All this talk on my earlier thread about P2K metal wheel sets, about how the axle lengths may end up being too short etc., has got me thinking it might be better to go ahead and buy the entire trucks as replacements, to spare myself a lot of risk and aggravation. I know I still need to check the correct wheel diameters because of the coupler height issue; but is there any other reason I shouldn’t use whole trucks [aside from more expensive]?
Thanx in advance…
Several problems here. Not all trucks mount the same way, so you may have to do a lot of adapting. Not all trucks have the same bolster height, so in changing you may throw the car height off, as well as the coupler. Certain styles of trucks are only made by certain companies… Not all are built to the same dimensions, so you could end up with interference between the truck and underbody of the car (often happens on cabooses)
It’s been a while since I replaced trucks in HO, but looking at the list of manufacturers in your other post about wheels, I don’t think you are going to have any major problems. You might need to do a little slicing, filing or minor modifying in some other way to get what you want, but that should be fairly easy.
Otherwise, you’re right…cost will be the major obstacle.
Last time I did a large-scale truck replacement on HO cars I used Kadee trucks. I’m sure some others with more recent experience will have other suggestions.
Hi,
I agree with what’s been said already; you may have some problems with the trucks fitting your cars and the expense can be outrageous, depending on how many cars you have. I posted a question about metal wheelsets a couple of years ago and had 75 replies or so. I did a thorough analysis of all wheelsets and I tried most of the suggestions and found that the old tried and proven Kadees worked best. Believe it or not, the Proto 2000 and Intermountain wheelsets, which are plated, can have their plating wear off. However, the biggest problem with the Protos is the axle length, as already mentioned. With the Intermountains, I found the biggest problem to be that they are tooooo slick. I spent hours leveling my layout and have adjustable leveling feet on all the legs of my benchwork. With the slightest unlevel spot on a siding or in my yard and a car with Intermountain wheelsets will roll, sometimes back onto the mainline. My layout is about 16’ by 18’ and I can only run 7 car trains, not including the caboose. I don’t need wheels that are as slick as the Intermountains. I guess those guys pulling 40 car coal drags may need them. However, they are probably going to have the same problem I had trying to spot them and have them stay in place. The Kadees are plenty smooth but they stay put.
Again, with the cost of the Intermountains, I was surprised to see some of the plating wear off in a matter of a few hours on some wheelsets. Kadees area solid cast metal and so there’s nothing to wear off. And, Kadees are available for about $5.50 per 12 axles…a great buy.
Hope this helps.
Mondo
“minor” - that’s the operative word! It seems like that type of work would be less hassle than trying to insert axles that are too short/long and make them roll smoothly.
I go the entire Kadee truck route for anything that doesn’t come with metal wheelsets. Yes, it is expensive. So I look for newer cars to have metal wheelsets and I do a few older cars at a time (6-10). If you buy the Kadee trucks in lots of 10 or so, yo can get the cost down under $6 a car.
Mondo, from what you and Mark have said it looks like Kadee wheels are the lowest-risk option. Certainly not the least expensive though - their price at Klein’s has already shot up to $6.40 for a set of 12. All things considered, I guess I’d rather pay more and get something that will actually work…
I can see this whole process is going to take a lot more time, and cost a lot more money than I originally had hoped. So much for my original plan to bring a bunch of frieght cars with me on my upcoming beach vacation and put the wheels/trucks on there.[sigh] But that’s why I present my potentially harebrained ideas here first - to find out the less-painful way that they won’t work! Thanx again everybody for your valuable input…
My suggestion is to do this in smaller batches. There is no reason to have to do it all at once. Get 5 kadee 12-packs, that’ll do 15 cars. If you want to, try some of the other brands in the same way. I would guess that the major brands will probably fit just fine in 80 to 90% of the cars and for the oddballs that need longer axles or whatever, go to North West Short Line (Walthers) for those or alternately, replace the trucks in those. It’s not an all or nothing situation.
My main piece of advice for you, is to relax, try to be more flexible, nothing in this hobby is black and white, it’s mostly grey, which means we need to be able to adapt as each new situation crops up. Take smaller bites. With each bite your skills and experience will grow. This is not a “plug-n-play” hobby, eventhough with all the RTR stuff out there one might get that impression.