TD M60 A3 review.

[tank_me]

Can't wait for mine to arrive!!!

Me either. Got a tracking number yesterday for mine...

[keilau]

Coolban Wang is not really involved at this point it's all TongDe now. They are working at improving the tanks and doing so at light speed for the tank industry. Soon enough we will have other distributors with cheaper shipping options.

TongDe is a small fabricating factory for model airplanes and tanks. They might have made some of the Heng Long models, but not exclusively.
Shantou Tongde Craft Products Co., Ltd.

Coolbank Wang has a studio to design 1:16 scale RC tanks. It is not clear whether Wang works forTongDe as a design development consultant, or TongDe work as a fabricating plant for Cool Bank. Shantou is a small city in southern China. Neither TongDe nor Cool Bank has the Heng Long marketing network. RC tank is a very small market in the small RC industry. I hope that Tongde manager and Wang can work together to make their tank product a success.

Looking at the TongDe product pictures, I got the impression that they do not have the expertise to make accurate model, plane or tank. It will be a huge mistake for them to get rid of Wang.

[Rubicon99]

TongDe is a small fabricating factory for model airplanes and tanks. They might have made some of the Heng Long models, but not exclusively.
Shantou Tongde Craft Products Co., Ltd.

Coolbank Wang has a studio to design 1:16 scale RC tanks. It is not clear whether Wang works forTongDe as a design development consultant, or TongDe work as a fabricating plant for Cool Bank. Shantou is a small city in southern China. Neither TongDe nor Cool Bank has the Heng Long marketing network. RC tank is a very small market in the small RC industry. I hope that Tongde manager and Wang can work together to make their tank product a success.

Looking at the TongDe product pictures, I got the impression that they do not have the expertise to make accurate model, plane or tank. It will be a huge mistake for them to get rid of Wang.

I can't say more then the replacement consultant makes Wang look like an amateur in every aspect. Give TD a little more time and they will be to at least to HL detail levels soon. They also have a few more tanks do out this year that are said to be easily at HL detail levels and more like Tamiya in engineering. Hope it's all true 🤞🤞.

[tank_me]

I'd like to see that Bradley they are working on.... :)

[keilau]

I can't say more then the replacement consultant makes Wang look like an amateur in every aspect. Give TD a little more time and they will be to at least to HL detail levels soon. They also have a few more tanks do out this year that are said to be easily at HL detail levels and more like Tamiya in engineering. Hope it's all true 🤞🤞.

TD definitely have a lot more resources and capital than Wang. I will count on you to monitor how well TD product improves. Tamiya engineering at HL price!! I like that.

Recent activity at ebay and Amazon are not looking good. Some off brand TD product prices went way, way up above the Cool Bank level. Which makes them non-competitive with Heng Long.

[keilau]

A few updates. The M60 continues to run well and I have a few new parts from JVM3Dconcepts for the M60 to show. If you are interested in one or both contact me via a PM.

First the are the replacement torsion bar "lock down covers" these are made of engineering resin which is rather strong material.

How soon do you think that the revised replacement torsion bar "lock down covers" will be released.

[Rubicon99]

How soon do you think that the revised replacement torsion bar "lock down covers" will be released.

I have a modified test version in now (basic resin not special resin) for fit testing. Once I check the fitment and it works well, I will let them know.

Although I can't get it in the tank for a few more day as I am out of town right now. Once I give them the thumbs up, its just a matter of when it can be slotted in their print schedule with other items using the same specialty resin mix. I would not suspect that will be very long as I have seen their orders for a bunch of "Nerf" shooter parts that use the same resin. Don't ask, upgrade high performance "Nerf" shooters are a big thing out there, I googled it.

I need a set of the modified right side covers too for my A2 hull, so I will be a squeaky wheel for all of us. I would rather have the covers done right vs fast.

[keilau]

Thank all of you awesome tankers so much. I feel a lot more comfortable about my purchase now. Seems like I'm experiencing the rule instead of the exception. Thanks Much, I'll keep ya'll posted. In the mean time I'll keep posting on our YouTube channel. We're having a lot of fun and it is good to be back taking my playing with tanks more seriously.

Are you waiting for delivery of the ordered M60?

