pattoncommander

Roger all the way. The 48A2 was 52 tons with a full basic load of ammo. We tried to make it to the ranges after thawing out the suspension of frozen mud at Graf. Had to back up any tanks that would move to the sides of other tanks and let the exhaust free up the tracks & wheels which had been sitting in a foot of solid, frozen mud (The Germans has the same problem in Russia). Then we tried to drive to the range.....a trip that would have taken 45 minutes took us over 4 hours. Mine and two anothers slid about 200 yards back down a hill sideways on the ice. Only thing that kept us from going off the side and probably rolling over was a ridge of frozen mud about 3-4 inches high. Very scary indeed. CO finally used his head and we got off the road and made a new road cross country.

shenlonco

My Feedback: (2)

Just get a blizzard that was what i was going to tell you you should get ... because it's great for how you are going in the snow.... I had 3 of them they work great go for it and stop trying to make a slow tank with thin tracks be a snow cat!

diabolic-mind

lol yeah i agree, it would be fun making the bulldog a monster in the snow but it would end up ruining the tanks looks. im gonna save up for a blizzard. out of the box it has exactly what i want for the snow!

pl_09

Don't give up yet[8D], here is my 1 cent:
The main problem of running in snow IS THE CLEARANCE.
That is why jeep has high clearance. Snowmobile has low clearance but its track is actually its bottom, so it has 'movable clearance'. The blizzard toy car has moderately high clearance only, but it has tracks different from our model tank by having numerous perforations to act as claws instead of track.!
Pads & high speed will work only if 1) it has streamlined flat bottom 2) it is light weight ( snowmobiles) to glide above the deep snow.
Highly perforated CLAW tracks will work if 1) streamlined flat bottom 2) extreme High torque.
Since a model tank's tracks, gear box, & bottom shape cannot be COMPLETELY modified to that extent, you are at least left with MODIFYING THE CLEARANCE : by raising the SUSPENSION, with adding a few extra track links.
It requires quite a bit of work, but it will not ruin its look in snow-runs, & in summer you can revert it back to normal height.
HOPE THIS WILL HELP.
" In science & technology, nothing is impossible. It just need enough determination " I always said. Pierre

diabolic-mind

i added more weight to it and that helped out considerably. the majority of the driving i do in snow isnt in soft snow but rather across the hard clods of snow from where the plow the parking area i drive it at. i do go in some of the soft snow but for the most part i dont have problems in it. but the weight did make a big difference. im thinking of getting a second set of track and having one set for winter running and another for summer running. the winter ones i will be drilling small holes into the track links for so that it has some similarities of the blizzards tracks, and also i will be adding some small screws for on ice driving almost like the studs they put in car tires for winter conditions. between doing the two i think i should have decent traction in the snow. and for the more extreme snow conditions the blizzard will dominate any amount of snow.

heavyaslead

The Leopard has rubber pads and does climb and grip better on most surfaces particularly wet or very smooth surfaces.

You could use bicycle inner tube cut into fine strips to glue to the track touching surfaces to grip better.

Finding a high abuse friction resistant glue will be the challenge.

diabolic-mind

thanks for the suggestion. i wasnt sure what i was going to use to make the rubber pads if i ended up making some. those should work perfectly!!

DirtyBird69

Good luck on finding rubber pads pre-made(somebody use to makethem but they were rediculously expensive.....see second pic) I've already wore myself out trying to find a set. In the end I had to cut my own pads(see firstpic....what a nightmare lol) it will take a lot of time, but with some added weight(about 10 oz) to the front and rubber pads Ive noticed a significant increase in traction...so it's worth the time you'll have to put into making them(plus they make the tracks look a whole lot better)!

milsurp53

I don't know if it would work, but could you paint on either Truck Bed Liner paint, or the paint that you dip plier/scewdriver handles in to cushion and insulate? I know they sell both types at Lowes.

diabolic-mind

possibly milsurp, the issue i can see with that is if the stuff runs into the hinge points of the tracks it could cause problems. im considering seeing if any of my local machine shops could make a die in the shape of the pads i would need. if so and the price is reasonable i could simply get the rubber and stamp out the pads in no time at all. i know one of my local machine shops takes custom projects like this. if had them whip me up some one off parts in the past so i might be able to get a die made. if so i could possibly even sell pre cut pads as kits pretty cheap too.

