, a nice lawn like a putting green would not hurt it at all

buy the Taniya it is cheaper

yeah was thinking of getting a tiger and doing it up, but i found a tiger upper and lower hull for sale so am thinking of just buying that andadding to it.
wow thats quite alot really to do up a tiger pretty much out of my budget! and your exactly right asiatam hull is WAY too much

i basically want a tank which can handle going off road, my basic tiger last year was able to do (minus wheels snapping off). but it usally got stuck in grass and had a hard time turning on grass.

all im thinking of getting really is the metal suspension housing bars, metal tracks and gear boxes and metal sprockets+idlers. so as icemonkey said that should make a good tiger?

anything really vital i need to improve the offroad capability?

well if you are using the original HL Plastic hull, then I sugest the metal reinforcing plates for the inside of the hull (outlined in red in the picture) and metal suspension components and try and add a support bar across the hull at the back end because the rear panel does not stop the hull from flexing

Unfortunately the only way to tackle long grass is to add weight, which requires 3:1 gearboxes to take the strain off the electronics. I do drive my HL equiped tanks in long grass with standard ratio gearboxes - but I have to do so with care, and I have to accept that it will not perform as well as a more expensive tank in those conditions.

I'm going to quote tankzone prices here just because I'm lazy (and they include shipping):
Reinforcement bar kit 12.95
Metal suspension kit 16.50
Metal sprockets 14.95
Early / Mid idlers 12.95 (or Late Idlers 14.95)
3:1 gearboxes 39.95
= 97.30

Hi grade metal tracks are 79.95, but I wouldn't buy them witout first upgrading the gearboxes.

As I posted on RCU, If you have the older style press in axles then you will need the metal suspension set, as the plastic arms usually break at the factory when the chimp assembling them pounds them in with a sledge hammer O.O if the wheels are held on with screws you won't be able to use these with the metal arms (unless you get new screws and thread cutting tools )

The asiatam hulls are nice, but I'm not sure how much of a mechanical improvement they offer vs adding the reinforcement bars (plus Brels suggestion for bracing the rear of the chassis) if stiffness and better suspenson mountings are all you need. Having tried both routes on 2 different tigers, I personally think the asiatam chassis is only really worth doing if you want to add better electronics that take up more space, or lots of cosmetic metal parts and extra batteries that add extra load on the suspension springs.
(or in my case you have the matorro Tiger / SturmTiger with its poor gearbox that can't be easilly swaped for something better )

I bought a "faulty" HL Tiger 1 from hobby power on ebay for £57.50 inc p&p, came with metal tracks, gearboxes, sprokets, the strengthening metal plates mentioned above and has the screw in allen bolt axles rather than to old "pins" for the roadwheels. Their stock also seems to be the latest batch of Tigers with RX18 as standard. As the auction said the transmitter didnt work and it didnt have any battery or crystal so i've just used one of my spares Oh and it took exactally 24hrs to arrive from ordering it O.O

I thought that was pretty good. Of course over the last 2 weeks i've spent £100+ in upgrades but thays all part of the fun.

Thats a good point Crispy, the newer tigers do have the reinforcement bar already (tho I don't think its a beefy as the aftermarket one, and might be in 2 halfs if I remember right - ie not full length support )