Whitewolf, thanks again for the suggestions. The boiler burner box does get hot, but there is no need to insulate it from the chassis, and also the brass plate is protecting the rc stuff a bit, but mostly the flames and heat is most intense over the front and sides. I can't add anything especially to the sides of the boiler, as sometimes flames shoot out of the venting holes, as well as the top sides of the boiler. The fuel supply are solid fuel tablets, and burns pretty darn hot.

I have seen that D-10 and it is very impressive.... I have no knowledge, experience, or equipment for machining, otherwise I'd love to do something like that, or improve my tank as you suggested. It was hard enough for my limited skills and pocket to get this steam tank to the state that it is in.

Lightening the tracks would be cool as this weighs a ton, and steam engines can maintain very high RPMs, but basically have very little torque. At this point I don't think that I am willing to spend much more money into this sucker.... how much does lighter tracks run anyway?

To answer your question heatfire, this is not a kit so hard to put a value on how much. The steam engine came from a wilesco D49, which runs about 300-400 bucks ( may be slightly cheaper if you get it across the pond, but high shipping cost and waiting a long time), and the boiler came from an old spare that I had laying around, you can get old large boiler stationary steam engines on ebay for 70-100 bucks, and the chassis came from an old 1/16 tamiya, plus 2 ch rc..... I don't even want to add it all up, I'd rather not know

Heavyslead, the slow speed and "high" torque was purely a function of the steam engine. They really have a hard time getting going at first, but once going, they seem to do ok keeping up with the work and maintaining it. I played around with having different size drive pulleys, and if I make it go any faster, it uses up steam too fast, if I made it slower, it doesn't have enough torque to get itself moving. So in the end this is about as good as it gets.... believe me, I'd love it if it went faster Currently if the steam is let to build up to around 1.5 bar, it can maintain about 30 seconds of "fast" or "high" torque, then the boiler simply can't meet the demands of the double pistons, and it slows down a bit, but will not stop for the remainder of the fuel. Once stopped, it takes about a minute to build up steam, so I end up most of the time just driving around for 30 seconds, and stop and wait to build up steam instead of constantly driving at a slower speed.

Overall, steam is just very tricky to get enough output for rc. I have a Mamod RC car (stock) that has basically the same problem, balance of having enough power to get it moving, but pistons not turn at too high of rpms to use up the steam too quick. The mamod does not even self start - you have to turn the flywheel by hand, and 1 ch for steering, no throttle or reverse control. This mamod rc car is the only rc steam car in production that I am aware of. There are many RC trains and boats, but land vehicles without nice smooth train tracks just requires more energy than these little steam toys can do easily.

Thanks all for the interest in my silly invention.... I just love old tech

-Crabfu