They aren’t biased to one side, so the magnets don’t move them as easily. In certain couple boxes, the centering spring helps take up slack, but is too large for others. Two vs one item in a coupler box is easier to install.
I use them for all my locomotives. They have more lateral movement than the 5s. This works well for six axles on tight curves. You can increase the movement by using a Xacto knife and trimming the sides of the box a bit, if need be. No failures yet and they tend to center better.
My freight cars are all equipped with 5s and they work well so I fail to see the economics of switching over but for locomotives they are well worth it.
I use the #148 for my '‘Go To’ coupler. I have also bought one pkg each of the various length/offset whisker couplers for testing out tight mounting situations. While the old copper ‘spring’ my have a little more free movement, I have found that the failure rate of this springs is rather high. I can go down to club and find lots of freight cars with #5 couplers that have a failed centering spring.
I’m with Jim on this. I’ve replaced ALL of my #5s with #148s. On a few locomotives with rather shallow draft gear boxes, I was able to gently file the top and bottom of the shank. They are pretty much drop in for 95% of my stock. Every new piece of equipment gets weighed to NMRA RP 20.1, wheels replaced with metal ones, #148s installed and height adjusted, and weathered before touching the layout. Failure rate in 3+ years: 0!
It is always easier when one is dealing with only 1 component instead of two. Especially on upside down installations like the Athearn BB cabooses where the spring had to be on the “outside” of the box. The #5 springs were a constant source of maintenance in conditions where they frequently were abused (e.g. club operating sessions). So for the most part the whiskers are welcome.
Unfortunately I’m in the #158 camp with the smaller heads and only have a choice of 3. So for the unusual situations I just have to deal with the larger heads of the other series of couplers and try to keep the cameras away from them.
The whisker variety is all I buy these days. But I’m not replacing #5’s, or scrapping the supply I have on hand.
The whisker variety is MUCH easier to install, especially in cars and locos with multi-piece coupler boxes, not having to worry about the spring pan is one less thing to deal with when trying to fit multiple tiny pieces in a small space with big fat hands.
I’m finding I have to use very few special types outside the stabndard #5/#148 these days - I think manufacturers finally got it strraight with regards to setting the floor height of their rolling stock so the couplers come out right.
I suspect that you will be limited to short/medium/long shanks. A talk by Kadee’s ‘Sam the Conversion Man’ at RPM seems to indicate that Kadee really has no plans to do ‘offset’ shanks in the scale coupler line due the head not having not enough mass.
The Kadee #148 has become my standard coupler for locomotives, and freight cars. On passenger equipment, it’s situational between the longer shank #146, and the #148.
They are easier to install, and work well. I’m even replacing the smaller head #58s and broke #5s with #148s.
It didn’t take long to figure out that the whisker couplers are even better than #5s. All locomotives have or will have them, new freight cars will get them automatically, and whenever anything else fails it will receive them. Dan ,
I like the whiskers, because my fingers aren’t getting more nimble with age. I tend to use them now, but still use a #5 and others from time to time. What on the equipment now stays on, though.
I’ve backed off on using the scale-head couplers. There are some in the fleet and they look good up front on the pilot, but it takes a pretty disciplined use of the standards to avoid accidental uncouplings in a fleet as diverse as mine.
On the other hand, now that I do dual-gauge ops on occasion, I’ve considered more experimenting with the scale-head couplers as they might work better with my dual-coupler equipped locos, which carry a 714 in the SG slot, as size of draft gear restrictions require that in order to get cozy with the MT 1015 I use as the NG coupler on these locos.
Yes, I actually had that same conversation with them in 2006? or so when the #58 first came out, and right after the #40 line had been fleshed out. The smaller heads just look so much better. Sort of like Code 83 rail instead of 100.
