Originally Posted by
Pcomm1.v2
Opinion: I have a couple of early HL Abrams from IMEX Taigen, both are very nice and am waiting for the Taigen Metal Hull Abrams to do a Tamiya TBU conversion.
Ordered in December 2014, the first HL Abrams tank was converted to a Hen Long - Tamiya TBU Hybrid and a local guy bought it before I could joy it! I have a second HL Abrams, also from Taigen, that is stock HL 2.4 with the 4 to 1 black gearboxes and it amazingly worked great out of the box! Couldn't believe it! No issues months later, so I have left it alone for all to drive & enjoy, which I won't do with my Tamiya's, loan them to others to drive.
I did not find metal sprockets or metal tracks necessary, yet. The very light weight Abrams TBU tank works OK on grass, running the plastic track setup (as compared to the much heavier Tamiya Leo 2).
The Abrams is way to slow running the 4 to 1 black gearboxes. Lacking scale speed with a battlefield infrared tank is a major issue for me and I believe that should be corrected in the Taigen metal hull version and hopefully they have addressed that issue. The Abrams is a 45 mph (72 km/h) on paved roads and 30 mph (48 km/h) cross-country main battle tank and many crews have operated it at much faster speeds on good roads.
John
Yes I believe the three shaft boxes work best for a modern tank. I have the 3 shaft set with bearings on all shafts in my Leo and it runs greats. It is the only gearbox that will actually coast and roll downhill. I am setting up an Abrams soon with bearinged up three shaft boxes and a BARC4.
The four shaft boxes will work best in WWII armor. So if you are listening ERIK those four shaft boxes would be best packaged along with your Tigers
