New gear box on Ion!

[Russ McC]

Well I have never had any trouble with the metal housing assembly or the steal gears but I thought I would try this new tail case (open) I also installed it with a FAI tail pitch assembly. This gear train is very nice and robust looking and very quiet. I had to modify the mounting arm that holds and locates the FAI pitch lever because this case is dimensionally different then past cases and comes with a new arm to correct this for use with the standard extreme slider (there might already be a correct arm for this case slider combo but I made due). Also using this case requires the linkage to be ½” longer then with the old case. I am pretty easy on tail drives so I don’t need this case and neither the case or slider assembly made any difference in flight feel/performance but it is cool (high bling factor) The case and gears are much bigger then I imagined they would be and for those that have trouble with the old design this new system looks like it will take a lot of abuse :glasses2:

[fitenfyr]

So has Mike "tail torture" Scoles approved this thing yet? :D :D

[WillJames]

Do you auto a lot Russ? I am definitely no expert flyer but I can tell a big difference in auto performance between the two cases. For instance. MY Spectra weighs about 1 pound more than my Extreme full of fuel and ready to fly. My SE is a little heavier still and has the extreme metal gearbox. My Spectra autos just as good or better than my Extreme and keeps the blade energy just as well or maybe better, and I think it has to be the tail box that is more free and robs less energy. My SE autos like a heavy machine, not nearly as easy as teh Spectra or Extreme.

I am going to buy the open box for my Extreme as soon as I can save up some $$ then I'll be able to compare the Spectra to the lighter Extreme both with open boxes.

I can tell a difference. I do many autos every flight, I am very addicted to the rush. :D

[Russ McC]

Hi Will,

I do enough autos to say that there is no apparent difference between the two gear boxes. There is not much drag in either gear box when there is no load on them and autos don’t load the tail drive so I can’t see that there would be a difference. Split gear and gear mesh drag up front will make a big difference, if the clutch pinion to main gear mesh is free and the clutch bell will spin freely it will increase the auto performance greatly, to the point that a split gear is not even needed (a slipper synched down moderately can be just as good as a split gear if every thing is free), where using a free turning split gear on a system like an Ion where the motor is dragging the main gear the performance is worse. I have also noticed that heavier machines seem to auto just as well as the lighter ones and in some cases better. Hope that made sense :wink:

I will agree with Min Airs statement that this box will transmit power through it with les drag (friction) because of the increased gear face contact but this won’t come in to play much tell you load the system.

[Russ McC]

Dr. Mike will find a way to break it!! I see the gears are pined through the shaft; maybe he can break the roll pin or break the output shaft off across the gear pin hole. Just kidding Mike, well sort of.

The only obvious problem I see with this is that I am used to putting hundreds of flights on a tail box, moor then twelve hundred in one case with no servicing other then greasing. Well with this box the bearings will not get re-greased every hundred flights or so like the old box so there life might be shorter.