Patchcon

Hey guys. New guy here. I just ordered a Heng Long King Tiger. My 1st Tank and I am eagerly awaiting its arrival. So what did I get myself into?

TheBennyB

First off, welcome! You'll find the best group of individuals here for such a small niche hobby. What did you get yourself into.....be prepared to buy many more tanks. Also let us know where you are in the world. Could help with advice as someone maybe in your area to run with or help wrench when it comes to that. For the actual tank depends on what version you ordered. May want to upgrade gearboxes, electronics to hobby grade, motors, etc. Get it, run it in some dirt and see how you feel before you get into any of this though.

Green Amphibian

Welcome to the madhouse! You will find that the tanks are addicting, but fun. Please ask any questions you want here. Plenty of knowlwgable people here to help.

Herman

Sky_HawK

I started with one, now I have 5 and the upgrade bug is one you won't be able to shake. Get some paints and weather it, it'll give it some character and give you something to do that's fun and won't kill your wallet right away.

purgatory

Welcome to the group. I am fairly new myself, been getting a lot of good info and friendship from these folks. I only have one myself, I got the Taigen Early Tiger Metal r/c tank, been loving it. And learning a lot here. Look forward to your future posts and pictures of your tank when it arrives.

yellowshaker

My Feedback: (1)

Welcome to the world of rc tanks. Ask questions and enjoy. This Is a great hobby.

Panther F

Ha ha... welcome and tighten your seatbelts!




Jeff

Imex-Erik

If there is one thing I suggest when you first get a tank, it is to change the gearboxes to some nice steel ones with bearings. If not the new ones with bearings then the old steel ones with bushings. The zinc gears are ok, but if you are planning on taking this guy out and getting rough and dirty with it the steel gears are the way to go.
Make sure to break in your motors and apply grease as well to the gears, that will increase your gearbox lifetime as well. Don't rush into too many metal parts until you get those gearboxes. A nice 4:1 type gearbox will slow you down and make slow speed maneuverability a lot more enjoyable. After that you can simulate metal upgrades first by adding weight on the inside of the tank to see if you like it.
Here is my personal upgrade path: gearboxes> metal drive/idler wheels> metal tracks> electronics> all others
Most everyone has their own path, but I think most of us will agree a gearbox should be in the top 3 first upgrades.

Sky_HawK

I like metal gearboxes, but I really like how quiet the plastic ones are. My Leo2 is loud, my Abrams is very quiet.

Patchcon

Thank's for the welcome. Funny I kinda already planned to upgrade. Tank comes with steel wheels and tracks, don't know about the motors and gears. I had an upgrade list planned then I found the model that was already partially upgraded. As far as that goes. Can you recommend a supplier I found Tankarmy, but they are I Australia. Thanks again.

Sky_HawK

If it has metal tracks then it *should* have metal gearboxes, otherwise you will likely blow up the nylon gears. Usually upgraded versions with metal tracks come with upgraded gearboxes, most likely the standard zinc metal versions and not the steel with bearings.

IMEX/Taigen and Mato both have good parts, however Mato is in Canada and most of the upgrade parts ship from China.

chris2pher

drive it around the house make some obstacles or just take it outside and run it around the yard but if you really want to get conversations going take it to a busy park and you get plenty of attention ..

Panther G

I lost count how many i have now,

Tanker 10

Welcome Patchcon, I use the IMEX web site for most of my tank needs. Others I use are Artistic Hobbies in Texas, rctank.de in Germany.

YHR

Mato has a lot of upgrade parts available as well. They make all their own all metal tanks so this means they have metal parts to totally rebuild a Stug, PZIII, Tiger, or Sherman. The Sherman rotor shield and Mantlet for the 75 mm Sherman is one of my favorites. For stock inexpensive Heng Longs they are one of the best online retailers, that try to make things right if you have a problem.


Your question about what you got yourself into depends on you. It is a very diverse hobby, that has a historical significance to it like no other RC hobby other than flying, increasing the enjoyment level. It offers electrical, mechanical, and accuracy challenges that should keep the fires burning and the boredom away,.

I know it captivated me and pushed every other hobby interest I had to the sideline.

Imex-Erik

We are a pretty good supplier for parts, a few of our KT parts are compatible with HL's. You can always feel free to PM me or email me anytime with any questions on tanks, I am pretty quick most of the time to respond and more than happy to help direct you if I cant help. Taigen has hobby shops all across the US as well that can order parts for you, where are you located? That might be one of your major factors as well.

TigerCommander

Put up a question like this can easily become the target of agents and their "agents". You can never tell who is talking the truth and who is talking for his "boss". I would only trust my own experience with each company that I dealt with.

Imex-Erik

If you can't ask the forums who do you ask?

Patchcon

TC, I don't have any experience. That's why I'm here.

Tanker 10

This could be a costly way to gain experience. My approach is to come to a place like this if I am new and ask who has experience with dealer x or dealer y. I then sift through all of the information I've received, try to figure out the BS from the truth, and then try to make an intelligent decision from what I've learned. There is another tank forum that has a vendors "Black List" due to it's participants getting burned. When I was new to tanks I used this input to help me get started in the right direction and not spend/waste money needlessly. Also, I am aware that just because you buy a product from someone who is trusted it won't have problems when it arrives. But that is when the respectable dealers step up and take care of you. Erik provides some of the best" after sale " customer service I've seen. I've been in RC since 1970 and have seen a lot of dealers who after they get your money, you are on your own. Patchcon has taken the right approach by coming here.

