Hi Shawn,

USA Trains do make metal wheel sets which can be bought to replace plastic ones. I have used them in addition to those from other manufacturers. They were quite reasonable in price but have increased in price recently over here. You may be lucky and get some at the old price. Check with the dealer who supplied your plastic wheeled stock.

 

Bachman also had cheap wheels. Later RJD

 

Will the BMann wheel sets work with USAT?

 

Yes, the Bachmanns will work. Most brands of wheels are close in size. Also consider wheel sets from Al Kramer. He sells them on eBay under the seller name "ana.kramer". They are quality wheels (better than Bachmanns) for a decent price (usually 20 axles for less than $50, at least the last time I bought them). Many here, including myself, use them.

-Brian

 

Your talking about the roll-ez from san-val right?

 

Yes, but SanVal no longer exists.

-Brian

 

Bachmann are still the cheapest, I believe. They also have the advantage--which could also be a disadvantage--of being lighter. As I see it, in general heavier wheels, like aristos, track better but lighter wheels let you pull more cars. I recently changed a few Aristo wheelsets to Bachmann to lessen the load on a steep grade

 

San-Val, Al Kramer still has wheels on e-bay. I bet if you e-mailed him he would sell to you.

 

I have seen the San Val wheels on ebay going higher than our regular price.

 

San-Val may be out of business but the website is still alive and well..

San-Val

 

Charles Ro sells the USA wheel sets in lots of 10 pairs for $90. The part numbers are R2090 shiny, R2093 for black. These are solid metal and very heavy, great outdoors in the wind!!!
Since these are made by USA Trains, they are a guaranteed fit.

I find the newer LGB cars have a tighter truck width wise and some grinding needs to be done to make these fit and turn easy. Older LGB trucks were wider and these wheels fit with no problems.
On Aristo cars, these wheels are a little smaller diameter and some cars have the brake shoe hitting the rail. These shoes can be filed/trimmed.

 

Posted By Treeman on 11/24/2008 7:32 PM
I have seen the San Val wheels on ebay going higher than our regular price.

Hey Mike,
Are you talking about Bachmann or San-Val. I couldn't find either listed on your site.

Thanks,

Matt

 

Just go to ebay and click on model trains g-scale Bachmann, you will find his listings under 10 wheel sets for sale. AnnaKramer, is Al Kramer no more San Val but he IS selling from home. The reason you see people paying higher prices there is because there are still some idiots in the world making it harder on us people looking for the bargains to keep alive in this ever price increasing hobby right LOL!!!! The Regal

 

I just put Bachmann metal wheels on all of my USA Trains work cars and they seam to be working great. And Bachmann metal wheels can be bought for around $12 a set.

 

Another vote for B'mann

 

Looking all over the internet now for the best deals. Anyone have a good place???

 

I've had good luck with ridge road station (www.ridgeroad.com), Lantz' train shop (www.wholesaletrains.com) and train world (www.trainworld.com).


I bachmann metal wheels are fine. They are cast so that makes them a little bit louder than the machined metal wheels. But they roll just fine.

 

Thanks Mark.

I need to recount how many axles I need.

 

I have found that 10-20% of the bachmann wheels wobble noticeably. From my observation, seems to be that the hole is not aligned with the rest of the wheel, i.e. you cannot fix it. They do seem to always be the lowest priced wheels.

Regards, Greg

 

I've found RLD Hobbies (rldhobbies.com) the least expensive and they are PayPal friendly.

They have 4 axles of the USA blackened wheels (R2093) for $13.84....if you buy 10 sets they are $12.84 a set.

Always a pleasure to deal with.

Dan,
I agree about the LGB American trucks....but don't grind them. Use a countersink bit and use it till the upper diameter is the same as the boss size on the truck. Being the same angle as the turned down area on the axle makes them very slippery. I've been doing this and these are the easiest rolling trucks I have!

Brian B.

 

I've had good luck with Bachmann so far. Very reasonable prices, decent quality wheels.

 

Sorry Greg...

There are times when Greg clearly knows what he is talking about but this ain't one of them. Maybe his claim of having 10% - 20% of Bachmann wheels with a wobble is correct in his mind but that percentage is wildly inflated or imaginary. I have bought over 1,000 wheel sets (that 250 wheel packs) and out of that number there may have been a half a dozen I found faulty. Bachmann's quality control is much better than Greg will have you believe. As for wheel choice, it is pretty obvious what I use on EVERYTHING that does not come with metal wheels. They are relatively inexpensive yet provide a nice lowered center of balance due to their reasonable weight and do allow a piece of rolling stock to roll with reasonable ease. I have pulled consists of as many as 86 cars--all Bachmann wheels--with a USAT Big Boy so the lack of bearinged axles may be a moot point. Sure, you can break the bank and go to something believed to be top notch (and perhaps it is) like Gary Raymond but it really isn't necessary. Besides, I have fellow club members who have trouble keeping their rolling stock on the tracks at certain outside train shows with their Gary Raymonds while I continue to operate. Certainly the flanges are not prototype but what really is in G-scale anyway?

Bob

 

I use a lot of the bachman wheels and have not seen the problem that Greg has mentioned. Later RJD

 

Guess I was just lucky (or unlucky)... it is not knowing what you are talking about, it's your experience. I have only bought about 6-10 packs of Bachmann wheels, and more than one in 20 had what I considered an unacceptable wobble. Since they were cheap, I was not upset, but I don't want to buy more. They were only from 2 different stores, so a small sample. I have settled on mostly cars that come with metal wheels in the first place. I do not like the finish on the Bachmann wheels, and they appear to be cast not machined, but you get what you pay for.

I do not think that ball bearings are all that they are cracked up to be myself. On grades they really make no difference, only rolling resistance on the flat. Most people are working the train harder on a grade.

Regards, Greg

 

The bachmann wheels are cast, not machined. I wonder if anyone has ground flat spots on to their metal wheels. How often do you hear flat wheels as a train passes? Got to be at least one in a 1:1 consist. Even on passenger trains...