Fsttanks

Has anyone tried a Fastmike Heng Long "worm" gear drive? If so, what are your thoughts on it? Looking for first hand users not "I heard from a friend" information. I have one and I am looking to see if my findings match other users.

Thanks

Perry S.

I am guessing nobody has one yet. Maybe you could post something up about yours to get this started.

Fsttanks

Trying not to say anything as I was hoping to hear untainted input to compare with. I am still in the process of playing around with mine but so far not impressed with performance. It looks great but looks will only go so far.

Perry S.

Yeah, I guessed you didn't like them by your wording. From what I see on ebay the 3D prints look a little rough but the gears look good. I am considering buying the gearset but not the whole gearbox.Which reduction did you get?

Fsttanks

I opted for the standard gear ratio set up offered that was suppose to closely match the stock HL "3:1". I was looking for more **speed and liked the idea of easy pion changes. Thought I would start at the standard pion to gage a comparison, but the performance was like taking two steps back, not forward. Ran the worm drive in two different tanks using the HL oem receivers and four different motors. The results were the same each time, about a 50% loss of top speed and a huge increase in noise. I can not see moving down a few teeth on the pion just to match the performance I have been able to achieve so far with simple off the shelf mods. Been down the rabbit hole to many times in my R/C hobbies chasing phantoms to know when to quit. For me the worm drives were not the simple solution to achieving a bit more **speed. Now they may be for that someone that wants to through some 500 series motors or something brushless on them and the electronics to match. I will say that if speed is not ones thing then they are not bad, but for the cost there are cheaper more proven solutions.

** Scale speed of 55 mph is my target while attempting to keep the mods simple and straight forward. Currently at a solid scale 45 mph across my modern tank line up. Could be faster but my tanks are a bit heavy from added weights to give them a solid 50/50 balance front to back and thus smoother cross country performance.

RichJohnson

IF you just want to increase your speed a bit. get the Tamiya motors that come with that huge brass gear on them. Gently heat the gear with a tiny torch and pry it off with needlenose pliers. The gear will pop and fly away as there is air trapped inside the shaft hole..
Then put your Hl pinions on the Tamiya motors and your HL will haul butt. I did this to mine with plastic gears, glued the clutches and I use it in IR battle a lot. Its a very reliable tank for me. Its a Sherman by the way.

Fsttanks

Thank you for the insight might look into it after my next experiment. Seems the outer limit for the stock HL receiver is just north of 9.6v. I built up a 9.6v NiMh battery that fits nicely inside the forward section of my "test bed" Abrams (grn one in my gallery). Going to see how long a stock receiver handles the power flow. So far no problems with 8.4v after ten months of hard use. If it burns up the HL receiver well then time for an upgrade LOL.

emmybecca

I think i may know the answer to this, my uncle must know something. Ill get back

Springman65

Well, I know little about its performance; but, the printed parts file seem to be available for free on THINGIVERSE: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2725197

Springman

Perry S.

Dead link for me

Springman65

sorry, try this one:

https://www.thingiverse.com/search?q...75a904f75eeb27

You may have to join to access.....its free.
Springman

Perry S.

Ahh, I see them now. I am already a member there anyway.
Thanks.