Menard's Box Cars Swayyyyyyy.

If there is a screw, tighten a bit. Make sure the axles are in  their slots.

Thanks.  The trucks are held on the base with an e-clip.  That's why I was thinking that maybe a thin shim between the e-clip and the base, or on the bottom side of the base, would help.  They REALLY sway!  :-).

Getting the weight to the standard might help, 5 oz plus 1 oz for every inch of car length.  With any new car I always get the weight up, especially with theirs, have quite a few.

Thanks.  I had dismissed that because the cars wobbled so much but that is definitely worth a try.  Wonder if GRJ is selling any of his excess "weights".  :-)

A wrap or two of thin copper hobby wire on the mounting shaft works wonders.  I have used this fix on many cars made by several manufacturers.

Did you purchase them from Menards new or from somebody used? If they are brand new I would return them to Menards and let them fix them.

Jim,

These cars are "new" but they were purchased long ago and sat in boxes as a result of a house move.  I have only recently unboxed them and put them on the tracks.  I would not feel comfortable sending them back to Menard's at this late date.  So I'm limited to finding a fix for the situation.  

Ron,

I was thinking washers or some other spacer.  I never thought of wire wraps as a possible solution.  I'm going to give that a try.

Thank you, both, for your suggestions.  If I get them working well, I'll post a video.

I would lease call Menarrds and explain to them your situation. I bet they make it right.

Menards might help you.

At any rate, I would add weight first to see if it helps. My trucks on my boxcars have the wobble and don't roll that great (I lubed them, they're just meh) so I plan to replace them at some point when the price is right. I still dig these box cars.

@FrankfordJunction posted:

Thanks.  The trucks are held on the base with an e-clip.  That's why I was thinking that maybe a thin shim between the e-clip and the base, or on the bottom side of the base, would help.  They REALLY sway!  :-).

You're on the right track (no pun intended).  You really only need to do it to one truck per car, let the other truck float as is and thereby keep all wheels contacting the rails that way.

Don't forget to put a drop of oil on each end of the needle-point axles.  The factory doesn't lubricate them that I'm aware of, and they really need it.  The cars will roll easier, and the trucks will last longer.

In many cases, weight is not the factor that's creating the wobble.  Light weight or heavy, they will wobble if there is play between the bottom of the car and the top of the truck.  Actually, most Menards box cars have sufficient weight as they come.  I've had quality Lionel and MTH cars, as well as many from Menards, where I've had to fix a wobble.  As installed, the shaft holding the truck on is simply not the correct length.  On those with a screw or e- clip, just the thickness of a gummed hole reinforcement (remember those) was enough to take up this slack.  I use the thin wire wrap with great success when the shaft is a rivet that is peened over.  Most of my fixes go between the top of the truck and bottom of the car.

I usually put a thin washer between the body and the truck.

Like the boxcar itself, but the trucks are junk IMO. I replace them with the old industial models boxcars trucks. These were the old IDM brand that got bought up by atlas I belive. I had a few of these laying around and the trucks fit and work great on these box cars. My hobby shop also has a few of these old IDM boxcars in stock at a blow out of 10 dallars each. So I grabed a couple just for the trucks.

Mixed, great idea doing only one truck.  Would never have considered that.

Ron, sorry but I'm ignorant as to what a gummed hole reinforcement is.  Sounds sticky.

Train Nut, that's what I was thinking.  Now just need to find the right thickness washer.

Lionelzwl2012, I'm not familiar with the IDM brand.  That may be a train show option if I can't find another solution.

Thanks for all the suggestions.  I think I'm going to try the washer between the truck and the car solution and see how that goes.  If I can get some good results, I'll post a video.

Ron

The gummed reinforcement isn't sticky if you don't make it wet.  I have been able to use washers on some occasions, but many times a washer is too thick.  That's why I found the gummed  reinforcements to be just the right thickness in some applications.  When a washer is too thick, the thin wire wrap also works well.

I liked the look of my Menard B&O BLACK  coal hopper but I was also disappointed with the " sway  " .

After weight addition and a few other tricks there was still some wobbly wheel thing going on.

I finally cured the sway issue by making the area that supports the trucks more rigid and then drilling out the E clip pins and screwed in a couple spare MTH articulated rollerbearing trucks. 

When it's placed anywhere in  the 21 coal hopper consist it runs just as well as all the MTH and Atlas cars.  😁

Sounds like these cars are rocking side-to-side, a condition in actual freight car dynamics as rock and roll.  I do not have any of these Menard boxcars, see if you can bond plastic shims to the bottom of the carbody , all 4 locations , were the car mounts to the two trucks. The trucks must slew or rotate freely after the shims are installed, if the shims will work use RTV to bond them to the bottom of the carbody. I use RTV because the RTV is a surface bonder and can be removed if necessary.     

Oh my goodness, Ron, I finally figured out that you meant loose leaf paper gummed reinforcements.  What a novel idea.  Thanks.  Duh.

Dallas, you are clearly far more sophisticated in your repairs than I intend to be.  I wanted the Menard's cars to be cheap additions.  Adding new sets of trucks would defeat that plan.  Good luck with yours.

John, not quite sure I understand the details of your suggestion.  I'm having a little trouble picturing the "four locations, where the car mounts to the two trucks".  Sorry, I'm a novice at trying to repair cars.