# Which KD for Aristo-Craft Heavyweights (large radius)?



## noela (May 22, 2008)

Hi,
Happy Thanksgiving! 
Getting set to do a conversion on Aristo-Craft Heavyweight Passneger Cars. I want to be able to close couple the cars, and would prefer body mounting. The units I will be doing will be operated on minimum 20' diameter curves. I know that KD has a conversion for the cars for a smaller radius, but couldn't find info on the site for doing cars with a larger radius. Can anyone point me in the direction I need to go?
Thank you. 

Noel


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## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

Noel,

I use a 789 Kadees, and kadees 881 mounting pad

They make a perfect combo for the heavy weights and you can ajust the coupler as close as you want. 



Happy Thanksgiving.....


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## docwatsonva (Jan 2, 2008)

Noel,

I also used 789's. I first made new mounting pads out 2 pieces of basswood. Obviously, the thickness of the 2 pieces were set to put the coupler at the proper height (Kadee height guage).











I then glued the pad between the coupler beams.










I then mounted the 789 to the pad.












The next 2 photos show the cars sitting on LGB 1600 curved track. They illustrate that the clearances are more than adequate on such tight curves.




















Doc


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## noela (May 22, 2008)

Thanks Nick,
Great looking lighted cars, are they your's? I'm assuming they are incandescents inside, although they do look pretty bright. Which show was it?
Now that the winter seems to be coming, I am lining up jobs to do, along with some of my own personal stuff. Have a bunch of engines to convert to various forms of power (none of them DCC), and a couple of passenger sets with major work, thank goodness for lathes and milling machines.
Also, thank you for the suggestion. 
Again, Happy Thanksgiving.

Noel


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## noela (May 22, 2008)

Thank you for your suggestion.
BTW, do you prefer 3 axle trucks to the 2 axle trucks on the heavyweights? 
Happy Thanksgiving.

Noel


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## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

Yea Noel there mine.

I have 26 of them now

Once there tuned up they run well

The jury is still out on the 3 axle trucks

No problems running on the show layouts,

But had a couple of derailments out doors

The lighting is stock but im getting ready to convert to 

LED strips Greg E found for me at a great price....









By the way the 881s are basicly mounting pads for the couplers 

Have a great day

Ps the show was at the Civic center in Poughkeepsie NY

But i just booked us into the Greenburgs show at the Middletown Fairgrounds...... for 1ST week in Feb 2011


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## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

Doc,

Nice job on making the mounting pads

They look great


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

The newer generation of 3 axle trucks are much more reliable than the old ones. This is from the increased side to side travel in the center axle, and the improved support rib that rides on the car underbody. 

These cars cry out for body mounts, the extremely long coupler tang on the truck deflects up and down all over the place under load. The stock Aristo couplers, with the "override shelf" on the coupler will stay coupled, but other couplers will often override and come apart. 

Of course, switching to body mounts on long cars means you cannot have radical transitions in grade in your layout since their angle is now controlled by a 3 foot long car as opposed to a 6 inch long truck. 

Regards, Greg


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

I have, what I think are two generations of the three axle trucks. At least there were 5 or 6 years between the purchases. I have 5' radius (10' diameter) curves on my layout. I have had to remove the center wheel set from each truck to get them to traverse my layout without problems. The first 3 axle trucks were bricks. The engine could not pull a couple of cars through a curve. Removing the center axle from each truck solved the problem. The later design pulled fine, but they tended to derail in the curves. Now all of my Aristo heavy weights with three axle trucks have only two axles. Removing the center axle greatly improved the performance. I have also body mounted the couplers with Kaydee 830.

Chuck N


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Chuck, the newer design should have no problems on those curves, I run 6-8 of them on a loop of 5' radius where there's even an S curve. 

One trick is to lube where that rib rubs on the underbody of the car. 

I got my new ones, and had derailments right off... lubed that area and the pivots, and problems disappeared, I have all axles in place. 

The first 3 axle ones did have problems, but should have worked on your curves. Oh, I regauged the wheelsets too, they were way off. 

Regards, Greg


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## noela (May 22, 2008)

Hi Nick,
Thanks again.
Looking forward to meeting you at the Middletown show in Feb. I'll call you on this as it gets closer. Not sure how much help I can be as my knees limit my bending (actually can bend down, as long as I don't have to get back up), but my back may be able to qualify me as a gofer.Do you remember the information that Greg gave you regarding the LED strips. Are they the bright white ones or the regular white ones? I haven't decided on the battery installation yet, or the size of it, but if I can find something inexpensive for the cars, that gives good light, I can then determine the voltage and current I will need for the set.Looks like the cold is finally starting to settle in, now I'll have to dress real warm to run. One big advantage of the coming winter, no more leaves and twigs to clear away, now it's just the frost on the rails. Turnouts are snug also, but if I'm just running, that's not a big deal.I am looking to installing Gary Raymond wheels in a client's project, may make the job less labor intensive. It will involve USAT corrugated and Aristo heavyweights, will be installing BB's and the sealed bearings I use work very well, but USAT in particular, requires cutting down the axles and them installing shims to build them up so they fit. Just have to see if it is cost effective to just put the bearings on the Raymond wheel sets, without a lot of work.
Thanks again, have a great weekend.

Noel


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg:

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, those axles are now in another pair of trucks.

Chucki N


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## noela (May 22, 2008)

Thank you for all of the input, it is greatly appreciated. 

Noel


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