sevoblast

Well, fellow tankers, after vast deserts and high mountains to cross ETO Transmissions are finally in stock in depth in USA. I won’t go in to the almost comedy of errors that have occurred during the development and shipping process, suffice it to say there was a management change at the machine shop that does the majority of the work and parts are now made with some speed and done correctly by the blueprints.

Daryl has 20 units in stock, all four available systems, Tiger 1, King Tiger, Sherman and KV well represented. Also in stock are spare parts which I doubt will ever be needed but better for him to have them and not need them than need them and not have them.

My goal is to have all my units as a bolt in requiring but two extra holes to be drilled in the floor of the tank and using two existing Tamiya holes as guides for transmission alignment and location of the extra two holes.. This I have accomplished and Sherman is a direct bolt in, no additional holes needed.

There has been one sight modification to the main frame, this is simply one additional hole in the center needed for the Tamiya Tiger 1 system. All main frames in the second batch have this modification as do all Tiger 1 units on Daryl’s shelves.
I will now start the process for the T55, Tamiya Leo 1 and Elephant systems. I have been delayed for two months due to health issues. I am not young any more but don’t worry, I am doing a bit better now and I’m not going away anytime soon.

TheBennyB

Awesome news Bob, especially about your health. Looking forward to the T-55 and Leo 1 units for sure.

sevoblast

Leo will be first, then T 55 if possible, then Elefant.

sollie

They look beefy. Looking fw to first good running video ( unless I missed something :-) )

And stay healthy now

sassgrunt

My Feedback: (1)

I was one of Bob's customers who has been in a 'holding pattern' for a set of these gearboxes for awhile now. I wasn't real thrilled about having to find the patience to wait until everything got ironed out, but I was NEVER worried that they would eventually get here, (and be worth the wait to boot). Saying that they're worth it is a huge understatement. Machining quality is top notch, and it's obvious that a lot of thought went into the design and manufacture of them. I don't know what QC issues Bob has run into in the past, but there are NO such issues with these.

This set is going in a Tiger I, and I was considering asking about another set for a resin Juckenburg E-100 that maybe has 540-size motors, (I figured that it is going to be a pretty heavy build and may need something bigger). But, the motors on these gearboxes is a whole lot bigger than I thought they'd be - somewhere around 480-size. That, coupled with the gear reduction unit that is attached to each motor, leaves me no doubt that they will pull stumps; so I'll drop the whole 540 idea.

I remember at some point that Bob talked about drilling the extra two holes needed by installing the unit upside-down on the hull pan. He provides two "drilling template holes" in the gearbox frames for doing this; and it made the whole operation both simple - and more importantly - made it precise. That's an important factor for those of us with fourteen thumbs.

I haven't put any power to them yet, so I can't speak to how they operate; but other than that, these are the nicest gearboxes I have ever experienced. I will definitely be buying another set for the eventual E-100 build. Thank you, Bob, for bringing this to market!

sevoblast

Thank you for the report, Mike. I appreciate your patience in the long wait for the units to finally arrive to Daryl and your assessment of the quality of manufacture of the units.

When I spoke of an almost comedy of errors in the production and shipping of the transmissions I was making an understatement. With the confusions and rearrangements of everything in my area coupled with shipping problems going in both directions, people leaving and people arriving, it was a confused mess. Now things are normal, after a fashion, taking in to consideration that the net service is down as much as it is up.

Concerning the mounts for the units, the Sherman is a bolt in, no drilling is needed, the existing Tamiya transmission mount holes are used. King Tiger and KV, the holes in the mounts are symmetrical so you simply follow the instructions sent to you with your order for installation. Tiger 1 is not symmetrical for the holes. The two front holes align with existing Tamiya holes, the two rear holes, one is further forward than the other to clear the torsion bars. It is for this reason the mounts have two threaded holes and two without threads on the rear of the mounts. When installed upside down and reversed you use the two holes without threads as the template to drill your required extra holes. Sounds confusing but it's not, it's all in the instructions and photos supplied with your new transmission.

