Sebas2

Road wheels are mentioned as #1 #2 etc. Are 1 and 2 the most forward ( next to the idler wheel ) or the most backward (next to the sprocket wheel)? Thank you very much!

tankme

Idler is in the front. Sprocket in the rear. There are 7 road wheels in between on that tank. The small upper wheels (if any) are called return rollers. They would be counted from the front next to the idler wheel.

Sebas2

So number 1 is the road wheel directly next to the idler in the front then?

Fsttanks

Fsttanks

Sebas2

Thank you!

Sebas2

Hello my friend,
I have researched a lot of your input here and other forums and all the answers you gave to me when I started this hobby and it is invaluable for me. I am now in the process of mounting the ebay Tucan sprockets with retention rings you kindly referred to and also mounting the axles support for the Leopard 2A6. I really hope it will lessen the tracks coming off. I regret there are no bolts molded on these sprockets but I can make them myself.

Furthermore I have bought new Taigen 380 motors gearboxes since the old ones were not good to begin with and have suffered from abuse. As a newbie I did not know the limits of driving my copy of the Leopard. The new gearboxes axles don't have any wobble for the moment and I hope the axle supports will help in keeping them so.

Also I am strengthening the side skirts of the hull ( the armor plates above the road wheels under the hull) with one or two thin .75mm steel plates, because I fear my Leopard will throw off tracks every now and then, eating through the plastic side skirts.

I made the mistake to cut of the right last side skirt as you see on this pic. Wished I had never done that because the track throwing on that side became so bad, much more as on the other side. I tried a lot of mods, none of which helped.

Hopefully gluing those steel plates along it and on the two subsequent side skirts with uhu 2 component epoxy glue will solve the problem. I can then glue the aft plastic skirt on it.

Additionally I temporary have fixed alu plates above the sprockets with alu folie, and will test it, to hopefully additionally prevent the tracks coming off. The idea is narrowing the space between the tracks and the hull above it, will make it very hard for the tracks to slip off the sprocket teeth. You can see it on the attached photo.

If that experiment works out I will glue it with epoxy glue for metal and the general Uhu epoxy glue, which has proven to be very strong. If all of this will not help I must buy a new upper hull.

Also I will follow your advice about positioning the springs in the right holes and mount wheels 1 and 7 as tightly as possible. I did have a bad time this year with the Leopard constantly throwing of tracks and breaking tracks due to it coming off so often, and almost loosed courage.

I hated to buy yet another gearbox and all the rest but in the end I decided to do it. It is a lot of work and I pray it finally will really help. Maybe I need metal swing arms too for 1 and 7 at both sides, but the reviews for these items are not that good. I could also let numbers 1 and 7 wear off and just replace them with new plastic wheels and swing arms.

I did buy a beautiful FN MAG 7,62mm machine gun, as per your recommendation, and will fit that too. Together with Dutch Army decals I now have a beautiful copy of a Dutch Leopard 2a6.

These are pictures made in the beginning of this year. The weathering is a combination of Humbrol dark earth, Valejo sienna color pigments and natural, diluted clay from mother nature :-)

Please give your recommendations if you feel something is not right in my way of problem solving. I know the hardest part will forever be not expose the Leopard to too rough terrain and often drive it at moderate speed.

you have helped me so much, and I am very grateful for it. Without you I would have probably ended the whole thing, but I am sure it would have led to bitter regret.

I hope you are fine and you enjoy riding with all your great rc tanks. Sorry for this long post, English is not my native language. Have a nice weekend my friend.

Heng Long Leopard 2a6

Heng Long Leopard 2a6 mod for tracks coming off.

Heng Long Leopard 2a6

Fsttanks

A couple of things. The new sprockets may have a hard fitting on the Taigen axle shaft as these shafts tend to be slightly larger in diameter then the HL shafts. Easy to fix with some light sanding of the shafts. Second if you have not done so yet is to use the track tensioner system build into the Leopard 2 to tighten the track to the proper tension. With the new sprockets, proper track tensioning and the hull bearings you should have a noticeable increase in reliable running. Though packing the sprockets and tracks with sand and mud like shown above may still cause de-tracking issues especially when running the stock plastic track.

Oh on a side note with the sprocket retaining rings. I only run one per sprocket not two. Two tend to trap debris(sand, mud, rocks, grass) between them and this leaves no room for the "track teeth" to fit between the rings causing them to ride up and out leading to de-tracking. Something I have experienced prior. With one ring (outside ring) this does not happen as the debris does not get trapped so easily. It is an issues that happens on real tanks so it follows it will happen on model tanks too. A good example of this is the T90/72 and ZTZ99 sprockets that have only one ring with debris clearing holes in them.

Here are a few of mine set up this way.

M41 with Abrams sprocket and track.

T72 with Mato metal sprocket and track. Notice the debris clearing holes in the retaining ring.

Pah co chu puk

Fsttanks is right on all those track issues he mentioned. I also love the natural weathering you have. Real dust and mud always looks the best.

You will always tend to throw tracks driving in deep mud and sand like you are doing, but cutting down the retaining ring will help. The double ring set up on the Leopard will often get packed with mud, rocks, and ice, if you run it in mud, rocks, or snow very much. I have had my Leopard ice up in snow till the track is so tight is compresses all the springs in the swing arms and the tank sort of low rides. The tracks usually come off then. Real tanks throw tracks too.

Sebas2

Thank you my friend. It is a pity I only know now that two sprocket retaining rings will not work, since I have already glued the sprocket parts together with metal epoxy glue and there is possibly no way I can remove the two sprocket halves, since this glue is so tough. Thinking about, it it makes perfect sense.
So I will order another set and then install just the outward ring. Happily I was prepared for painting/ spraying the sprockets today, so your advice comes just in time as for the spraying part. As for the tract tensioners on the Leopard, I did not have much luck with them but I will try to move the tensioner one setting/ one click forward.

It is these things which makes this whole hobby so frustrating. They sell you stuff which just does not work, we as rc tank lovers have to find it out all by our own.
Thank you for yet another valuable advice.

Sebas2

Thank you for your comment/ advice. Fsttanks is surely right about it. The hardest part maybe is to drive carefully and choose a suitable terrain, which is not easy where I live.

Sebas2

After a little more thinking about it, I will first buy a new set of these Ebay Tucan sprockets and do the test drive with these sprockets but with one ring and the hull bearings and my own mod: attaching alu plates above the sprockets, thus hopefully making it harder for the tracks to throw off.

I will attach steel plates next to both sprockets anyway, since I found out that really helps. Without it the tracks simply eat their way to the plastic armor skirts.

Sebas2

RE RCU Forums - View Profile: Fsttanks Those debris clearing holes in the retaining ring are good, I will add it to my to do list.