[Gareth]

Greetings fellow slot dudes,

I have recently picked upa couple of the awesome Tyco Dumper Trucks. One of them is in pretty good condition apart from a broken central windscreen pillar. The other sadly had mashed up pickups and some moron had soldered braid on the ends which made a right mess and stopped the truck running. I've tried the motor on a 9volt and the truck runs fine so new pickups should get it back on the road.

But where do I get them from! Any ideas who stocks them or has a stash? Or will I need to make some? They are the long chassis length pickup strips where the power is taken up in the centre of the chassis to feed the motor.

I'll post photos later on if you haven't seen one of these before. The running one is actually quite fun to drive.

I narrowly missed out on adding a fire engine to the collection as well getting outbid at the last minute. A great shame as I have realised these are potentially quite valuable and the one I was pipped on only went for around £12.

Any info on pickups will be greatly appreciated. And then I shall read Bill Hall's excellent thread on model murdering so I can effect some body repairs.

Cheers
Gareth

Edit: Found some pickups on SlotCarCentral. Annoyingly his shipping prices to the UK are ridiculous. What are they like to people in the States?

 

[slotcarman12078]

Bob Malta aka Tubtrack aka Slot Car Central on the bay sells repop US1 shoes.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-TYCO-US-1...390055440083?pt=Slot_Cars&hash=item5ad11daed3

Not sure how much shipping will be for you, but they're there. I've bought a few sets and they do work, but I found the material to be a bit softer than the originals. They do wear just a little bit faster.

Talk about timing.. $6.70 to ship, and he's only 90 miles from me...

 

[Gareth]

Well that is a tad silly on price! All of his slot listings on the bay are over $25 shipping to here which is garbage. The most expensive USPS International Priority for a small box which could get four or five HO cars in is only $13. I had a parcel of 5 or 6 cars from New Zealand cost me less!!

 

[alpink]

devils advocate here and please forgive me
but
on eBay you pretty much have to accept PayPal payments.
PayPal has a rule that a form of online verifiable tracking or Delivery Confirmation (Signature Confirmation on stuff over $200.00) be used on all outgoing packages to protect the buyer and seller from loss.
the level of shipping via USPS that would allow for tracking internationally is really expensive ( no I don't remember how expensive) and that could be why someone's shipping costs for international is so very too high.
that being said is why I don't allow international bidders on my eBay auctions. if someone messages me and asks, I can lift the restriction for them individually after they agree that the shipping is gonna be costly. so far no one has accepted those terms.

so, like I said, just giving some info so that maybe we won't be too hard on sellers who will still sell internationally but follow the PayPal requirements for their protection.

.

 

[Gareth]

Hi Al,

What you say is sound and does make sense but it doesn't stop the frustration of seeing things I would like to buy at a reasonable price but then seeing that huge shipping charge which makes it unviable.

An example is worm gears that he had listed. I was interested but I can't justify $30 on a pair of tiny gears! And I know that he will ship as much stuff as I want at that flat fee of $25 but then I'm straight over our Customs limit and will get hit with more costs.

My collection of cars has items from Europe, New Zealand, Canada and the States in it and none of those cars cost that much to post.

Rant over and sorry!!

 

[alpink]

Gareth, no need for sorry. his shipping prices are very high here too. I avoid buying from him unless there is no alternative.
if you like, I can be a go between. you PM me the parts list you want and I'll shop it and give you total including shipping to Brighton. and if you can pay me through PayPal as a gift, then I can declare GIFT on the customs form and NOT be lying.
think about it. maybe we can do a couple mailings a year for you.
you can even shop other vendors (web sites) and I can make the multiple purchases and ship them all at once to you.

 

[Gareth]

Al, that would be absolutely amazing of you and I will definitely take you up on that offer. I'll have a chat with Woodcote and see if he needs anything as well as he lives round the corner.

Thanks again. One more example of how awesome the global HO community is.

 

[[email protected]]

Keep in mind those trucks originally ran on 6vdc. If you do run them on a higher voltage you will wear out the axle gear. Hardest thing on them is fast acceleration and deceleration. The worm gear holds up pretty well. The bulbs were also 6 volt DC and will burn out at higher voltages. They are a very reliable chassis and require very minimal adjustment to run good. Silicone tires for the rear are your friend.

I tried making some shoes out of hobby brass plate. They worked ok but were a bit more touchy on being clean.

I was thinking about hogging out the back area to accept a crown and pinion setup from a Tyco/Mattel 440-X2 chassis. The type with a gear boss. If I was going to run them on a race track that may be what I setup for a chassis to run.

 

[Gareth]

Thanks for letting me know about the lower voltage requirements. That's a bit of a shame actually as it is quite fun to see it zipping around at 18volts!

I do have a variable PSU so won't be a problem to drop it to 6vdc for these guys.

 

[[email protected]]

Gear damage is what you'd do at the higher speeds. The motors will handle it.

 

[slotcarman12078]

And sadly, replacement gears aren't available (besides used ones).

 

[SouthLyonBen]

I was thinking about hogging out the back area to accept a crown and pinion setup from a Tyco/Mattel 440-X2 chassis. The type with a gear boss. If I was going to run them on a race track that may be what I setup for a chassis to run.

Not sure how that would work unless you redid the motor mounting since the US-1 motor sits higher for the worm gear set up and has a longer shaft. You can mount the Dump bodies on A normal Tyco wide chassis if you just want to buzz around a track and not use them on a US-1 set up with the action stations.