Today and tomorrow I will work on the Leo and T55. Leo will be not hard, T55 will be more problematical but I think it can be done. After those two are done I'll do Elefant, then Tammy P4. Panther is a head scratcher, I don't want to have you cut out half the front lower hull plate so that's going to really take some work. I will get it done with a minimum amount of fuss and cutting for installation.

mizuinu

Would these be drop in TUs work for the first gen Leo1 & Gepard as well? I mean that I won't have to drill extra holes on the hull?

sevoblast

I am working on Leo and one other system today. For Leo, at the most you will have to drill two 3 mm holes using my system as the template. Two stock holes are used as a guide for the location of the holes, it is quite simple and explained clearly with photos in the instructions you will receive.

mizuinu

Awesome, is there an ETA for the TUs?

sevoblast

As far as design and needed parts, I expect to go to machine shop in the next couple of days. Once new parts are in hand then it's a simple matter of shipping time. At this time of year the storms in Kerch Straights are legendary and ferry service is stopped. Everything mail oriented goes by ground transport to the mainland and then to Moscow, including airmail. Go figure on the airmail but truth is truth. I would estimate mid or late February but I will post in the next couple days a more accurate time frame.

mizuinu

Then I shall wait when it is available on ETO armor while I start saving up in the meantime......

sevoblast

Worked all day, it's now 19:00 or so. At my age 11 hours is enough. However, one system is ready to go for the basic installation. Tomorrow morning I measure for the rear standoffs, then my charming bride will do the mount blueprints and it's off to machine shop either tomorrow afternoon or Tuesday morning. I'll also photo today's results in the morning. I'll finish the second project, the Leo, tomorrow afternoon.

trackmech81

Great to hear all is going good. I can't wait to put a set in my T55 and maybe one day my M1.....I would think the Leopard would work in it possibly...

sevoblast

Here is what I got 'sidetracked' on yesterday. Panther/Jagdpanther system is now a go. In the morning we head out to Machine shop with a small list of needed parts for the Panther/JP system, mainly the side mounts. My goal was to provide a system that is bolt in as my other units and I finally succeeded. The final drive shafts will be unique to Panther/JP as are the final drive shaft gears, both being modifications of existing parts used in the other transmissions. To assure no need to cut up the lower hull front plate the transmission was moved back about 2 mm and up 1 mm. Everything is bolt in. After lunch I'll make sure the system fits Jagdpanther and the result will be here. The transmission mounts will be symmetrical so the 'upside down mount' system for location of the additional two holes will be easy and accurate.

Edit. System fits Jagdpanther also, no problems at all that I can see. JP will be the test mule in the next couple days.

RichJohnson

Sevoblast, is your sherman tranny the same speed as the tamiya, faster or slower?

sevoblast

They are a little slower, more to scale speed than the stock TU's. The big advantage my TU's give in addition to reliability is as you take hits you will still be able to move and maneuver to the bitter end.

RichJohnson

How is that?

sevoblast

The power and gear down system is very smooth with little internal friction. The motors are excellent quality and give full power throughout their RPM range. The final drive rides on 6 sealed high quality bearings, three for each shaft. All in all the system uses the available power very efficiently, hence the mobility as hits are taken. I think at the next Danville meet some of my systems will be there.

sollie

If you look at this Clip I made , ball park , were would the Place the ETO Transmissions ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag-2JrFc7Q8

RichJohnson

Ive seen them in a sturmtiger, very impressive, but for me, speed is all a sherman has when most of the battlefiled is 9 hit german tanks. I get so frustrated with my slow henglongs on a large field becuase i take so many hits just getting there. My old tamiya sheman, a dmd pre option, has nice TUs that are faster than the curret tmaiya sherman TUs. i love that tank becaus I can close distance fast. I put tamiya motors in my HL but its still slower than the full option sherman.
So im looking for a little more speed not less.

sevoblast

Speed would be in between your two tanks. I will later today, if the rain stops, do a speed test on the Panther unit.

sevoblast

Double post. DoS attacks are still going on and the two servers are up and down this morning between the attacks and the rolling blackouts on southside.

sevoblast

Your early Sherman probably had the Type 1 transmissions, big white nylon gears, which were way too fast for scale. The Type 2 that came out next is similar to the current Type 3 but a little faster than the '3'. In my visits to Danville a decade ago it was team work and practice that pretty much leveled the playing field. The speed and apple checks back then were also quite rigorous and weeded out some pretty interesting efforts at bending the rules.

RichJohnson

I agree that my early DMD Sherman TUs are way too fast. But the stock current full option TUs are a good speed. I have been pondering if I can get them into this darn all metal mato hull, since the mato steel 4.0 gear boxes are junk. The problem being tamiyas screw from bottom up, the rest of the shermans out there screw top down.

tomhugill

Its easy to put Tamiya gearboxes in another tank, more difficult the other way round. Just need to get standoffs that are the right height (one would assume the Tamiya Sherman ones would be close) and drill holes in your hull.