Trucks and Wheels

[BroadwayLion]

If you are replacing the trucks, truck gemetry is very important. Some have the king pin centered and some have it offset. Are the couplers part of the truck or are they body mounted? It will cause problems if you mix the two at a particular coupling.

Model manufactures tend to cheat the position of the trucks in order to use 18" curves. The clser they are to the middle the tighter curve a car can negotiate, but the problem is then moved to the ends of the cars which may swing so far apart as to cause issues with the car that it is coupled to.

LION has not examined every car on the planed, but him has many Riverossi cars (Think 1970s vintage) that have truck mounted couplers, Kadee has kits to work with these, and I have used them on my entire fleet.

 

LION kept the plastic trucks and just replaced the wheels. Keeps the geometry simple.

 

Wheel size then becomes an issue. Some manufactures cheat down on the wheel size so that where you would expect a 36" wheel you will find a 33" or a non-standard wheel size. Those older Riverossi's had cookee-cutter wheels. Those need to go in any event.

Some pax car wheel sets have plastic wheels on metal axels, an all metal wheel set may present electrical problems especially if you are trying to light the cars. Which way you mount the wheels is important.

ROAR

[Medina1128]

mbinsewi

I think I would look into replacing the wheel sets with metal wheels, and use the plastic trucks.

I think total axle length varies between manufacturers, such as Athearn vs. Rivarossi, so you might need to measure what the excisting wheel sets are, and what type of ends they have, and how they fit into the trucks.

I'm not sure how many variations there are, but something to pay attention to when looking for replacements wheels sets.

Mike.

 

And, I would add that, although the more prototypical .087 width wheel treads look better unless you have almost perfect track work, I use the wider wheels from Kadee.

[mbinsewi]

I think I would look into replacing the wheel sets with metal wheels, and use the plastic trucks.

I think total axle length varies between manufacturers, such as Athearn vs. Rivarossi, so you might need to measure what the excisting wheel sets are, and what type of ends they have, and how they fit into the trucks.

I'm not sure how many variations there are, but something to pay attention to when looking for replacements wheels sets.

Mike.

[starman]

I have several passenger cars that have plastic trucks and wheels.  They move OK but not great.  I am interested in replacing these trucks and wheels with metal trucks and wheels.  I am more interested in the cars running smooth and easy than I am in accurate appearance.  I don’t have a lot of money I can put into new tracks and wheels.  What trucks and wheels do you recommend?  Thanks!