New Mchenry Couplers on Life-life & Tyco Rolling stock Cars

[Trainman11]

Have a quick question, that has a newbie I just ran into. I haven't figured out a way to fix it.I have about 10 rolling stock cars that I brought almost new from a local private owner. But I am in the process of changing out the couplers. They have the old  hook type couplers. So Saturday I went to the hobby store and brought new replacements, which are the Mchenry's couplers, so I can match them up with the Bachmann rolling stock cars that came new when i brought the set. But the problem is that when I put the new couplers on the rolling stock cars that I brought & hook up with the Bachmann cars. The new Mchenry's couplers are a little higher, and when I start to ran the train, they don't stay coupled with the Bachmann cars. I can't see a way to make them lower to meet the Bachmann car's couplers. Any suggestions. Thanks for anything that may come to mind.

[bswing]

Buy the low head McHenry coupler

[lvanhen]

First but a Kaydee couple height adjustment gauge!!  No matter what brand of "magnetic" couplers you use, McHenry, Kaydee, Accumate, etc, the height needs to be correct and uniform on all your cars.  Kaydee sells small fiber washers that can be placed between the truck and car to raise coupler height, and as previously stated, McHenry makes both low head and raised head couplers - also long and short versions as well - as well as Kaydee.  McHenry METAL spring couplers are OK, but the standard is Kaydee - that's what all the others copy!!  Just avoid the couplers with a plastic "spring" - they're guaranteed to break!!

[dinwitty]

unless your running short trains, switch to kadees. Kadee also has upper's as well as lowers versions of the couplers in case of height problems. Plus washers on the trucks will raise the car up if too low.

[RedGrey62]

Since you're talking about Life-Like and Tyco cars, did you convert them to body mount from truck (Talgo) mounted couplers?  If so, that will make the couplers to high right from the get go.  You can use the low offset couplers as others have stated, put a shim between the coupler box and body to lower the coupler, or shave down the bolster to lower the car.  The older truck mounted coupler cars rode high so the coupler would clear the body so lowering the car would make it more accurate.

Fully concur with getting the Kadee height gauge, even straight out of the box, newer cars are not guaranteed to be correct.

Rick Keil

[dstarr]

First decide if the cars you converted are too low or the other cars are too high.  For this you need a gauge to measure coupler height.  Kadee makes one.  The NMRA gauge has a coupler height slot.  Using the NMRA gauge as a standard I  cut a pine block to just the right height, mount the block on the end of my test track, and screw a coupler to the pine block.  Presto, a zero cost coupler height gauge.  BTW, if you don't have the NMRA gauge, you ought to get one.  It will check track gauge, wheel gauge, and turnout clearances.  When you have derailments, the gauge will let you pin the problem to the track or to the rolling stock.  

   Many cars need adjustments to get the coupler height right.  For instance all the legacy Athearn "Blue Box" cars need a washer under the tracks to jack their couplers up to standard height.  Number 6 flat washers from the hardware store fit just right.  

[Packer]

Kadee has a conversion kit for them. I used them on some of my Life-like cars I had.

 Body-mounting is the way to go, since IMO, it's actually cheaper and less time-consuming.

[wm3798]

Another thing to consider is that compared to many other brands, including the newer Bachmann Silver series, the old Life Like and Tyco cars are pretty lousy looking.  Rather than spend a bunch of money figuring out how to convert them, I'd invest in some better quality cars.  These are typically engineered to provide proper coupler height without a lot of tinkering, and many come with knuckle couplers already. 

Personally, I'd rather have a short train that looks good and runs well than a long train that's unreliable and crappy looking.

You can always build a coastal scene, and submerge those old cars in the water to make a reef...

Lee 

[tatans]

The one thing constant in model railroading is: when purchasing cars, you can be assured that none of the couplers will match anything else in the world, let alone your layout. That's why coupler makers make 25,000 different types and modifications of couplers. So go out and buy $1,000.00 of the same type coupler and all the spacers and washers to adjust to all your cars and then keep busy changing over everything you own.