[Grandpa53]

Yes, the delivery date they quoted was Jun 2nd to Jun 26th. The have issued me a tracking number also. That's a pretty wide window so I hope it's closer to the earliest date. I just looked at the tracking and it claims it has shipped. So we'll see what that means.

[keilau]

I ordered the TongDe metal gearbox at US$76 from DKLMRC. Hope that DKLM has the gearbox on hand. The Hong Kong Postal Service used to be very efficient, but I have not ordered from HK for a while.

I just received the TongDe metal gearbox from DKLMRC today. It looks like a complete airtight sealed box of good mass. I am very impressed. I will start the gearbox upgrade now and do the sprocket and idler wheel later.

While waiting for the delivery of the TD metal gearbox, sprocket/wheel, I take an inventory of my 380 motors. I used to have a bunch of Tamiya380 around, but now have only one left. I also have a pair of Torro Black 380 which are leftover from my Pershing project.

I test the Black380 for the first time since I acquired them with the Torro Series 2 ball bearing gearbox (for the Pershing). To my disappointment, the Black380 runs at 15400 rpm when powered by 8.0 volts battery. By comparison, the one Tamiya380 runs at 19500 rpm. No, it is not a typo. I am ordering more Tamiya380 to get a matched pair. The Tamiya380 had been my favorite since it runs much cooler than the HL380 (by 20 degrees F).

I ordered 5 more Tamiya380 to make a total inventory of 6. I finished the motor rpm speed test just today. I have 2 of the Tamiya380 running just over 20,000 rpm, 2 at 195oo, 1 at 18400 and 1 at 16800. You can guess which 2 will go on the TD M60 with a scale speed of 32.8 mph. I did the test with a Lithium Ion pack at 8.0 volts.

[keilau]

In recent days, the sale of Tongde RC tanks had all but disappear from ebay and Amazon. BangGood still shows a few. The COOLBANK Model M60W Magach3 1/16 2.4G RC Main Battle Tank Patton Smoke Sound Recoil Shooting LED Light Simulated Vehicles Models RTR Toys is listed at $254 and free shipping. The M60A1 just a few dollars more. Price is ok, but the tank is shipped from China. BangGood promised 3 weeks delivery. They used to use DHL which is fast and secure. But I will verify that before putting down the money.

[tank_me]

That's typical. They are probably starting to run out of the initial production run. Eventually they will start up another run depending on whether or not they run their "new" tanks in between. These companies don't just constantly produce parts for the the same tanks. Heng Long was saying last year that they will be doing four production runs a year, but I'm sure their production run is more parts than TongDE does in a run.

[keilau]

Banggood do not sell Tongde tanks. Search for "coolbank" brand at their site. I still don't know who is the legal copyright owner of the US Patton M60 RC tank in 1:16 scale. A fight between Tongde and Cool Bank Wang may lead to the end of this tank line.

As I observed earlier, Tongde use cheap material in their product runs. For example, they use zinc plated soft iron screws while Heng Long use chrome plated steel screw. This morning, I stripped one of the motor mounting screw on the gearbox while removing the TD motors. I always keep my tools prestine so worn tool is not the problem. Just pay attention when you upgrade a Tongde tank.

[Rubicon99]

Banggood do not sell Tongde tanks. Search for "coolbank" brand at their site. I still don't know who is the legal copyright owner of the US Patton M60 RC tank in 1:16 scale. A fight between Tongde and Cool Bank Wang may lead to the end of this tank line.

As I observed earlier, Tongde use cheap material in their product runs. For example, they use zinc plated soft iron screws while Heng Long use chrome plated steel screw. This morning, I stripped one of the motor mounting screw on the gearbox while removing the TD motors. I always keep my tools prestine so worn tool is not the problem. Just pay attention when you upgrade a Tongde tank.

The M60 tank designs are owned by TongDe not coolbank. He is/was only a consultant not the designer. In fact much of the design inspiration used was taken from the 1/16 DKLM M60. Now if they had only copied the same level of detail that would have been great.

