Just getting back into the hobby after a 15 year absence, I’ve noticed that it’s not just Kadee that makes knuckle couplers these days. How do the new ones compair? I bought a few Athearn HO r-t-r freight cars that have Accurail couplers on them, should I replace them with Kadee or will they last?
Many of the Kadee knock off couplers do not use a metal spring for the knuckle, often it is just a plastic filament. These quickly loose their spring and render the coupler junk. Some, but not all of the McHenry couplers do have a metal spring. My personal preference is for Kadee in every application except for a few places where some of the McHenry drop in replacements are a quicker solution (IHC passenger cars for example). There is not another coupler worth considering IMO.
Any knuckly coupler that uses a metal spring over a plastic “spring” will last longer. I do use Bachman EZ-mates (largest line of plastic spring) on some models, but I like to use the EZ-mates only on models that will not be jolting around hitting a coupler in a box.
Simon’s answer is spot-on.
Kadee is still top dog in my book. You can’t go wrong with a coupler that is all metal, unless you don’t know how to properly isolate them on a brass model. The release of the “Whisker” coupler will just further their strong hold on the market. I just assume that manufacturers didn’t even include any kind of plastic coupler.
That’s pretty much the answer I expected, thanks for the help!
There was a thread earlier today, in which Sam from Kadee announced that the Kadee web site would be down for upgrades. This brought out a dozen unsolicited replies saying what a great product Kadee makes. I can’t think of any other MR product, or any other product of any kind, for that matter, which has such a high approval rating.
Maybe I’ll write in “Kadee #5” in the next presidential election. A knuckle coupler has got to be better than the rest of the knuckleheads that want the job.
That’s priceless 
A factor that is frequently overlooked because there aren’t that many people who run 40-50 car frt trains is the slip-by problem. Most of the “brand X” cplrs are made of some super slick plastic. In order to get the casting out of the mold the mold is cut w/ a very slight taper. When stressed by a very long train the super slick cplrs tend to slide by each other.
I can definately see where that would be a problem. Of course my modeling of the B&M in southern NH at the end of the 60’s, my trains don’t come close to being that long. Due to layout size I’m running an average of 10 cars per train.