Are plastic gearboxes to be avoided?

[lizardlenny]

I'm in the midst of getting a new airsoft gun in time for the NAE. The gun I'm currently looking at is the Ares AEG L85A2 AFV however I've heard it has a plastic gearbox. Should a plastic gearbox be a dealbreaker when you're spending £340+ on a gun? Even better if anyone here is familiar with this gun and can let me know how it performs and it's durability in terms of the gearbox.

Thanks for any advice!

[sparrowhawk]

Re: Are plastic gearboxes to be avoided?

When you say plastic it's more likely to be nylon, which is very strong, has a little give so won't shatter, I have seen plenty of so called stronger metal based gearboxes break, only thing which would be better than nylon or standard cast aluminium alloy gb are cnc or steel

[BigAl]

Re: Are plastic gearboxes to be avoided?

Bare in mind as well that the body of the ARES is Steel, so its very strong.

[mightyjebus]

Re: Are plastic gearboxes to be avoided?

a lot of the cheaper guns came with a plastic gearbox and are called LPEG's (low powered electric guns). When STAR released their L85 family of rifles they came with a poly carbonate gearbox shell which threw a lot of people as they thought it was a bad idea however the gearbox turned out to be just as good as a metal one. STAR /ARES eventually swapped to a metal gearbox, which you can buy separately, but this was more to appease the potential buyers and nothing to do with the plastic gearbox breaking.

[Kodiak]

Re: Are plastic gearboxes to be avoided?

Jeez £340+ for an Ares? Two words: Hell no.

Take that money and buy a TM recoil shock gun second hand on here instead

[curlyboy]

Re: Are plastic gearboxes to be avoided?

I had a STAR (now Ares) M249 and that had a plastic (actually a type of poly carbonate) gearbox surround and it cracked 2 or 3 times ( and went back to Z1 to be repaired) before I bought a metal surround for it then the piston kept stripping in simple terms avoid.

If you want a L85 try the ICS I have not heard anything bad about them and my friends is a machine. Plus I agree with kodiak you can get a far better gun for that money.

Curlyboy

[druid799]

Re: Are plastic gearboxes to be avoided?

Just as another spanner in the works for you I have the G&G AFV , I feed it on 11.1v 800 lipo's and it's a great gatt lovely rate of fire on it AND you also get a free susat with it !

[Counting Count]

Re: Are plastic gearboxes to be avoided?

Never had a problem with my STAR (now ARES) '80 still going strong after 8 years on the polycarbonate gearbox...

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