thefog

hi guys i just bought a hl panther with metal tracks and gear box and have had nothing but trouble with it.
i had to dissemble the whole thing heres a list of what was wrong...
loose gear
loose motors (both!)
awful soldering.
metal gears on the rear tank were not even glued! so the tracks fell of first time i started her up.
the cannon wont fire bb's you have to load them from the front to get it to work?.

i managed to fix all the problems and re solder 90% of the wiring but the cannon still wont load from the rear?


anyone else have similar problems or is it just me?

fv432

Hi thefog yep you got a bad one the panther is/was renound for problems and H/long QC is not the best in the world and if you've been here for a while this is not new

that said the quality is better now
and what you are reporting is basically what most go through not good news but at least you got 90% done

the airsoft units are bad and none last past the first 100 shots or so even if you get it to work OTB

all my airsoft units get junked and replaced with custom re-coil units for Infra/Red battling similar to laser quest so i pay mine no attention

what board did it come with TKRX13 or TKRX14 (should be written on the larger circuit board)



Kind regards Rob

YHR

The HL Panther is not a great seller. It is the most out of scale tank they make, and I doubt it has benefitted from the improvements they have been making. It was probably old stock and made some time ago. Everything from the Bulldog forward has been pretty good. When you buy a Panther, you are basicaly buying all the issues we used to complain about.

Did you buy this new. I have never yet bought a new HL that had the metal gears and tracks already installed???? THey always just throw in an extra box that contans the metal parts, and you have to add them yourself.

Nice to see you got it all working again. Are you a newbie to RC tanks???? Just curious.

You might have a some packing foam or something stuck in the tray that holds the BB's. Try vacuuming through the loaders hatch and see if that dislodges something that may be blocking the path. You will probably have to take the turret apart and have a look at the airsoft gun itself. If the BB's are falling into the breach of the gun OK, then you then have to take the gun apart. THere is a little rubber grommet, that is very finicky.IT has to be just in the right amount of compression for your gun to work properely. Sometimes these get dislodged and sit crooked, preventing the BB from leaving the breach.

thefog

hi no idea what board it is .
ive assembled it now and i'd not want to take it apart again because the plastic is so weak i had to loctite some of the screws.
is there any obvious difference between boards?

it came with the metal gearbox and tracks installed.

and yeah in new to rc tanks how did you guess lol.

fv432

the rx14 is supposed to be the better board and in my opinion it wont be the last time you pull it apart

even the tamiya tanks need maintenance repair work from time to time


Kind regards Rob

971wright

Hi There the frog at least you can swop over the upper body the tiger fits on all you have to change on the lower hull is the rear panel then you have a Tiger .


regards pete

YHR

Because it came with the metal tracks installed, you may have more then just Heng Long quality control to be worried about. Every new tank I have bought with metal tracks always comes with plastic tracks installed, and you have to put on the metal ones yourself. I suspect if this one came with the metal tracks, then you may have had someone elses hands on this unit between the Heng long Factory and you. Don't get me wrong the Heng Long Panther is probably the most problematic tank out there, and I am not making excuses for it, but on top of this you might have had some other individual, improving this for you!!!!!! As a matter of fact if the HL Panther was used as an example of Heng Long quality, I might even agree with the Diehard Tamiya guys that all Heng Longs belong in the garbage!!!!!!!!!

You have got it fixed and working, so that looks great on you. You should do fine in this hobby. You have taken the very worse Heng Long has to offer and got it running again. Does this have smoke and sound??? If it doesn't then you really have got the very worse!!!!!!!!!

thefog

it's the smoke and sound version that smoke generator is one noisy little thing.
can you recommend a heng long thats got a good track record ? ive been looking at the panzer iii.

i got the tank from ebay so maybe the seller is modding them himself but he's selling loads with metal tracks installed.

fv432

who did you get it from might be able to tell if they did the work themselves

thanks for pointing out the bit i missed YHR sorry if my first reply was a bit misleading[]

thefog

the guys shop is called netsaveit i think just look on ebay for metal tacks and you will find him.

swathdiver

Typical, Heng Long wants you to experience what it was like to service and maintain a real tank. I think they did an excellent job!

fv432

havent really heard of them and think they are pretty new to the tank world

personally speaking if you got a real good price on it and you dont mind the "fix" issues then you probably didnt get to bad a deal

other people on the bay that ask the money but will probably see you better are Militarymight also a forum member here and a member of our club and forum for brit tankers another is forgebear or pugwash04

most h/long tanks are good ones i personally would recommend are all of them but the panther or pantiger as it's affecionatly known

thefog

i know what your saying gotta admit i enjoyed rebuilding it i'd go for a tamiya if most of my "spare funds" didnt fund my buggy racing...

fv432

your right it's the fun of the rebuild then the upgrading starts and before long you've got your own brigade LOL




Kind regards Rob

angusx

I don't know why all the fuss about the Piger and quality problems. It was my first RC tank and in fact, my second and indeed my third RC tank. Mind you, now I remember that that was because the first 2 broke down within minutes of my getting them.

fv432

PMSL

Panzerfaust77

The Panther is the worst and least popular tank HL make. The design is all wrong. Is it still in production? Sounds like you were unlucky enough to get really old stock. HL have improved leaps and bounds over the last year.

I also bought my Panzer III from netsaveit and had nothing but issues with it. He was on holiday when the auction ended so I had to wait. The guy insisted on using a courier service and the tank arrived broken. I won't deal with him again.

thefog

my tank was lost by the courier so i had to wait a month for him to sort out the claim.
so you can guess how happy i was to find it broken.

gigantohawk

Hi there thefog. I read that you were considering the H/L PZ III. I'm fairly new to RC Tanks and have a H/L PZ III myself and can recommend this as a reliable runner. I've carried out a few upgrades and conversions with success and you will find a wealth of metal upgrade parts available.

Nick.