1/16 Hl Pershing S&s *review*

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1/16 Hl Pershing S&s review
Topic Started: Mar 31 2006, 05:00 AM (337 Views)
speedythecat	Mar 31 2006, 05:00 AM Post #1
Swayed by the Trax Posts: 2 Group: Noobs Member #67 Joined: March 31, 2006	I posted this on another site and thought maybe someone here would find the info useful. Feel free to ask any questions or e-mail me at speedythecat2004@aol.com I want to first say that I've been messing with r/c cars and trucks for 16 years now, and this is my very first tank. I really have nothing to compare this to other than my r/c car and truck experience which probably doesn't transfer but so much. I can't compare this with any other tank since it's the only one I've owned. I decided to give it a little review anyway incase anyone is on the fence about buying one. I purchased the 1/16 HL Pershing "Snow Leopard" Smoke & Sound model from Raidentech. Ordering on their website was very straight forward. I purchased it for $79.34 shipped. I had FedEx tracking info within 12 hours of my order. It went from California to Delaware in 3 or 4 business days. The package arrived in perfect condition yesterday. The inner and outter boxes were perfect. When I opened the box I was pretty much blown away by the looks of the tank as I wasn't really expecting much for $79 shipped. The only things wrong were the little "phone box thingy" was broke off the back which I could easily reattach, and the one million little pieces of styrofoam that broke of the packing material. After a date with the 14 volt dustbuster, all was well. Overall I rate my Raidentech experience a 10 out of 10, and kudos to FedEx for another carefully handled package. One other note, my head and tail lights were 40% covered by paint which I removed with a hobby knife and a small brush. Good to go! I skipped the wall charger experience and went straight for my trusty MRC 959. I encountered no problems charging the battery. While the battery charged, I skimmed thru the manual, and hit the smoker with an additional 2ml of smoke oil as per the manual. Installed the antennas, and loaded 8 fresh Rayovac AA alkalines into the Tx. I'd like to note that contrary to a couple of posts I've read on here, I encountered no problems with the alkalines fitting the Tx. Loading the main battery could best be described as "a balancing act". Okay, time to fire this puppy up! Turning on Tx followed by tank, I had lights flashing front and rear, then pressing the "key" button on the transmitter, I was greeted by the ever so lovely "tank start-up sound". My pulse was slightly elevated at that point eagerly waiting smoke. Seconds later, here comes the smoke pulsing out of the exhaust. At that point I felt giddy and almost found a tear of joy coming on. As the smoker heated up,smoke really started to flow. Between the smoke pulsing with the engine sound and the fumes, I was truly mezmerized at that point. I'm not a big fan of things that dumb down r/c and the thought of owning something that made sound and smoke totally repulsed me until......... I saw and heard it for myself! Holy crap do I ever love that smoke coming out the back! It's the best thing since TiVo in my opinion. At that point I felt like I had already got $79 out of it when I suddenly remembered to drive the darn thing! I give the steering a 10 plain and simple. I could not believe the amount of control with such a cheap setup. The speed was borderline proportional and extremely smooth. I could crawl it as slow as I wanted with no problem. I can best describe top speed as something in the 1 to 1.5 mph range.... I dunno.... something like walking speed if you were elderly, real elderly. I guess that's normal? It's actually a pretty scale speed I suppose. It has plenty of torque and climbed with ease. Gobbled up most anything in it's path that wouldn't get lodged between fender and tread such as one pine cone, and one stick. I stopped the tank immediatly to remove those objects. It takes to grass like a fish to water, but I did find a few long strands of dead weeds from the field wrapped around my sproket gear which were easily removed. I would highly recommend keeping check on stuff like that as it could fry the motors and/or the PCBoard. Back on this transmitter..... I'm equally comfortable with driving both "2-stick" and "wheel" radios. I was surprised of how well the included 2 sticker worked. It felt right at home in my large hands and I used my trusty TowerHobbies neckstrap with it. It had functional steering and throttle trim. It has a power "on" LED that I would imagine begins to flash as the alkalines get weak. Antenna was nice and sturdy. Actually not a bad looking unit, especially after I removed the toyish looking decal from the front of the case. For those of you that haven't purchased yet, the right stick contols steering and throttle and it does it pretty darn good! The left stick controls the turret movement, the raising and lowering of the main gun, and the firing of the main gun. The trims are not functional on that side, and in fact appear to be glued in place. The bottom front of the TX has three small square buttons. The "key button" which acts essentially like a key in a real car. The starting sound is cool, and the shut down sound is even cooler. I like the fact that with the tx and tank turned on, you can remotely fire it up and shut it down, then refire it again. I'm easily amused I guess, but that smoke starting to pulse out with the engine noise is pure bliss. Did I mention how cool the smoke is? OMG After my initial run, I charged up a fresh GP3300 pack. To sum it up, the 1700 that comes with the tank will now become either a paper weight, or a 3 cell pack to break-in rc car motors. I use Powerpoles on my other rc toys, so I had to make an adapter to go from the Tam plug to the powerpole. It all fit neatly beside the battery in the battery compartment. I had no problems with the 3300's fitting. The GP3300's ran it stronger and waaaaaaaaaaaaay longer. Not necessarily any faster, but definatly more torque and even the smoker sounded like it was running faster. I highly recommend getting a 3300mah or higher pack. A word of caution though, I doubt this thing was intended for long periods of continuous use, especially on the throttle. I gave it a few breaks. It more less ran forever. Would likely even do better with the smoker off but I haven't tried it yet. I have not fired the main gun as I was not impressed with the quality of the included BB's. I went down to Wal-Mart and splurged on 2000 rounds of quality 6mm ammo for the whopping price of $4. You can bet your last dollar that firing the main gun is my mission today and I will certainly report back. I've heard so many horror stories about the airsoft gun that I'm not really optimistic, but hey, whatever.... This thing is a bargain regardless.. In closing for now, my opinion is that the 1/16 HL Pershing S&S is a ridiculous bargain! It's fun..... So darn fun I fear I may start selling off other r/c's and go tank crazy! My day one experience was pure bliss and every aspect of this tank far exceeded my expectations of what I had read. I'm not totally stupid though and I realize that it's only a matter of time before I'll need to repair things that may go wrong. May happen today, may happen next year (hopefully the latter). Regardless, this thing is a blast for $79 shipped, and well worth money and time repairing if and when it does break. For as much as people put these down, I don't know what else you could buy in this price range that is any better. I've had clodbusters approaching $1,000 that weren't any more fun to play with then this thing. I'm sure it's no Tamiya by any means, and if the Tamiya is way more fun than this, hopefully one day I can afford one. UPDATE: 3-31-06 As promised, carried out my mission of testing the airsoft cannon. Unless I'm crazy, seems to me I've read that the best you can hope for 30 feet and some just trickle out the barrel. I have no idea what's up with that or if there have been any recent improvements but mines considerably different. I had went to Wal-Mart and bought 2000 rounds of Crosman glow in the dark tracer ammo for $3.86 as the included BB's were of questionable quality. I measured out from my shed exactly 75 feet and I was pinging every round off of the shed! I even had several go over the shed which netted them 90+ feet. I have no explanation for this, but hey.. I'm kinda dumb by most peoples standards, but I can measure, and I can assure you every shot was 75+ feet. Never had a single dry fire until it ran out of BB's. Maybe they updated the gun recently? I'm sure the nice ammo didn't hurt either. Wanted to make a note about how crazy bright my headlights and taillights are now that I cleaned all the green paint off them. I was driving around the yard in the dark, and I was loving every second of it. I had shot the BB's during the day, but tonight I'll be launching them in the dark since they are the forementioned glow-in-the-dark type. Now.... the bad news (which even turns into good news). My smoker quit working at around the 2.5 hour mark. I knew it was starting to smoke less, but I didn't want to overfill it so I figured I'd let it run dry and keep a close eye on it, then fill it with it's 5-6ml capacity. Well... don't do that. I burnt it up I think. If I buy another smoker unit, I think I'll add the liquid smoke when I see the smoke start to diminish. I think this problem was user error. Now the good part of it is, when I switched the smoker off, I now have what appears to be twice the top speed at full throttle, and even more torque! Apparently that smoker is a real burden on the PCboard. I'm reaching about an estimated 2.5 mph now or maybe even a little better. It's waaaaaaaaaaaaay faster than it was with the smoker on. It's not that I run around at full speed alot, but it's nice to have it when I need it. The smoke was so cool though, that I'm torn about weather to repair it or not. Maybe I'll buy another smoker unit and just run it on "special occasions". Anyway, about a good 3 hours on the thing now, and I fired about 200 rounds yesterday to put the test to the gun. My opinion hasn't changed. This thing is a bargain at $79 shipped. If she burns up the PCBoard today, I'd gladly order the part from Mato and fix it. I'm starting to think I might buy a second one of these just for parts. Thanks for reading! - eric



