How often should the vehicles and trucks be used?

[Mike Raffa]

I have my setup semi-permanently laid out on a table in a corner of my living room. It’s in an air conditioned and smoke free environment. It seems that if I don’t run my vehicles and trucks often, like every three or four days, they don’t run as well as they do if I run them 2 days in a row. I do maintenance on them as needed, but that doesn’t seem to make much difference. Any suggestions?

 

[biddle]

I have my setup semi-permanently laid out on a table in a corner of my living room. It’s in an air conditioned and smoke free environment. It seems that if I don’t run my vehicles and trucks often, like every three or four days, they don’t run as well as they do if I run them 2 days in a row. I do maintenance on them as needed, but that doesn’t seem to make much difference. Any suggestions?

A lot of us have a lot of vehicles that don't run often. When mine have been sitting for a while, it takes them a couple laps to warm up and they are usually fine. As long as all the carpet and hair has been removed and the motor has been oiled with liquid bearings and the gears with super lube you should be fine. Once I restored mine, I haven’t had to do much other than clean the tires.

Take the rear tires off and let them sit and spin freely for warm ups if you wish.

@Tyco Trucking has been at this a while, maybe, perhaps we will get insight there too.

 

[Tyco Trucking]

I just refer to the assembly instructions:



Honestly I hardly run any of my stuff. I have a couple beater trucks I’ll run occasionally, but for the most part 99% of my stuff is brand new/like new and just sits in a closet. A good bit of my trucks I paid $200+ for each, so I don’t even want to use them.

The trucks themselves rarely have issues. The only thing I’ve ever had go wrong is the gears splitting.

Track on the other hand, that’s where 99% of the issues lie.

I’m not 100% what exactly the rails are made from, but I can say it’s a very hard steel. Not all steel is the same, there is an AR version that’s used for cutting edges on heavy equipment. It’s probably the hardest steel I’ve seen. Stainless steel is also pretty hard. Also spring steel is very hard, and contains a lot of carbon.

What I’m getting at is the rails are pretty hard. They aren’t stainless though because they rust. Considering the age of it, as well as decades of cleaning it removed any coatings that may have been present when made. That’s why Tyco put those cleaning pads in, much like a scotch brite pad. I’ve used a $0.25 to clean heavily oxidized rails and sometimes a coating comes off almost like a soft solder.

No matter what, if the steel is in an oxygenated environment, it’s going to rust. Humidity adds water which is 1/3 oxygen.

With all that said, it just gets where the electrical contact isn’t the best. The pick-ups also oxidize so that also reduces the electrical contact. If you’re using factory AC adapters, they have capacitors in them. Capacitors are filled with dielectric fluid which dries out after a few decades. This affects the output of it.

So, when you run your trucks daily, that is reducing the effects of the environmental impacts on the stuff. After a few days they will be sluggish. The brushes also get residue from oil on them and that affects the motor. As the brushes wear down that also impacts the motor. If you see a ton of black dust on the inside of the body then the brushes are probably almost gone. Oiling the motor helps reduce the friction of the dust and dirt on the armature bushings.

So, in lieu of a wall of text, there is nothing really you can do but run a scotch brite pad on the track rails, put your truck on, and run Tyco’s recommended 20 laps. After a few you will notice the truck getting faster. As the pick-up shoes, track rails, tires and gears wear, it makes the truck work better. There isn’t anything wrong. It’s just the nature of the beast.

If you really want to understand how the trucks work, look up “theory of electrical motors” or something similar. It’s like Black Magic how they work. It’s all due to magnetics and electricity.

If you have magnets on your fridge, take two and put them together one way, then flip them and try to push them together. That’s half the theory. The other half is the electromagnet made from the armature and how it reacts to the magnets in the motor can.

Sorry if I got all technical, but per @biddle he said if I had input, and I sure did.. lol

 

[biddle]

It seems that if I don’t run my vehicles and trucks often, like every three or four days, they don’t run as well as they do if I run them 2 days in a row.

