Ok im very very very embarased to say i still have horned Couplers 
Im ashamed of myself so dont rub it in. Well back on subject how compatible are Kadee No. 5 HO couplers, Can they be easily installed with littel hastel? The price isnt bad for the bulk pack. HERE
Kadee #5’s are dead simple to install in most power and rolling stock. I use them almost all the time. If I can install them with numb hands you should be able to do it easily.
There are too many variables to be able to give you a definite answer. Some brands of rolling stock can be easily converted (Athearn, for example) and some can be very difficult (such as Tyco). If your rolling stock has body mounted couplers, a Kadee #5 should fit without modification – if the couplers are truck mounted, they are more difficult.
Most of my Rolling Stock is athearn and there all most 95% body mount. Thanks for the info im going to a train Show in Pittsburgh this weekend and hope to find some for reasonable price. And maybe pick up a few other things, If money permits.
It also depends on the age of the rolling stock. I started with a complete fleet of horn-hooks from the 1960’s, which is when the trains last saw the light of day before being boxed up. So far, I haven’t failed to install Kadees in anything I’ve tried, but each one is an individual challenge. Yeah, a couple went in easily, and I think those were Athearns. Unfortunately, most of my rolling stock is old Tyco, Varney, Crown and a smattering of others. So, I’ve allowed each one to be an “engineering challenge,” meaning that I expect to spend a while on it and get it right. Usually I have to cut the old coupler box (or “draft gear,” in Kadee-speak) from either the car body or the truck, and then I drill and tap a 2-56 hole and install both a #5 and a Kadee draft-gear box.
For newer equipment, the Kadee web site lists the exact parts required for each replacement, but in general you can almost always do the job with #5s and draft gear boxes. The boxes are very inexpensive, by the way. Buy an envelope just to have around when you start your conversions.
Oh, one other thing - Kadee couplers are metal. They will conduct electricity. So, be careful if you’ve got metal cars with metal wheels and metal trucks, particularly locomotives and lighted passenger cars. They may use the frame as part of the electrical circuit, so it will be powered to one rail or the other. In the old days, they could always count on the plastic horn-hook to provide insulation between two cars which happened to be oppositely polarized, but that would no longer be true with a set of nice metal Kadees. That’s another reason to use the draft gear boxes. They are plastic, and they completely isolate the coupler shank from the car.
Just be very careful when removing the metal clip from the coupler housing. It is very easy to strip the little plastic nubs that hold the clip in place on Athearn rolling stock. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. I’ve never figured out a fix for that.
Also, you’ll find that the metal weight on many Athearn freight cars is not perfectly flat and this will in turn cause the plastic floor to bend with the curve of the metal weight. This curvature will prevent Kadees from mounting at the correct height. Fortunately, this is an easy fix. The metal weight can easily be straightened out before mounting the couplers.
On the metal coupler problem, I believe Kadee makes a non-conducting coupler.
The 20 and 30 series couplers are plastic, designed primarily for that reason.
Don’t be embarrassed conrail. I am still updating cars with Kadees. My new thing is the Kadee #58 coupler which looks more prototypical and fits the same as a Kadee#5. Of course they are just a little more expensive but look great (smaller head than #5 and spring is not bright color).
BTW, please note that the bulk pack DOES NOT come with coupler boxes. I learned this the hard way of course. In other words, unless you have existing coupler boxes that you can drop these into, you will need coupler boxes.
Good luck and remember, it’s supposed to be fun!
conrail92, Per other posters Kadees are fairly straight forward install. In lieu of #5’s you might want to try Kadee’s #148. The 148 saves the hassle with the separate copper spring of the $5’s. Don’t sucumb to the siren song of other “look alike” couplers-Kadee is the standard. Others claim to be compatible with Kadees but if you are going to use the uncoupling features you will find that there are subtle differences which impede the uncoupling feature. Kadee is another instance in the hobby of you get what you pay for-Kadees are well worth the difference in price with their “competitors”.
My solution to this problem has been to drill a hole (sorry, don’t know the size off the top of my head, but I think it is smaller than for a 2-56 tap) for a #2 self-tapping screw centered on the “post” that the coupler centers on. After assembling the coupler and lid, run a screw into the hole and you are set. I have been using Walther’s #2 X 3/16" screws (#1189), for most of these as I’ve run into them.
