Yet Another Tongde M60

[Roaming Gnome]

A work in progress, installed bearings in the wheels and suspension arms and swapped out the Tongde controller with a Heng Long 7.0 pulled from a parts unit. The bearings eliminated any real slop in the wheels and there is zero play in the suspension arms, the controller swap gave me a lot more control and much smoother operation and was pretty much plug and play, I did have to reverse the motor connections. I was going to install axle support bearings and the axle housing does fit a standard bearing, but the alignment to the axle one one side was enough to put a significant bind on things. One thing I did notice tearing things down, the screws holding the cogs weren't torqued down all that tightly, when I did try to tighten them it resulted in the screw head head sinking into the plastic, so I added washers and a bit of loctite. I have a metal cog on order to permanently fix that.

[Roaming Gnome]

[Rubicon99]

Good to see you are adding the bearings. They do make a huge difference. Axle support bearings are not needed on the TD M60 especially when you upgrade to the metal TD sealed and bearing gearboxes.

The stock plastic gearbox are meant for indoor use only and will quickly break when used outdoors. The metal gearboxes are well worth the cost. Also I would highly recommend adding the metal sprockets as the plastic sprockets will wear quickly and have a tendency to crack at the hub extension.

[Roaming Gnome]

Good to see you are adding the bearings. They do make a huge difference. Axle support bearings are not needed on the TD M60 especially when you upgrade to the metal TD sealed and bearing gearboxes.

The stock plastic gearbox are meant for indoor use only and will quickly break when used outdoors. The metal gearboxes are well worth the cost. Also I would highly recommend adding the metal sprockets as the plastic sprockets will wear quickly and have a tendency to crack at the hub extension.

I ordered the sprockets as soon as I saw the screws biting into the plastic ones. The gearbox is probably not going to like it when I go to a 3S pack, but it looks like the motor on the plastic is the same as the metal, do they upgrade the motor too or can it be swapped?

[Rubicon99]

I ordered the sprockets as soon as I saw the screws biting into the plastic ones. The gearbox is probably not going to like it when I go to a 3S pack, but it looks like the motor on the plastic is the same as the metal, do they upgrade the motor too or can it be swapped?

Same motors. They are actually not bad and at least as good as stock HengLong 380 motors. But I would recommend upgrading the motors to a higher quality 380 if you intend on running the tank in the "high power" mode vs "low power" mode (= 70% of max power). Blue 380 Heng Long or Black 380 Taigen are good choices, are easy to come by and come with the correct pinion already attached. There are other good 380 motors if you have the experience attaching pressure fit pinion gears.

[Roaming Gnome]

Zero experience pressure fitting, but I have some HL blue motors laying around. That 2 speed setting on the Tongde controller was the primary reason I swapped it for an HL 7.0, max throttle on the lowest setting is a very pleasing crawl, max seems to be a bit faster than it was with the Tongde, at all the speeds it's a lot smoother in turns. I ran it with the Tongde first after the bearing work, it improved but I just liked the HL better. I did find out an HL 7.0 slip ring will work, now I just have to layout some cuts lines on the turret gear. I don't do the BB thing so I removed the hopper to get some real estate.

This is why I chose this particular version, found it when I was to figure out if the led "machine gun" actually corresponded to an actual thing, still not sure I guess. Any clues?

https://www.usmcmuseum.com/blog/the-m60s-last-hurrah

[Rubicon99]

The TD controller is something I replaced
on all my M60s. Its driving algorithms are ok, but not quite as good as others. It also has not been 100% compatible with HL in IR battling. Something TD is supposed to have fixed with the 3.0 version of their controllers. The 3.0 is supposed to be closer to the performance of the HL 7.1 systems. Jury is still out on that as the 3.0 is not widely available yet for comparative testing.

Not quite sure what you are asking about in regards to the MG?

[Roaming Gnome]

on the front of the turret, left of the barrel there's that big red LED that flashes, didn't know if that was an actual gun placement on the tank or just a hey, we need a flashing gun thing

[Rubicon99]

on the front of the turret, left of the barrel there's that big red LED that flashes, didn't know if that was an actual gun placement on the tank or just a hey, we need a flashing gun thing

With barrel facing away from you. Left side is the MG, right side is the gunners sight. The first batch had this reversed and has since been corrected.

This is what the MG side looks like.

[Roaming Gnome]

My left was facing the barrel, so my light is on the wrong side.

[Rubicon99]

My left was facing the barrel, so my light is on the wrong side.

That most likely indicates your tank was from the first or second product runs. They are on the tenth or twelfth now. A lot of quantity changes since when yours was produced. The all plastic ones tend to sit in inventory longer than the "metal" version which all have the MG on the correct side now.

[Max-U52]

You might also find a red light on the Mantlet that comes on when the air soft motor is winding up. Kind of a safety thing.

Welcome to the forum, Roaming Gnome, but you sound a lot like Skyowa to me. But I think you'll make a valuable addition to the forum, provided you can keep a handle on that temper of yours.

[Rubicon99]

You might also find a red light on the Mantlet that comes on when the air soft motor is winding up. Kind of a safety thing.

Welcome to the forum, Roaming Gnome, but you sound a lot like Skyowa to me. But I think you'll make a valuable addition to the forum, provided you can keep a handle on that temper of yours.

He is Skyowa from RCU his photos show the same tank and are taken on the same gray towel under the tank. Everyone deserves a second chance so let's give him that🤞.

[Roaming Gnome]

It's important to always know where your towel is, just sayin

[Roaming Gnome]

In the meantime, I don't have the confidence to cut the turret ring, it a bit different than the Heng Long style so the 360 idea is on the back burner.

[RichJohnson]

You can file the teeth into the ring, I have done that with many henglong rings, although I have not done it to any of my TD M60s yet as far as I can recall. Maybe I did to my slick 60 build but I just don’t remember. Should be just as easy. Use some calipers to measure out the teeth, draw them in and file with a sharp triangle or needle file. Don’t try to cut with an exacto.

[Max-U52]

If you send me a photo of the ring you have now along with the outside diameter of the teeth (the major diameter) I might have a pre-modified 360 degree ring laying around that I could send you free of charge. I'll even pick up the postage.

[RichJohnson]

The TD M60 turret ring is its own size, it is not the same as the Henglong large ring sadly.

[Max-U52]

Don't you just hate it when they have to make everything a little bit different for each individual tank and brand? There's a lot to be said for universal interchangeable parts.

[keilau]

Don't you just hate it when they have to make everything a little bit different for each individual tank and brand? There's a lot to be said for universal interchangeable parts.

Hong Long is the dominant brand in RC tank. Tongde can make market share gain by making the tank better and cheaper. Tongde can make tank subject that HL ignored. Tongde is making a hole for itself for making generic parts or IR detector incompatible.