Optimize the Tongde M60A1 to run on grass lawn with 390 motor and metal tracks

[keilau]

My left hand neighbor and I both have 1/3 arca lots. The builder made our open space adjacent to each other creating a good space for tank running. The lawn has fairly uneven terrain. The lawn is well manicured and kept to 2" high. The lawn is too slippery for tank battle or sharp turning of the tank, but ideal for buggy type running. M60 with 380 motor with TD plastic track drives well on hard packed dirt road of RC tank battlefield. 390 motor with TD metal track drives well on slightly soft and slippery grass lawn.

The 390 motor and metal track upgrade works very well on grass lawn. The TD metal track feels much heavier than similar HL metal track because of its all solid construction (no hollowed out back side). The upgraded M60A1 weights 11# 2.4oz. It is the heaviest tank in my collection. Despite its weight, the torsion bar suspension works well as is too. It is most important that the M60 levels evenly and it does.

More detail of my upgrade can be found in my M60 metal upgrade posts.

https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc-cars-tanks-trucks-and-more/rc-tanks/387060-metal-upgrade-for-a-tongde-m60a1-to-improve-reliability

[keilau]

My left hand neighbor and I both have 1/3 arca lots. The builder made our open space adjacent to each other creating a good space for tank running. The lawn has fairly uneven terrain. The lawn is well manicured and kept to 2" high. The lawn is too slippery for tank battle or sharp turning of the tank, but ideal for buggy type running. M60 with 380 motor with TD plastic track drives well on hard packed dirt road of RC tank battlefield. 390 motor with TD metal track drives well on slightly soft and slippery grass lawn.

The 390 motor and metal track upgrade works very well on grass lawn. The TD metal track feels much heavier than similar HL metal track because of its all solid construction (no hollowed out back side). The upgraded M60A1 weights 11# 2.4oz. It is the heaviest tank in my collection. Despite its weight, the torsion bar suspension works well as is too. It is most important that the M60 levels evenly and it does.

More detail of my upgrade can be found in my M60 metal upgrade posts.

https://www.hobbysquawk.com/forum/rc-cars-tanks-trucks-and-more/rc-tanks/387060-metal-upgrade-for-a-tongde-m60a1-to-improve-reliability

I drive my M60 on dirt, concrete, and grass. The metal tracks were far too heavy and dug into the grass badly. They also put an undue strain on the drivetrain and suspension. (When I state grass, I mean grass that is 3" tall and full of weeds)

In my opinion, you are better off with the plastic tracks. I was enjoying driving my M60 around the yard yesterday evening. With the plastic tracks, the tank performs better in grass than any of my other tank models, with no sign of binding or riding up the cog teeth or idlers.

After a year of driving the Tongde M60A1 on metal tracks, I finally comprehended the warning and advice from MaverickTank. But it is not after I burnt 2 390 motors and 3 sets of HL TK motherboards.

It took several months of testing for me to figure out a hypothesis on the failure mechanism. The Tongde Metal tracks, at over 4 pounds is too heavy for the 390 motors running at 25000 rpm. It runs beautifully in my backyard lawn, After extended run (~20 minutes or more), the 390 motor overheat and jam. It caused the motherboard to send a huge stalled current to the motor which burnt both the motor and the motherboard. It happened to one side of the tank first and the other side would continue to run.

I removed the Tongde metal tracks and put back the TD plastic tracks. I kept the 390 motors because it do not overheat with the plastic tracks. I prefer the 390 motor with plastic track over 380 motor with metal track.

I am contradicting myself of the original thread title. On the Tongde M60, the 390 motor and TD metal track is a very bad combo.

[keilau]

keilau

Did you reply to yourself or is this a continuation of your first post?

This has shown up as "Spam" in the Moderation Notifications.

I will Approve this if it is your post, otherwise I will Dismiss and Delete it.

Let me know.

Best, LB

Yes, I replied to myself because I updated my earlier opinion on the Tongde M60 Patton RC tank track selection.

[RichJohnson]

The Tongde metal m60 track is very heavy at almost 4 pounds.
running 390 motors will help your performance for sure with that track.

what most of us have done is go the opposite direction and install the plastic track on the metal edition tanks. This increases the tanks performance and has the visual appearance of rubber padded track that metal track does not offer.
TD M60s don’t have the best 380 motos and early runs had poorly cut pinion gears that eventually get chewed up.
I have had to replace the motos In two of my M60s just due to the pinions giving up, these were first and second runs early on. One I installed taigen 380s which perform fine but the other i just installed henglong,ont blue painted motors into and holy cow did the performance increase. I’m going to get some more of these blue motos and go back and retro fit some other tanks as I the rotate through the depot for service.

[keilau]

The Tongde metal m60 track is very heavy at almost 4 pounds.
running 390 motors will help your performance for sure with that track.

what most of us have done is go the opposite direction and install the plastic track on the metal edition tanks. This increases the tanks performance and has the visual appearance of rubber padded track that metal track does not offer.
TD M60s don’t have the best 380 motos and early runs had poorly cut pinion gears that eventually get chewed up.
I have had to replace the motos In two of my M60s just due to the pinions giving up, these were first and second runs early on. One I installed taigen 380s which perform fine but the other i just installed henglong,ont blue painted motors into and holy cow did the performance increase. I’m going to get some more of these blue motos and go back and retro fit some other tanks as I the rotate through the depot for service.

Before I tried the 390 motor, I replaced the TD 380 with Tamiya standard 380 which is Bonafide Mabuchi RS-380PH, Later HL substituted the brass pinion with some steel looking pinion which I use on the 390 on the TD. Yes, the pinion gear shape is very important.

[keilau]

Does anyone have any technical information on this expensive "Dual-current Driving System for Tongde 1/16 M60A3 M60A1 M60W RC Tanks" and how well it works with the TD metal tracks?

https://www.toucanhobby.com/products/td-metalsteeldrivingsystem-dzn1?variant=45383230226682

There are many sellers of this dual-current gearbox on ebay, but no one gives any meaningful information.