# kadee for Aristo 2 bay coal hopper



## todd55whit (Jan 2, 2008)

Need some advise on what kadee coupler to use on the Aristocraft 2 bay coal hoppers. Got a 831 to work but there has to be a better way. Looks like there is a mounting pad for the 830 on the cars frame. Not sure if the 830 will work on 5'radius curve on a couple of my sidings. Thanks for any help...Todd


----------



## BodsRailRoad (Jul 26, 2008)

Personally I prefer the new E (900) series couplers over the older versions. 


The mounting pad is set up to accept the 830/906 sets and they will give you the greatest range for tight turns.
You will also need to buy the 841(black)/941(brown) shim packs to get the correct height on the couplers.


I am thinking of mounting the 907's (789's) instead of the 906's (830) because I don't like how easy the spring motion is, to much rubber banding.
I wish they would sell a stiffer spring for the 906/830 couplers. To mount the 907's you have to attach the 841 shims to the under body and then mount the 906 to the shim.

This will not only eliminate the rubber band effect of the 906/830's but also allow for closer coupling of the cars.

Has anyone here done that yet, if so what are your thoughts?

Ron


----------



## todd55whit (Jan 2, 2008)

Ron 
Thanks for the info, especially the tip on the shims. Will the 830 make my 5' radius curves?... Todd


----------



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Have not tried on 5' curves... 

Here's my page on putting Kadees on the car...

*http://www.elmassian.com/trains-mai...set-hopper*

Might make it, they are not real long cars... If you need more swing, you can notch out the sides of the coupler box.

Regards, Greg


----------



## todd55whit (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks for the site link Greg. Will let you know if they will make it around a 5' curve once the 841's get here.


----------



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks, I'll use that info on my site to help the next guy! 

Greg


----------



## blattan (Jan 4, 2008)

If you are asking about radius (NOT diameter), the 830 and presumably the 906 couplers on these cars work well. I do not shim mine. For me mounting with the "as built" pads are close enough to the Kadee gauge. 

Bert


----------



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I automatically took the 5' radius mentioned above to mean 5' diameter. If you truly meant 5' radius, that is absolutely no problem with the 830 style draft gear on these cars. I've run a 50 car train with about 10 of these cars on down to 9.5 foot diameter. 

I figured since you said "sharp" curves, you really meant 5' diameter curves. I think that was the way people interpreted it on the Aristo forum also. 

I will disagree about not using shims, Kadees really need very exact vertical alignment, to keep them from uncoupling on long trains, vertical curves, and also to keep the coupler "pin" from hitting things. 

Another tip, if you are going to change to metal wheels, do the change first before selecting you (inexpensive) Kadee shims, because the diameters of the Aristo plastic and metal wheels are DIFFERENT! (amazing), so your coupler height will be affected. 

Regards, Greg


----------



## todd55whit (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg 
I always get radius and diameter confused. You are correct about the 5' diameter. I am working on changing all the wheels of the 10 cars to metal before I Kadee all them up. Will be nice to use the 830 body mount instead of the 831 on the truck .


----------



## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Posted By todd55whit on 29 Apr 2011 03:10 PM 
I always get radius and diameter confused.


Easy to do in Large Scale.

LGB always specified the curvature dimensions using the radius, thus the R1, R2, R3 and R5 curved track most of us are familiar with.
USA Trainsand Aristocraft decided to use diameter, not radius - not sure why the change.

And when Piko came out with their track system, they used radius again and R1, R3 and R5 designators, but only R1 is the same as the "LGB" R1, the "Piko R5" is actually pretty close to the "LGB R3" and the "Piko R3" is closer to the "LGB R2".


Typical for Large Scale - absolutely no standard for anything - even basic components like couplings, switches, track and wheel sets, are often not readily interchangable.


Knut


----------



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I use the 830 style draft gearbox on all my freight cars, except where it won't fit, which is often tank cars and cabeese. 

I like the "slack action", but there is another benefit that not everyone realizes. 

On the short shank couplers, any play in the coupler pivot shows up as a fair amount of up and down travel in the knuckle. 

But, on the longer shank couplers that are used in the 830 draft gear, the same amount of play results in much less up and down travel, result, couplers stay at proper height better, especially under heavy load. 

Regards, Greg


----------



## Ted Doskaris (Oct 7, 2008)

For tight curves you might consider adapting the Kadee 838 that allows the entire coupler box assembly to swing side to side. These are used on the Aristo Heavyweight passenger cars.









See *Kadee 883 Flex-Bracket & #830 Coupler*

I did not try this as I don't have curves smaller in diameter than 8 foot.


I did installed Kadee 900s in some spare AML brand coupler boxes and put them the Aristo 2 bay hopper.
The sides of AML boxes are not as high as the Kadee 830 / 906 type boxes, so I built them up with a few layers of tape so that when the lid was installed and the assembly screwed to car the coupler shank would freely swing side to side (not bind). Since the AML coupler box pivot is smaller in diameter, I cut a nylon sleeve to fit over it.










A Kadee 1/16 inch spacer shim is needed to obtain the proper coupler to rail head height. This would be the same if you used the Kadee coupler boxes (Kadee 906 or 830)











The couplers box assemblies can be installed using Kadee 2-56 screws with nuts or you can use slightly larger 4-40 screws if you drill an tap the holes in the car's mounting pads. That way you don't need nuts.













The Kadee 880 or 980 gauge can be used to check for proper coupler height. 













Shown below is the car in the train on 10 foot diameter curve track. 











-Ted


----------