On some of my Athearn cars (the 50’ modern boxcars and the 57’ reefers) I have had to use Kadee #47 couplers to get the coupler height right. This is using Intermountain 33" metal wheels instead of the stock plastic ones. All of the other Athearn cars I’ve done have used a #5 coupler. I have been working on getting all of the kits I have been buying for years actually ready to use and have been keeping track of what items have needed what couplers. If you have any questions, I will gladly share what I have come up with.
I agree, Kadee is the BEST[tup]. They’re easy to install, and chances are you won’t be frustrated by them, like many of us were with the “clones” I havn’t tried the whisker style yet, but they’re apparently as reliable as the #5
Davo
Hey Davo, is that a system map of the “T” in Boston? Used to live there in college.
Conrail 92. I have posted this before, don’t sell the horn hooks short! In some respects the Kadees are a bigger pain in the cobosse than the hork hooks! I have around 60 Athearn rolling stock and Tyco, Life Like that now have coupler boxes and Kadees installed. Have you heard of Coupler Height? Seem’s Athearn did not make all there chassis the same height. One box car with a # 5 Kadee and another car with a Kadee #5 may and more than likely not line up. So you get into the off set shank couplers like # 22’s that has the coupler lower than a #5 or a #27 that is higher than a #5. Then there is the shims that go under the trucks and mounting points of the chassis. # 208 is a .015 shim, # 209 is a .010 shim. Kadees also do not like dip’s (like me) on the bench work. Even when the centers of the couplers are dead on perfect they can still work a part on a heavy drag. On the B line I have all Kadees, max pull to date has been 63 cars. On the A line with horn hooks (cars have been worked with metal axels, tuned trucks, weights and some Kadees boxes with horn hooks in them and mainly cheap stuff like LL and Tyco) I have dragged 50 cars and ran out of cars. I have less problems with uncoupling with the horn hooks than the Kadee’s. I know the main problem is the poor bench work I have as of now. That fix is coming. I know the purest are gritting there theet as I post this. But I have a 26 foot train running that says they are fine. Cuda Ken
[:)]I have converted several hundred cars to KD. I still have several to go (cars, not hundreds, PTL) . My grandkids brought over some of their cars with horn hooks and wanted to run them with my cars. I just took one of my Athearn cars and put a horn hook on one side and left the other with the KD. We then were able to run their cars with mine. They really enjoyed that as they don’t have a layout at home. I’ll build them one, when my son finds the space for it in their house.
So while you are in the process of conversion, you can still run all the cars you want, HH or KD.[;)]
Plan to do several conversions at a time. Once you get in the swing of it, it goes rather quickly. Having some music or radio program you like in the background also helps.
Enjoy yourself![:D]
According to Kadee, to use the 2-56 screws, the drill sizes are #50 or #43, and you can buy the drills and tap together as Kadee part no. 246. My guess is that the #50 is to drill a clearance hole (one so that the 2-56 screw will pass through the hole to be used with a nut) and that the #43 is used to drill and tap a hole so that the screw will screw into the material being drilled. Hope this helps… [:)]
You have the numbers backwards, but otherwise you are on the money. The larger the number drill size, the smaller the drill, so you use the #50 as a pilot and #43 as clearance. That is true for a 2-56 screw, but the threads are deeper (coarser) for the self-tapping screws and you don’t need to use the tap! These screws having a coarser thread will be less likely to strip out the plastic than a regular machine screw will if they need to be removed and reinstalled in the future. The only trouble I have had to date is that on a couple of cars I had to shorten the screw just slightly to clear the body weight. Side cuts and a file take care of that quickly enough. These screws are still faster and easier for this purpose when using a plastic frame than tapping and using machine screws. I don’t think it would work so well in any type of metal, that is what the regular machine screws are for! I think I have been using a #52 or #53 with the self-tapping screws, but I haven’t been to the barn and checked. I also use these screws when mounting the Kadee box to a plastic chassis, I feel this is safer than just glueing the box the the floor.
All of my cars have theres boxes, and i want to start doing conversions now becuase i dont have alot of rolling stock at the moment better start now before i have hundreds of cars to convert.
i use the 148’s also.im replacing all the #5’s.the 148’s IMO work a little better due to the fact that the little bronze spring alway’s gave me a little trouble after having them installed for a long period of time.(wouldn’t center properly)terry…
Recommended pilot drill sizes for a 2-56 tap is #50 in metal, and #51 in plastic. Remember, when tapping metal, use a cutting oil to extend tap life and help prevent breaking the tap. You don’t know what “fun” is until you try to remove a broken tap this small from a hole in metal.