Take a video of what you are referencing then post it on YouTube, and share the link here; if we see what is happening, it will make it easier to give feedback.

 

[Timmy]

I just refer to the assembly instructions:

View attachment 601

Honestly I hardly run any of my stuff. I have a couple beater trucks I’ll run occasionally, but for the most part 99% of my stuff is brand new/like new and just sits in a closet. A good bit of my trucks I paid $200+ for each, so I don’t even want to use them.

The trucks themselves rarely have issues. The only thing I’ve ever had go wrong is the gears splitting.

Track on the other hand, that’s where 99% of the issues lie.

I’m not 100% what exactly the rails are made from, but I can say it’s a very hard steel. Not all steel is the same, there is an AR version that’s used for cutting edges on heavy equipment. It’s probably the hardest steel I’ve seen. Stainless steel is also pretty hard. Also spring steel is very hard, and contains a lot of carbon.

What I’m getting at is the rails are pretty hard. They aren’t stainless though because they rust. Considering the age of it, as well as decades of cleaning it removed any coatings that may have been present when made. That’s why Tyco put those cleaning pads in, much like a scotch brite pad. I’ve used a $0.25 to clean heavily oxidized rails and sometimes a coating comes off almost like a soft solder.

No matter what, if the steel is in an oxygenated environment, it’s going to rust. Humidity adds water which is 1/3 oxygen.

With all that said, it just gets where the electrical contact isn’t the best. The pick-ups also oxidize so that also reduces the electrical contact. If you’re using factory AC adapters, they have capacitors in them. Capacitors are filled with dielectric fluid which dries out after a few decades. This affects the output of it.

So, when you run your trucks daily, that is reducing the effects of the environmental impacts on the stuff. After a few days they will be sluggish. The brushes also get residue from oil on them and that affects the motor. As the brushes wear down that also impacts the motor. If you see a ton of black dust on the inside of the body then the brushes are probably almost gone. Oiling the motor helps reduce the friction of the dust and dirt on the armature bushings.

So, in lieu of a wall of text, there is nothing really you can do but run a scotch brite pad on the track rails, put your truck on, and run Tyco’s recommended 20 laps. After a few you will notice the truck getting faster. As the pick-up shoes, track rails, tires and gears wear, it makes the truck work better. There isn’t anything wrong. It’s just the nature of the beast.

If you really want to understand how the trucks work, look up “theory of electrical motors” or something similar. It’s like Black Magic how they work. It’s all due to magnetics and electricity.

If you have magnets on your fridge, take two and put them together one way, then flip them and try to push them together. That’s half the theory. The other half is the electromagnet made from the armature and how it reacts to the magnets in the motor can.

Sorry if I got all technical, but per @biddle he said if I had input, and I sure did.. lol

Hi been reading the above comments on leaving the trucks for couple days and they don't seem to run that well when starting up again. I also notice this I think 50% with out a dealt is the track. I found rather than use the cleaning pads the answer is put a cleaning truck on first and run that for a few laps it solves all problems. I have made a cleaning truck that runs around and does not require power the shoes clean the track. Its easy to do. Hope this helps I show you some video once my layouts finish. Still making baseboards at the moment.

 

[Tyco Trucking]

I found rather than use the cleaning pads the answer is put a cleaning truck on first and run that for a few laps it solves all problems.

This is one of the issues with the track. Because it’s so old, and if used, maybe had some questionable cleaning practices done on it.

In electrical, gold is the best conductor, followed by silver, copper, then steel, and similarly aluminum. Lead also works but is too heavy to make wires, so it is regulated to solder.

Steel is used because it’s durable enough to not wear like copper, and it’s cheaper. They could use copper for the rails, but in time it would wear down until flush with the track and there would be no contact point left. This is one reason why the pick-ups are copper. It’s a better conductor, but has the downside of wearing out due to sliding along the steel rail. They could have made pick-ups from steel, but then both the pick-up and the track would wear.

