Anyone else usig the Kadee whisker "scale head" couplers for HOn3? I like them better than the 714s...
- Kevin
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Does the larger draft gear box cause problems on HOn3 freight cars?
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-Kevin
Living the dream.
SeeYou190 Does the larger draft gear box cause problems on HOn3 freight cars? . -Kevin .
Yes. The standard draft gear box is too wide and will interfere with truck swing in most cases. I've found you can use the 714's box, use the "narrow" box from the 178 kit with major modifications, or basically build a box into the carbody. None of which are easy.
I deisgned a box on shapeways that is as small as possible and should work with the 153. I had some printed and they are on the way. If they work, that will allow me to buy the 153 in bulk and use my own custom box.
The 714 is fine, but I am tired of fiddling with the tiny centerins spring and the plastic knuckles. I also think the 153 (or other scale head coupler) look better than the 714.
Kevin
I've used the 178's in the past. They have a narrow box that works well for HOn3.
Chuck - Modeling in HO scale and anything narrow gauge
Virtually anything is an improvement on 714s. The catch is fitting into roughly the same size draft gear as the 714. Hacking a handful of cars for a new coupler is one thing, but I have about 300 pieces of HOn3 rolling stock. It's just not in the cards to hack that many already built or RTR cars.
How well do these new couplers mate with the 714?
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
My club has an HOn3 layout, and some of the narrow gaugers use the standard gauge scale heads (I think all with the magnetic pins clipped off). I haven't noticed any problems with them when I've operated it, and they seem to couple with the 714s just fine. Kadee also has a near-scale coupler box which is pretty close in size to the 714 box.
They mate fine with the 714s. And I have found they can be placed in the 714 box, but the pivot point of the 714 is smaller, so not a perfect fit. The 178 box usually needs to be cut shorter. I designed a box on shapeways as small as possible. A sample should be here today and hopefully that will work.
Hello Group,
There are many HOn3 modelers that use our #153 scale head HO coupler for HOn3. You just have to adjust the trip pin or cut it off if you don't use magnetic uncoupling. We have two after market boxes for our whisker coupler the #252 is a short rounded box like our 30 series couplers use and our #262 low profile narrow box which is about 1/4" wide. Both of these can be used in very narrow spaces, the #252 can be trimmed narrower to fit.
All of our HO couplers, scale head and standard head, will work just fine with our #714 and #713 HOn3 couplers.
Sam Clarke R&D
Kadee Quality Products
SROC99All of our HO couplers, scale head and standard head, will work just fine with our #714 and #713 HOn3 couplers.
Something else to keep in mind is that Micro-Trains couplers will usually mate with the 714 couplers. I have some dual gauge. The trick to getting two couplers on a piece of motive power to work is to get the draft gear close enough so each coupler is aligned with the center of its respective gauge track. You can't do this with strictly HO scale couplers or even two 714s.
What's tyically needed is a 714 for mating with standard gauge couplers and a Micro-Trains N coupler/draft gear to provide the corresponding capability for narrowgauge. Putting this together is harder than it sounds. A good item to have for HO/HOn3 might be a 3D printed dual gauge draft gear.
Good to know about the potential coupler issues you may run into. Even better to know about alternatives already available like #252 and #262 draft gear.