I received a silver version of the Tarot 450 thrust bearing tail blade holder assembly, from Infinity Hobby.


http://www.infinity-hobby.com/main/p...oducts_id=8794
http://www.infinity-hobby.com/main/p...oducts_id=8793

I've been waiting for someone to do this for some time, after having repeated failures of the outer bearing in the 450 tail blade holders. The main reason for this is the radial bearings are too close together, a common mistake Align makes.

This unit uses bigger radial bearings with the thrust bearing in the middle, so you get the best of both worlds. The bearings are spaced out further, and the thrust bearings take the centrifugal load.

To achieve this Tarot have had to reduce the hub center to the minimum possible and move out the blade holder screws by about 1mm. This means the blade diameter is now 2mm larger than before. This could also be a good thing, by slightly increasing the tail authority, albeit while increasing the tail loading, as well.



When I ordered the silver version I was expecting a plain machined finish, but it's actually powder coated silver, and looks very nice!



Tarot have done a really nice job of this unit. The quality is excellent, right down to the collar screws for the blades. Best of all, the blade holder hub screws can be done up tightly, without any binding or play.

The only negative, the slot for the blades is a little on the tight side. I prefer a loose fit, with a slight tweak of the blade screw to give the blade some resistance in the grip.

UPDATE: For the black version I received, the tail blade fit was perfect.

Please note, the blade holder hub screws are not thread locked, so make sure you remove these and thread lock them. I used a toothpick to put a small amount of thread lock in the hub. Also be careful you don't lose the small washer on the screw.



Additional pictures attached.

Weathers pretty bad at the moment but will try to have a test flight tomorrow, before work.

Update: Flight report: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...23&postcount=9

Thanks for all the nice pictures. Looks like a great upgrade. Does it spin up without vibration?
Mine (black version) could arrive any day now

The standard Tarot 450Pro tail hub i received 2 weeks ago had the arms a little bend, offsetting the CoG of the grips and blades. It vibrated madly and my attempt to bend it straight was a fail. My nightflying 450 is already grounded 6 weeks now, and darkness is creeping in rapidly so high up on this hemisphere.

I really hope this thrustbearing assembly is made better.

It's good to have choices, and great that companies are still developing parts for the 450 Pro. Look forward to your flight test report!

Just saw this and ordered one in black. Never trusted the poor origional design and have had to swap out the bearings twice so far (around 50 - 100 flights between failures), so I am looking forwards to some peace of mind.
Thanks for the tip.

Originally Posted by sp00fman

Thanks for all the nice pictures. Looks like a great upgrade. Does it spin up without vibration?
Mine (black version) could arrive any day now

The standard Tarot 450Pro tail hub i received 2 weeks ago had the arms a little bend, offsetting the CoG of the grips and blades. It vibrated madly and my attempt to bend it straight was a fail. My nightflying 450 is already grounded 6 weeks now, and darkness is creeping in rapidly so high up on this hemisphere.

I really hope this thrustbearing assembly is made better.

I hope so, also. It certainly looks well made, so finger crossed. I finished fitting it quite late, and forgot I had an appointment this morning, so no spin up, as yet.

Originally Posted by 2Doggs

It's good to have choices, and great that companies are still developing parts for the 450 Pro. Look forward to your flight test report!

Yes, I'm really impressed with what Tarot have been doing recently. Some really good innovation. I'm also looking forward to my Tarot 450 Pro metal tail boom mount:
http://www.oomodel.com/tarot-450-pro...t-p-63647.html

Test flight will have to be tomorrow now. The weather is looking promising for the rest of the week.

Originally Posted by PaulB

Just saw this and ordered one in black. Never trusted the poor origional design and have had to swap out the bearings twice so far (around 50 - 100 flights between failures), so I am looking forwards to some peace of mind.
Thanks for the tip.

Yes, I have two black ones coming, as well. Unfortunately they got caught up in the China national day holidays. I got the silver one for the 450 sport, as they don't have a blue one, just black, silver and orange, and I knew Infinity Hobby would get it to me in about 4 days.

Lol BF, you plan on stripping many umbrella gears?
Sure looks easy to replace with the metal boom mount.

Oh well, im just happy with belts for the moment. Just this day missed my landing pad on the first battery. Awefull grinding noise as the tail stalled in the long grass..... but was able to fly my remaining 3 packs directly after

Hopefully I wont *crosses fingers, legs and arms*, but it's nice to know if I do, it will be easy to replace them.

Also, the heli it's going in does a lot of testing, so getting the leads more easily past the boom mount will make life much easier (I don't like messy wiring, even on a test heli). This heli is now flying with it's 3rd brand of FBL unit. Currently I want to change the tail servo in it, so that will happen at the same time the new boom mount goes in.

WOW, i like that !! my tail has been acting a bit gritty, maybe its time to change to this one

Thanks to daylight saving, when I got home tonight at 7:30 it was still just light enough to squeeze in a flight. All I can say is, brilliant!

I'm using a 12T slant pinion (121T main) in this heli with a Align 450M (3500kv) and in idle up 2 I'm running a 95% flat throttle curve. Even at this RPM the heli was super smooth, and super powerful. I swear it seems like it has a lot more grunt now. With a 2200mah 3S 50C battery it was a rocket on near full collective.

I flew the tail as close to my face as I dared (luckily it was very calm). There wasn't the slightest bit of vibration and the blades looked to be tracking perfectly.

A big thumbs up for this product. All of my 450's will be getting one of these.

Originally Posted by beenflying

I received a silver version of the Tarot 450 thrust bearing tail blade holder assembly, from Infinity Hobby.

Could you post a link to this part? I already have $80 of other stuff in my shopping cart at Infinity while looking for this, but haven't seen this exact part

I was going to buy a couple of these to replace the bad HK/EXI tail boxes in my current 450s, any opinions?
http://www.infinity-hobby.com/main/p...oducts_id=6697

Here you go:
http://www.infinity-hobby.com/main/p...oducts_id=8794

Unfortunately already out of stock.

That tail gear box looks like a really nice design.

oomodel also have it:
http://www.oomodel.com/tarot-450-pro...t-p-63999.html

But the small amount extra at Infinity Hobby is worth it for the fast shipping and excellent customer service you get.

Thanks! I probably save some money, but bookmarked

The Ironic thing is that if Align takes notice of this and brings out their own they'll be copying Tarot.

Then again Align didn't seem to have a problem with copying the Compass FBL head when they "invented" DFC.

Originally Posted by eagle777

I was going to buy a couple of these to replace the bad HK/EXI tail boxes in my current 450s, any opinions?
http://www.infinity-hobby.com/main/p...oducts_id=6697

Much lower vibration than the Align style tailcase. Tight fitting bearings with no play but use some bearing retainer anyway because 10,000rpm could still potentially cause the bearing to spin in it's race. Be careful not to over tighten the screws that clamp it to the boom, if one breaks off the entire tailcase is junk. If you can't get it to stop turning put a bit of CA glue on the end of the boom on one side and let it dry before inserting it to provide something for the clamp to grab on to.