Metal tracks on carpet or manufactured "hardwood" floors

[barron06]

Definitively a noob question but I want to know if metal tracks will either catch/pull the nap up on berber carpet or scratch mgf floors. I will be running mine indoors in the same way I'm running the my (toy) 1/24 VSTanks. I say toy because, after seeing these HL tanks run, the difference in the movements is night and day. I have plastic tracks on these and they leave no marks. I really want the metal tracks/wheels. I've read about the upgrade metal tracks with rubber pads but that seems kind of maintenance intense. I'm talking only about the (stock) professional level HL tanks - Thanks!

[Rubicon99]

Definitively a noob question but I want to know if metal tracks will either catch/pull the nap up on berber carpet or scratch mgf floors. I will be running mine indoors in the same way I'm running the my (toy) 1/24 VSTanks. I say toy because, after seeing these HL tanks run, the difference in the movements is night and day. I have plastic tracks on these and they leave no marks. I really want the metal tracks/wheels. I've read about the upgrade metal tracks with rubber pads but that seems kind of maintenance intense. I'm talking only about the (stock) professional level HL tanks - Thanks!

Depends on the type of metal tracks and how aggressive their design. Some will and some will not work well on carpet and some could scratch wood floors. Would help to know which tanks you are look at?

[Alpha]

barron06 Good question! As Rubicon99 said, it depends on the tank. Wider, flatter tracks with lower ground pressure will behave better on carpet than narrower tracks with smaller, sharper details. Since you're only asking about the metal tracked Professional Edition tanks, consider for example an Abrams that has smoother pads than, say, a King Tiger. Not only does the Abrams have smoother pads, but its weight is distributed across more surface area, which reduces any scratching it might produce running at high speed on wood floors.

Both of those have track designs with less "holes" to snag in carpet, compared to, say, the Panzer IV. But it should be said that any tank won't like quickly spinning in place on shag carpet. Berber carpet is less of a concern if it's not tall enough to encase the track pads. If it is, then turning while moving forward is recommended.

On average, I'd much rather run a metal tracked tank on the average household carpet than on genuine wood floors.

You're right that any of the plastic tracked Upgrade tanks will never scratch wood floors, and their lower ground pressure makes them ideal for riding on top of average household carpet without sinking in too deeply.

I'm assuming a modern household not a 70s long shag carpet.

[barron06]

Thanks for the feedback guys. You both said the same thing but the details provided by Alpha really drove it home for me.. pun intended. I get it now. Regarding shag, yeah, I figured that would be a non-starter. The "tank grounds" in my house are all tight berber. I seldom run on the mfg flooring, unless I'm bothering my wife.
Rubicon, to answer your Q, I love the M1A2 Abrams, Leopard 2A6 and the Challenger II equally. Because I already have the first 2, the Challenger will probably be my 1st purchase, followed by the other 2.

The track designs on these are indeed smoother than the WWII era versions. From what I can see of the pics/videos, it seems these will behave the same in the indoor environments I mentioned. If I am wrong please advise.

As a side note, I'll be handing my VSTanks down to my grandsons. They are reliable, fun tanks but I believe after driving the HLs, I will simply loose interest in them.

[Alpha]

barron06 "Abrams, Leopard 2A6, Challenger II".... check!