TigerCommander

I have seen one after another forum fall into the hands of a company who becomes the dictatorship on the forum. On that forum, you can see all type of praises for that company but not a single criticism.

Is that because the company really perfect? No, no one is perfect. That is like a vote under the nose of a dictatorship, and the dictatorship’s 100% acceptance is guaranteed.

When a newbie asks where to buy, the dictatorship comes out, with his supporters. I am sick of the same pattern repeated again and again on forum.

When a forum got a strong taste of money, when a forum becomes profit oriented, when a forum becomes a business center, I would rather not to ask.

TigerCommander

Actually it is not. I deal with various companies and have never got a problem. My friend got a problem, however. He told a company to refund him $$$ and allow him to keep the upgrades at the same time, otherwise he was adding them to the black list. That blows up everything. The company mistook him for a scammer who came to make trouble. I told him to talk with the company nicely and provide pictures to show them the problem. If a company worked hard for us, they deserve our respect. Treating them like a slave only mess up everything. I never threaten any company with the black list. I respect them, talk to them with respect, and always come up with a resolution that we are both happy with when there is any issue. It all depends on good communication.

Imex-Erik

I've been here almost 3 years now. We have plenty of goods and bads In fact I welcome criticism as without it I cannot fix problems. I myself even recommend competitors as I am not only a distributor, but a tanker myself. No one is perfect of course, but I go well out of my way to fix issues. Everyone here will tell you that. I make it a priority to have the best tank experience you can with Taigen, whether it is support, info, or whatever. You can see from the tons of reviews/comments here that I personally care for my tankers. RCU has been a great place for new tankers and I recommend it to everyone new or not. A friendly community has existed well before I was here and I'm glad I get the chance to be a part of it. Please remember that we are not only the distributors, but the manufacturer as well. I am a direct link to the owner and our factory. If you have a suggestion or a comment I'm always happy to hear it. I personally still handle the support for my tanks as I want my customers to know they are talking to a true tanker too, not just some guy there to sell stuff or answer questions.

tankme

I'm confused here. I just ordered an Abrams from IMEX and I'm very happy with the speed of delivery. The product needs some upgrades, but that's not IMEX's fault. Not even sure why we are debating this issue right now with a person whose first post is complaining about vendors and forum members supporting those vendors. Assuming these "agents" he's talking about are supposed to be forum members that work for the company to spout praise for said company? I am assuming though that "TigerCommander" has at least read this forum prior to posting that first post because he knows Erik refers to his "boss" quite a bit. Not sure what spawned that post. If I have an issue with the vendor, I contact the vendor and give them a chance to fix it or come to an amicable solution. That's all I ask from any vendor. Now if the vendor tells me to go pound sand...then I may recommend to others to stay away from that vendor if asked about my experience, but everyone makes their own choices based on their own set of criteria that needs to be met. From what I've seen, the vendors that participate in this forum are pretty good. The ones that aren't pretty good...well they usually don't last long in a niche market. All the OP was concerned about was what he got himself into and now this thread has morphed into something it was never supposed to be all because of a new user and his first post.

TigerCommander:

First off if I was a vendor today (I ran and was part owner in a pharmacy for 2 years) and a person said they were unhappy with the product, I would ask the person to return the product to me. Then I would refund their money on the product minus the shipping charges. I would probably provide the customer with a pre-paid mailer if it was a defective product. Asking the vendor to refund your money and keep the defective product is unacceptable. I can see why the vendor had a problem with that. When you run a business, everyone is out to screw you out of money to include your vendors, your business partners, and most of all your customers. If you run a business thinking anyone is there to cut you a break, you won't be in business long. I ask for the product to be returned for several reasons. Firstly, I know they aren't trying to just scam me. Secondly, I might be able to return the product to the vendor for a refund if it's defective to recoup my costs. Thirdly, I want to know if I'm selling junk to people so I can stop selling junk because all the does is make me look bad. It doesn't matter if the product is defective or not, it matters how you handle the situation with the customer. Some customers will blame the vendor for defective products. Those people will never be happy and all you can do is follow your company processes.

*************Disclaimer: I do not work for any company that supplies parts to R/C tanks or supply R/C tanks nor am I currently a vendor of anything.**************

RichJohnson

Tigercommder, our forum here is run by RCU, they dont affiliate with any 1:16 scale tanks.
We are barely moderated amd we do not have a blacklist.
We do have several vendors on this forum, including some big name ones that post. Info here gets seen by people that matter in this hobby.

All of us post experience with different brands and try to help newbies find their perfect tank based on what tank type, budget, and interests they have. Our recent sherman thread a few back is a great example.

Im not making a personal attack, but you seem very neggative and I dont want it to influence newbies.
most of us here are almost like an extended family. Sure we have the old Ford vs Chevy debats but they are all very valuable in bringing out info. The MFGs and vendors do not get on here and just push their own products. Quite the opposite, and having them here, is a huge valuable resource I would not trade away.