How much and how hard do you play with you tanks? I run mine (KT) weekly some times more.Plus I run my KT quite hard(?) my yard is like a 1/8 scale buggy trade but slanted and teared with tall thick grass and tree fall out.My drive way is "paved" with pea to Quarter sized gravel mostly packed but sum lose and the lot up from me has crushed(very large gravel) rock in it.Oh I have a small creek too.Thats where I run my tanks. I have broken 2 track flats(?) on my KT (old cluch steer).Now how and where do you run your tanks?Oh and who said you had to have all those suspension up grades for a KT to make them reliable?I run a 55t Intgy lathe motor too.Sorry for the rant.

I have had my King Tiger and Pershing now for some time, maybe almost 2 years. I use them on anything except pea gravel. They get stuck in the wheels and tracks and tear sh*t up. I have used them on dirt, standing mud, dead grass, tall grass, snow 'I live in Buffalo NY,' ice, carpet, 20 degree whether, NOT RECOMMENDED, 95 degree whether etc. I have used them in just about any terrain. the King runs better on some stuff than the Pershing. Larger foot print I am assuming. Every thing on my tanks are stock, no upgrades and they run great still. I am very careful not to run into stuff or go into puddles but I also clean them often. Preventive maintenance is key! I also try to avoid pavement as much as possible. I am getting close to puchasing replacement tracks for the King Tiger because of wear and tear. I have purchased spare gearboxes just in case I need to replace the originals, but alas the originals still are in great shape. The best place I have used my tanks was in a construction site. Nice hills, ditches, flats and tire grooves.
All in all, I am very happy with Tamiya's products. If I had to give a con, I would have to complain about the Pershing's stock idler wheel, not much adjustmenst can be made. The cons for the King Tiger would be the stupid pins for the tracks keep backing out and the aluminum barrel is either to heavy or the gun elevation unit is not stong enough to move the gun smoothy. I do not have a fix for the Pershing idler wheel unless I buy the upgrade. As for the pins backing out on the King, I use 'Lock tight' on the pins. The gun elevation unit, I have done some tinkering, some hard to explain, but it seems to have work or at least made the main gun move more smoothly.

The stock Tamiya gun elevation unit is crappy on all the tanks (at least pre-Leo). Needing better reliability on my Sherman for the heavy combat use it's subjected to I went with a direct servo elevation setup.

Having spent as much money and energy as I can rationalize, I try to run my Pershing and Sherman every week at least. I live in Phoenix and have run them on grass and hard packed dirt quite often with no ill effects. The dust and oxidation from the sun light seem to be weathering my tanks quite nicely. I try not to fire the main guns excessively in order to preserve the life of the flash unit; I entertain observers with the machine gun mostly. Sooner or later I will find a good battle and really wring my machines out. I have to learn not to worry about dinging up the details I have added as I run the tanks.

edouble... Come down to AUSTIN TEXAS sometime and Battle with us....We meet Monthly to Battle at the Texas Military FORCES Museum.... at Camp Mabry Texas...Last Battle we had 10-12 tanks running at all times...was loud and fun...we have a "Battle Field" set-up in the court yard of the Armor Museum...we battle on and off from 10:30 am to 3:30 pm on 1st SUnday of each month...
Hope to see you there ... all tankers are invited!!!

I personally run my tanks like H_ll once a month at our Battle Days/./ I recently added an aftermarket KT Idler assembly to my KT as it kept throwing tracks no matter how I adjusted it...But now it is Fixed I have the Tamiya KT, Pershing and SHerman all Battle Ready....and all see combat regularly![>:]

Although I only own the cheap Iwaver model, I've ran it quite a bit since I purchased for short periods of time--basically, it's a cat toy.

I had a track trouble on my KT(cluch steer) heres how I fixed it I just replaced the springs in the "drum" with larger and stronger springs I have had no trouble sence But I did go thrue sevrel sets to fing the one's that worked good..Plus man I run my tank(s) on very rough ground as in my post above.Now after saying that.I belive the idler kits are not needed for the KT BUT mine is an older(1981) cluch steered,1 motored(540 size 55t lathe) tank. Would that make a diffrince??

Exactly how do you "battle"? Just curious.

The inexpensive Iwaver comes in three versions that I know of two of which are air soft and laser type.

i own the vs bb tank...awesome tank!!