Dan Pierce said:
For Truck mounting, the LGB, USA TRains, Bachmann and Trainli can use the 831 (909) with no modification to the truck for mounting on the truck.
Aristo and HLW use a different mounting method on the trucks and the 830 style will fit better.
With a little effort, the 831 will also work on the Aristo and Heartland trucks.
I converted a Piko tender and a USA Box Car (battery trailing car) today. I wanted to do the FA-1, but the coupler is weird…it has a lot of vertical movement to it. Anyway to conver to Kadee and not have all the up and down movement? I think body mounting it will make the coupler too high.
THoughts
Body mount, and you will have to use a shim probably.
Greg
Bob,
I highly recommend purchasing a coupler gauge from Kadee for whichever size coupler you choose to use - G or #1. One side of the gauge has a coupler mounted to it, and the other side of the gauge is a shelf to help determine the correct mounting height for the coupler box - #820 for #1 couplers, #830 for ‘G’ couplers. For what it is worth, Kadee ‘G’ couplers and the Bachmann Spectrum coupler are interchangeable.
I am converting a bunch of Bachmann Big Hauler tank cars to Kadee #830 couplers. I start out checking to see if I will need to modify the car body for mounting. In this case I am marking the car body to obtain the correct mounting height for the coupler box.
I had to notch the end beam of the car some, but still needed to make a shim stack to facilitate mounting the coupler box. After making the shim stack and locating it on the car body, I mark the shim for drilling
…and the marked shim ready for drilling and tapping.
After the shim is fixed to the car body and the coupler box mounted (note the #2-56 screws that hold the coupler to the shim stack).
It is best to get a mount that is like this. This one is a touch high - about .020". A miss that I can live with.
My preference is for an acrylic type mount that I can drill and tap for #2-56 machine screws, or clearance hole for same with nut and washer.
Bob C.