Hooben stuff

[quitcherbitchen]

I am interested in the motors. Are there differences between the models?

[DavidN]

The decal set for the ZTZ99 .....

[DavidN]

All three of my tanks are made with strong plastic. They have almost 90% of the accessories on tank already. I did not have to install anything except I will have to do the weathering and the decals.

[tank_me]

Just a heads up. The Hooben ZTZ has a reputation of being really fragile like their Merkava.

Yeah, my Hooben ZTZ burned up it's recoil servo the first time I use the tank. That's why I had to mount that aluminum arm on it to relocate the servo so it would work right. The suspension arms move around a lot as in wobble laterally. I've never taken it on the battlefield as I don't think it will hold up very well. Maybe one of these days I will. I need to try different electronics in it as the TCB doesn't seem to be working with the gearboxes. I get weird driving characteristics, but that's not Hooben's fault. I even put a different TCB in it with the same results.




The idlers mounts were just plastic shafts sticking out of the chassis with plastic on plastic contact for the idler. I also replaced the idler mounts with a T72/T90 type Henntec and added bearing to the idlers.

[Rubicon99]

I trust you understand RichJohnson much better since you met him at tank meets. After I read RichJohnson review of the Hooben Leopard 1A5 and Merkava 4M, he gave me the impression of being very positive about the Hooben tanks, but the opposite is true. It is not just "being careful". It is difficult to read diplomatic reviews.

Hooben does read the post on RCU.com as it is a forum more for the hard core hobbyist and builder (more their audience). RichJohnson has built a relationship with Hooben and they do take his constructive feedback seriously. With Chinese companies it is better to use a softer tone then bitter one no matter how true the information is you are presenting. Otherwise they will not listen to any feedback even if it is helpful. So yes in a nutshell there is a bit of "diplomacy" being used.

Also RichJohnson is a "master builder" and sometimes what is easy to fix or build for him is seemingly next to impossible for others. I often have to remind him of this.

[keilau]

Trust me Rich is being "careful" about what he says about his Merkava issues. He breaks it all the time at battle events and has had to make endless costly upgrades / improvements to keep it running even remotely reliably.

Hooben makes great looking indoor running tanks, but they struggle to hold together when run outdoors in anything but hard packed surfaces.

I trust you understand RichJohnson much better since you met him at tank meets. After I read RichJohnson review of the Hooben Leopard 1A5 and Merkava 4M, he gave me the impression of being very positive about the Hooben tanks, but the opposite is true. It is not just "being careful". It is difficult to read diplomatic reviews.

[Rubicon99]

I read RichJohnson review of the Hooben Merkava 4M at RCU. My impression is that the Hooben is a wellbuilt RC tank with too many details to break off easily. It is fun to work on. I am eagerly waiting to see DavidN reviews of his new possession.

I have the Hooben nylon tracks and sprockets on the Heng Long IDF Merkava 4. I am very pleased with the look and running quality ot the Hooben track.

Trust me Rich is being "careful" about what he says about his Merkava issues. He breaks it all the time at battle events and has had to make endless costly upgrades / improvements to keep it running even remotely reliably.

Hooben makes great looking indoor running tanks, but they struggle to hold together when run outdoors in anything but hard packed surfaces.

[keilau]

Just a heads up. The Hooben ZTZ has a reputation of being really fragile like their Merkava.

I read RichJohnson review of the Hooben Merkava 4M at RCU. My impression is that the Hooben is a wellbuilt RC tank with too many details to break off easily. It is fun to work on. I am eagerly waiting to see DavidN reviews of his new possession. Hooben charges as much for their plastic chassis RC tank as the Mato and Torro do for their metal chassis tanks. Does it tell a story?

I have the Hooben nylon tracks and sprockets on the Heng Long IDF Merkava 4. I am very pleased with the look and running quality ot the Hooben track.

[Rubicon99]

Twin-horse rep made me an offer on these three RTR Hooben tanks that I could not resist. There they were at my house when I came home from work.

Just a heads up. The Hooben ZTZ has a reputation of being really fragile like their Merkava.

