Why , do Kadee couplers draw hatred/dislike for them, and at the same time find so many people that wouldn’t care to use anything but them ?
Come on…let it all out…give the facts, for your liking for them, or your dislike of them.
But, please…no bashing just for the sake of bashing the couplers, or the people who contribute to this forum…please.
It’s a strange thing isn’t? In HO scale, Kadee is practically manditory if you’re a serious modeler…I had hundreds of them!
In largescale though, I continue to prefer Aristo couplers because they stay together so well (and they came on the cars already) They have little plastic shelves which act almost like tank car couplers to keep the knuckles from sliding out. I also think they look slightly more authentic than Kadees because you can leave the knuckles open, there’s no spring showing on the knuckle, etc…
I’m actually starting to like the Accucraft couplers now because uneven track is less of a problem for me these days.
I like them. For me they never come uncoupled and work flawlessly. My only complaint with them is the 830 coupler and the slinky effect, oh and the cost.
Terry
I have known of Kaydee for years: they were prolific in HO scale and some in OO.
I have no dislike or hatred of them. My not using them is based on the simple fact that most of my stock is Aristo and what is not has had their couplers converted to Aristo giving me a common coupler for my stock. I did not see any need to replace them with an expensive (over seventy or so cars), not to mention locos, new style coupler. The money saved would go towards more stock.
One other factor I considered was the ‘tail’, so noticeable, on the Kaydee coupler. I felt, rightly or wrongly, that this tail might foul twigs, snails or other items on the ROW causing an opening of the coupler with the resultant break in train at the simplest or wreck at the worst.
I don’t see anything wrong with them . I’ve used them exclusively since day one. Even in the Accucraft gear boxes. The new models have hidden springs. They are the standard in our club, if you want to run trains with other members rolling stock.
I think, like anything, some people get their shorts in a knot if you aren’t doing what they’re doing, or like what they don’t like.
Fred Mills said:
Why , do Kadee couplers draw hatred/dislike for them, and at the same time find so many people that wouldn’t care to use anything but them ?
Come on…let it all out…give the facts, for your liking for them, or your dislike of them.
But, please…no bashing just for the sake of bashing the couplers, or the people who contribute to this forum…please.
Who says they draw this hatred/dislike? Where are you headed?
The main reason I use them is universality. I run Aristro. USAT, AML and some LGB. Kadee makes couplers that can be placed on about any car I own. Not true with others. Aristro only couples easily with Aristro, etc
“Who says they draw this hatred/dislike? Where are you headed?”
I agree with Bruce.
I wonder where you are going with this Fred? We know how much you love the humble Hook and Loop and I do to. As for kadees, for me it comes down to the additional cost of adding them to the fleet. I don’t love them or hate them but I do know that H+L RULE.
I wish Kadee (or any manufacturer) would make a scale correct coupler. If correct scale working couplers are available in HO, then by all means they can be produced in a larger scale. The economics is why… If Kadee produced a type F, G, H, lower shelf, double shelf coupler than I would consider switching over. Right now I have a mix of USAT, Lionel, Bachmann and they all work just fine together.
Bashing couplers? That’s what I call “switching” or “shifting.” 
I’m NOT going in any direction with this question…
Over many years, I have heard various people making statements about couplers, Kadee being the one that seems to have the likes, and dislikes of many people.
Some people openly dislike Kadees, but few give reasons why. The same can be said of other makes, of couplers.
If I’m “Going in any direction”, it would be to find out why the dislikes…
One of the major faults some found with Kadees, was the knuckle spring, but the new ones don’t have it showing any longer…but the dislike seems to linger…why ?
Ah, I see. So, what do you plan to do with this information?
“Digest it”…er…I may learn something…who knows…might even get a lot of interesting contributions…bring new life into the forums…
The statement was made, that the HO Kadee couplers are true to the HO scale…are they ?
The LS Kadees are supposedly (#!'s) 1:32 scale and (G) 1:22.5…?
It’s funny that the 1:29 gang seem to favour the largest (Oversized) couplers…
Why are the Kadee couplers called #1, and G… #1 what…?..G sometimes means 1:22.5 scale.
I have used Kadee couplers for over 40 years. I started out in HO for many years then started collecting and selling Large Scale trains over 25 years ago. All of my equipment has Kadee “G” scale couples and the reason is simple. Every piece of my equipment will couple together without any problems. Like Thomas said earlier I have rolling stock from every manufacturer and Kadee’s allow me to run it all.
Our club switched over to Kadee’s over 19 years ago for a simple reason. We had an individual with a very large layout and we wanted to see how many cars we could pull in one train. The first try had 5 Aristo-Craft U25B locomotives with about 50 cars but we couldn’t keep the cars together with the manufactures stock coupler. So we all changed out our couplers to Kadee 830 or 831 couplers. The next try had the same locomotives and we were able to pull over 80 cars. The original video of that train was sent to Aristo-Craft which in-turn used it for promoting the hobby in the begining years. The layout belong to Jens Bang and was featured in the Garden Railway Magazine, but unfortunately I can’t remember what year and he no longer is a member of our club.
By standardizing in our club it also allows everyone to share and run anyones equipment on run days.
I love my link and pin best. Then Bachmann couplers because I tend to get them for free, from everyone that switches them out to kadees hehe. I cant say I have an issue with Kadee other then that silly thing that hangs low and hits the turnouts but that can be cut off. Oh and the price ouch… Did I say I love link and pin?
I have some Kadees, still in the wrapper…I had ordered them back whennnn…for my Fn3 locomotives…those days are gone so…H&L or Bachmann for me (ahmen…) The Kids!
I use the Kadee #1 couplers. To me they look much better than the oversized couplers that some rolling stock comes with, (and just about anything looks better than the hook and loop couplers). They are also easy to mount on equipment from various manufacturers. I cut the “tails” off of them since I don’t do any magnetic uncoupling.
I don’t have much trouble with them coming uncoupled, and when I do it’s usually because I haven’t been scrupulous about mounting them all at exactly the same height.
Of course they aren’t perfect. I find it takes considerable force to get them to couple, and it’s impossible to couple them on a curve unless you do it manually. So far this isn’t a big problem for me since I don’t do “operations”. And although they look better than most, they still don’t look quite like real couplers.
In fact if there is another coupler out there that looks and works better, I would probably convert over to it, as time and money allows.
I use the standard Kadees and cut the uncoupling tag off. I have tried the #1s as I think they are more to scale but my layout is less than perfect (Adirondack winter heaving) and they become uncoupled by riding over or under each other. Do not have the same problem with the regular couplers.