Fsttanks

airplanedriver

[QUOTE=Fsttanks;12440021]

RichJohnson

Brian, what I think he means is this was his discussion of opinions of what gear boxes may best be suited for setting up his m41. Lots of people will by pass the thread, and some that have already read it or posted an opinion will not come back so you wont get the exposure to your questions you would with your own thread wit a correct title. And as for help, the rc shops are not much help with tanks especially if they are stock HL or Taigen or if they have been upgraded with after market boards because they know nothing about this stuff. This forum is the major help for most of us but some basic knowledge is needed and it appears you do have the experience.

Henglong plastic gears are a 29:1 ratio if I recall from when I was counting and tabulating gear ratios. Henglong also has the all metal set which is just cast zinc gears. Ebay offers various upgrade gear boxes some with steel gears some pot metal so you need to be careful. The best bet is to go to taigen and buy the gearboxes there. They have the 39:1 aka3:1 and the 89:1 aka4:1 types all steel with bearings.
I hope this helps you out.

Crius

I tend to agree with Brian. That was pretty arrogant for someone who's still a new guy himself. And just so you know, you cannot delete this thread. Only a moderator can do that. You could go back and delete all of the posts that you added to this thread, and I kind of hope you will because I've seen guys get banned for that kind of behavior. The bottom line is, if you can't speak to the guys on this forum with courtesy and respect then you need to keep your mouth shut. We've got enough trolls here already as it is.

Fsttanks

Calling me a "new guy himself" that is not really different than my "directness" in responce to Brian. It could be looked at as being arrogant, showing a lack of courtesy and respect on your part as it has underlying tones of basing experience on high post counts, just saying. Don't worry I did not take it that way. Just pointing out you did exactly what you advised me not to do.

Crius

You've only been a member here since February. That's just a fact. You showed a lack of courtesy and respect to Brian and got treated in turn. I stand by what I said. If you can't speak to people here with courtesy and respect, keep your mouth shut.

Fsttanks

Thank you for your input it is clear you judge experience solely by numbers of thread posts and the more one has the more important and knowledgeable they must be. You have a lot of posts, well over 2000, but not one photo of your tanks in your gallery. I find that interesting for someone with so much experience like you?

I guess we can agree to disagree about what tone is appropriate and when. "Brian" was starting to "ramble" (his word) about non thread topics, was rude and showed a lack of courtesy toward me as the "thread starter" for recommending he should start his own thread. So following your line of thinking above since he "showed a lack of courtesy and respect" I simply was direct with him. I would ask you to also heed your own words of "courtesy and respect" as it seems like it is ok for you take pass on them. A point which you have made so evident in your last few posts.

Crius

First, had you not gotten rude with Brian I never would have said a word. Second, post count has nothing to do with it. You're a rookie for one year in most sports, and most people apply that same timeline here. You displayed your ignorance when you threatened to delete the thread, which is not possible for you, only a mod can do that, which most of us that are not new guys already know. I've been watching you since you joined, and not liking what I've seen, but didn't say anything because I don't speak if I don't have something good to say ... unless it's a case of someone jumping on a guy like Brian, as you did. I didn't start this, but now I'm finished with it. I've said what I had to say and it's done.

As for the gallery, with close to 800 subscribers and over a thousand tank videos posted at my youtube channel, I choose not to use the gallery.

airplanedriver

Never meant to be a cause of consternation among the members here........My apologies.

I had just hoped to find some information that has eluded me in such a rarified atmosphere......compared to virtually any other facet of the R/C hobby, tanks are a very small percentage, with operating systems equally limited.

I had hoped one "in the know" would enjoy sharing their knowledge.

I will just do what I know......install a modified version of Kyosho's worm drive gearbox, 540 motors, and dual esc's, all through a Clark board, using my Spectrum Dx7 designed for aircraft with a matching receiver.

I KNOW that will work........plus I will not be limited by motors, pinion size, and thus can adjust my gearing simply and quickly, at will.

Never was much of a group think guy I guess.

All help here has been much appreciated.

Thanks,

Brian

maillemaker

This thread seems to have moved from gearbox recommendations to full modification recommendations.

I know what you are asking for - a good "turn key solution", but unfortunately, there isn't one, other than dropping $500+ on a high-end ready-to-run tank. And in the end, you'll end up spending more than that trying to figure it out yourself.

I've been dabbling with RC tanks for a couple of years now. I buy only Heng Long tanks. I've got 2 Jagdpanthers, a Sherman, and a PIII. The PIII is a fixed-crystal, ABC channel radio with no smoke and no sound. The Jagdpanthers are RX18 units (I think) with removable crystals. They have (had) smoke and sound. One tank has plastic tracks, another has metal drive/idlers and metal tracks and Imex gears. The Sherman is all plastic with 2.4 GHz radio.

I'm in the middle of rebuilding the Sherman. I got an IBU2 Base board, and TARR smoker. I'm doing a full custom paint job/rebuild.

If you are looking for a "turnkey" package suggestion of how to custom build a tank, there isn't one. It's all very confusing to me. I delayed buying anything for a long time because I didn't know what to get (it's called "decision paralysis" - it happens when there are too many choices). Finally I just bit the bullet and bought some stuff so I could figure it out as I went.

