Is it better to replace the factory couplers on Genesis F units with KDs and if so which number. Is it an easy installation or difficult. Or are the factory installed couplers suffiecient for a small home layout. Thanks
Personally, I prefer the excellent functioning of the Kadee products. The
swap-out is easy and Kadee 5s will work. I, myself, used Kadee 58s
for the scale appearance. The factory couplers are probably acceptable
on your small layout. For me, Kadees function better.
I have one of the Genesis F3As, and tried using #58s on it not long ago. They were fine on the front, but didn’t fit in the back. I’d personally keep the stock McHenry scale couplers, but if you want Kadees, their #8s should fit. I’ve never heard of anyone having problems with McHenry scales.[:D]
What about the mchenry’s they’re made to be prototypical for F3’s 3’ scale spacing…hmm…I SHOULD
follow my own advice!
Dont use Mchenry’s they will break ! That is what is on there to start from the factory
Only use Kadee couplers on these number 36s.
For a small home layout as you described, the stock couplers could be used provided that are functioning properly. I have a bunch of the Genesis F units and come of the couplers were functioning poorly out of the box.
Kadees are the only one I reccommend for equipment used in service on club layouts if you are pulling fifty cars or more with four or more units as a normal consist.
How did you fit a #5 or #58 on the front? I’ve tried several different, ummm, schemes of which if they perform well they look terrible and vice versa. What I have on there now is a #41 (or #49? long shank offset).
We just had a rather large thread about couplers for Athearn Genesis F units. The Kadee web site says that you should use the #36 for the front and #38 for the rear coupler. I just installed these on my 2 F2A’s, 1 F3A &B and 2 F-7A’s.
They #36’s have a longer length shank that does a nice job of clearing the front of the plow. The #38’s have a nice short shank that pulls the first car nice and close. Looks great when hooked up to the B unit.
The McHenry scale coupler has a knuckle spring just like KDs…These couplers work fairly well.
The KD 148 coupler might be a good solution…Also a draw bar will work between the A & B units and the gap can be closed to a more scale appearance-if your curves are large enough for close coupling of the A & B unit.
If you take the time to change…DON’T USE ANYTHING EXCEPT KADEE.They will break.
Turns out I can’t remember the stuff I do.[:I] Because I installed a GN-style snow
pilot on my 261A, I did use a long-shank center set coupler. (Can’t recall the
number-it came out of my coupler/truck root box.) I did use 58s everywhere
else. They provide excellent, prototypical, close coupling between the A and
B units.
http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e229/GN-Rick/?action=view¤t=ModelPhotos036.jpg&refPage=20&imgAnch=imgAnch25
Here’s a pic of 261A sort of showing the front end treatment.
I field tested 20 pair of the McHenry scale coupler with the knuckle spring and during my six month field test the couplers did not break.These 10 cars was mixed in with other cars and would end up any where in a train from front to rear.For the record the club does not follow RP20.1.
Now the test results was the couplers worked fairly well but,would not uncouple reliably like the KD coupler and I notice the plastic shank was beginning to droop from constant switching moves in the yard( the club layout is point to point) after 6 months I replaced these couplers with KD#5s as per the test agreement I had with the club…
Sounds like the KD 36 for front and 38 for the rear might be the best as KD suggest. Were these drop in installations or was some work needed to fit them. Thanks
I generally don’t replace the stock knuckle couplers until they break myself. Then again I use the bamboo skewer method of uncoupling instead of magnetic uncoupling to simulate manual uncoupling time.
I’ve not yet had to replace those on my Genesis F7s but I’m going to try as well as I can to keep the close prototypical coupling when I do.
Cheers!
~METRO
okiechoochoo,
The #36 and #38 Kadee couplers require a little work to assemble the coupler boxes. Once you figure them out, they are a piece of cake though and they work very well. Here is a link to a previous discussion that I started a few days ago about these couplers…
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=69064
Thanks for the link, it was very interesting reading but made me wonder if I could put the 30 series couplers together. I talked to my LHS today and he suggested trying the 148 in the F units to see if they will fit. I will try that first.