Can E-Z mate knuckle couplers be used to connect to cars using Kadee knuckle couplers ?
Recently got the automatic uncoupling via magnet setup going, and don’t want to leave it 
E-Z mate will work with KD’s but, if want no headaches, replace them with KD’s
[#ditto]
double, triple, dare, [#ditto]
Thanks guys.
They do work, but it takes more to couple them then if they were both KDs. They don’t always couple.
If you dont want to get pissed by constant derailments don’t be lazy and go ahead with replacing the Kadee Couplers!
On my layout, where we have op sessions every 3rd Tuesday, I have a “bad order” area near the yard. When one of the freight cars has coupler problems it is for one of two reasons. Either the KD spring has popped out or it is not a KD coupler. It takes about a year before all the couplers on my rolling stock gets converted to KDs.
Steve B.
Let’s go for throat.
The sinister:
I triple dog dare the ditto.[:O]
[#ditto] INFINITY!
Ahhh, consensus at last…[:o)]
I don’t like EZ mates at all, but in the past I was slow to get rid of them and install Kadees.
I encountered an embarassing situation at a model railroad club. Two of my Walthers Budd passenger cars continued to uncouple as I “attempted to run” my 1968 version of the SCL Palmetto.
I learned my lesson. I now make sure that there are plenty of Kadee couplers in my hobby tool box.
Sounds like you had the same problem as I had with my Walthers Superliners. They come with the EZ mates so I started using them that way, and this came to an abrupt halt when they kept uncoupling on the helix. I actually could see the shank of the coupler twisting and coming out of the other one. It was only a 10 car train and all were quickly converted to Kadee 40 series.
End of problem.
EZ Mates are the best!!! If I purchase a model off of eBay (or otherwise) that has had Kadees installed, I replace the Kadees with EZ Mates and throw the Kadees in the garbage where they belong. I do the same thing with models that come from the manufacturer with Kadees (like Intermountain or Overland). Since I have started doing this, I no longer have problems with coupler failure. I fail to see why so many folks waste their hard earned, as well as easy earned, money on Kadees!!
Edit: I figured “What the heck!!” since I missed my chance on April Fools’ Day…
Actually, I have the opposite problem–EZ mates becoming uncoupled on heavier trains on grades. I’m in the process of converting all of the ‘other’ couplers to Kadees, simply because over a long period of time I’ve come to depend on their reliability. I just finished converting my Walther’s passenger cars, and the uncoupling problems I was having with them has disappeared completely.
Nothing like having half of your passenger train take off in the opposite direction on a 2.2% grade. Whew!
Tom
I am currently pulling an express reefer and three Walther’s heavies behind my locomotive, and have not felt the need to replace the couplers provided. However, I appreciate learning of every responder’s ( well, except for one loser [;)]) experience because I will know what to do when surprises happen.
Thanks, guys,…although I must admit that the EZ-Mates work okay so far, and have even stood up to some gnarly derailments. (Or is that just what I think?)
On my current rolling stock, in the process or rebuilding (embossed cardboard Varneys and such), I am standardizing on Mantua couplers, if fo no other reason than the nmra doesn’t like them.
And boy, do they couple!
Lordy, Lordy, I don’t know about everyone else, but you sure had ME blinking there for a minute, LOL!
Tom
What’s wrong with that?
I rip ALL Kadees off cars that come in.
None of my engins or cars have them.
I pitch them, give them away, or dell them by the bagful.
The absoluterly most un-prototypical coupler devised.
Take a front suspension coil spring out of a 1958 Cadillac, paint it gold, tie in horizontally on the side of a real coupler and take a photo.
Real protoypical.
If you look closely at the EZ-Mates, you’ll notice that instead of a metal spring like the Kadees have, they use a little strip of plastic to keep tension on the knuckle to keep them closed. And when you have constant uncoupling, you’ll see that this plastic strip no longer makes full contact with the knuckle. Give them to people you don’t like. It’s worth it to see the frustration on their face as they try to figure out what’s wrong.