Piko BR80 extra weight required

[Portsladepete]

Having ventured back into the garden, cleaned the winter from the track, I have a bit of a lack of traction issue with my BR80. It does not have traction tyres, so I am considering adding about 6 ounces to it. Not knowing how good the gears etc are, anyone know if this amount will be too much?

 

[PhilP]

As long as the wheels will still slip, then you should be fine..

The damage is done (mechanical, electrical, or both) when the motor/drive stalls under power..

PhilP

 

[phils2um]

6 oz. will probably not buy you much in added tractive effort. Think I'd go for a lb. or .5 kg as long as I had the loco opened up.

 

[Portsladepete]

6 oz. will probably not buy you much in added tractive effort. Think I'd go for a lb. or .5 kg as long as I had the loco opened up.

It’s the minimum I need for a specific purpose, wanted to avoid any chance of damage,haven’t had the loco apart, but there’s a couple of places that this amount will fit without dismantling.

As long as the wheels will still slip, then you should be fine..

The damage is done (mechanical, electrical, or both) when the motor/drive stalls under power..

PhilP

 

[Greg Elmassian]

When the engine stalls, definitely there is the most load, but it's not to be implied that any less weight does not add stress or wear.

Basically pulling more weight will add wear.

You need to look at the drivetrain to predict what load you can add, how much wear surface is on the gears? what do the bearings look like? Is the motor mount such that the gear mesh does not vary/flex under load?

Without engineering analysis, you have to kind of look at how beefy the drivetrain is and how much more torque it can handle.

Definitely it's better to slip the wheels than actually stall the motor, but there is no get out of jail free card here, you NEVER get something for nothing with physics, pull more load, get more wear, draw more current.

Greg