Johnny Blaze

Hello all. I recently purchased the HL Abrams and was looking for answers. It came with the new Taigen 4:1 steel gearboxes. I was looking at purchasing the metal drive sprockets and metal tracks from hobby summit, but they were made to fit the tamiya king tiger gearboxes. If anyone could tell me if they would fit, it'd be a big help. They are $160, and that's alotta mullah to drop if they don't fit. Thanks in advance.

Captain Nemo12

As far as I know, sprockets meant for Tamiya gearboxes cannot be used with HL/Taigen drive shafts. They can be made to fit with major modifications but you're better off going with the metal tracks for the HL Leopard 2. I read on another thread that the Leo 2 tracks are the same as the M1 on the HL model. Better yet, Mato will surely release a metal track + sprocket upgrade for the M1, just have to be a little patient .

Johnny Blaze

Yea, I had also heard that, but I was trying to stick with Abrams look as much as possible. I know the Leos tracks are similar, but I would never be able to unsee the difference, keeping me unhappy.... I had also thought about the Pershing tracks, but the same thing was in my head about the difference. I guess I'm just a lil picky.

Johnny Blaze

Thanx for the info though. If you hear anything different, let me know.

siam

I believe that Taigen would release M1 metal lower hull with torsion bars within this year or early of next year.The T34 metal lower hull is an example. ....M1 is the most hot model presently hence there are no reasons stop Taigen of making the metal hull.

siam

And also the metal tracks and wheels. ...I think that Mr. Taigen is thinking about this matter too.

Johnny Blaze

I know sooner or later everyone will be making upgrades, I'm just very impatient. I waited soo long for the release of the Abrams, and now that I've got it, all that angst has transferred to the release of upgrades. This hobby has a way of consuming you....

Pah co chu puk

The stock HL tracks are not correct, they are closer to Leo tracks than Abrams tracks. Abrams tracks have the center guidehorn on the connector link, not the track section.

Captain Nemo12

Also keep in mind that adding all those metal upgrades will slow down your tank considerably. If you want realistic scale speed (i.e. a relatively fast RC tank), you might want to keep the lower hull as light as possible.

Johnny Blaze

Pah, I hadn't payed much attention to the guide horn itself, I was more fixated on the track pads. The cut corners of the Abrams pads are pretty distinct and kinda the focus of my attention. Hopefully upgraded metal ones will end up being more accurate! And Nemo, I had already thought about that, I have put alot of metal on my tanks that were lacking. I have also put bigger motors in to help with that. I was also thinking about a larger pinion to speed it up a bit. I like the torque from the 4:1 gears, but would like to speed it up a bit.

Max-U52

Have you looked at the videos for the 360 motors? They got scale speed out of my ZTZ-99A.

Pah co chu puk

The track pads are different.

Well keep us posted on your progress. I have an Abrams and have plans for it too, more plans than money right now,

Johnny Blaze

Max, no I haven't, I thought that stock motors were 380's? I know I put 400 & 480's in some of my other tanks. The 480's are noticeably faster.Who makes the 360's that you speak of? And also glad to see other tankers close to me, I thought I was the only one up here. I'm just outside the city.
Pah, I will reply to this thread soon as I do something. I have mine in pieces right now until I figure out what I'm doing first. I found a set of road wheels and arms that may go on it first. I wanted all my upgrades to be on it before I paint. The sprockets may have to get painted separately. Keep me posted as well, I'd like to see what you do. I already saw one video on YouTube, the guy has done alot to it, and actually went with classic green camo instead of the desert color. It has made it a tough choice after seeing how nice his turned out.

Panther G

The only tracks and sprockets that will even be remotely close are the Leo parts. KT tracks and sprockets wont even fit let alone look right. All you need to do is use Tamiya Leo tracks and nip each little corner off the rubber pads to make them Abrams tracks. It takes a little while but it works and looks really good when your done.

texchap

The question comes what do you want to do with this tank? If you want something that looks accurate and that you run around some then go with the metal. If you are going to battle this tank then to with the leopard tracks. The HL tracks are slippery and the leopard tracks will give you traction. I had the Kenny Kong metal tracks and sprockets on my Hobby Engine Abrams with El Mod in it. It had the HL Gearboxes with 480 motors. It looked great, however the speed was cut in half. When I went with the leopard tracks it took off and ran more to scale speed. Again it's your choice.

Augustus1967

Hobby Raw has Metal Roadwheels/ Suspension Arms with Bearings, Sprockets, Springs and Return Rollers as a Package... For the New HL Abrams.
The Metal Idlers were sold separately.

Just Received my Order Yesterday!

Only thing I haven't found yet are a set of Metal Tracks...