There are numerous control board choices. You've got Elmod, Clark, IBU, and Open Panzer, just to name a few. There may be others. Then some of the brands, like IBU, have different flavors, like IBU, IBU2, IBU2 Base, IBU2 Pro. Clark has TK22, TK24, etc. etc. etc.

What's the difference between them all? Which ones are "best"? I have no freaking clue and I've been reading along here for a couple of years.

Some provide better support/compatibility with different kinds of IR weapons systems. I don't do IR battles so I never worried about that. Some have built in control circuitry for motors, others require separate controllers for motors (ESC boards). Some have built in sound capability, others do not. Some have programmable sounds, others do not.

If you want to get into building your own tank internals from the ground up, basically, you will need to research and consider the following things. Take all this with a huge grain of salt because I feel like I have only the vaguest of understanding of these things.

Transmitter
It's going to be 2.4 GHz. Some are programmable "stand alone", others you have to hook up to a PC to program. Others may not be programmable at all. The more channels the more money and the more options you have. I bought a HobbyKing "generic" 6 channel radio for my Sherman project. You need to buy a separate cable to program it with a PC. Also, not all transmitters have a "return to center" stick. You'll need to research and understand the difference between Mode 1 and Mode 2 transmitters.

Receiver
Your transmitter needs a matching receiver, and the receiver needs to work with whatever control board you are going to use.

Control Board
This is the "brains" of the tank. It usually provides sounds out to a speaker, but not all control boards do. They are sometimes programmable to provide different driving performance characteristics, like slow start up and slow down, to simulate the inertia of the tank. Sometimes control boards directly wire to your motors, as they have ESC (Electronic Speed Control) circuitry built in. Other boards require separate ESC boards.

Speaker
Lots of choices and people go to a lot of trouble making custom speaker boxes to try and get the coolest sound.

Smoker
The TARR smoker seems to be one of the best out there. The Heng Long smoker won't work for very long, and I've tried some other aftermarket ones and they seemed to be just re-worked HL smokers and I was not impressed with them either. With the right control board you can get "proportional smoke" that produces more smoke with increased sound/engine speed. Makes it look like a real engine is operating in your tank.

Gun
Heng Long only makes BB tanks nowadays. If you want to do IR battling you will need to figure out who's system you want to be compatible with (Tamiya, etc.) and figure out how to wire it all up. I haven't paid much attention to this since I'm a solitary tanker. Some people go to great lengths to make custom gun arrangements that provide realistic barrel recoil.

Gearboxes
Many HL tanks come stock with plastic gearboxes. These often have built-in slip clutches that prevent over-torque and gear stripping. These work pretty well in lighter tanks like the Sherman, but the clutch will slip a lot with heavier tanks like the Jagdpanther. If you want to run metal tracks, you will want a metal transmission. Beware the Heng Long zinc (pot metal) gearboxes. They will wear out in weeks. Various folks make steel geared boxes and they work well. The whole "gear ratio" thing is a giant can of worms. Somehow people started calling these 3:1, 4:1, etc. etc. when this has no bearing on the actual gear ratio of the transmission. Personally I hope I'm able to sort speed issues by programming the IBU2 rather than worrying about the gear box "ratio". If you want to go real custom you can get one of those ETO Armor transmissions with the billet frames. They cost as much as some Heng Long tanks but they are said to be bulletproof.

Tracks
Metal looks cooler than plastic. With metal tracks you'll probably want metal drive and idler wheels.

Track Tensioner
These are nice as they let you adjust the right visual amount of "sag" in your tracks without playing with adding/removing links. With some tanks that are prone to throwing tracks they could be considered essential.

-------------

Each one of the above things often has multiple options to choose from, and the choice you make for one thing can dictate your choice of options for another thing. And everyone does theirs a little different. So trying to get someone to recommend a "package" that you can just go buy and use is very hard. And really if you want a "turn key" solution you're probably better off dropping $500-$900 on a RTR high-end tank like an Imex or something where all of the integration of the different systems has been done for you. Honestly you will probably end up spending at least as much money trying to do it yourself.

Here's a great example:
Taigen Tiger 1 Late Verison (Metal Edition) Infrared 2.4GHz RTR RC Tank 1/16th Scale

$690 for a nearly all-metal tank with metal tracks, all metal wheels, metal suspension, has recoil, smoke, sound, 2.4Ghz radio, and more.

Now, you can buy a Heng Long Tiger 1 for $200. But if you start pricing out all the above upgrade options, you will discover that you will very quickly start approaching the $700 of just buying the ready-to-run. Not to mention that you then have to figure out what pieces to buy to work with what and hope you buy the right stuff the first time. I buy mine in pieces mostly to keep the cost of the tank under the radar with my wife. I'm like Johnny Cash building his Cadillac "one piece at a time".

Steve

Crius

Steve, that was really excellent. That post by itself could almost be a sticky.

You've also given me an idea for another video. I think I'll put one together on just what Brian was asking about, complete package systems. Let me give it some thought, and I'll hook up a video and start a new thread.

