Another "new tanker" here, some questions for HL M1A2

[ccarley]

Hey all,

I had no idea what I was getting myself into after thinking it would be a neat idea to take RC tanks camping with us. Although the only set I could order were "toy" tanks, it was a great idea and I've learned a thing or two but there's more to go for sure.

I just received the Heng Long M1A2 and their Sherman (to start... more will be joining us I'm 100% sure of it). I've been a fan of the Abrams since I was a kid after seeing them during Desert Storm and it has been one of my favorite models ever since, so this tank is "mine". Having a wife and daughter though, "mine" is somewhat subjective. Anyway, initial testing was fine with the Abrams (and the Sherman); there are no problems, and everything functions as expected. After charging the batteries and working on both tanks, we of course tested out the IR battling in the house. After a while the Abrams would shut down (without being hit), and some time after it would recover, it completely shut down (no lights flashing). Pulling the battery I found the wires warm; it seems to be pulling some amps to just roll around the carpet. The Sherman has not done this. Ambient temps here were low 70's indoors and out. Both of these models have plastic tracks, and stock motors with plastic gearing.

I already knew there would be modifications on the Abrams in the future, but I'm leaning towards motors & gearboxes first with this trouble. I see a lot of people use the red motors; are they higher turn motors for more torque? Or are they similar but with different gearing? If I'm going to be running this at low speeds outdoors it seems like some more torque would be good and might help with the shutdown issue. I'm sure we'll be going through grass, dirt, rocks, and sand in the future and just want to make it reliable. I still need to figure out what batteries to run but I'm sure that info is here somewhere and I'll be searching for it. I was planning at some point to get the metal tracks with rubber pads, along with the metal sprocket and front idler as well but I think I need to solve this motor issue first.

I will say though overall I'm impressed with both models. I most definitely want to do more detail work on the Abrams but it's pretty impressive out of the box for sure. I'll be studying real Abrams photos to see what I want to do to it.

Thanks,
Clay

[761st]

Clay, welcome to the rabbit hole. These tanks are addicting. I do not have the Abrams but a number of members here do. I am sure they will answer all your questions. I do have a HL Sherman and a Taigen Sherman 76(W). Both are immense fun! Seems they all require maintenance. I find that working on them is easier with beer! Enjoy and post often.

[ccarley]

Thank you, 761st!

I'll be teaching my daughter about the maintenance as well, and she'll be picking out her own soon. Working on them and troubleshooting is about as much fun as running them honestly. I'll be getting photos as well.

Clay

[Sureshot]

The batteries that come with the Heng Long tanks are pretty low quality and the larger tanks like the Abrams will drain them pretty fast.
You might look into upgrading to some larger nihm packs. There are a lot of 3600-3800mah packs with Tamiya connectors available on Amazon.

Steve

[ccarley]

Thanks Steve,

That's my first step, bigger (and more) batteries :) Just like the real thing, the more you make it better, the heavier it gets for sure.






The bustle rack deformity is bugging me for sure, and I've seen others (mostly on Youtube) that appeared the same from the packaging. I have been researching and researching parts and have some bookmarks to go through now that it's here.

Thanks,
Clay

[ccarley]

I think I am seeing some sort of low voltage cutoff... I didn't think that these units had that but maybe the 7.0 board is different. Larger batteries on the way!

Clay

[tank_me]

You could take a heat gun to the bustle...very slowly heating it until you can form it back to where you want it. Personally I would leave it as is. Tanks take a lot of abuse in the field and having bent bustle rack rails is pretty normal. Add a spare Abrams wheel right there, or an Alice pack, or some spare track links and you won't even see it anymore.

[Evan D]

Welcome. "I" have seven tanks though my wife has claimed the Abrams for herself. It is also the "plastic" version with plastic gear box (actually the box is metal and the gears plastic", plastic treads, wheels, etc. We use these LiPo's on all our tanks and the Abrams can run all day on a charge. They fit perfect in the battery box. I have swapped the connectors to T connectors, some call them Deans. Nothing gets hot at all but we run on packed dirt with a few tree roots to go over and some light vegetation. Carpeting as harder on the drive train than out course. I have had zero issues with that tank.

Disclaimer- many will say LiPo's are bad, evil and don't use them and if you don't know how to treat and charge them I can agree. A 2S LiPo is 7.4V at nominal and 8.3, max 8.4 fully charged.

[ccarley]

Thanks for the info Evan. I'm certainly not afraid of LiPo batteries as I also fly electric planes (and nitro now) and have seen first hand what *can* happen. Nothing like running across a field with a fire extinguisher to put out those torches after a plane crashes (although, it wasn't mine but I was the only one who could run). I've ordered something very similar to what you posted so I'm excited to see if the tank runs for more than 10 minutes on a charge.

It could be that the heat I'm feeling is relatively normal. Nothing super hot, just warmer than I thought it would have been but, again, after flying planes, usually there's not a lot of heat unless we're really pushing the throttle.

I haven't found a tank that my wife likes yet (nothing she is excited about anyway) but my daughter loves the Abrams. I'll be seeing what is available for her to choose from so she can have her own as well.

