HL tiger 1 snow-friendly idler wheels

thingiverse

This is redesigned idler wheels for the Tiger 1 by Heng Long, which will also fit the 3819 Pantiger. The stock ones made driving in winter time impossible as my tank has metal tracks and the snow just covered the idler wheels layer by layer until the tank became undriveable within minutes and the tracks were like guitar strings. They use bearings located just under the load bearing part, so the force of the tracks act directly on the axle instead of forcing the idler wheel forwards as its anchored nearer the hull on the stock ones and aftermarket. This makes for a smoother running tank. 10mm Redesigned Stock Idler: First try at a more snow friendly idler. This is pretty similar to the stock with two discs supporting the tracks, but designed so the tracks force the snow through. They worked pretty good on powdersnow, but eventually clogged up when driving on melting snow. These will hold better on to a semi-detracked belt, and works as a replacement for the stock ones. Slightly larger diameter than stock to give some more tension to the tracks. 10mm Snow: It will make your tank pretty immune to snow as these dont stuff snow in the track grooves like the stock ones do. It will probably make driving through sand, light gravel, vegetation etc easier also, as the same effect applies to those environments as well, no stuffing of foreign objects in the tracks. A bonus feature is that the de-tracking issue haunting these tanks seems to be gone after installing this, as the track has a lot of play on these. EDIT: Added a version with solid back, this is more sturdy and the snow has no place to collect on it at all. Worked great in all snow conditions during testing. DIY and Parts Required: Bearings, at least two on each wheel. "10mm" in the design name means 10mm bearings: I used 5x10x4 mm bearings, thickness dont matter but I found this size to be the most avaliable. These designs will fit 2-3 of those (avoid using just one though). Screws. I chose 5mm screws for all designs as you only require a 5mm tap to thread the stock hull. I recommend the type that have about 1-2cm unthreaded towards the head as the bearings will be more stable. Any length over 30mm should do the trick on stock hulls. A M5 metric thread tap is also required, most hardware shops carries those. I printed mine with 100% infill and PLA, seems to be plenty strong. Just remember to compensate for shrinking etc so the bearings are able to be inserted without too much post processing of the print.