philipat

Your comment about the way the ratios are described is accurate and has been hashed on this forum a few times. The general consensus has been to refer to them by the number of reduction shafts or gear sets. There are only so many options; so, it works.

Not sure what you mean about the "top down" screws. All of them that I know of, bolt in by inserting the screws through the bottom of the gearbox plate and into the lower hull. They all attach from the inside so that you can have a smooth bottom to the lower hull and add some detailing to the bottom of the lower hull.

RichJohnson

Yes, HL does this with a different hole pattern than the MAto all metal Sherman. I don't know of the Taigen or any other models.

Tamiya tanks, well, the Sherman at least, screw the gear box from the bottom up, opposite of the HL way described above.

Crius

I agree, Rich, and that's why you see me calling them "3 shaft" and "4 shaft" gearboxes instead of 3:1 or 4:1. Check out this video and you'll see how this twisted old hippie looks at the situation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKz1rTDO2qY Philip, I'm installing the V2 4 shaft GBs in this PzIV I'm doing for a customer so I'll get photos and videos for you, instead of having to open up my own PzIV. I've been following your Panzer IV build closely and it's really great work. I'm not adding a lift off top, I'm keeping that kind of "unibody" construction thing they have going on, so I'm not doing all that bracing that you did so well on yours. Of course, that means I really can't open any hatches but I guess it's a trade off. I did move the on/off switch to the side for easy access, though, and I have video. I'll be doing a build thread eventually, so I have a bunch of material collected for that. I found a couple of pretty good tricks I'll share. The first part is already up on my youtube channel.

Crius

Hey, Philip, turns out I do have a video from when I put the 4 shaft boxes in my own PIV (do you think 3S and 4S might catch on? For 3 shaft and 4 shaft? HL3S for High/Low 3 shaft?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyBAZ8qkl-g

Crius

And to get back to the original topic, Rad's Panzer III, here's one from when I put the asiatam steel dual ratio bearboxes with 380 motors in my PzIII. This is a Tauchpanzer but the hulls are the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ1GSdgnjU8

philipat

I remember that video now. It's the brass tubing that I remember. You didn't raise the sprockets. So, they wouldn't work for me. I'll have to stick with the Mato gearboxes since they are the only things that work in my application. Some like 'em and some don't.

Rad_Schuhart

Hi Crius. I took a look to your videos, did you made them? I thought those were Garyīs-Max U(something) videos.

About the Panzer IV, Im using the asiatam lower metal hull, and the sprochet is in correct position (not like que Heng Long, this is rised up about a centimeter) but the bad thing about is that I can only fit the low profile two speed gearboxes, with that tiny motors.


I just added a home made photo of them:

I had no time to test them yet, so I dont know If they will have enought strenght once added all the weight and anyway are very very loud. If the stock heng long motors are 380 this ones maybe 290 or something. Correct me if Im wrong.

Returning back to my old-but-trusty Panzer III, well, Iīll think Iīll follow Richard Johnsonīs route and I may buy those V2 Taigen Gearboxes.

Im very dissapointed with that Mato 4.0 Gearboxes, But still like the good look of them, and the possibility of using larger motors: This is a comparison that I made. The black ones are the asiatamīs low profile gearboxes, the grey is the stock heng long and the red is the upgraded heng long that has TONS of speed and torque.


I dont know, maybe a possibility could be to try those 4:0 gearboxes and if the quality doesn't fit just send it back to the retailer and ask for a refund.

YHR

I have had good luck with Mato V2, which is the brass equivalent with bushings instead of bearings. Out of about 10 GB only one had slop that became an issue latter on. In my case I had the gears binding onto the shafts because the tolerances were too tight.

Also as Ex pat pointed out in another thread, the bearings in place on some of those shafts are not doing anything as the gears spin freely on the shafts, I'll stick with the V2 boxes after reading this,

pedzola

Just wanted to add this, thread i created a while ago with actual gear ratios for a couple different boxes: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-t...gearboxes.html

I found the euro-spec "dual ratio" gearboxes to provide no benefit over standard "3 shaft" boxes. Small motors with barely increased gear ratio. Really dissappointing. In my experience so far the 4 shaft boxes are the only of the standard gearboxes that are worth putting in any tank. The problem is the models they dont fit in...

philipat

@Rad...looking at the motors, the red one looks like a 390, 395 or 480. They're all about the same length and have a lot more torque than the stock 380s. In fact, I have one of each and will be doing some subjective tests with my PzIV to see which I like better. That will take a little while to get to, though.

I considered the Asiatam metal lower when I started my PzIV build. But, it didn't get the best reviews on the European forums with some inaccuracies still there and I couldn't find confirmation that the sprocket height had been fixed. So, I figured I'd stay with a plastic lower hull that would be easier to work with if I needed to fix something. Even with the plastic hull, I found that I could only fit the flat gearboxes if I used the stock motors. I don't think you'll be happy with the power in them. That's what came with my PzIII metal hull and it didn't move it very well, especially not in the grass.

@pedzola...I think the strength of the flat gearboxes is what you already noticed and called out as a weakness. With smaller motors they give the same torque and speed as the stock HL setups. If it can match the performance of a gearbox with larger motors while using smaller motors, then it can outperform those gearboxes if you put bigger motors on them. I have the flat gearboxes in my PzIII with Speed400s and they are awesome! Much better than stock HLs with stock motors or even stock HL gearboxes with Speed400s, especially with the low-end control.

Rad_Schuhart

YHR, yeah I noticed it too, dont know why it has bearings in all the shafts when its evident they have no use... Maybe that's for marketing purposes...

Pedzola: The advantages of the dual ratio gearboxes is they have two speeds, you just need to change the final sprochet and experiment with new speeds and torque, but I agree with you that the smaller motor its a big down for me...

But as far as I know those are the only ones that you can fit on the asiatam's Panzer IV...

pedzola

If the larger motors fit with the "dual ratio" boxes then obviously that would be a benefit. I had these in my euro jagdpanther and found better performance using the stock 3shaft boxes with bigger motors - rs395 motors from banebots just BARELY fit. Would not have worked with the dual ratio boxes. The torque is fine now but unfortunately the big problem is that there is almost no rolling resistance on the 3-shaft boxes, so the tank is extremely difficult to turn. "Super spin" is the only way to turn the tank. (Or maybe im just a poor driver). With my ibu2 i can turn the super spin off entirely, with only 1 track powered the tank drives in a straight line. For me, in addition to greater torque, a big benefit of the 4 shaft boxes is the additional resistance from the improved gear ratio, which means the tank can turn easily - much more controllable.

Has anybody ever come up with a workable tank brake? Really need a worm gear drive or something where the tracks cannot roll unless power is applied.

Rad_Schuhart

About the Asiatam's Panzer IV hull, I must say its ok. The aluminium its very strong, the front rear sprochet and return rollers are correct, and the exhuaust may be the coolest part ever done for a RC tank.

But the no good things are that the upper and lower hull close system is bad designed and you have to do your own system or try to fix it, and the pin holes for the suspension are too small and you have to re drill them.

philipat

The bearings on Mato's boxes are part function and part marketing. The marketing part is obvious. The function part is that the shafts do turn some. I've watched my box working and sometimes the shaft turns. Probably a gear grabbing it. But since the gears don't have bearings, allowing the shaft to spin freely when grabbed by a gear, which is going to happen when allowed to spin on the shaft, it reduces the friction between the bearing and the shaft.

Not sure if that makes any sense...