Wedico???

[tc1cat]

After putting together various Tamiya RC vehicles, I have recently purchased a few Wedico trucks and 1 trailer kit. The trucks are assembled while the trailer is not. Are all of the Wedico kits as big of a pain in the a** as this trailer is? I remember hearing that the boss at Wedico complained about the US purchasers were some of the worse builders he had ever seen. No one reads instructions was his words. Unless I got a very old kit, I can see why. Instructions all in GERMAN!!!:eek: Even when assembling by the 1 picture and carefully watching for sizes listed for the nuts and bolts. Some of the parts do not fit and others were shone backwards to how the needed to be assembled. I had been thinking of trying to obtain some more Wedico vehicles in the future but not now. I will stick to the tried and true Tamiya for trucks.

[cosworth34677]

well i got a friend that has one, cool truck but he's alway working on it. and he says it like to break stuff at the dumpest times.

ya and we are pains just because we like our stuff work and fit right? lol

[spudd]

Lynn I have had the same problem....I found instructions in English and it helped a lot
I got mine off the internet some time back...now if I buy wedico I buy them together..

[Espeefan]

Lynn, I'm thinking you've got a really old kit in your hands. Everything new from Wedico today now has instructions in German and English, but I'll agree with you that these models are still a pain to build. Problem is Wedico uses 2mm screws and nuts for assembling almost all of the model's components. Almost everything is bolted together. There aren't many parts with tapped holes. Worse still is the fact that the pro chassis kits use cross members that don't have enough room to get your fingers inside of, so holding a nut, while trying to get the screw through the holes is a test of patience! These models are something you don't want to have to disassemble for maintenance, if you can help it. That's why I ditched all the stock cross members and started machining my own. I drilled and tapped every hole and now assembly is a breeze.

As far as the comments about us American's being the worst model builders, all I can say is Wedico isn't all that popular in it's own country, and I'm sure German modelers have the same complaints that we do. I heard from some Americans who have met Mr. Wedico in person that he doesn't much care for the way we modify the models he manufactures. Maybe if he designed them better from the start, he wouldn't have complaints about that! :D

[ihbuilder]

thats why they make these :D:D
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/ecatalog/N-1z0dyw1

[Radio Control Trucker]

I don't know much about Wedico, I only use the Tamiya trucks and Trailers for my personal use. I can tell you that I have met Mr. Tamiya and he's anything but happy about the modifications we make to 'his' replicas. He believes in keeping his products "box-stock". :eek:

- RCT

[Supermario]

Wow. I was planning on bringing my Wedico truck n trailer to Indy this year and put a for sale sign on the hood but after reading comments, I might be stuck with it?
I never had to assemble, my beef is the scale size vs a Tamiya . Just don't fit the rest of the fleet and the fact I can't interchange trailers with it. It's a good looking truck n trailer combo I hope I can sell:confused:

Mario

[Radio Control Trucker]

You'll probably sell it. A lot of the folks use Wedico and the issue of interchanging trailers can be overcome by changing the 5th-wheel plate for the Tamiya 5th-wheel.

Ric Muphy of PMD can get whatever you need to fix your Wedico and Tamiya trucks just go to http://www.gardentrucking.com

- RCT

p.s. I'm not out to "slight" anyone. There are several great manufactures and sellers on our forum and I respect all of you. Thank you all for your efforts.

[Espeefan]

Hey now, how come we Wedico modelers have to switch our king pins for Tamiya ones, to be universal? Ha ha. Why don't you Tamiya guys switch to the Wedico king pins! :D

Honestly, the scale does not bother me one bit. Some of the draw to the Wedico trucks, for me, was that they better match the die-cast Ertl models, giving us some great scale loads to choose from! Scale Art models are also a bit closer in size to Wedico, then they are to Tamiya also. Not that it matters much! I like both Tamiya and Wedico models, but like Lynn says, I'd much rather assemble a Tamiya! Box stock, they are more user friendly.

[Radio Control Trucker]

Nate, it doesn't bother me if you operate Wedico or Tamiya equipment.
I was just offering a suggestion to Mario to help ease his mind about pulling Tamiya trailers with a Wedico tractor. :cool:

You operate Wedico and I operate Tamiya, we both get along really well do to the fact we both love tractor-trailers and have a passion for our shared hobby. It is our differences, as well as our similarities that help make this forum strong. And not just you and me, but everyone of the nearly 2,000 members we share our thoughts and ideas with every day or two, and the many more that are guests to our forum every month. :) :) :)

Man, I love my hobby. Without my trucks and the people on this forum, my life would feel like a hollow shell. Thank you all for participating in the Threads each week and Posting your thoughts every day, if we aren't having FUN we aren't doing right. :D :D :D :D :D

- RCT

[Espeefan]

No worries RCT. I was grinning the whole time I took a stab at your suggestion of switching to Tamiya king pins. It's all in fun. That's what this hobby is about. :D

[Lil Giants]

I feel your pain Lynn. Essentially I built my Junk 740 & 966 3 times over during initial assembly because the instructions & fitment sequence of parts are so poor! And then when it came to making repairs... $%^&*())(*&^%#@##@@$%^&*(*(()!!!!! You gotta take it apart in the same sequence again to get to the failed part in the chain.

