Every opinion and statement posted seems valid enough and here are my thoughts:
A. The Tamiya setup for an IR rc tank metal hull purposed for rc tank club fighting may include some if not all of these modifications to achieve a dependable, repairable, durable, robust metal hull platform that offers long term repeatable, superior performance:
1. Road wheel bearings.
2. Splash guards; gearboxes.
3. Sturdy hull bracing; front & rear.
4. Gearboxes mount brace.
5. Spring loaded return idlers or similar.
6. Idler hull backing plates.
7. Plastic tracks are preferred, metal tracks are substituted if the kit plastic tracks are known to easily fail.
8. Metal elevation arm.
10. Some IR RC TANK models include a hinged deck lift for easy rc tank battery swaps during battle days.
11. The Tamiya slipper clutch is often replaced with the blue gear, or just as good, CA glue solid the Tamiya elevation and rotation units black slipper clutch gear, only, after first removing the clutch gear, then glue it together.
12. Metal drive sprockets.
B. These modifications are done for a whole host of good reasons, but mainly to keep the tracks on while IR fighting. A good performing any brand (including Tamiya) IR battle rc tank model is a little like a race car in that you will be replacing broken parts and rebuilding the thing to keep it in the game, however you build it, because you are running it abusively and or hard.
C. I like kit bashing too: Another workable, fighting IR rc tank build tactic; also the other extreme to the well engineered "awesome, Tamiya tough build"; is to run the least expensive Hen Long rc tank possible with your chosen rc electronics package setup and replace the HL OEM hull when it fails, as it will.
D. Either direction works for me, specially on the everyone and everything is welcomed "run what you brung rc club battle days".
E. The simple solution: Why not rebuild your IMEX Taigen T-34 hull or get a new one, after all, battling at Danville, it is more likely your combat driving wear and tear broke the hull, rather than the hull suffered an OEM failure.
F. "Competition use" pretty much voids most manufacturer's product warranty.
G. In comparison, an unimproved OEM Tamiya metal hull would very likely have suffered some wear and tear damage too. I found that to be true a decade ago with an out of the box built King Tiger, the hull was twisted out of shape, after just one day of outdoor rc club fighting at SCAT's old field. Bracing and a gearbox brace were the easy fixes back then as they are today. The idler fixes offered now are simple to install and worth it.
H. Enjoy the repair process, just part of the IR rc tank fighting hobby.
John
Photos: 1. Daryl Turner Custom Design Danville Purposed Tiger II Hull. 2. Hen Long – Tamiya Sherman light weight kit bash hull. 3. Daryl Turner Tamiya KV & JS idler solution.
Last edited by Pcomm1.v2; 05-26-2015 at 02:22 PM.