Again, excellent job, Steve, and thanks for taking the time to put all that stuff together.

Fsttanks

Your use of name calling and that you think time on a site with high post counts equals experience shows your weak position. You don't like what you see me posting because it challenges the your image of the status quo, thats actually good to hear. Means I am doing "out of the box" things and after seeing some of your videos it's a good thing I am. Don't like what I do with my tanks, then simply don't stop by my threads and read them.

The wording I used for removing this thread was "theoretically delete" which indicates there could/should be a way. It might require me to ask a moderator, but as the "thread started" or OP simply asking to do so on most forums will achieve this end.

As far as "jumping" (your word not mine) on Brian I did not, I was direct in my response based on the disrespect I felt he showed to me at the time. In all this it seems I have hurt your feelings not Brian's.

I still find it interesting that you have time for "over a thousand" youtube video postings and well over 2200 posts here on this site, but choose not to post even one photo in this forum's gallery.

Thank you for this spirited conversation I have enjoyed it and look forward to your next post here where you once again show your hypocrisy.

maillemaker

I can't tell if this is sarcasm or honest disbelief or what.

Gary (Crius) has hundreds upon hundreds of great tank videos on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH8...cUvfflQ/videos

The gallery kind of sucks (you can't open multiple pictures in multiple tabs because of damn javascript) so it's no surprise to me that people would not use it. I tried perusing it a few weeks ago to get some Sherman ideas and found it painful to navigate.

Besides if a picture is worth 1000 words then a video is worth 10,000.

If you want to learn something about tanks around here Crius is one of the most knowledgeable.

Steve

Crius

Thanks for the support, Steve. I'm all done with that guy. Let him do his thing. Some people you just can't talk to.

Fsttanks

maillemaker

I don't know how an embedded video is any less helpful for the "visual content of this forum" than an embedded picture would be.

But anyway, when people go to the effort to expend hundreds of hours of their time making tutorial and entertainment information for others, it's great.

Personally, I never upload content directly to any of the forums I frequent on any topic. I either use imgur for images or I use YouTube for videos. Then I embed the URLs in posts. It saves storage costs for the forum operators and it makes it easy to share the content in other places.

Steve

Tanque

mixtli

I purchased 3 tiger 1/16 level 4 from Torro and have been reading about the Waltersons upgrades (motors and gearboxes) but I can't understand what the difference is in 1:3 vs. 1:4 or 5... can anyone explain as if I was a 4th grader!? Does anyone recommend the upgrade? I'd like it to be fast but don't want to loose too much torque. Other upgrade recommendations?
Thanks

Perry S.

Read post #7 in this thread

Fsttanks

FAST? With the 4:1 your tank WILL be much slower than with a stock 3:1 gearbox. If you want slightly faster than stock yet with a little more torque look at the Taigen 3:1 gearbox with their 380 black can motors. The Taigen 3:1 gearbox ratio is slightly lower than Heng Long/Taigen/Torro "basic" gearboxes. The Taigen 380 motors have slightly more torque and higher RPM ratings. Running at the stock 7.2 volts the Taigen will give you a better combination of low speed handling yet a faster top end speed over a basic stock one. If you bump the volts up to 9.6 which the HL/Taigen/Torro MFUs can handle you'll see even better all around performance from either the stock or Taigen gearbox motor combinations especially if have or plan to upgrade to metal tracks.

In my HL M41 that is mentioned in this thread at the start I ended up going with the Taigen 3:1 with their black 390 motors (had a need for even more power do to heavy metal/rubber padded tracks) running at 9.6 volts. It has proven an excellent performance choice. Faster than stock yet with much better low speed handling.

If you choose to move up to 9.6 volt you will need to remove or modify your battery box to make space, something many of us do.

mixtli

Thanks so much, very helpful! 9.6 is no problem with the stock ESC? The Taigen 3:1 380 or 390 is an option as well? Better than the Waltersons? MFU is the sound card?
Sorry for all the questions... really appreciate your time

Fsttanks

MFU = Multi Function Until (the receiver)
9.6v should not be an issue. If you are concerned then only go up to 8.4v which will provide a mid point in performance between 7.2 & 9.6.
380 motors unless the Tiger has room for the 390 motors which are a bit longer. I don't have a HL/Tiagen/Torro Tiger (all the same base tank) to give you a for sure answer.

tomhugill

The taigen 3 shaft gearboxes I have are exactly.the same gear ratio as HL. They have steel gears, different motors and bearings instead of bushes on the output shaft but that's the only difference.

Fsttanks

Thank you for your input.

pcsguy88

Digging this thread up from the grave.

So you are telling me I could have just put a higher volt battery in our tanks all these years or is there a certain version where this begins? Most of mine were upgraded to 2.4 RX18 a few years back. Before then you had to install a fan just to keep the HL boards from smoking under the strain of metal tracks.

I have a Leo 2 with v2 4:1 390’s on an rx18 that I’d love to give more speed to without losing the low end grunt. The v2 3:1 380 is in my Abrams. Just toss in a 9.6v or 8.4v and my tank runs faster?