Panther F

Pretty neat, thanks for the link! That's when you 'grocery list' things you need to make up for the shipping.

I searched forever to find some 1/16 scale chainlink fencing to make my own but moved on. Just another thing to glue back on!

pitstain

Yeah I added a few other things to the recent order to make the shipping less painful, but should have added more as my impulses on eBay have enlarged my build queue by yet another as yet to be disclosed Tamiya F/O kit.

Fsttanks

PART 3:

Well the Tamiya M551 Sheridan will be heading for its first official IR battle day this Sun Feb. 23 in San Diego for the “battle season opener” being put on by the 619th Tank Battalion / San Diego Tank Club.

With their huge field, natural terrain obstacles, soft fine soil and extend engagement ranges the Sheridan should get a solid battle shake down. I will be reporting back on it’s performance or if you are in the SoCal come down and watch or join in.

** JUST GOT WORD THE EVENT WAS RAiNED OUT** Looks like I will be putting off PART 3 for another week when LA TANKS has their March battle day.

Below are a few photo of a new copula I set up specifically for use in IR battling. I deleted the forward “bullet shields and added a plastic turret basket similar to the one mentioned/shown prior in the review to hold the copula in place. I righteously tested to ensure that even as pictured there were NO issues with receiving hit from the forward 45 degs. and all angles that correspond with the Tamiya hit protocols from 0-75+ ft. Testing was done with the help of a Tamiya M51/M4, Tamiya Abrams and 6.0 HL T72.



IR specific copula installed in turret with standard static/general running copula in the right foreground.



IR specific copula install on turret. NO issues with IR beam interface caused by MG or hatches.



Since there is NO more Tank Gallery to post photos in and I liked this photo, I though I would share it here.

Panther F

That looks great and good luck Sunday!

Congrats to you guys for powering through the build and finishing them.

Fsttanks

ADDENDUM TO TRACK ISSUES:

A little update on the track issues being seen. Well so far I have had FOUR link break and in a relatively short order of time with two more ready to fail! The Sheridan has set is a new record for ANY of my tanks. Because of this I decided to "power the Sheridan way back" by setting up the "dual rate" option for it on my DX8. I set the dual rate "froward" down to 35% and reverse to 50%. This still makes the Sheridan faster then any stock Tamiya WWII tank, but nowhere near as fast as the Tamiya Abrams, Type 10 or Leopard 2. The new power curve was optimized for IR battling in closing tight terrain and city scape fighting. It also was tested on my trials course with no lose to the Sheridan's overall obstacle conquering abilities. I am hoping the new power curve is less stressful on the tracks and the issues of pins walking out and links breaking is greatly reduced.

The only negative with the new dual rate power curve is when the Sheridan takes an IR hit. The speed reduction for the damage is too great. Once hit I will have to flick the dual rate switch back to normal setting. A small price to pay if the tracks hold up better then they have been prior.

Following post below, shows a few photos of the tracks issues.

Fsttanks

Pin starting to walk out after 5 min of running.



Pin starting to walk out. Also notice the link is split. It is a good idea to stop an check for signs like this every few minutes of running the Sheridan.



Split link end. This link will fail soon.



Here is another split link end.



This link split and broke prior. So I am reusing it for testing out a larger pin to see what happens. So far it has been holding perfectly. The Tamiya SS pins are REALLY slick and combined with the slick nylon of the link ends, once the split happens simply slid/pop out easily. The larger NON SS pin does not seem to want to slip out as easily.

RichJohnson

Dang, those tracks are worn out already and thrashed!

Fsttanks

They don’t look as bad in person...LoL. I suspect Tamiya used a softer nylon on these tracks.

tankme

Well now they look like every Sheridan track I've ever seen in real life. Every one of them has had the rubber pads worn down to the metal track.

pitstain

I mentioned the spare links seeming ominous in my unboxing video, and how tiny and delicate the stock tracks were, but damn I underestimated how frail they are. Thank goodness mine will forever be a shelf queen, otherwise we need to mass email Kenny Kong to do a set of metal tracks and possibly idler wheel for this otherwise great little AFV.

Fsttanks

Don't be hesitant to drive your Sheridan it is a good running tank and fun to drive. Knowing about the track weaknesses I am experiencing will hopefully help keep you and others from breaking yours.

The tracks just cannot handle the power being supplied to them even with a basic 7.2v NiMH battery. Powering down / "governing" the motors using "dual rates" on my remote has seemed to help as I have not broken a track in a few days now....LOL

I would caution anyone running a 7.2v NiMH and especially a 7.4v Lipo or 7.4v Li-ion battery to be "light fingered" on the throttle as the Lipo and Li-ion are putting out an average of 8.4v and without "dual rates" to help "govern" the power flow, are going to break tracks at an alarming rate.

pitstain

What you are doing is what we in the tech industry refer to as "Beta testing", this should be done before production to determine if there are any flaws, bugs, weaknesses, etc. that need to be redesigned before releasing on the unsuspecting public....

