# How can I control a car



## Steve Schrader (Jan 18, 2020)

Hi everyone, my name is Steve and I am new here. I am trying to figure out how to control a cars speed for scale reality. I know this is not the norm with cars running hundreds of miles an hour and for most the faster the better.

I am trying to figure out how to run a car at a much slower speed to replicate what would be more true scale speed for a diorama I am working on. I have built a fairly nice track that is an off road deal. I would like to be able to run the cars slower, much slower and have tried switching controllers to the 120 AFX style. That helped some. I have also tried using a train transformer that would have much more fine tuning and to no avail. It seems all the cars have to run at an extreme start speed to infinity and not what I want. 

I am not sure if this is the nature of the beast, but wondering if anyone has actually tried to slow them down for more realistic operation, or can this even be done at all without major customization of the motors or gearing. I have even thought of at the slower speeds most stall out in a corner with any resistance to add a fly wheel weight to help maintain a constant speed


----------



## crazy mike (Aug 26, 1999)

Have you tried the train transformers that have the pulse feature for creeping speeds?


----------



## Steve Schrader (Jan 18, 2020)

That's what I am using. For some reason all 6 chassis I have from Autoworld are now junk. I just ran two brand new super 3 and they both cooked. I originally started with the off road Bronco set. The trucks in the set lasted about an hour and both have axle moving issues that bind up. I purchased two more Broncos with different numbers and they have done the same. I think the heat is melting the plastic on the chassis and causing this. This is being done with the original transformer in the kit. I switched to the 120 controllers and it was slightly better, but still way to fast to keep them on the track. The two new super 3 I received today will not work with the Bronco body and if you set the front axle to the shortest wheelbase, the axle contacts the end shaft of the motor. So I left them as stock with no body to see if I could run them. They did well at high speed. I then switched out to the MRC pack I have with pulse power and they would not run that way. In normal mode they ran fine as long as it was fast. They both ran about ten minutes and cooked the same as the others. 

I am wondering if I should just get a couple of old AFX or Tyco chassis and try that. I have been over and over on the track with cleaning and checking that the rails will make contact properly with any car. I have ohmed the track and it seems very acceptable for current in each section. Right now I am just a loss on what to do with this. I can't even get a chassis to run for any time. So I am wondering if I need custom chassis made to do anything right now


----------



## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

it is very unusual for set transformers to cook a chassis.
overheating like that is very bad and could cause a fire.
the super IIIs are junk and that might be the whole problem.
not many inline chassis are going to run at low voltage/amperage.
I think trying pancake chassis is more applicable.
still, there is something troubling about that many chassis failing in the same way.


----------



## Steve Schrader (Jan 18, 2020)

I can agree. I never had this problem before. The Bronco trucks are all the pancake style 3 gear. The problem I seem to have is the chassis are all defective or the heat is allowing the axle to get sloppy or lock up. If they come out of the package and run great at high speed its for a short time. Two did well and lasted about an hour each from the set. The additional ones seemed like they were bound up some. But none of them will run at a slow speed at all. Its like half throttle or nothing. I have run them using the 120 controller. You run as fast as you can in a straight and nothing into a curve to keep them on the track. I have tried different tension springs for the pick up shoes and not much change. Like I said I am at a loss on this. I remember running my old ones years ago for hours and they would be slightly warm at best. These chassies being of two different styles heat up a lot from what I remember. The two super threes were so hot that it was uncomfortable to touch them.


----------



## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

contact Auto World through their Customer Services and tell them your tale of woe.
do NOT mention using a power supply other than the one that came with an Auto world set.
you might be compensated for the destroyed chassis.
I am still puzzled by your situation.
are you running on Auto World track?


----------



## Steve Schrader (Jan 18, 2020)

Now I just tried a locomotive engine motor I have and it works perfect. This is a flywheel motor out of an old Athearn engine and it works awesome. No heat coming off it. Tested it several places on the track and it starts up like it should and you can get it to creep even with the 120 controller. So with that I am thinking the track work is ok.


----------



## Steve Schrader (Jan 18, 2020)

Yes I am using the Autoworld track from the set. The additional track is Autoworld track also from the dukes of hazard sets to make the layout I have now


----------



## Steve Schrader (Jan 18, 2020)

Latest testing. Complete layout cleaned again. Checked voltage on all sections of track. All good. Had one truck that was running and it would make 10 laps and then start slowing down. 15 laps the truck started to stall in corners. 18 laps truck would shutter. Truck was hot. So cleaned track and pick up shoes on truck. Same problem. Let ruck sit for 15 minutes and it ran fine again. Did the same scenario and checked it for heat again and hot. 

My buddy brought a few of his old AFX and Tyco cars over. Ran them for hours with no problem. Car slightly warm at best after running them both with the factory transformer and 120 controllers. Used one of his slowest cars and run that for an hour straight off the Train Transformer, still cool to the touch.

Started to check the chassis I have and they all of a sudden started to work again, but all of them within a few laps got horrible in running or locked up again. All cars or chassis that are Auto World are not working right and getting hot quickly. 

My buddy pulled two apart, one extra traction and one super three. Cleaned them and lubed them and they still would fail within a few minutes. His thought was the tolerances are all way off from what they should be. They all sound like thrashing machines. They felt bound up even after he messed with them. He feels the magnets are way to big and causing more of the problem than anything with the heat. His thought on the magnets is being as big in pull as they are is whats causing the heat build up from all the draw to run them. Even though they would stick to the track at high speed, his opinion was way to much power was needed to run them. So with the train transformer hooked up. We ran the one old Tyco for 3 hours straight and no problems.

He will be building me a few old AFX chassis and we will do this again. 

I am wondering now if this is the norm for Auto Worlds cars. We found an article from another blog that said flat out this company sells junk. I guess the eye candy of all the new bodies is where they invested and not in the actual running gear. I have his old AFX Bronco running now for over an hour and runs the same as it started at a nice slow speed that is somewhat acceptable. Still a little fast for what I want. 

So ordered a flywheel locomotive engine for a N scale and going to mate that to a chassis to see if we can cut the speed way down to look scale proportionate.


----------



## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

I believe that the problems with the Super 3 cars have been traced to armature shaft bearings that were too tight.
Regular HO slot cars do not like to be run at very low speeds. In order run at low speeds you need to turn the voltage down and in that case the cars tend to stall easily. You could use a variable power supply and turn down the voltage to get the cars running at the desired speed, but in time you would be likely to find that they have stalled out. 
What you really need are cars that are geared down so that they will run slowly at higher voltages. I think that you are on the right track by adapting an N gauge locomotive. In 1/32nd scale one of the guys in my club wanted a track cleaning car and he built his own chassis that used a lot of extra gears. The car can crawl around the track all day at 10 volts and never stalls out.


----------