Clay

[cpt.chaos canada]

Hello Clay and welcome, from one freshman tanker to another new tanker that obviously has a whole tank crew of his own.
Getting a part of your Family involved is awesome.
Compliments to your crew. I saw your sherman in the picture gallery thread, it looks great.
CCC

[DavidN]

I have the same Abram tank with steel gears, metal wheels, idlers, sprockets and tracks. It is quite heavy. These are the 2 batteries I use to run it. One was from Toucan Hobby and the other one I bought it from MotionRC.

[DavidN]

Here is my tank. I have just converted it to IR Tamiya protocol battle. I will probably bring it to the battle in San Diego at the end of this month (I hope gas price will go lower a little bit that weekend )

[ccarley]

Looks good DavidN, sounds like you already have the mods I'm looking at doing to mine in the future... with the steel gears, are you still running the original motors? I have a feeling that the big batteries will make a good difference on their own.

Cpt Chaos, thanks for the kind words! The WWII tanks sure can have a lot of character.

Clay

[ccarley]

Ah! I found some info, pretty much what I needed regarding the motors in this thread:

https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc-cars-tanks-trucks-and-more/rc-tanks/236451-red-or-blue-motors

Looks like the red motors and steel gearboxes are the way to go :)

Clay

[Rubicon99]

Ah! I found some info, pretty much what I needed regarding the motors in this thread:

https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc-cars-tanks-trucks-and-more/rc-tanks/236451-red-or-blue-motors

Looks like the red motors and steel gearboxes are the way to go :)

Clay

To get the most from the red 390 motors you should also add the drive shaft support bearings. These help keep the shafts from wobbling which often becomes an issue with the higher speed and torque limits of the red motors. It’s not as big of an issue with the stock 380 motors, but tend to rear its head when 390s and their higher performance limits start to be used. Trust me you will use the higher speed and torque because it’s just a lot more fun.

[ccarley]

Ah, thanks Rubicon99; I'll make sure to add those support bearings to my list for sure. I think I have seen those on ebay?

EDIT - I need to RTFM better. I see the part listed as "Bearing seat assembly of drive shaft", part TK-BSA3918.

I didn't get any photos but I had the Abrams out at our flying field yesterday and had my uncle test drive it. We thought about flying but winds were 10-20 and with the high fog, that wouldn't have worked out (not to mention, it felt very cold). He did some "range testing" with the airsoft BBs and we also found that after a few battery cycles the stock battery was running for 20-30 minutes with no issues; however I now have a large battery in the tank and am stoked to see how it works. I did throw a track while sideways on a hill which put a lot of stress on it at that angle, so certainly not any problem with the running gear in that situation, just driver error.

My daughter still hasn't decided on what tank she wants but yesterday was leaning toward the Leopard 2A6... my uncle is now interested as well and I know he has something in mind but he's not sure what model yet.

You guys down in So-Cal have it pretty well made I've gathered from reading here! I know we have an off-road RC car track locally, and we have an LHS with an indoor car track and rock crawling track, but I don't know about any tank battlefields in the Sonoma County area (yet). It seems though that as more people see these in action there might be more interest.

Clay

[sclui56]

ccarley If your model is running 6.0 or 7.0, HL did not update the manual, the TK-BSA3918 referenced is for the older hull, on the current productions, you will need only the bearings like these (8x12x3.5) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1

[ccarley]

Oh thanks sclui56, this is the 7.0 version. That's awesome info!

Clay

[robert1488]

i think it is such a shame that these tanks need maintenance right out of the box. people spend hard earned money and should receive a much better product. but damn, they do look nice. my Tiger lasted 3 runs, and very light ones at that. i'm going back to the old school plastic army men and evel knievel toys. maybe some KISS dolls. HL tanks are garbage.

[ccarley]

Honestly, I wouldn't say any upgrades were *needed* out of the box. I do plan on running this tank outdoors though, through dirt, rocks, sand etc. and I know that down the road upgrades will help keep it reliable.

My problems really don't necessitate any upgrades or fixes:
-The battery needed a few cycles before I got good run time out of it. The bigger battery though adds a lot more runtime and weight which help traction.
-One track came off the sprocket on a side hill, totally operator error.
-Bearings will be good but not necessary for just running around.
-Original motors, gearboxes, etc. are just fine for most situations so far.

I think the only downside is that out of the box, the figure is unpainted and not exactly a modern soldier; he does look like he belongs with the WWII tanks (same guy came with the Sherman I ordered). To me this is not a big deal at all.

I had started with a set of tanks from Amazon that, well, would be delivered before a camping trip I had a while ago. I thought about it too late and no Heng Long tank would have arrived in time. I needed to have more patience, as the Heng Long tanks would have been (and are) much better. These other tanks are not really scale, no proportional control, and all have the same chassis with different bodies along with the same diesel engine sound. They do not have the ability to IR battle either. The M1A2 had a motor burn up after a couple weeks; it likely could be replaced but was more toy grade with no listed parts replacements. Although I was bummed the day the motor burned up, it gave me a great excuse to get the HL M1A2. I will say that everyone had fun with the "toy" tanks while camping though.


Clay