[DavidN]

Twin-horse rep made me an offer on these three RTR Hooben tanks that I could not resist. There they were at my house when I came home from work.

[keilau]

Hooben is a small production custom model shop basically. With very typical Chinese business attitude. I communicate with an employee through FB. That is how I get support. I’ve bought two tanks, believe it or not, even after the horrible saga with my Merkava which I really love and have worked in the most of any tank I have to make it run reliably.

Now that I completed the adaptation of the Hooben nylon track/sprocket to the Heng Long Merkava, I fully appreciate your comment on the Hooben Merkava. The Hooben parts did a tremendous job in enhancing the HL Merkava.

On the issue of Hooben's customer service, I received the track in 2 weeks and the sprocket in 7 weeks. In your word, "very typical Chinese business attitude". During that time, I have had no problem communicating with Hooben by regular email.

[Oddball tanker]

If they would get the metal upgrades out for the M4A3E8 Fury, to deal with the plastic suspension issues, I might pull the trigger as I do like the cosmetic work they do on the Master built version. But it needs to have a suspension set up to withstand outdoor use off road. Not just indoor running or hard surface running. Sadly Hooben has a very poor reputation among most tank modeling forums and fb. Between bad or lack of customer service, long promised and not delivered items/lack of essential spare parts, just does not sit well with someone spending a chunk of money on a nice tank. Just cause it looks great on the shelf, "lipstick on a pig" so to speak, does not make a good RC model. There has to be some quality in place, decent availability of spare parts to earn most folks trust and sales.

[keilau]

Hooben is a small production custom model shop basically. With very typical Chinese business attitude. I communicate with an employee through FB. That is how I get support. I’ve bought two tanks, believe it or not, even after the horrible saga with my Merkava which I really love and have worked in the most of any tank I have to make it run reliably.

It is the challenge and satisfaction of trying to make a poorly designed or poorly executed RC tank model work that keeps me in the RC tank hobby.

[RichJohnson]

Hooben is a small production custom model shop basically. With very typical Chinese business attitude. I communicate with an employee through FB. That is how I get support. I’ve bought two tanks, believe it or not, even after the horrible saga with my Merkava which I really love and have worked in the most of any tank I have to make it run reliably.

[Oddball tanker]

I really wish Hooban would have done a better job with the Fury M4A3E8 Sherman. The only "easy eight" on the market without a bunch of modifications to other Sherman models. Long promised metal upgrades to the weak HVSS suspension parts never brought to market, but they still spout off about them on their fb page. Its a shame they cannot consistently step their quality and custom service levels up to something close to Henglong or the other better thought of brands.

[tank_me]

My HL Abrams is using dual 540 motors and runs quite well on those. They are the same gearboxes that DKLM RC sells in their Leo 2A6 all metal chassis except I replaced the longer 550s with 540s as the 550s were too tight a fit for my liking. They are soldered to a Clark TK80 board. The switch has been beefed up to a 20A switch as power is going through it.

[keilau]

550 is a huge motor and really shouldn’t be used in a standard tank tranny.
Where they are useful is in the dynamic transmissions for the drive motor while the turning motor can be a 390 or 480.
typically the largest you really want to use in a standard rc tank would be 390 and higher voltage batteries to combine for a a powerful tank.

Heng Long market 1:16 scale all metal chassis RC tank such as the T-90 here:

The 540/550 series motor may be the right size for the all metal chassis. For typical plastic chassis HL, I agree that a 390 pair is more than sufficient.

[RichJohnson]

550 is a huge motor and really shouldn’t be used in a standard tank tranny.
Where they are useful is in the dynamic transmissions for the drive motor while the turning motor can be a 390 or 480.
typically the largest you really want to use in a standard rc tank would be 390 and higher voltage batteries to combine for a a powerful tank.

[keilau]

So how do you figure out which motor to order? Do 550 need more power? I am using a Clark TK 50 board.

Sorry, I am not qualified to answer that question. I stick with 390 motor for 1:16 scale RC tank.

[quitcherbitchen]

So how do you figure out which motor to order? Do 550 need more power? I am using a Clark TK 50 board.