Raptor 60v1 or v2?

[Twister]

Hi all
wonder if anyone can tell me the differences between the Raptor 60v1 and v2.

There is plenty of information out there about the differences between the 30v1/v2 and the 50v1/v2 but i cannot find anything anywhere to tell me the differences between a Raptor 60 v1 and v2

Any info would be a great help.

Thanks
Neil

[Disc]

Hi
If I rember rightly the Tail Gear on the V2 was a BIG improvment.

But there was some other bits as well....

[Twister]

Hi Disc, thanks for that.

I did read somewhere the v1 tail gears were red and very fragile and need to be upgraded to white ones.

Mine came with a v1 manual but has white tail gears so it may already have the upgrades done.

The only major difference i can find so far is the tail boom has 2 bearings and carriers inside set 2/3 distance apart instead of one at half distance, not sure if that is a v2 upgrade too.

Cheers
Neil

[Disc]

Hi
it is probably the upgrades.. I did hear the V1 tails used to
explode!

Sounds like the the tail has been upgraded.

oh I think the auto rotaion was altered on the V2 as well?
Not 100% sure though...

[Raptorite]

Hi chaps,

There were quite a few changes to the 60 for the V2, I'll see if I can remember them.

Autorotation unit - design change to improve strength and stop the rollers from binding up causing the bearing to lock solid.

Canopy support - Piece of alloy bar through the hole at the front of the radio tray to support both sides of the nose of the canopy to stop it riding up and binding the swash, it also stops vibrations at the very front of the canopy.

Tail drive gears - Changed from the original red ones to white, the new white ones are much stronger as they are made from a far more robust material. These replcace the gears on the lay shaft just behind the main gear and in the tail gearbox.

Tail tube drive - The newer generation of the tube drives that sit inside the boom have had their splined ends pinned in, as the originals broke free of the tube from time to time, causing loss of drive to the tail rotor.

I'm pretty sure there were one or two other changes as well, but I just cant remember them at the moment. Since the V2 was launched a few years ago, and with firstly the conversion to a 90 and later the dedicated 90 and 90 SE kits there have been one or two more changed, some of which will be really handy on the 60's also. These were things like;

Starter shaft - increased in diameter from 5 to 6mm as on the 30/50 V2. This really helps in starting torquey big block motors like 90's and some 80's and 70's as well.

Larger diameter clutch - The bigger clutch was designed to help transfer the extra power of 90 size motors to the drive system, it is also a very good idea for 60 / 70 size models if you intend to extreme 3d them.

Harder 80 durometer dampers - The harder dampers were introduced mainly for the 90 as it has a longer boom it can swing upto 710mm blades, these need more damping in extreme 3d manouvres like kaos, as many people found themselves boom striking in mid air while trying to do these sorts of manouvres.

Autorotation bearing reinforcing ring - this is a metal ring that sits round the outside of the autorotation bearing. It acts as a support to stop the outer casing of the bearing expanding out under extreme load and therefore locking it up completely.

Additional tube drive support bearing - These are the bearing enclosed in a white plastic casing that sit inside the boom and support the tube drive. The standard 60 V2 kit only has one of these bearings, it is strongly recommended you ad an additional one and space them out equally as it better supports the tube drive and significantly reduced vibrations in the tail, allowing the gyro to work far more efficiently.

There are loads of other upgrades for the 60 / 90 as any catalogue will show, the ones I have mentioned are the more important ones for a more or less standard build. Obviously some of the other upgrades like alloy swash and rotor head are nice to have, and do enhance peformance slightly in some cases, but they are nice to haves rather than need to haves.

Cheers,
Pete.

[Twister]

Hi Pete
thanks for all the really good info.

Looks like mine is a v2 or has been upgraded to v2 spec.

If i could compare my clutch and autorotation bearing assembly with a v2 i would know for certain but i am pretty sure now all the important stuff has been already done.

Cheers
Neil

[Raptorite]

Hi Neil,

On the 60 it is normally things like the white gears and the canopy support at the front of the radio tray that give its origins away. Providing it has the white gears and the canopy support up front you can be sure that it is V2 spec.

I built my first 60 some years ago as a V1 kit and added the V2 upgrades later, at the time the UK distributor of Thunder Tiger was giving out these upgrades FOC as long as you could prove you bought the model as a new kit from a UK based retailer.

This being the case, it is highly likely you have a full V2 spec model.

Cheers,
Pete.