I can can go lay the Pieces out and snap a Photo in anyone would like..?

-gus

Augustus1967

Here are the Photos...

-gus

Augustus1967

And the Return Rollers have Bearings as well...

So far it all looks pretty nice...

The Rubber Tires are a Hard Rubber.
I don't think they are intended to be Removable for Painting.

Edit: After a closer look and Messing With, the Tires ARE Removable...

-gus

Johnny Blaze

Panther, do you know if the Leo tracks will run on the Abrams sprockets? I'm bout to order a set with the rubber pads for my Leo, good price so I wouldn't mind getting two. And I don't mind the extra work cutting the pads either, I put 4 coats of rubber truck bed liner on my Bulldog track pads... Talk about time consuming.
Tex, I don't do ir battle, have a pretty nice lil track I made in my back yard, just like running n making short vids. Plastic tracks suck outside, that's why I wanted to upgrade.
Gus, I did see that package, but I didn't see the idlers and sprockets, just the road wheels and arms. Are those sprockets in your pix the stock sprockets, or metal? Ahh. I just found the sprockets and idlers on hobby raw, but I didn't see it all in one package. Ordering it separately will work just as well. Thanx for the info, now just like you I'll have to find tracks. Do you thinkthe tracks from hobby summit would work with these sprockets though?

Augustus1967

Johnny,

Everything you see in the photos is metal.
The one wheel I showed dissassembled is an Idler, they are grouped with the sprockets and Return Rollers (Silver Studs) in my photos.
The Sprockets in the photos are Metal.
They came painted...

Double check with Hobby Raw!!!
When I ordered the Road Wheels EVERYTHING you see in the Photos came with them EXCEPT the Idlers.

I had to order the Idlers Seperately...

-gus

Imex-Erik

Yes the Leo tracks will work on the Abrams drive wheels, but I found them to be a bit off. I'm sure if it was ran a bit it would work itself in, but I didn't want to stress it too much. Metal parts are coming by us, we just have to make molds and such. No ETA on parts but they are being worked on as well as our Abrams.

Johnny Blaze

Erik, thanks for the input on the Leo tracks. I'm still not completely sure on which route I am going to take. I would love to wait on Taigen products knowing that they will be good quality with no fitting issues, but it's soo hard looking at a completely torn down Abrams that is just begging for upgrades. Maybe I'll just piece this one together to get my fix, maybe by then you'll have a Taigen Abrams with all the bells and whistles. After all, you can't have to many tanks. Especially when it comes to one as bad ass as the Abrams. Maybe that way I won't have to decide which camo to go with, I'll have one of each!

Imex-Erik

Yea it takes a bit longer for us as we make all new molds instead of copying HL's. Plus we have to make sure they will fit ours coming up too. Just a little teaser here but the Abrams tracks will most likely have rubber pads Not a 100% right now but it is looking pretty good so far.
Also, could you tell my gf the part about not having too many tanks? She seems to think different... Then again I think her collection of 200+ fingernail polish bottle collection is a bit much as well.

Johnny Blaze

Nice! I've heard a lot of people say the pads come off, but I'd be willing to risk it. The difference in all metal tracks and metal+ pads is night and day. After rubberizing my Bulldog I wished all the tanks had tracks with a place for rubber. But excited to hear about the Abrams. You can be sure when Taigen comes out with theirs I will be first in line to snatch one up! Put me on the list! And as far as the gf.... You can't ***** about the polish if you don't want her to complain bout your tanks. I guess I'm kinda lucky, my wife is a stay at home mom, so long as I keep a roof over our head and food in our babies bellies, she really doesn't have much to say about my hobbies. On top of having close to a dzn tanks, I have a half dzn trucks and truggies. Also gotta throw her a lil hush money every now and then to keep her happy. ;-) But believe me, I'll be anxiously awaiting the Taigen Abrams! Good work you guys do. Really enjoy all my armor.

Imex-Erik

Yea I am actually the one more hesitant about the pads than anyone else actually. I made a large deal about making an imprint for them the sit low into, hopefully it turns out good. I want at least 50% of the pad in the track so we have less issues of them coming out.
And yes I only bring up the polish thing when she complains about me buying stuff. Pretty much everything I order comes right to work now (I even order my dog food online) so I can luckily hide a lot of what I get. It is nice to have a PayPal balance too so she cant see when I purchase things often either. It has taken almost 8 years now but I've learned a few tricks Since I started working at Taigen/IMEX I have slowly turned our gaming room into the hobby room with some computers in there. That is why I got kicked out to the garage. When I finish adding on to the house I'll be ready to do some home videos like I used to. I actually do some interesting things outside of work, I even build RC lawnmowers