Quality of running for Athearn Auto-Max

[rsn48]

So I was at a train show and picked up two Athearn articulated Auto-Max.  The seller was quite open with me saying he wasn't happy about their running qualities.  Since my track is not receiving visitors right now I thought I'd ask if others had issues with these articulated cars?

[Bob Horn]

I have 4-5 of them with no problems. Bob.

[GaryHinshaw]

I have 8 or so of these and 2 or 3 or them rolled poorly out of the box because the axles on the centre trucks were rubbing against the screw heads that are used to fasten the two halves together.  The fix is to replace the screws with lower profile heads or file them down a bit.  You could also shim the truck so it stands off from the screw heads, but this would raise the ride height of the centre relative to the ends.

[carlso]

I have four of them and have problems with all 4. I have checked, removed and re-installed the center truck with no luck, but Gary's comment didn't enter my mind. I'll have to check that.

Carl

[GaryHinshaw]

It doesn't really rub unless the weight of the car is resting on the connector, which can then sag down slightly and rub on the axle.  You don't really see it happening when you're trying to diagnose the problem with the car upside down.  It's possible that Athearn switched to a slightly more flexible connector - I haven't carefully compared cars that do and don't have the issue.

[flight2000]

Are we talking about the first release from years ago or the latest release from a few months ago.  I don't own any of the older cars and haven't had the new batch on the test track yet, so I'm curious if this was a previous issue that might have been fixed by Athearn???

Cheers,
Brian

[sundowner]

I have 3 of the original run and 3 of the new run, on the original run I replace the truck with MT's, but the new run I have left alone so far. I had an issued with one of my racks of the new run with the center truck, I remove and reinstall the center truck and its working good so far. I like the new Athearn metal wheels so I not going to replace the trucks and will body mount the couplers eventually.

[rsn48]

The chap I bought the units from had them for a while so not new releases, but rarely run.