[tc1cat]

You guys were talking about switching out the king pins to make the trailers more of a universal fit. My ?? for you is: what does a Wedico king pin look like? The king pin that came with my trailer is a joke!! It would not fit in any fifth wheel plate that I know of :eek: Besides that the fifth wheel plate keeps breaking every time I get it fixed, it lasts about 3 trips and the spring come unhooked again :mad::mad: Would not be too bad but the fifth wheel plate is buried in the deck plate making it a pain to remove to fix. Going to make some changes to both the fifth wheel plate and the rear deck for easier to repair in the future.

[Espeefan]

No idea what the Wedico king pin looks like. I haven't built a trailer yet. I assumed the only real difference is the diameter of the pin. What Wedico 5th wheel does your truck have, Lynn? The older, cheaper, standard one, or the professional one?

[tc1cat]

The truck was originally built in 2001 for the Toy Trucker magazine as a fund raising project. As I am no authority on Wedico, I have no idea which fifth wheel plate it has. I am going to make a king pin to fit but this is just 1 more reason to not buy another Wedico product for me.

[Espeefan]

Do you have any pictures of the truck?

[Bigrigger]

I feel your pain Lynn. Essentially I built my Junk 740 & 966 3 times over during initial assembly because the instructions & fitment sequence of parts are so poor! And then when it came to making repairs... $%^&*())(*&^%#@##@@$%^&*(*(()!!!!! You gotta take it apart in the same sequence again to get to the failed part in the chain.

Lil Giants lives!!! :eek: :D

I'm really surprised that both company heads don't want their trucks to be modified. Well, Mr. Wedico I can see, but Mr. Tamiya?! Tamiya trucks are so easy to modify, it's impossible not to!

Sorry to hear about your troubles Lynn, nobody wants to pay almost $4000 for an RC that isn't absolutely perfect. Hopefully Nate can help you out, I know he could machine every piece of that truck for you!:D

[Espeefan]

I think Lynn is a far greater machinist then I am, but thanks Bigrigger! :D Lynn just doesn't show off a lot of what he can do to the public, but you can see some really nice parts of his on other guys' trucks.

[tc1cat]

Thanks to you too, Nathan. Your machining has come a large way in a very short time. I have right at 27 years in the game this week. I will take some pics of the truck and post tomorrow. Time to try and get some sleep. If you have any old copies of 'The Toy Trucker and Contractor', look for the April 2001 issue. The truck is on the cover.

Bigrigger, If I had paid $4000 for this truck, I would not be asking questions. I would be demanding satisfaction from someone :eek:.

[Espeefan]

Thanks Lynn. I don't know if I'll ever become one of the greats on this forum, but I'll keep at it.

Now that you mention it, I think I remember seeing the truck you picked up. Maybe it was on E-Bay that I saw it?? I want to say you also posted picture here, but I can't remember. Being one of the Wedico guys who has gone through the process of trying to build a nice truck, I can honestly say I'm not as impressed as I used to be with these models, yet I still like the Peterbilts and will continue to work on mine. I've learned a lot of hard lessons building mine, and if I knew what I know today. I surely would have done things different. I'd probably still be down the same path, but I would have spent my money much differently. I bought a lot components for my Wedico Peterbilt that ended up being wasted money.

[cosworth34677]

Lil Giants lives!!! :eek: :D

I'm really surprised that both company heads don't want their trucks to be modified. Well, Mr. Wedico I can see, but Mr. Tamiya?! Tamiya trucks are so easy to modify, it's impossible not to!

Sorry to hear about your troubles Lynn, nobody wants to pay almost $4000 for an RC that isn't absolutely perfect. Hopefully Nate can help you out, I know he could machine every piece of that truck for you!:D

i'm with you, most tamiya stuff is way to easy to mod. but it make since, if you look at there esc's and electronics, they tend to only work on the sivler can 540 motor, anything much more burn them out. you see that all through tamiya's r/c line up from there truck down to there r/c cars.

also this is a timely thread. i was thinking of getting a wedico from a guy at my lhs but after following this thread i think i'd stay away. the one thing that will turn off any model company for me is being hard to work on and not being able to just turn on and drive, i hate having to work on the model before and after a drive or playtime.

[Izzy]

I have built just one Wedico Trailer. Tedious abd no suspension. Almost all of the screws are the smaller ones of the Tamiya kits. All use nuts not threaded holes. But they were all stainless screws. Lots of hemostat work - both hands.

