Vincent D’Agostino said:
I have the trucks turned around so the truck mounted tang faces inward, it’s the truck wheels that hit the coupler box.
That’s a new one for me. Jerry
Joe Zullo said:
Nick,
Vinny said it was the wheels that were hitting the coupler box.
Joe, pay attention to what Nick wrote. He described the accepted remedy for wheels hitting the coupler box.
Nick S. said:
Doug Arnold said:
Since I only use Kadees I would have a hard time making up for that mismatch. Makes me wonder who made the cars.Doug,
AML Locomotives are built to scale 1/29th, therefore they are set up for scale height couplers.
Most people who buy these prefer that, The 060 and K4 mate up fine out of the box with Kadees.
All AML rolling stock comes with truck mounted couplers for those who wish to run that style
coupler, But they also include a Kadee style body mount box and coupler for bolting on to there cars for a more scale type Railroading and work with all there AML Engines.
I never changed the Factory couplers on my K4s or 060s because they work fine out of the box with Kadees.
I just ordered a NYC Dryfuss Hudson from AML, and assume the coupler heights will be the same as there other offerings.
P.S. When adding body mount couplers you must turn the diecast trucks around on AML cars and
on plastic trucks you must cut off the coupler tang for the truck to swivel freely.
Also when using kadee style box on 10ft or smaller curves, Most people and myself included just put a small notch in the box with a dremal tool were the wheel touch’s it to make it go around a little tighter curve. Just common sense once you get into it.
I only notched a few cars for special runs as I almost never run anything on less than 10 ft Dia curves. I personally like the bigger is better rule.
Nick
Well…I only have 8’ diameter curves and these cars do not work on them with the supplied body mounted coupler (just checked).
I also can’t notch the coupler box either, because where the wheel hits is exactly where the screw hole mount is.
No wonder why they are giving these cars away…
(http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b107/139vinny/Trains/DSC09107_zps442200a3.jpg)
when I use those Kadee’s, I use the 2 center holes for the screws, and notch out the side holes for the wheels to swing into…
Andy Clarke said:
when I use those Kadee’s, I use the 2 center holes for the screws, and notch out the side holes for the wheels to swing into…
What he said… saves on hardware, too. 
Well these will probably just go back in the boxes for now, I have plenty of rolling stock that actually works without having to be a magician.
When I get some free time I will mess around with them and see if they can be useable.
Hi Vinnie,
Perhaps the LGB knuckle couplers might be the solution for you. I am pretty sure they would easily handle R2 and possible R1 curves. I can check if you like.
Jerry
You could notch the wheels where they hit the coupler box. That would work. Wait, never mind.
I know, you can send them to me.
Steve Featherkile said:
You could notch the wheels where they hit the coupler box. That would work. Wait, never mind.
I know, you can send them to me.
Can’t, unless I make new holes to move the screws…
I may be selling the set of four really cheap, as I don’t need them.
“I may be selling the set of four really cheap, as I don’t need them.”
First dibs. 
Jerry
Steve Featherkile said:
You could notch the wheels where they hit the coupler box. That would work. Wait, never mind.
I know, you can send them to me.
I axed first!
But, I’m thinning my herd, so I really can’t use them.
My issue has been resolved
Steve Featherkile said:
Joe Zullo said:
Nick,
Vinny said it was the wheels that were hitting the coupler box.
Joe, pay attention to what Nick wrote. He described the accepted remedy for wheels
hitting the coupler box.
Hey wiseguy Steve,
Nick edited his post AFTER I posted to him. Wake up!
Jeeze… 8 foot curves and you want body mounts.
Should have stayed with the truck mounted couplers, but there’s a reason you are missing on the mismatch.
These are VERY to scale cars… to get the right coupler height and not put a gross notch into the end of the car, the couplers are necessarily low.
(The gross notch is required to get clearance for the coupler “tang” as it moves up and down and side to side)
USAT did the same thing… their rolling stock couplers are really low.
But when you go body mount, they are at the correct height.
What you want is really nice, true to scale, but on curves a bit too tight to allow body mounts.
8 foot and body mounts almost always requires some modifications to the coupler housings.
If you don’t want to do that, you could put truck mounted offset kadee couplers on to get them to the right height.
But, putting down nicely made and scaled products because they won’t work on tight curves is really not fair.
Greg
Greg Elmassian said:
Jeeze… 8 foot curves and you want body mounts.
