What Kadees/McHenrys for truck-mounted coupler con

[Anonymous]

One more thing! Even though I've been away from the hobby for 3 years, I still have been buying rolling stock, etc. Some have Kadees or similar knuckle couplers. Some have the ol' horn hook type, mounted on the trucks. How can I make truck-mounted couplers compatable w/ Kadee/McHenrys? Do I need all new trucks and then have to mount draft boxes on all the cars??? Thanks again! - Matt

[Anonymous]

First go to www.kadee.com/conv/list.htm
Scroll down to your specific car and get the recommended coupler #
Then, go back to www.kadee.com and under product #, click on the coupler # and up pops an exploded view and description.
On the athearns 72' coach, I mounted the #5 to the body.
On the rivarossi heavy weights I used the McHenry with the knuckle spring.

[Anonymous]

That's very helpful! Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Hi Matt!
You might get some negative feedback on those cars with 'talgo'type truck mounted horn-hook couplers, but a lot of them can be made quite serviceable.They tend to have wheels that aren't too good, and could use a bit of added weight...BUT...you asked about couplers, so here's my 2 cents worth: Because the couplers are truck mounted, they tend to be a bit low, so the pocket doesn't rub on the frame of the car. So in order to get the coupler a bit higher, you can use a McHenry coupler with a raised-head [ offset shank ].
MCH#15 is a short shank-raised head, and MCH#16 is a standard length shank-raised head. They come in packs of 6 pairs. I keep both on hand.Kadee makes offset couplers too, but these cars are fairly low in cost, so lowest cost couplers is what I choose for them.
You might want to look at replacing those wheels with Kadee or P2K wheelsets though, and adding some low-down weight if feasible.
Good luck & Happy New Year ...regards / Mike

[Anonymous]

Mike - Thanks for the info. These McHenry's slide right into the pocket on the trucks??? Thanks and Happy New Year! --Matt

[Anonymous]

The McHenry has no separate spring, it has a molded-in slippery plastic spring on both sides of the shank."Slide right into" would be way too easy.** There are several styles of coupler pockets with minot variations, between , say, Model Power, Bachmann, Mehano, for holding the horn-hook coupler in place. Some have a kind of plastic finger-tab to hold it. You just gently pry up on this tab with a small screwdriver, pull out the X2f, and slide in the McHenry, and let the tab snap back in.Other types have a kind of cover plate held in by tension, which can be pried up with same effect as above.Still others have a small screw that can be removed to lift off the cover plate. Just go at these tasks gently...remember, someone put those horn hooks on, so you can take 'em off and replace them.
Removing the trucks from the cars is best start for this job.
Good Luck / Mike
(**McHenry makes slide-in couplers to fit Rivarossi freight & passenger cars, & also locomotives.These number 15 & 16 are not for Rivarossi cars.)

[Anonymous]

Very good. Thanks!