Kadee Couplers for Tyco

[CGW121]

I have a few Tyco cars with talgo trucks, or where the couplers are truck mounted. Anyway I would like to put Kadee couplers on them and was wondering which ones I should get.

                                           Thanks

[Trynn_Allen2]

I don't know that there is a Kadee to snap into those trucks.  Check thier website to be sure.  With a lot of those old cars, I've had to fill in the truck mounting holes and drill them back out for a new truck and then put coupler boxes on.

[BRAKIE]

Here's KD's plan: http://kadee.com/conv/pdf/t305.pdf

And the adapter you will need: http://kadee.com/htmbord/page212.htm

[doctorwayne]

I'd suggest doing away with the truck-mounted couplers (simply cut-off the whole assembly near the truck-mounting screw or pin), and replace them with body-mounted ones.  Kadee's #5 is a good choice, but you can also use their "whisker-type" couplers or the ones sized closer-to-scale.  However, the draught gear box for the #5 is one which is still offered in styrene (rather than engineering plastic), and can easily be attached to the Tyco cars' plastic floors using solvent-type cement.  If the car sits too high, you can create a suitably-thick shim from Evergreen sheet styrene, or, even better, file-down the car's truck-mounting bolsters.
A better method of mounting the couplers, especially if you opt for a Kadee type which uses engineering plastic for the draught gear boxes, is to use 2-56 screws.  Properly installed, body-mounted couplers are more reliable than truck-mounted ones, especially when pushing cars.

Here's a modified Tyco reefer, with body-mounted Kadees (Kadee #15s, since I had them on-hand):

Wayne

[MisterBeasley]

I had a bunch of those, with all-metal trucks and plastic wheels.  I cut the coupler section off the trucks, and then drilled and tapped the car bodies for a 2-56 screw, which I used to mount Kadee draft gear boxes and couplers.

Later, I decided to replace the plastic wheels with Intermountain metal wheels, but I had to abandon the metal trucks.  First, they really can't be twisted enough to remove the wheels, and second the metal trucks with metal wheels would have been a dead short.  I got Tichy trucks and those worked perfectly.

[Catt]

TYCO covered hopper KaDee #5s bodymounted with 2-56 screws.Intermountain 36" wheel sets in the stock TYCO trucks.I don't want to brag at how free wheeling this car is but I have to hold it still to couple or it just keeps rolling.

[G Paine]

A few years ago, I did a how to on just what you want:

Installing Kadee Couplers:
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/194274.aspx

Replacing Tyco trucks with better ones
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/194011.aspx#2118137

Depending on how the forum is running, you may have to copy and paste the web addeesses.

As you can see from the comments, there is more than one way to do things like this. I have done a number of these conversions, and this is what works for me.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I cat off the truck mounted coupler pocket, body mount a a Kadee coupler box and put in a #5 coupler or #148 Whisker coupler.