outcastrc	Apr 3 2006, 05:36 PM Post #2
Administrator Posts: 1,150 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: December 13, 2005	Thanks for that great review! I don't understand why the HL Tanks get flamed so much. They are cheap toys! And for the buck you've got the best bargain your going to get... Add the fact you can fix them on the cheap and I don't see how you can go wrong... Even the new super versions price I could still have a fleet of 10 tanks and spare parts for having a single done up Tamiya... I may love Tamiya, but not that much!



speedythecat	Apr 4 2006, 07:00 PM Post #3
Swayed by the Trax Posts: 2 Group: Noobs Member #67 Joined: March 31, 2006	Thanks! I have about 7 hours of runtime on mine now and I'll add to that tomorrow hopefully. In 16 years in the hobby I've never had so much joy come from $79 shipped, and that's a fact. I'd like to own a Tamiya tank one day, since I've had so many of their cars and trucks. I think the Heng Long 1/16 are about 75% of the fun for 10% of the money. I know some people in the past have had bad HengLong experiences, but I don't think you can fairly compare the newest HL's coming off the line to the older ones. They've made some improvements along the way.



spoon37	Apr 5 2006, 01:28 PM Post #4
Trax Master Poster Posts: 602 Group: Admin Member #11 Joined: December 14, 2005	good review! I must Admit I've been eyeing up the ones on Ebay.co.uk... admitadley I'd prefer a Tiger I but thats me....



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