rivetcounter

February 2009

I have decided to add the Xion “Professional upgrade kit” http://shop.xion.de/SDKFZ-222/223-an...de-KIT::8.html and a larger 280 motor (not supplied by Xion) to my 222 project reasons for this are with the motor to give more power and torque this will help with the off road capabilities and with the Xion “Professional upgrade kit” metal gears through out to help with reliability, over a short period of time the standard plastic gears are bound to fail.
Contacting Xion I found they where helpful and have a fast turnaround I was also informed that all new 222/223 kits supplied direct from Xion have the “Professional upgrade kit” as standard in the kit, a few days latter DHL delivered the kit.


What’s in the box
The kit is comprehensive with 23x metal parts 2x allen keys and 2x new plastic frets with 4x new wheels plus all the other parts such as MG34, lights, hooks, hinges ETC these are for the spares box.

Parts list
2x Mllen keys
1x Steering bush
1x New mount for 280 motor (3x parts)
4x Drive axles with bevel gears to replace GA3 +GA4
3x Metal gear for the gear box
4x Drive shaft joints
4x Knuckle joints (8x parts total)
4x New wheels (Plastic)

On closer inspection of the metal parts they are all CNC machined the new ball joints and drive shaft joints are a vast improvement over the standard cast items and will add to a smoother drive any part that requires either an allen screw or a grub screw has one supplied in the kit.

rivetcounter

Fitting the parts
This is just a simple case of stripping down the Vehicle to get at the gearbox and the axles once they where off the vehicle I started on the gearbox first by removing the standard parts adding the bearings and making sure that everything lined up correctly once this was done out came the gears to fit the new motor this just needed the help of my friend the dermal and slightly opened the circle for the motor to fit correctly once this was done everything was cleaned before I greased the gears and reassembles the casing at this point you need to connect the new driveshaft joints these are the thinnest pair I used Tamiya tread lock on the grub screws so they don’t come loose this done the gear box was installed back in the 222 next was the axles these where striped out came the old drive shafts in went the new shaft’s with new bearings these where lined up correctly so as there is neither too much or too little slack on the bevel gears making sure that everything is free moving without too much binding of gears once you are happy grease and reassemble don’t forget the new drive shaft joint these are the fattest pair and also the new ball joints before I replaced my axles I installed the steering bush to take out any slack or wobble in the steering column then in went the axles and drive shafts then it’s time for the new wheels these have been changed from the original Hex drive that wasn’t the best fit and could easily strip the hex the new wheels and knuckle joints are an oblong shape and a firm fit with no chance of wearing so on they ent without painting, before I re assembled everything I tested the lower chassis the 222 ran smoothly with no binding what so ever so I re assembled the rest of the 222 the whole job from start to finish took less than 1 Hour and made a vast improvement.

rivetcounter

Conclusion
The kit cost’s €99 and is a vast improvement over the original parts especially in the axles the standard gears where the crown type this was a bad design and would probably wear out quickly the new gears are bevelled this is a vast improvement helping transfer the power more efficiently, all the parts went into position without modification and apart from adjusting the bearings slightly the installation was hassle free.

Thanks to
Xion for the fast delivery http://shop.xion.de/index.php

Next
Well this build will continue I want to add the Xion PE kit and give the 222 a repaint I also want to add a slower servo for the turret rotation and a servo slow to slow the turret even more as it is it’s way too fast, I will also be building the Xion AD Kettenkrad and the 223 .

blitzkrieg65

Looking really good Rivetcounter and good to see they have fixed the drive! I look forward to some video of yours cruisng around!!!

For those who have armored cars and you want to RC yours, you can get the ESC boards X22 and the motor from me! Sound blaster also works with this board!



The Blitz

RCTankWars.com

skosti

Cool, Nice report and a really nice model. where did you get the ammo belt for the MG. Does someone sell them or did you scratch it. if so how about a few words and photos on how you did it.

firenick

I'm glad to hear the upgrade kit is finally out. I stopped work on mine because of stripped gears in the axles. I had installed a gear reduction unit on the motor and I guess it was a little too much torque for the thin plastic gears. The machined parts are also a nice bonus. I had heard a few months ago about the upgrade kit but thought it was only going to be the gear sets. Thanks for the info.

Nick

rivetcounter

The MG belt is Dragon the gurt sack is scratch built from milliput by just rolling the sticking to a 5mm square piece of 3mm plasti card to give a flat top I then shaped the milliput to an odblong shape to represent a gurt sack .

Nick, I can thoroughly recommend this upgrade so much so I have bought a 223 and this upgrade will go straight in from the beginning of the build