Does anyone know if you can substitute the stock gearboxs in the Henlong Airsoft tank with Tamiya gearbox? If so, is it diffucult? Sorry, I searched the tread and did not find my answer.

Depends on which gearbox you're thinking of. But, why would you want to? Not that the gearboxes are bad or anything...but some of them still require gear reductions. I'd save myself the money and trouble and go with 3:1's.

To use Tamiya gearboxes, you will have to customize a mounting plate to attach to existing standoffs in the HL hull and mount the gear boxes to your custom mounting plate......or, you can purchase standoffs at the local hardware store and do with out the mounting plate....but, that may not be as structurally sound.<br type="_moz" />

Tony is quite correct. there really is no benefit in using Tamiya gear boxes in an Heng Long tank. There are  a few very good 3:1 gear boxes that will drop right in. Even the Tamiya boxes require a drop down gear mechanism to gain proper torque and they still need either different pinion gears or motors to get back to scale speed. try the Asiatam or RCCommand steel geared 3: 1 boxes. Asiatam does not have steel but brass gears. These sometimes require new mounting stand offs, that is why i prefer the RCCommand steel geared boxes. They are a true drop in box.

Thanks guys. The only reason why I asked is due to the fact that I have two sets of Tamiya's new gearboxs. I was looking to see if I could cut costs by using what I currently have.

I am ure they can be added if you want to use them, but it would require more work, as stated above. The tamiya units are quite durable, so if you have them and can get them to fit, go for it. Only thing to keep in mind is theHL sprockets have a single notch for the output shafts, where the Tamiya uses 2.

The Tamiya gearboxes will outlast Heng Long stock metal transmission unit gearboxes hands down. When protected from dirt and dust by a cover and properly lubricated with routine cleaning, they will last for many years w/o rebuilding. The HL are not as very precise or durable. Some are very noisy and junk brand new. What they are without a doubt is cheap and effective. They do need to be tuned and require a break-in period. Quality control with HL is still hit and miss. These problems are what made room for Asiatam and Mato to introduce their our HL TU variants. I myself use Tamiya, HL and Impact (3:1s in my Jagdtigers for their very slow speeds) in my dozen or so IR battle tanks. The final or output shafts as mention by my fellow NEAD members, are different for Tamiya and HL. Depending on the application you could customize them or buy the Tamiya drive sprockets. Just remember that all Tamiya and HL tracks are NOT fully interchangeable. If you let me know what you want to do I may be able to help you out with compatablility issues. We all try to get the biggest bang for our buck and the HL metal TU is a viable choice for the costs. There are three main types of HL TUs: stock plastic (cheap), HL stock metal (the Chevy version) and aftermarket HL full high quality metal (Caddilac version). And then there is the Atiatam (very good and highly reccomended) or Mato (brass version which I don't recommend) aftermarket versions.

I hope this answers your questions...... Bob, NEAD CO