Broke my ModelRex engine

Any of the other owners of the "Model Rex" variants of the 4" subscribe to this forum? If so you may be interested to learn that I took my engine out for a New Year steaming session at a mates and managed to break it quite convincingly.

After a very active summer during which I must have clocked up a serious mileage and tackled some very challenging terrain I have sheared all six of the bolts off that hold the winch drum to the final drive gear. The result of this is without a diff lock the engine then free wheels as the diff spins wildly having lost traction on one drive wheel. Those four or so other owners may want to look at wether the bolts are tight or perhaps better still replace them with socket head screws as they have a higher tensile strength. The lack of a diff lock is one of the disadvantages of not having waited for STW to finish the build.

Regards to all Kevyn.

Feeling quite pleased with myself as a lot of this model engineering stuff has always been something I have not quite mastered yet, however I have managed to sort out the broken part by redrilling and tapping the bolt holes in the winch drum casting and fitting socket head screws which should be stronger. It has all gone back well and should survive a bit better.