Should have stayed with the truck mounted couplers, but there’s a reason you are missing on the mismatch.
These are VERY to scale cars… to get the right coupler height and not put a gross notch into the end of the car, the couplers are necessarily low.
(The gross notch is required to get clearance for the coupler “tang” as it moves up and down and side to side)
USAT did the same thing… their rolling stock couplers are really low.
But when you go body mount, they are at the correct height.
What you want is really nice, true to scale, but on curves a bit too tight to allow body mounts.
8 foot and body mounts almost always requires some modifications to the coupler housings.
If you don’t want to do that, you could put truck mounted offset kadee couplers on to get them to the right height.
But, putting down nicely made and scaled products because they won’t work on tight curves is really not fair.
Greg
Then explain why the 1:20 scale cars that they offer work fine with body mounted couplers on 8’ diameter curves?
And I have every right to put down a product that I bought from a company that offered them as a SET. If they were not going to work correctly right out of the box…don’t offer it as a set.
Seems pretty simple to me.
Besides, the cars are already sold.
Gentlemen, Newbies need a little time to understand things…
Greg Elmassian said:
Jeeze… 8 foot curves and you want body mounts.
…SNIP…
8 foot and body mounts almost always requires some modifications to the coupler housings.
Greg
Really?
I run body mounted couplers with 8ft curves all the time. Must be a difference with the KD stuff in 1:29. All my body-mount stuff is Bachmann 1:20.3 and some LGB using Bachmann couplers. All the other “small stuff” I run is truck-mount.
I have some KD couplers lying around, I will have to experiment!
Well a quick mock-up tells me there may be issues on my SOO gondola (I was planning on changing my SOO consist to body-mount). Ah, trains are fun!
Mark V said:
Greg Elmassian said:
Jeeze… 8 foot curves and you want body mounts.
…SNIP…
8 foot and body mounts almost always requires some modifications to the coupler housings.
Greg
Really?
I run body mounted couplers with 8ft curves all the time. Must be a difference with the KD stuff in 1:29. All my body-mount stuff is Bachmann 1:20.3 and some LGB using Bachmann couplers. All the other “small stuff” I run is truck-mount.
I have some KD couplers lying around, I will have to experiment!
When I started in this hobby in 1985 with LGB stuff, my rolling stock was all truck mounted, hook and loop and I ran on LGB, eight-foot diameter track. NEVER used body mounts until I started in 1/20.3 Fn3. AND I run on 7 1/2 ft.radius/15 ft.diameter MINIMUM. No problems with this combination. Also you have to take the scale you are using into consideration. My longest car in 1/20.3 is 26.5 inches…J&S coaches by AMS. Most of my freight cars are roughly 17.5 inches or shorter. I DO have a new Accucraft brass long caboose that I haven’t run yet. Not sure how that will do on my 15 ft. diameter curves. But is is only 17.75 inches long. BIG car for NG! The only car I can think that would be longer, would be the 40 ft. reefers that the D&RGW used…roughly 23.6 inches long. ALL my rolling stock is body-mount Accucraft couplers. I used body-mount Kadee’s in HO 35+ years ago. I will not use them on NG. I believe in “hands-on” now and operations, I’m done with “automatic”.
But when you get into 1/29, most old box cars, flats, etc. were 40 ft…roughly 16.5 inches long. I’m not familiar with the AML stockers, but I would think they are a minimum of 40 ft. If you get into some of the more modern stuff USAT offers, you’re starting to look at 50-60 ft. or more…20 plus inches to almost 25 inches long. Lot to ask to have smooth running on 8 ft. diameter track. YOUR mileage may vary, no doubt. Some things work for prople that others don’t.
I DO believe that ALL the manufacturerers need to be more honest with new people coming into this hobby about what equipment will work on whatever radius track you will be using. I know when I was new to large scale, I thought 8 ft. was HUGE. It didn’t take long to learn…although it was an expensive learning curve!! IF I had the land, I would make my layout for the absolutely biggest curves I could install, even for NG I would have 30-50 diameter MINIMUM!!
Gary Armitstead said:
I DO believe that ALL the manufacturerers need to be more honest with new people coming into this hobby about what equipment will work on whatever radius track you will be using…
AGREED! I have seen plenty of ads, even catalogs that fail to mention something as simple as min. radius required. USA is notorious for this, AMS too! My AMS coaches are the longest 1:20.3 I have and they do fine on 8’ dia. I could see the long cars from USA having a real hard time of it!