petersen43

Hi,
I just bought this old Tamiya King Tiger from ebay, and was hoping some of you guys might take a second to offer me advice on how to approach the radio & mechanical upgrading or preservation. I know it's a bit of a project, and I probably should've researched what it would take to get it running again before I bought it, but I really wanted a Tamaiya KT and this one was in my price range. Can I keep the original drive system that's in there now? Should I be looking for a 4 channel control system, and if so, will any one work? ( Admittedly I know jack about radios) I'd also like to install recoil and sound, will a recoil unit mount in this turret? I'm pretty new to RC tanks, but am learning fast thanks to you guys here. Thanks in advance to anyone's suggestions, advice or critisism .
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=180339814111

Pzjgr

The first question I'd ask is, what is your budget....how much are you willing to spend?

thomasjohnmurphy

Go to RC Command and ask him. He has the IR system you can pick up and you should also get a set of 3:1 gears/drive motors. Its a fairly conversion. Another thing you can do is pick up an old HL tank off ebay and transfer the electronics and drive system and sell what's left over. One thing I notices with this tank is you will need some spare track links and it looks like the barrel has been placed on the wrong orientation (unless its not glued- than that will save you from having to remove it if you want gun recil. Just some thoughts and observations)

madbadger

I too bought a vintage KT, i junked the twin clutch system and fitted Impact Gearboxes, then i used an old RX14 board from an old Heng Long tiger with the transmitter and replanted all the gear into the KT. I even used the elevation unit from the tiger and made it work inside the KT turret. It runs fine, i then fitted Impact high grade tracks and it runs great. I may even upgrade to Elmod and may even try a recoil unit. Still works out cheaper than buying a new KT....


Hope it helps

Kev

bowlman

Lets see I got the old KT of the bay last fall so far have upgraded the gearboxes to impact and also impact torsion suspension got the impact upgraded idler system new main aluminum gun will be using the Panther recoil mount for tamiya recoil also picked up the tamiya dmd control unit and the mf unit of the bay and alot of other parts from Karen at the tank Museum to upgrade it to the last KT model tamiya made plus got new ball bearings for the wheels from ETO no bushing there and will be using a BR6000 bot rx and the DX6i from Specktrum and battle system have two 1 from tamiya and 1 from impact have not hooked up ether yet will put 1 in KT and the other in Pershing .

Thanks Jimmy

Jeff489

My Feedback: (12)

I say just run it if it works fine. All of the twin clutch models I've ever had run great. If you want to make an IR battler out of it, decide on what guts to use, and buy the parts a little at a time.

petersen43

Hi,
Thanks for all the input. Mechanically speaking I'm going to wanna keep it on the fairly cheap initially. I'm a big DIY kinda guy so aside from trying to do this on a modest budget, I'm not one to ship it off for someone else to work on. Ideally, I'd like to integrate new controls with the existing gearbox for now, and upgrade to impact parts as time goes on. I hate to seem like such a dummy, but although my will is there to have a nice tank, my knowledge hasn't quite caught up yet. What can I use to control the existing drive system? I see you can get an entire Heng Long control system for about $50, but I don't know about integrating the new with the old. Thanks again for everyones input

Jeff489

My Feedback: (12)

That tank used an analog speed control that was mounted on the inside of the fender. I'd pick up a cheap used speed controller to run it. Check the buggy forums for one. The steering was controlled by a servo, and simply engages/disengages the clutches. Concentrate your money on the major upgrades after you've got a runner and are having fun.

If you are thinking of upgrading to a Tamiya full option, I'd check out the build manual before I bought anything, that way you'll know what parts you'll be needing. One of the forum members here scanned and posted all the manuals in PDF form on his personal website. They are free downloads.

You can snipe Tamiya parts off eee blay when sellers part out tanks. Lately, I've notice that the Tamiya KT is a pretty common item that gets parted out and auctioned off en masse. Some of the parts are going pretty cheap.