Conversely I fired off an email to Kenny Kong to see what level of interest is needed for him to do his thing and make tracks for us, I would assume between this and the other forums as well as the general # of completed ebay sales a run of a hundred or two set would be viable for him.

Fsttanks

I feel like a beta tester with the Sheridan...

If Kenny makes tracks for the Sheridan I will be in for a set or two!!!

Pcomm1.v2

Hard running or not: Your Sheridan tracks appear OEM material defective. Show Tamiya USA and get their feedback. Can’t hurt.



The Tamiya Way! Replaces the kit tracks with new kit tracks! LOL. If you can find them...

Fsttanks

Got the Tamiya Sheridan out fighting other tanks today at the LA Tank clubs March 2020 battle. Drove it A LOT using the powered down “dual rate” setting for it on my DX8. It ran and fought great. To my surprise it had no track issues!!!! Here is to hoping the lower power proves to be the “ticket” to a longer and more reliable track life for the Sheridan.

Here is a photo from the battle day. Shown below the Tamiya Sheridan is engaging a HL T34. For more photos of the battle day see my Instagram @ fsttanks



Tamiya M551 Sheridan engages HL T34-85 at LA Tanks March 2020 battle day.

pitstain

Saw a Facebook announcement from Impact that they have gotten alot of requests to make M551 tracks and idlers, but WILL NOT BE DOING SO.....they are done with the RC business.

Kenny Kong replied to me the following:

Hi Ian,

I did plan to make tracks for the 1/16 M551 last year. I have already bought the tank but the business was bad and the tracks sales was slow. It forced me to delay the plan. If there are enough interest for the tracks, I will make them again. Your feed back is very important to me.


Thanks

Kenny

Everyone please help me in emailing him at [email protected]
I told Him of Impact's statement and he will have no competition, if all of the Sheridan owners start dropping him emails it may help!

Fsttanks

A little update on my Tamiya M551 Sheridan.

The overall performance of the tank has remained rather good even the plastic idlers show no signs of stress, are still tight and roll smoothly. The issues with the weak tracks has been getting worst even with greatly reduced power settings and thoughtful driving techniques.

Below is what I am seeing happen to the tracks about every other outdoor run or once every 5000mAH battery charge to give an idea of the run time between failures. I have a few recent short videos of the M551 Sheridan and other tanks now up on my Instagram @ fsttanks so feel free to stop by and check them out.



Tamiya M551 Sheridan track. The track breaking is now more often two links vs the one it started out as.


M551 Sheridan during recent obstacles fun run drive.

BlitzPig

Are those the original tracks?

Fsttanks

Yes those are the original Tamiya tracks. There are NO aftermarket tracks as of yet for the M551. It is really sad because Tamiya tracks especially the ones for their modern tanks are of excellent quality and reliability. The M551 tracks are weaker then even the worst HL plastic tracks.

BlitzPig

That's unfortunate. The Sheridan is on my want list.

bowlman

Them pins look like they been backing out they need a nuro just before the end to give it something to bite into the track like some nail have so cant back out of the hole so easy have you tried super glue on the ends .
Ask Bob at ETO Armor if he can get you some better pins as I remember we were getting some from him back in 2010 or some pins from Kenny Kong .

Fsttanks

Unfortunately the pins backing out is not the problem. Being single pin nylon tracks the link ends are splitting and the pins being polished SS pop out through the splits rather easily. There are photos in prior posts above that show the splits in the nylon.

It would take both ends of the pins to be “nuro’d” or roughened up to reduce their slickness and have increased grip to help resist popping out through the split link ends, at least that is my theory. To which I have several non SS homemade pins like described installed in track links that have split prior testing to see how well the idea works. So far these roughened up pins have held🤞🤞.

Panther F

Right now, not a kit that is good enough to stand up to outdoor conditions. Kudos to you by sticking through the build and discovering these issues.

A metal replacement idler and tracks (and even the road wheels) are really needed BUT, I bet the kit hasn't sold enough to support it.

pitstain

I will reiterate my previous post about bombarding Kenny Kong with emails to make tracks, if he hears from enough of us he will make them.

Saw a Facebook announcement from Impact that they have gotten alot of requests to make M551 tracks and idlers, but WILL NOT BE DOING SO.....they are done with the RC business.

Kenny Kong replied to me the following:

Hi Ian,

I did plan to make tracks for the 1/16 M551 last year. I have already bought the tank but the business was bad and the tracks sales was slow. It forced me to delay the plan. If there are enough interest for the tracks, I will make them again. Your feed back is very important to me.


Thanks

Kenny

Everyone please help me in emailing him at [email protected]
I told Him of Impact's statement and he will have no competition, if all of the Sheridan owners start dropping him emails it may help!

tch2000

Damn