Of all of those metals, steel is the only ferrous metal. Ferrous metal has a drawback of rusting. In a nutshell, using anything other than the cleaning pad included in the set, “rips open” the surface of the steel. This is similar to sanding paint. The pad scratches the rust away, but is soft enough not to affect the steel.

It’s a conundrum where you have to use something like the track cleaner you mentioned, or a quarter, or like the track cleaner AHM1955 showcased in his posts. But, this is actually propagating the track to rust more because it’s opening the steel up and exposing it to air.

But because of the rust and whatever, that’s probably the easiest and fastest way to remove it to get a good contact with the pick-ups.

So yeah, it’s just a no-win situation. Oiling the rail would keep it from rusting, but any oil in the tire path is detrimental to the tire.

I’d say if you’re storing sets/track for long periods, put desiccant bags in with the track. Or put the track in zip-loc bags so they are sealed away.

 

[biddle]

My track all works excellently. You must remember this is a low-voltage power source going through the track. It's the equivalent of four or five 1.5v batteries at full speed. Running your trucks at low speed will reveal the areas of track you need to focus on. The rails can also be pushed through from the bottom side if they do not contact the pickup shoes.

A couple of videos I made that show how I got my track running like new:

 

[Timmy]

This is one of the issues with the track. Because it’s so old, and if used, maybe had some questionable cleaning practices done on it.

In electrical, gold is the best conductor, followed by silver, copper, then steel, and similarly aluminum. Lead also works but is too heavy to make wires, so it is regulated to solder.

Steel is used because it’s durable enough to not wear like copper, and it’s cheaper. They could use copper for the rails, but in time it would wear down until flush with the track and there would be no contact point left. This is one reason why the pick-ups are copper. It’s a better conductor, but has the downside of wearing out due to sliding along the steel rail. They could have made pick-ups from steel, but then both the pick-up and the track would wear.

Of all of those metals, steel is the only ferrous metal. Ferrous metal has a drawback of rusting. In a nutshell, using anything other than the cleaning pad included in the set, “rips open” the surface of the steel. This is similar to sanding paint. The pad scratches the rust away, but is soft enough not to affect the steel.

It’s a conundrum where you have to use something like the track cleaner you mentioned, or a quarter, or like the track cleaner AHM1955 showcased in his posts. But, this is actually propagating the track to rust more because it’s opening the steel up and exposing it to air.

But because of the rust and whatever, that’s probably the easiest and fastest way to remove it to get a good contact with the pick-ups.

So yeah, it’s just a no-win situation. Oiling the rail would keep it from rusting, but any oil in the tire path is detrimental to the tire.

I’d say if you’re storing sets/track for long periods, put desiccant bags in with the track. Or put the track in zip-loc bags so they are sealed away.

I know I said its a track cleaner its a truck that has a battery fitted that can be switch on and the truck its self cleans the track with its original pick ups that are disconnected from the motor. So as the truck goes round it skims the top of the track rather like running a truck round with the controller but you have not got to worry about bad electrical pick up. you basically can leave it to run around many times you like a grad a cup of tea. It removes that tarnish and dust that causes the problem. It works for me.

 

[Tyco Trucking]

I know I said its a track cleaner its a truck that has a battery fitted that can be switch on

I saw a video where someone made this. They used a dump truck because a 9 volt battery fits almost perfectly in the bed. Soldered a battery terminal to the motor ears and all that.

It’s not exactly cleaning, you’re just bypassing the terminal power with an external power source and doing what Tyco said to do by running laps to warm up the set.

I’m curious whether you remove the power pack from the terminal track when you run this truck. By running a truck with an external power source, you’re back feeding power into the track. Maybe you understand, but other people reading this may not. DC power is a one way street. If you’re running the truck and happen to have the power connected, with a control in reverse, you’re applying power to a ground causing a direct short, and it’s going to burn something up. More than likely the low resistance side of the speed control. But I digress. ?‍?