Crius

I'm on the same page because I think $199 to ship one of these tanks is absolutely ridiculous. Hopefully we'll start seeing them on eBay from a US seller.

Crius

Well, that didn't take long, I just did a search on eBay for "1/16th M60 RC tank" and I got two results. One from China for $314 with free shipping, and the other one from Canada for 320 something with $129 shipping. Not sure if these are the all plastic versions or the metal versions or what, but I'm quite happy to see them appearing on eBay since I want to get one of these myself. I would say in another 4 to 6 weeks we'll start seeing all the different versions on eBay, either from us sellers or from China with free shipping.

tiger rampage

I spoke with Coolbank on FB and he said he was looking for a North American distributor and I mentioned to him that he should contact Motion RC and Toucan hobby so we’ll see what happens.

Crius

You didn't mention Imex? Those guys have been pretty good to our hobby over the years, I would think they would be the first choice if you're trying to send business their way.

Crius

So I called imex, and the owner, Bill, is in China right now. I gave him the information about this guys tanks and told him that the guy's looking for a North American distributor so hopefully Bill will come home with a container full of the things.

tiger rampage

I haven’t thought about IMEX much since Erik left there it’s been very quiet on the Taigen front. Maybe they would be interested?
ps sorry didn’t mean to hijack your thread fsttanks

Fsttanks

I was about to slap your hand.....LOL NO not really. This is an open thread I hope will help drive sales and or help people make decisions about buying an M60, so talking about getting a supplier in North America is all good stuff and related. I for one think the current arrangement of having to get them from limited suppliers needs to be addressed.

Fsttanks

TongDe M60 in a "Cold War" era theme photo between an M551 and M1A1.

tiger rampage

Awesome looking platoon!!!

afv aficionado

Saw this on RC Tank Warfare - Louis - lmcq11- is commencing a build - https://www.rctankwarfare.co.uk/foru...339611#p339611 -

Mal

Fsttanks

Some changes are coming later in May 2023. I was told the M60s will be dropping the plastic suspension arms and will be coming standard with metal suspension arms.

A new lower hull will now have mounting points to securely hold down the battery and speaker. I received a "pre release" new spec M60A3 (soon to be a A2) today and was impressed at the improvements made to the "plastic" version. The one I received also had the metal gearboxes installed. I don't think that will be standard but it should be.

I also received two sets of plastic tracks. These are the early "chevron" style and have not been available except in metal to this point. The metal tracks are decent and robust but very heavy and shinny( I hate shining metal pads that are supposed to be black rubber) as I pointed out in my review. The plastic tracks are far superior in strength to HL or even many of the Tamiyas nylon tracks.

Although the suspension arms are switching to metal they are not receiving the bearing that come with the metal version, instead they have nylon bushings.



New lower hull with mounting "hold down" points.

New metal suspension arms.

New metal suspension arms. Also noticed the "ride height" is much improved over the the prior plastic version.

New plastic "chevron" tracks.

Delta_19

As a Canadian I hope if IMEX does pick these up they're second across the line. I kinda would like the opportunity to buy one.

keilau

The going price of a TongDe or Coolbank US Patton M60 RC tank is $150 to $170 for plastic version and $290 for the metal version. For the plastic version, shipping is $50 by surface and $130 by air from China. You can find them at AliExpress or DKLMRC.com. The e-bay price is way too high.
I got my TD M60 from Nova Hobby in Canada for $179 plus shipping by UPS for $42. Shipping to Chicago took less than one week and arrived in very good condition.

tiger rampage

I ordered the Tongde Centurion plastic edition from Nova hobbies it was the last one they had in stock. They don’t seem to have the M-60 in stock anymore either. I wanted to order a metal edition M-60 from DKLM but they wanted 199 usd for shipping to NY so I’ll be waiting for the Merkava and M-60 to be in stock here in the US before I purchase them.

Fsttanks

A little update on the plastic version shown above. I have found that the plastic bushing used in it are sloppy in their fit and this causes far to much wobbling of the suspension arms and road wheels. Wobbling of these parts historically leads to very poor track retention.

I have thus replaced the plastic bushing with bearings. This has tightened everything up to the standards of the metal version(which are actually pretty good). The wheel/idler bearing size I used is 4x7x2.5mm and the the suspension bearings are 7x11x3mm. Given the number of bearings needed, 52 in total (28 wheels/idlers and 24 suspension arms) and the added cost of also adding metal gearboxes it is IMO a better dollar value to just skip the plastic version and go straight to the metal version which comes with bearings and metal gearboxes standard.

Bearing installed in plastic wheels. They are a simple drop in upgrade.


I used sealed bearings for the road wheels and idlers.

keilau

@Fsttanks, can you change "TongeDa" in your thread title to "Tongde"? It would help people who is searching for review of this tank.

Fsttanks

I wish I could.

It was an avoidable typo, I wasn't wearing my glasses when I entered the title so I did not see it. When I did, the allotted edit "time frame" had lapsed. Admin would have changed it at this point.

keilau

I hope that the moderator sees your post and takes action. This is a popular thread that will attract even more reader when "Tongde" is added. Thank you for the wonderful job you do.

mariaflores

Impressive work on the TongDe M60! The metal version looks fantastic, and the attention to detail is evident with the accurate 105mm M68 cannon and canvas mantle cover. Looking forward to hearing more about its performance at LA Tank Club battle days.

Fsttanks

The M60 did well given its size and the very tight terrain (city scape) of the LA Tank Clubs battle field. With a little more time battling with the M60 it should prove to be quite a good adversary for the opposing team.

On another note with the new DKLM A2 turret I suspect that my second M60 will be a beast on the LA field given the A2s short barrel making for easier maneuvering and targets acquisition between buildings and trees. Here is a photo of the DKLM A2 turret dry fitted to a TongDe M60 lower hull.

Fsttanks

Added a spotlight by JVM3Dconcepts to the TD M60. IMO it adds so much more of that "Cold War" tough look to the feel of the tank.

Fsttanks

The TongDe M60 continues to do well and just took part in its second battle day at the LA Tank Clubs June 2023 event. It shared the field with four other M60s all which fought well.

Photo of all five M60 prior to taking the field.


Left to right: M60, M60A1, M60A2, M60A3 and M60 RISE

tiger rampage

Awesome picture

Koenigstiger

Hello,

Christian Ludwig has made a M-60 dozer blade in scale 1/16 = M48 (ludwigs-hobby-seite.de) - the link shows the M-48 dozer blade, but he also has it now for the M-60 with the appropriate nose mount.!

Best greetings
Guenther