Kadee Couplers vs. Aristocraft

Posted By Fred on 11/10/2008 11:40 AM
...so much happier now with the KD's, both coupling & hand uncoupling is so much easier.

Fred makes a good point here and it's why I particularly prefer KDs. Just being able to lift out a car from anywhere in the train without having to click the couplers open or disturb surrounding cars is something I like.

Unless your track is really flat though, I would say stick with G couplers. I started out with KD #1 and they uncoupled all over the place....luckily for me I switched to G after about only 6 cars and never looked back.

There's a lot of talk about being able to play with stuff straight out of the box. And that's maybe very important for some I guess. But there's also something to be said about the fun that's to be had 'tweaking'. If I never had to adjust/add/file/tighten/glue/swap/lube/solder at least half of the stuff I buy I wouldn't have anywhere near so much fun! I don't enjoy buying KDs. But the enjoyment fixing them to a new car and the smoothness of it's operation outweighs that for me.

We may all moan about stuff that needs fixing out of the box - and sometimes it is serious and has to be sent back. But don't think for one moment that these guys that take all the pictures and then update their websites with advice don't take some satisfaction from finding that fix. And both theirs and our hobby-time is the richer for it.

Just ask GregE, RayM, PaulN to name just 3 - if they didn't have all these fixes to help us all out with what would they do with their website space and all that time eh? LOL!!

I wouldn't say I ever planned to do a lot of switching, so that wasn't the main reason I went kadee. But I if I leave a string of cars in a siding I like to be able to send an engine to go get them, without having to bump them too much to get coupled up....ok, so to leave the cars there in the first place I would have to be there, or leave a magnet...anway I like the soft touch.

On Aristo heavyweights I have body mounted KD 789s, but I have had to remove the pin, even if track is slightly uneven on a curve the pin can sometimes go below track level - the soft heavyweight truck springs contribute to this. I first thought maybe I don't need the suspension, but when I temporarily disabled the springing the trucks derailed on my bumpy track haha! So I lost the pins, I thought if I do any real amount of switching it will much more likely involve frieght cars anyhow...

The heavyweights are quite close and yet will go round 10ft curves, plus pull and push through my undiluted (as in no transitional straight) ess made from 12.5ft curves. so you can still have tighter curves + KD + body mount + long vehicles.