Heng Long Tiger 1 Road wheel upgrade

[DevilDog77]

Need some help from wiser and more experienced folks. Tried the search function but didn’t find any prior posts addressing this issue.

I am trying to upgrade my daughter’s Tiger 1’s road wheels from plastic to metal but am running into issues at each step.
1st. Ordered Mato road wheels only to find the stock ankles don’t fit as the diameter is to big
2nd Ordered Mato axles only to find they are fine pitch threads and the original are course pitch and don’t thread into the HL suspension arms.
3rd Ordered Mato suspension arms (black) only to find the holes are square and no threads. Contacted the seller and they are saying per the factory just force them through by hand. This makes no sense to me. Seams like a good way to damage parts.

Where did I go wrong? Am I missing something. Getting frustrated and tired of throwing money at the problem with no progress being made. Could really use some help

Thanks

[tank_me]

A lot of times there are differences in the way things are mounted from manufacturer to manufacturer. I have found this out the hard way in a lot of cases. For a KV-1, the Taigen gearbox shaft length is different than the HL so if upgrading you need to use HL metal parts with HL and Taigen metal parts with Taigen. For the T-34 and KV-1 the road wheels from HL don't mount the same way as the Taigen wheels so you need to use HL with HL and Taigen with Taigen. A lot of the idler wheel shafts are different sizes for similar tanks from different manufacturers. The HL Sherman VVSS suspension mounts differently on the Taigen than on the HL. As you can see it's pretty common that parts from one manufacturer don't fit another.

Bottom line...unless you know for sure someone else has done it, it is better to use the upgrades from the same manufacturer as your tank.

[DevilDog77]

I am discovering this the hard way. Silly me figured road wheels were road wheels.

I do appreciate the input.

[761st]

DevilDog - Ben there, still doing it. It's kinda like thinking Victoria's Secret will fit your just because your GF says so.