LS Knuckle Couplers

[glennk28]

I just got a Spectrum #88097 F&CC boxcar.  It is nicely done and matches well with my Hartford and AMS cars.  Except when it comes to coupling.  I hadn't noticed previously how rough the Bachmann knuckle couplers.  I have Kadee's on most of my 1:20.3 locos, and the Hartford cars, and Accucraft couplers on the AMS cars.  The Kadee and Accucraft couplers will couple with each other, but neither will couple with the Bachmann.  I thought that perhaps the new line might bring a refined coupler, but the contour of these is pretty rough.  At least they are at proper height now.

gj

[the Bach-man]

Dear Glenn,
The couplers should mate with both Kadee and Accucraft. Mine do...
Have fun!
the Bach-man

[Jon D. Miller]

I have just two (box car, hopper) Bachmann 1:20.3 cars. They both couple just fine with Kadee and AMS.  In fact, the 3 AMS car's couplers are a little to high when checked with a Kadee height gauge.  Yet that slight difference does not matter when coupling to Bachmann or Kadee.

JD

[Larry Green]

The Kadee 830/930's drop right in the body mount draft gear . I double up the centering spring (put them next to each other and nest them together) to decrease the slack action. Kadee sells packs of  these spring , but I don't have the part # handy.

The Bachmann couplers appeared to work fine; I just prefer Kadees.

Larry

[Danny Sheehan in Oz]

I am not using the full height coupler on my 1:20.3 rolling stock, I am using the lower shank coupler to mate with existing rolling stock.
However, I was so impressed with the new style knuckle coupler, I have fitted a full height coupler to the tender of my Bachmann  Connie 2-8-0, with the lower floor on this tender, this mates up perfectly with older Bachmann coupler heights.  The new coupler is a great improvement on previous!
Regards, Danny Sheehan in Oz.

[Pospete]

  I still find it irritating that all the makers of g scale do their own version of couplers and very few are compatable.  It's particularly irritating that there is still reliance on primitive hook and loop systems. 
  All i have done is to refit all my stock with link and pin.  Altho can be somewhat fiddly to operate, has made life somewhat easier to just have one type of coupler.

[Larry Green]

That is why I standardized on Kadees early on, and I have never regretted doing so. For me, Bachmann's Kadee-compatible draft gear is great. Five minutes, and they are installed.

Larry

[glennk28]

Kadees on the Bachmann car, no problem.  It's just that I wanted to go with working knuckle couplers on these.  The problems in the Bachmann coupler contour are that the knuckle is fairly slim, and the space from the back of the knuckle to the front of the main part of the coupler is short.    Then there is the strange overall shape of the coupler. 

This is one thing I brought up back many years ago when we had a "Large Scale Working Group" in NMRA, trying to nail down some standards for interchange.  Although NMRA has had at least an RP for coupler contour in the smaller scales, nothing was adopted . Garden Railways had a comparison on what mated with what some years back.