Red Caboose 3-piece trucks (and Ertl) rolling qual

[Anonymous]

I have finished two Red Caboose reefers, a Mather reefer lettered for Rath, and a PFE reefer, early style, with grabs instead of ladders. Both schemes are no longer in production, but the PFE may have been replaced with another. Great detail and accurater paint schemes.
Anyway, they come with 3-piece trucks made by Red Caboose, with what appears to be Accurail wheelsets. I replace Accurail wheelsets with Proto 2000 wheelsets to get much better rolling qualities, and a little extra weight might not hurt. Anyway, these high-quality, widely available wheelsets do not work well in the 3-piece RC trucks. I emailed them, and they note that Intermountain wheelsets work for sure, but other manufacturers may differ. My hobby shop does not stock Intermountain wheelsets, so I bought Kadee trucks to replace the Andrews trucks, and now I may have to do the same for the Bettendorf T-section trucks on the PFE reefer. I considered other trucks (Walthers?), but if I had to replace the wheels with Proto, the cost would be almost the same as the Kadees! I tried putting the regular wheelsets back in, and it will not roll hardly at all, so the problem may not be wheelsets.
Other Red Caboose rolling stock (box cars, flats) came with one-piece trucks that worked fine with the Proto wheelsets.
Anyway, has anyone else had problems with these trucks? Oh, I tried the Proto wheelsets on an Ertl MEC gondola, which rolls poorly. Nope, the Ertl must use a shorter axle length, so I put the original wheels back in. Reboxx makes special-length wheelsets, but I do not have a retail source for them, nor pricing. Any other ideas?
Dean

[nfmisso]

Dean;

You have some choices:

1)You can order direct from Reboxx.
2)Purchase "The Tool" - see Aug 02 issue of Model Railroader, article on tools. With "The Tool" you can rework the trucks you have.

My measurements of 36" smooth back wheel axle lengths were: 1.008" for P2K, 1.013 for IM and 1.018" for Kadee, sample of one, your results will vary.

Nigel

[Anonymous]

Spoke too soon! Just got an email back from Red Caboose, I purchased very old kits (from very old stock) that someone had around for years. These kits had a molding problem, since these kits came without couplers, they must have been packaged before 1998! (Newer Red Caboose products come with couplers.) I wanted the Rath reefer, searched long and hard for it (out of production)... Found it at a good price, even. Sure, the price went up since 1997 or whatever! Anyhow, they will send me replacement trucks, which I assume will not have this defect. Well, all's well that ends well, my faith in Red Caboose is restored. Better get your RC products while you can, Walthers lists few in stock, expected delivery date "unknown". Sounds ominous. The Mather reefers are noticably shorter(36')than commonly availble stock, but the Rath and Mather (MUNX) are the only ones that I know represent prototypical schemes.
As far as Reboxx goes, the $10.00 Tool is almost as much as a two pairs of Kadee sprung trucks, so unless you have a lot of trucks.... hey, it could help on all of them, I suppose. Now, will I really dissasemble them all and give them a turn? Probably not. But, the Ertl cars either need the trucks replaced or the Reboxx wheelsets. But, they are "live-able" for now.
Dean

[PennsyNut]

Hey! Glad you got good response. In over 50 years of modeling, I have found that it's always best to contact a manufacturer whenever a problem arises. We used to have to either make a costly phone call (pre-1-800) or snail mail (pre-computers). But now - I always email as soon as a problem shows up. Usually a response within 48 hours. Then, follow up as necessary. I recently did so with another mfgr and got instant response, similar to you.