Metal Wheels compatible for Playmobil RC Diesel 5258

[N4niner206]

Hello All!

I have a couple of Playmobile RC Diesel 5258 locomotives (the yellow ones that are battery-powered with radio control that come as part of the freight set). I'd like to use these outdoors, but living in the desert - the track gets very hot and I don't have much faith that the plastic wheels will survive long.

I've managed to get the "motor block" open and have found that the two geared wheels inside are approximately 1.72" (43.8 mm) diameter, and the plastic drive gear is approximately 0.82" (20.8 mm) diameter. These are very rough measurements.

My question - does anyone know of any metal wheels that would be compatible to serve as replacements for this locomotive? I'm sure I can't be the first person to attempt this, but I have searched and haven't stumbled across an answer. Lot's of conversions out there, but none that I've found seem to mention what wheels to use as replacements. I'm new to "bashing", so I apologize if this is a silly question.

Thanks for any advice you can give!

Sincerely,

N4niner260 in Buckeye, AZ

 

[-bbbb]

I think you can retain the old axles/gears and just take the plastic wheels off of the axles to replace them with metal ones. I looked but it was tight so I couldn't get an exact reading; I was seeing 3.7 something mm, but I think the axles may be the same diameter as other Playmobil motorblocks ~3.89 mm, so I imagine you should be able to use the metal wheels from Playmobil electric train motorblocks while retaining the original 5258 axles/gears. And I may be wrong, but I think Bachmann may make some metal wheels for that size of axle as well.

 

[N4niner206]

Thank you for the response, bbbb. I'll take a look and see what I can find and give that a try. I'm fairly new to the hobby - how important is it that I match the diameter of the wheel, itself?

 

[-bbbb]

The risk if the axle is too small is that the axle spins without the wheels.. if it's close but not close enough you might be able to secure it with epoxy if you roughen up the surfaces before application. Maybe check this thread which mentions using a copper sleeve when the gears are too big for the axle: gears compatible with playmobil?

 

[PhilP]

The overall wheel diameter, will affect top-speed..
Of more importance, will be clearance. - You don't want them rubbing, or catching, on anything..

PhilP