Large Scale Central

Which freight truck to standardize on, Aristo, or USAT?

Modeling Rolling stock
#1

OK, so first I’m running truck mounted couplers.

So as I add used cars, in this case MDC, and go to metal wheels, some cars also need new trucks.

So far, the USAT unsprung trucks with metal wheels track great. I think it mostly has to do with weight.

The Aristo stuff comes with plastic wheels, and you have to order the metal wheels separately. The standard truck is sprung.

All things being equal, I would think the sprung trucks would track better than the unsprung ones. I do loosen the sideframe screws just a touch on the USAT trucks to give a bit of equalization.

Anyone have opinions based on experience?

Also, anyone have the part number of the USAT trucks with blackened metal wheels.

I’m not interested in archbar or roller trucks.

Regards, Greg

#2

Well… As all of my equipment is Aristo save this one Bachmann car, I had in mind to change it to Aristo trucks. But then the Backmann trucks run just find and have never given me any trouble, so I left them.

There’s a guy in Central Illinois who hates Aristo truck springs, so he pulls the trucks off his aristo cars and puts USA on. My scratch built coal hopper runs on a pair of his castaway trucks. Some guys switch to all aristo 'cause they like truck springs.

I’d worry more about standardizing couplers than trucks :wink:

#3

Greg,

When you replace your trucks would you be interested in parting with them for a to be specified amount of $$$?

Thanks

Andre’

#4

Well, I have mostly USAT cars, the Ultimate series are just great, the weight of the cars, metal wheels, etc makes them run great. I have some of their older cars, and adding metal wheels helped a lot. They will start running with the Bachman shay, and probably the 10 wheeler Annie.

I just bought a bunch of MDC hoppers, some real short ones, and some longer ones. These will get new trucks or at least metal wheels. The newer, longer hoppers have really slippery plastic for the sideframes, so I think I might just try metal wheels at first.

The shorter MDC hoppers, which I want to use for an ore car drag, have been fooled with, and the plastic where the sideframe connects to the truck “frame” is cracked in most units, and they are so loose wheelsets can fall out. These are the first project, and I would give the old trucks to anyone who wants to pay the postage to ship them, but I will probably throw them away.

I received my first 2 Aristo cars recently as freebies for purchasing 2 Pacifics. They wobbled from side to side like drunken sailors, and I swapped the washer to the other side of the truck, that helped.

They are so much lighter than the other cars they derail no matter where they are put in the train. I attribute most of this to the plastic wheels, and much lighter construction. After all the cool (yes also fragile) details on the USAT stuff, I was a bit disappointed.

What struck me as odd, and precipitated this post was that the Aristo trucks are fully sprung and look nice, but the USAT trucks, which are rigid (although I loosened the sideframe screws a bit for equalization) just run so much better.

Thus my quest for others’ experiences in sprung vs. unsprung. I am also just a little miffed that I cannot buy complete trucks with metal wheels from Aristo. Now, I know that buying their metal wheels and replacing the plastic ones still makes them cheaper than USAT, but, now I have to go to the extra trouble to find someone who stocks them. I am trying to support the local shops and I also sometimes want it today, so that part is personal.

This weekend I’m giong to body mount Kadees on my USAT 40 footers and see how they run, backing truck mounted couplers on my twisty layout with lots of switches is not fun at all.

So, the door might be open to buying something like the Ozark trucks (no coupler tang) and body mounting.

Regards, Greg

#5

Greg,

I run mostly Aristo Craft, but keep in mind there are some USAT cars that defy conversion without a lot of modifcation those I just leave the USAT trucks in place and change the couplers. All the trucks are good, it just depends on the look that you want. Some of the more modern (I get a few in exchange for working on a few things and buy one on occasiion) convert pertty easy to the roller bearing type Barber trucks. Once in a while you can do a little cutting and make them fit, but there are some cars that just don’t want to be changed so why change them. The early ones I just put metal wheels on and Aristo Crouplers and leave the rest as is.

Same thing goes for a few bachman cars that I still run. The Bmann hoppers you have to put a wahser on to get the wheels to clear and they run very well with AC trucks.

Ron

#6

Greg: basicaly what it boils down to is what do you want for tucks ones with springs or ones with out. They basicaly all track the same unless you have some track that is not up to par. I have run both but prefer AC only because they have real springs. I’m not a rivit counter but still like the looks. Just don’t like USAT trucks that much. You can buy AC trucks with metal wheels but are Roller bearing style how ever where I buy them from they are cheaper than just buying the meatal wheels, so I don’t mind up grading my cars as I’m into the 70s for cars. Later RJD

#7

Ron: Have changed a lot of USAT cars trucks out and its only about a 10 min mod to change them over to AC trucks works great. Later RJD

#8

I am assuming you have some of the hopper bodies that were on Evil Bay. I would recommend USAT trucks for those because they are slightly smaller and the car will sit a little lower. This can be important because the cars are actually 1:32. In my opinion the Aristo’s just don’t look quite right. On 1:29 cars that need trucks, I prefer Aristo’s if they will fit without too much modification. Back to the hoppers, there is one current problem…last I checked, Charlie Ro was out of Bettendorf trucks…the ones that come in a package without wheels. The ones with wheels and already built up I do believe are the rollerbearing style which would be very inappropriate for the MDC hoppers.