As for my loader - with some advice from other builders before I started was to pre check all fit and function of all parts as I went. many holes for flat head scres needed to be chamfered deeper. Some things the hole patterns were a bit off. Several instances of the guiderails (threaded 1.5mm rods that are bent) had poor threads.

Instructions were are hard to follow - and there mere many lengths of screws - I had to use calipers to sort them before I started.

I have heard it said that Euro builders aproach a kit with a perspective that - the kit is a basis to build a model - treating even a standard kit as though it is a custom one off. And that the opinion of the american builder is that - even a one off custom kit should build as easy or easier than a kit that is produced in the thousands.

- I do like Wedico kits (no personal experience with trucks) - they have lots of detail - For the high end collector who treats them as delicate machines - I think it still works in the grand scheme. But this doesn't excuse kits that strugle with the most common of build and assembly issues.

Izzy

[Tp_hofmann]

Dear all

Adding some personal experiences to the discussion, having built tamiya, wedico and scaleart kits all of them have their pros and cons.

What i appreciate on wedico is their concept to start small and extend their trucks. Having built several wedico trucks, i appreciate their cabins and still when i was young i always fancied the cat 966, i still have one and the looks are still great.

The plus on wedico is the amount of aftermarket suppliers: several german manufacturers are well known - examples are leimbach, rust, osswald (now premacon).

Again tamiya,wedico and scaleart all have their pros and cons and everybody can decided which direction to follow.

Cheers,
Tom

[cosworth34677]

Dear all

Adding some personal experiences to the discussion, having built tamiya, wedico and scaleart kits all of them have their pros and cons.

What i appreciate on wedico is their concept to start small and extend their trucks. Having built several wedico trucks, i appreciate their cabins and still when i was young i always fancied the cat 966, i still have one and the looks are still great.

The plus on wedico is the amount of aftermarket suppliers: several german manufacturers are well known - examples are leimbach, rust, osswald (now premacon).

Again tamiya,wedico and scaleart all have their pros and cons and everybody can decided which direction to follow.

Cheers,
Tom

so my question is what is the better truck? i know in the race world people tend to not like tamiya's, me i have built tons of tamiya's and for the most part there stuff is right on there is a few car's i owned by them that well... sucked (f-201 tb-02 ff-02) but they all had there charm. my only thing with tamiya trucks are the odd scaling for 1/14-1/15 and the floppy front end.

[Radio Control Trucker]

I personally prefer the Tamiya trucks & Trailers. The styrene bodies are easy to customize and the kit comes almost RTR.
With a simple ESC & a transmitter set, you can have one up and going in no time.

As Tom stated:
(They) all have their pros and cons..."

The after-market items used for Wedico, Robbe, and the few others that have been manufactured over the years can be modified for use on a Tamiya build with little or no trouble.

Just my opinion :)

- RCT

[Tp_hofmann]

so my question is what is the better truck? i know in the race world people tend to not like tamiya's, me i have built tons of tamiya's and for the most part there stuff is right on there is a few car's i owned by them that well... sucked (f-201 tb-02 ff-02) but they all had there charm. my only thing with tamiya trucks are the odd scaling for 1/14-1/15 and the floppy front end.

Well-i still think everybody has to decide or him/herself on the personal preference. In my club, we have mixed wedico, tamiya & scaleart and despite the sliggt scale difference we have lots of fun playing all together.

In addition: i have seen trucks based on "bruder cabs" or tamiya, which have been amazing!

My main priority is the building of a truck: saving the $/€, acuqiring the parts and building models for use (i focus on construction type of trucks) - my majority of trucks rely on wedico cabs and chassis, axles are from rust/scaleart, suspension from osswald/premacon, gearboxes are from wedico/veroma/scaleart being complemented by wedico/servonaut/scaleart/leimbach additions - so i like bilding best of breed :-)

I have seen the last tamiya actros and price/performance is simply amazing (compare the whole kit just with a scaleart gearbox...)

Some of us enjoy building kit models, others prefer custom builts - its a hobby, so we should accept different preferences and styles.

Last comment regardi g wedico: they clearly created this hobby, but today it is not sufficient to live from the brand and innovate, otherwise you are easily surpussed by the competitiors

Br,
Tom

[Espeefan]

Well said Tom. Especially the very last comment in your post. One should never rest on their laurels, and that goes for the model builders themselves. Today you can build any type of truck, and make it whatever you want, depending on your skill level. We've progressed to the point in this hobby that you don't need to start a project with a complete kit. One can simply build a truck using nothing but aftermarket parts for the chassis, suspension, axles, and transmission. Pick what you like, and leave out what you don't. Take the best of everything offered, stock or aftermarket. All manufactures have their strengths and weaknesses. To say one is better then the rest is relative to the person that says so.