Putting Kadees on MTH Premieres . . .

Which MTH trucks are you referring to? I have only taken MTH passenger trucks apart, and then I ONLY remove the four screws that hold the bolster to the side frame assemblies, thus the springs flying out has never been a problem. Concerning the freight trucks, I NEVER take them apart. I simply cut/break off the lobster claw mounting parts with VERY large side cutters and/or large, long handled pliers.

 

That said, if you want to be absolutely sure that if and when any springs come loose and "fly away", one trick is to put thread through any of the springs. The thread will retain the spring, and you shouldn't lose track of it/them that way.

"three MTH Premieres"?  Premier what? 

 

I take apart and assemble 3 spring Athearn trucks all too frequently and while the string trick is w/o doubt one that works, I tend to skewer each spring with a scalpel blade to both insert or remove them; not recommending it for others as it takes a certain "touch" with the blade. But, I can also replace the inner 3rd spring from the inside of the truck with my method.

I would look for some of the older versions of the Premier truck with the thumbtack present- this coupler assembly comes off with no disassembly fo the truck whatsoever.

All the new MTH trucks suck to take apart and get back together. get out your Dremel, a cutoff wheel, and start hacking. Save yourself time, and frustration.

The trick I use is to thread the springs with dental floss, then put them back in with sharp tweezers or a #11 X-acto knife. Once the spring is seated, you can slowly pull out the floss and the spring will remain securely in place. It's time-consuming, but it works.

 

Doug is right. The new MTH freight trucks are an absolute pain in the rear, thought the heavyweight passenger trucks aren't too bad. There's not a whole lot to be gained carefully taking the trucks apart unless you're thinking about reversing the process.

I don't buy many MTH cars any more because of their trucks, and the detail just ain't there... even with Premier cars. They supply a pad to mount Kadees but you have to take the whole car apart to get the trucks off, and then butcher them to get the claw off.

 

You could buy their 2R trucks and then swap the wheels but that's more money... If you're gonna do that, just replace them with Atlas 3R trucks... even more money.

Oh, their PAs are quite easy actually, they have holes (and some are tapped) in the frames already...

 

 

 

oh... and I just took a Dremel to the trucks.

 

Thanks,

Mario

I am with you LOS, MTH cars are a PITA!  I just don't get it, MTH molds in the mounting location and supplies the perfect shim but they hide the screw that holds the truck inside which requires varying degrees of disassembly of the car and the trucks absolutely suck when it comes to getting the claw off.  I have found Lionel cars to be the easiest to install kadees.  The trucks are screwed from the bottom of the car and the claw/cage falls away from the truck with two cuts.....piece of cake.  I too avoid MTH cars.  

 "But, I can also replace the inner 3rd spring from the inside of the truck with my method."

 

   I use very sharp tweezers and grip the spring by one of the end coils then angle it into the spring seat. The two outside springs from outside the frame and the single inside spring from inside the frame. Angle the bottom so it catches on the little seat nub then compress the spring and push the top in till it can be released on the upper nub. I've done hundreds over the years so rarely lose a spring anymore, the trick is have tweezers that can hold the spring without it flipping off.

  I haven't done an MTH car for years but the ones I recall were pretty simple, unscrew the truck, remove the 3 rail couplers, turn the truck around so the truck coupler mounting pads face the middle of the car  then install Kadees.I also had to remove the 3 rail wheels and replace them with 2 rail wheels but I don't remember any problems with that......DaveB

Just my opinion but, I disagree, as I have developed a quick and foolproof system of physically breaking off all the claw mounting portions of the MTH freight car trucks. Concerning the disassembly of the car in order to access the truck mounting screw, I've learned to live with that once I discovered WHY the MTH cars are designed that way. Most all other manufacturers just run a screw through the truck bolster into the car under frame bolster. If and when that hole in the car under frame becomes striped-out, the truck falls off. With the MTH design a machine screw is used to thread INTO the metal truck bolster, thus there is NEVER any danger of the truck falling off the car due to damaged threads in the plastic underframe.

 

Conversely, I have found that Lionel freight cars were (I don't buy them anymore) the most difficult to up-grade to Kadee couplers, since the underframe is many times sunken into the carbody.

Weaver hands down winner in the in the easiest to convert to Kadee couplers, and they get lowered to the correct height when you do conversion. 

Well, A Dremel has been acquired and used to hack the hades outt'a a couple of MTH trucks. Beats chasing the springs around. Not so elegant.

 

I had my first totally positive KD conversion today. I have four Atlas O Master covered hoppers. Just screwed the Kadees in. No spacers, no Dremeling, no pilers. Perfect. Just like it's supposed to be. Why aren't they ALL like that?

While it is easy to get the claws off Atlas trucks, these are the only ones I have done so far that don't even require a spacer. What a treat!

Just so.  One can never have too many sets of good tweezers!

"Just so.  One can never have too many sets of good tweezers!"

 

   So true. I probably have 10 or more and the differences are very subtle, some will hold certain parts better than others although they all look pretty much the same. Kinda like a very tiny version of the numerous tongs blacksmith's need....DaveB

Hi Terry • No easy button for dealing with MTH Rolling stock.

Laidoffsick (Doug) has a lot of videos on working with Kadee Couplers.

This is a link to his YT Chanel Page. Look over his video list.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Laidoffsick/videos

Watched the videos. My spanking new Dremel is in danger of melting down, slashing and tearing at those MTH trucks. They'll have Kadees . . . or else!!!

 

The passenger cars will not be spared either!

Oooh I feel your pain... or relief, however you may see it.  The passenger cars are a whole different ball game. Body mount or truck mount? Long shank or medium shank? HOW BIG are your curves?

If you passenger cars are already close coupled, I'd remove the thumbtacks and call them done.

Oh, I dunn'o. Those stock couplers are just not acceptable to me anymore! My curves will be O-72 minimum. The passenger cars will spend most of their time on "the mainline" with O-80 curves under one tunnel and on O-128 curves on all visible trackage.

 

I've already done two 21" GGD cars with body mount couplers(bottom image). And experimented with one 18" MTH car, as in the top image. Getting the claw off the MTH car was not really so hard. And this was actually BEFORE I even had a Dremel! The longer GGD cars do O-72 really well with standard shank length. I didn't need to go to #746 long shanks on them as I expected I would.

 

As in the bottom image shows, there really was no significant gain in spacing using the GGD Kadee mounting holes and standard #740 shanks. But the couplers look better!

 

Even if forced to mount the Kadees so that no significant spacing reduction took place, I'd do it as the stock couplers are just ugly to me now.

 

This MTH one was, as I say, an experiment. It is held on with double stick tape because, at the time, I didn't have any screws to fit. The tape, BTW seems to be pretty good! How it will stand up to time remains to be seen. I'll leave the tape in place for the time being.