SgtPearce

Hey diabolic!You get that made and produce a trac that will work with a Leo you let me know, i will buy them off you ASAP!lol

DirtyBird69

I'm way ahead of ya brother..I looked into it, and the main problem your gonna find is the cutting process..... I'm using thin car inner-tube rubber,and unless you havedyes"razor sharp" and have a press that can stamp them out in an ultra fast motion,with a ton of pressureyour gonna find that rubber is a LOTharder to"stamp out" then you think, and if you use some kind of foamrubber material thats easier to cut, then the pads will wear out a too quick...bottom line the cost vs return just isn't there(bummer)..better off just getting a good pair of scissors. The only way it couldreally work is to have itcut the rubber from both sides at the SAME time. Tosee what I mean take a piece of inner tube and cut out a shape with some scissors...a little tedious but very do-able. Now take the samepiece of inner tube and try to cut out the same shape with a brand new exacto knife...next to impossible and takes three times longer(even though the exacto is much sharper then the scissors)..

shenlonco

My Feedback: (2)

Hi diabolic-mind if i was you i would get some styrine plastic sheet it comes in black get the thickness you want to make a raised traction pad... I would cut little strips of it and use that clear plastic model solvent liquid i believe it melts the tracks so you can use it to fuse together the pads you make... I would put a strip across every other track or so and i bet you will get much more traction... the walkers falt is smooth tracks they don't grab to good for climbing even normal slops on dirt or anything.

diabolic-mind

thanks for the info, i have noticed that the contact area of the tracks is nearly smooth which is the problem with the bulldog. in soft snow it isnt much of a issue as the weight of the snow sinks the trcks down enough for the rough edges to get a bite into the snow, but anything hard like ice and it just wants to sit there spinning the tracks.

diabolic-mind

there is however one small problem. putting a pad of sorts on every other track link will be a problem as it wont turn out to have equal spacing. i counted the track links on the bulldog and both tracks have 73 links. the only options i can see would be either removing one link or adding one link to get an even number. otherwise i would need to put pads on every track link which would be a very time consuming process

afv aficionado

Hi Diabolic
Try this - http://www.chirienterprise.com/Whata...hataLiner.html - you can get a free sample 4oz can, though you have to pay postage, I've used both the non slip & smooth, the smooth looks better, but I suspect that the non sli[p will work best on snow.

I'd  post pics, but still haven't figure out how to do that here. See post 150 here - http://www.hobbyhavoc.com/forum/index.php?topic=725.140

Mal

diabolic-mind

for experimentation sake i took my hot glue gun and put small thin lines across the track pads on the tracks and took it out for a spin. the difference in traction is like night and day. alot of the areas it would sit still and spin the tracks on before it blasted right over. so adding something to the tracks is gonna be a must. as i said before i am going to buy a second set of tracks and have a winter set and a stock set for summer. as far as tracks to use in the summer (grass, dirt, and gravel) would another set of stock tracks be fine or would the metal tracks provide better grip. and if i got metal tracks would it require any upgrades to the tank or can the stock tank just use metal tracks?

SgtPearce

Hey i get my Leo on monday and becouse im just awsome, they are throwing in the VSset of HARDTRACKs and i assume that they are the metal ones, i will run it here in Canada, it is winter here like all the time so ill run the rubber factory tracks first, see how they do with the Leo and depending, ill switch out the tracks to see Rubber vs Metal/Hard tracks, and since i will have both, i will put the hot glue on the hard ones if they are not as good. ill see how it goes and see if i can get a video up, one with rubber one with hard or all in one video.

BIGMIG

Allways ammazzzzed at what guys expect out of these toy model tanks.