Interesting about the gearbox mounting screw issue you had. Both my M60 have had their metal gearboxes removed and reinstalled a number of times now and so far 🤞🤞I have had no screw issues. I do wish they had used screws with a better thread pattern and a deeper tap into the gearbox wall. I expressed this concern and was insured it would be looked at further. Time will tell if they decide to change the screws and tap depth.

[keilau]

I just received the TongDe metal gearbox from DKLMRC today. (i.e. Thursday) It looks like a complete airtight sealed box of good mass. I am very impressed. I will start the gearbox upgrade now and do the sprocket and idler wheel later.

I just received the metal sprocket/idler wheel from DKLM. It took exactly 2 weeks compared to the 3.5 weeks for the gearbox.

I ordered the metal gearbox based on @Rubincon99 review. Then decided to add the metal sprocket/idler wheel when I start working on the M60 myself. I will decide on whether to order the metal track or a spare plastic track later. @Rubincon99 seems to favor the later.

[keilau]

I replaced the TD motors with a pair of the Tamiya380 on the gearbox. The motor were really screwed on tight to the gearbox case. I already noticed that TD used cheap screws (M2.5) for the motor mounting. I still stripped the philips head of the 4th screw. It took me a 3 hours battle to remove this screw from the motor. I mounted the tamiya motors and reassembled the gearbox.

The 4 screws hold the 2 gearbox halfs together are NOT the standard M3 machine screws that I expect. The screws are coarse thread self tapping type. I decided not to touch them. Now the metal gearbox are back together, I decided to put aside the TD project for a while to work on replacing the Pershing BB unit.

Most aspects of the TD metal drive chain is well understood due to @Rubincon99 excellent review. There is still lots of questions on whether the non-servo HL recoil unit will work with TK-6.0/7.0 main board. I believe that they would and hope to confirm that in the next day or two.

[Rubicon99]

I replaced the TD motors with a pair of the Tamiya380 on the gearbox. The motor were really screwed on tight to the gearbox case. I already noticed that TD used cheap screws (M2.5) for the motor mounting. I still stripped the philips head of the 4th screw. It took me a 3 hours battle to remove this screw from the motor. I mounted the tamiya motors and reassembled the gearbox.

The 4 screws hold the 2 gearbox halfs together are NOT the standard M3 machine screws that I expect. The screws are coarse thread self tapping type. I decided not to touch them. Now the metal gearbox are back together, I decided to put aside the TD project for a while to work on replacing the Pershing BB unit.

Most aspects of the TD metal drive chain is well understood due to @Rubincon99 excellent review. There is still lots of questions on whether the non-servo HL recoil unit will work with TK-6.0/7.0 main board. I believe that they would and hope to confirm that in the next day or two.

The non servo recoil will work with the HL 6/7 systems. Does it work with the TD system? Most likely.

[keilau]

The non servo recoil will work with the HL 6/7 systems. Does it work with the TD system? Most likely.

The thing that I hate most about the HL post WW2 tanks is its body shaking "recoil". With the later add-on from HL, I can change it to the more realistic barrel recoil for a $40 part or less. That's a welcome upgrade.

I have ordered an universal barrel recoil BB unit from Toucan. I will see if I can put it on the TD M60 without major hardware surgery. If it works, it would be great too.

[Rubicon99]

The thing that I hate most about the HL post WW2 tanks is its body shaking "recoil". With the later add-on from HL, I can change it to the more realistic barrel recoil for a $40 part or less. That's a welcome upgrade.

I have ordered an universal barrel recoil BB unit from Toucan. I will see if I can put it on the TD M60 without major hardware surgery. If it works, it would be great too.

You can turn off the "shake". Well kind of, if you reduce the track recoil or turn it off completely it will often also illuminate the "hit" shake.

[keilau]

Most aspects of the TD metal drive chain is well understood due to @Rubincon99 excellent review. There is still lots of questions on whether the non-servo HL recoil unit will work with TK-6.0/7.0 main board. I believe that they would and hope to confirm that in the next day or two.

Unfortunately, my 2005 HL 3838 Snow Leopard has a turret that doesn't match the new recoil cannon. The external turret shape is ok, but the cut out etc changed enough to not to fit. I tested it and find the recoil works very well. I am looking to purchase a newer Pershing turret now. I pack the Pershing away after testing. Back to my TD M60 upgrade now.