# Faller Chassis Variations



## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

In the *Tjet EVO* thread, Mario said:



foxkilo said:


> ... you should have look at the way Faller changed their tjet clone in just over five years. If my count is right we are talking 6-7 main variations plus several subvariations.


Mario,

Modelmotorist.com shows four styles of Faller pancake chassis (and two inlines). Two of the pancake chassis have very good exploded parts diagrams. 

This one fascinates me:









The use of a filled metal gearplate for extra weight is interesting, though it's pretty high up.

Do you know the reason(s) behind the offset idler gear? It seems a drastic manufacturing change if the idea was simply to reduce the chassis length a tiny bit, or to buy the space for an extra tooth or two on one of the other gears. 

Do you have the URL for a website with the Faller chassis variants illustrated and/or a more complete description of the changes or features?

-- David


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

Dave, 

The offset idler position allowed the engineers to maintain their chosen gear ratio and not alter the wheel base/rear axle position.


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

I beleive you'll find ALL the Faller Variants here >>>> http://slotcarcentral.com/drupal-5/cr-home 









































































more coming...


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

and these are the last ones...


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## snakelee (Sep 20, 2014)

*pick up shoes*

why do the pick up shoes have holes in them


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

Bill Hall said:


> The offset idler position allowed the engineers to maintain their chosen gear ratio and not alter the wheel base/rear axle position.


Could you explain a bit more, Bill? 

The number of teeth on the idler wouldn't make any difference in the final ratio.
So you'd think they would just mount a slightly smaller idler on the centerline.

Unless they wanted to use an existing idler, but the difference is so...

:freak:
*Wait a minute!*
Looking at the photos again, I'm seeing a *small brass second idler* peeking out from under the main idler. Meaning that Faller is doing a *double reduction* in gearing, with a smaller gear molded to the back of the big idler, and a small second idler to transmit the power to the driven gear. Both idlers have shafts offset from the centerline in order to keep the overall length the same. 

Okay ... (whew) ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3FnpaWQJO0
:wave:


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

Ralphthe3rd said:


> I beleive you'll find ALL the Faller Variants here >>>> http://slotcarcentral.com/drupal-5/cr-home


Thanks so much, Ralph. Those photos are terrific! They are all going in my permanent reference folder. (You know, in case I ever luck into another Faller chassis. I have exactly _one,_ that I picked up cheap at a train show.)

-- D :thumbsup:


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## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

snakelee said:


> why do the pick up shoes have holes in them


I'm guessing it's to give grud a place to go before it builds up thick enough to break electrical contact for the whole shoe. Kinda like the grooves in car tires do for water.

Can anybody tell us if it works? Or if it's for some other reason?

-- D


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## cody6268 (Oct 31, 2013)

As I've also learned, some of the early Car System models were actually slot cars. I think there was a bus that was exclusive to that system.


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

FWIW- back in the day, I owned several of the Faller cars, that used one of the last two chassis I posted above. I remember they were noisy and slower than my T-Jets, but I bought them(new) from my Hobby shop because they were Cheaper than his Aurora T-Jets ! If I recall, the top plates may(or I may be dreaming?) have been able to swap onto the T-Jet Chassis tub....? I dunno now, as that was 45 years ago !?


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## foxkilo (Mar 27, 2008)

First thing the full metal top plate aka "zink chassis" was not intended for racing but for city traffic and trucks. Mainly trucks as Faller had a nice container traffic layout to be used in conjunction with modell trains. The gearing was 1:25 with a 6 teeth gear and 1:21.4 a 7 tooth gear. Check the pics above some have 6 and some 7.

As for Ralphs pics #1 and 2 are identical except the colour. #1 had in addition a pick-up with a inbuild diode to allow the 2 cars on the same lane independent from each other, but that's diffrent story. They are coded V6, V=Verkehr=traffic opposite to racing, by Müller/Hicks in their Faller bible. #3 - 5 are V5 only difference between them are the electrical parts are nickel vs copper. Those are the ones which had been equipped with that top plate factory wise. As all bottom halfs are the same as their racing equivalents you could convert more or less any bottom with top plate bought as spare into a traffic chassis. Thats what happened with #6. The bottom half is an F3 chassis. F for Flachanker = pancake. #1-2 are F5 and #3-5 are F4. As most of the V chassis had been sold as trucks, the ones with the red hubs, the ones with normal wheels have most likely been converted. But not necessarily.

Pic#1 in Ralphs second post is Fallers slim line or Formula 1 chassis. Nice chassis but to high center of gravity. You can't easily swap to smaller wheels as the axle wholes are higher up. #3-4 are normal F3 chassis.
To give an overviewof Faller chassis:

-Very early ones are P chassis = Platten = platform much like Atlas, Lionel and Marx with 3 subtypes witzh an inline motor. The very first type came with a reduction gear shaft (rare) the other two with worm drive.

-Then came the B chassis = Block. It was an inline can or more a block hence the name was sitting in the chassis walled in. Five main types and 12 sub types.

-The aforementioned F chassis came in 5 variations and 11 subtypes. Subtypes are mainly things like different materials for the electrical part or slight changes in the tooling. 
-V chassis cam in 5 forms. In addition to the ones ealier on there was a v1 one which never went into production. It remained prototype but made an appearance in the catalogue, V2 and 3 made the reduction in speed by different gearing. 

-And last but not least the chapparel chassis which was an AFX clone.

I hope I have confused you enough for today. If you got any question shoot.

Mario


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