There are limits to everything.........Real or toy..........You gain something here,you give up something somewhere else.This applys to allmost anything to do with land,sea,or air vehicles.

You might want to go look up the following as there are some points that help to understand a few things about track vehicles and some other ideas.

Try wikipedia
(continuous track )
(M-29 Weasel )
(Screw-propelled vehicle )

This will give you a little insight on tracks,Rubber pads,and some of the give and take involved with them.

BIGMIG

Here is a little question ? Take your little 1/16 scale tank out to run in 6 inches of fresh wet snow.........what would that equal in depth to a real 1-1 scale tank.?

Saxondog

Russian common winter snow depth of 96"of snow or 8ft. To deep for my King Tiger, we got a grand total of 3" all winter,how about Washington state Big Mig? Drop me a line sometime, regards Saxondog

diabolic-mind

bigmig, im well aware of the limits vehicles have. i am simply trying to make the bulldog grip a little better so that driving it is more enjoyable. for the 100,000 time i am NOT CONCERNED WITH KEEPING TRUE TO SCALE. i cant seem to get that point across to any of you. if i was trying to stick to scale there are a **** load of things i would have done differently. as far as the snow goes i just want to be able to take it out and drive it without it getting stuck. if achiving this means the tank isnt performing to exacting cale standards then i sure as heck dont care. i just want to have fun driving it. im not sure what you and some of the other guys definition of fun is but it would seem to be making it run exactly like the real thing. if thats the case then your all screwed because the real tanks arent electric, and made of plastic. hope this helps clarify things for you, if not ill repeat that i dont give a crap about true scale in yet another message

diabolic-mind

pearce, i wasnt suggesting using hot glue on the tracks, i myself will be removing it from my tracks. i added it just for a single run to see hom much more traction it would give. now that i know i will find a more permanent and better looking means

SgtPearce

roger that diobalic, maybe ill try it on the soft tracks, or hard tracks, depending lol.

BIGMIG

Yes I do understand you are just trying to have some fun running your tank in the snow. Nothing wrong with that,i tried it my self a couple of times without much success as they do not like 4 inches of soft snow.Mabe on snow with a frozen crust they may work great,or at least be able to go more than a foot or two without getting stuck.

Now myself I don't get to concerned with scale when it comes to models.I'm not a real tank operator and have never been in or on one of them.But I have worked with and around cats and owned my own cat over the years and to me a tracked vehicle is a tracked vehicle.They are all designed to do certin things but if they have tracks there are traits that go from one to the other that to me are a given.

Now in real life like I said I'm not a tank operator,but would think a 50 to 70 ton tank would not do very well in snow four feet or more deep.Now a cat with a blade you can keep pushing it off to the side and build a road or trail and continue on.Take that blade off and see how far you are going to go........ Most tracked snow vehicles have two things that are important to their function being weight and width of tracks.

BIGMIG

P.S. I guess one thing that would make a difference would be wider tracks with cleets,more like on a cat.

diabolic-mind

yeah someone else suggested i got a tank with wider tracks. one thing i really would like to get is a kyosho blizzard as they are made for snow and really move through it. i know the bulldog has its limits and im not trying to exceed them, i just want it to have a little more balls in the snow. im thinking for my snow tracks im going to add some small screws to the tracks, maybe 2 small screws per track link, and also thinking of drilling some small holes in them aswell because someone pointed out how the blizzards tracks have big open area that let it sink into the snow for more bite. so that might help too. ans far as soft snow goes if i get into an area where i notice that the tanks belly is leaving a mark as it goes along i just back out of it and find a new area. mainly ive been having alot of fun driving in the ruts from vehicles tires. it makes for a perfect track to drive along in, and the grip that im trying to achive is to tackle and get over some of the thick chucks of snow that are sitting in the ruts. getting over them is tricky but its fun as hell going through a long rough rut and getting to the other end and looking back at the obsticle you just conquered. give it a try with one of your tanks, its really alot of fun!!!