Jagdpanther Ride Height, Drive Sprocket Height

[Andicog]

Remember reading about the Heng long Jagdpanther having its drive sprockets too low, looking at the track guard to track clearence there is not a lot of room to go further up (even without gearbox clearence problems) , I wondered if the problem was made to look worse because the road wheels dont have enough 'drop' on them (talking with no weight on and the wheels at full drop) . The drop is controled by the usual pin on the suspension arm locating in a slot in the hull side, this preventing the arm from dropping beyond a certain point, there is not much 'meat' to remove from the pin but I stumbled upon this guy http://35009.forendienst.de/show_messag ... id=4755660 on a German site that has slotted the hull sides, because of the pin location a few mm drop here will be more at the wheel end hence increasing the ride height (after spring fix/tougher springs) and giving the impression of lifting the drive sprocket, you can see the difference in arm location in his 3rd photo, looking at a real Jagdpanther shows how large the clearance is between the top of the roadwheels and the underside of the hull sides Anyone tried it ?

[tankmad]

Nice find I will do this to mine t"anks
Stevie

[Saxondog]

Good find,did you go to the links at the bottom of the page and check out the steel tanks? 1/16 scale and 1/6 scale very cool.sax http://www.panzermodellbau-hermann.de/

[Andicog]

Yes, metal Tanks are nice, I'd like to say I prefer working with plastic but in truth I just dont have the money

[Mackem]

Without any modifications to the suspension ( stronger springs or the 9 o'clock mod ) the HL jagdpanther sits too low due to the soft suspension springs. I've fitted stronger springs and asiatam brass gearboxes to mine. The gearboxes were'nt designed for the jagd so I had to make a new mounting plate out of 2 pieces of 60 thou styrene sheet. The center of the drive cogs is now in line with the top of the road wheels and there is still enough clearance for the tank to run without the tracks catching on the hull. The stronger springs stop the dreaded suspension sag. IMHO either of the suspension mods mentioned above is an absolute must do for the jagd. Raising the gearboxes is also well worth doing as the outcome is a jagd that sits correctly and looks the business. I'm in the final stages of my jagd build at the moment and will hopefully be posting some pics soon.

Cheers
John

PS: The large area of thinly armoured lower hull visible on the panther and jagdpanther was one of the reasons for the fitting of side skirts. In the hope that they would pre-detonate hollow charge and AP rounds before they hit the lower hull.

[Andicog]

I read about the spring mod and intend to do it, however, my Jagd, with battery (its only plasic gearbox at the moment) seems to use none of its suspension travel when stationary and returns up on its springs when pressed down with no problem.

[Mackem]

I read about the spring mod and intend to do it, however, my Jagd, with battery (its only plasic gearbox at the moment) seems to use none of its suspension travel when stationary and returns up on its springs when pressed down with no problem.

I wonder if HL have started to fit stronger springs?

[Saxondog]

I also have a new Jagdpanther,a month old and it seems to have positive rebound when the hull is pushed down.The travel seems to be the correct height,I have not installed the metal drive package of sprockets,tracks and idlers.This is the condition of a completely stock Jagdpanther,if Heng Long has upgraded the springs then springs would either have more winding or larger diameter of wire.John could you post the number of coils the stock springs have and I will check out the number on my Jagdpanther and maybe we can determine if H/L has in fact upgrade the springs? Blake