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Funny you should mention the HBC Pro - mine’s somewhere on the boat from China!
Couldn’t really find a bad word said about them, became a no brainer. Looking forward to it getting here . . . whenever that is
If it's anything like mine it was 14 days from Royal Mail notifying me it was being loaded to delivery.
What is the consensus on a starter pack. I keep thinking about getting a Tamiya TT02 model and inevitably they come as the kit, or the whole package with electrics. For example, TimeTunnel models, the electric kit is a £66 “option”. Which includes;
1800 Mah battery
USB slow charger.
Carson Dragster ESC
Etronix 2,4Ghz steering wheel radio.
I think we are ok for the charger, as we had one with a RTR kit my son has. And maybe even some batteries.
EDIT, I think the question I am asking is, is it better to buy the electronics separately?
The battery is a pretty low capacity one by modern standards - you can get 4000mah NiMH for about £20 if you shop around. Similarly, you'd be better off with a fast charger. Hobbywing 1060 esc for about £20; Flysky TX and RX for about £25-30ish - maybe less? I'd probably go that route personally. Especially as a slow charger will be pretty hopeless...
Does anyone still choose to buy nimh if they've got the option of lipo? I got a nimh with a similar starter pack and it went straight on ebay with the rubbish charger. Explisions aside, lipo is just so much better.
And yep flysky radio, they're inexpensive and they're very good. Not massively tough but other'n that it's hard to see past the gt3c.
These starter packs always seem a bit like someone's found a load of old unsold kit from 10 years ago
We had a guy turn up at our club with a slow charger for LiPo. Got one run per battery. Then something like 6 hours to charge, 2s 2200mAh IIRC
My charger, if I so desire, can do a 4s 6200mAh in ~45 minutes.
One of my daughters just loves technical toys and hobbies. She is an adult, but when we are together she likes nothing more than sitting down with me and building some technical lego vehicles.
So i thought we could build a qualty rc car. Something that has robust metal parts so she can learn about suspension and drive train.
This thread is massive, so im after a recomwndation for something fun to build and fun to drive. We are rural and there are lots of unmetalled tracks and paths with a 2 minute walk, so ground clearance and some exciting go would be priorities too.
We have nice chargers and some 2s batteries from drone flying, but im happy to buy what we need.
Can anyone recommend where to start for some quality kit with spares support?
Thanks
Ian
Basher or crawler? Crawlers are great for their adaptability (2 speed gearboxes, overdriving the front axle, dig modes etc) plus they don't require a massive area to run them in. Perfect for rural areas as pretty much any path, track, rocky outcrop or bit of woodland is a playground. Don't break as easily as a basher either.
Well mow im thinking crawler is fun too! It would be mostly for the build, but if we can have some fun that would be great too. I like that MT10 but it comes rtr
Most bashers are RTR, very few kits around. Tamiya is the main one that's in kit form but they're more for scale running, not really up to crashing about.
The older Tamiya stuff is great fun to build but it depends if you want a buggy, truck or car?
I personally like the buggies and enjoy building the differentials, oil shocks, etc. Something like a Thunder Dragon or Fire Dragon is a good, cheapish place to start.
Car wise, anything on the TT-02 chassis is going to be fun and not too spendy, where as trucks are well served by the Monster Beetle/ Black Foot. Lunch Box/ Midnight Pumpkin are great fun but pretty simple to construct and the more modern stuff is less complicated so not as good to build imo.
Oh, and for those that are interested and have not heard, the Boomerang is getting a re-release in the summer, along with The Fox and green Hornet.
This makes me happy.
This thread is massive, so im after a recomwndation for something fun to build and fun to drive. We are rural and there are lots of unmetalled tracks and paths with a 2 minute walk, so ground clearance and some exciting go would be priorities too.
The world's your lobster. We have built and run Tamiya buggies (modern, not vintage), Element crawlers and a Tamiya rally chassis as pictured up there^. They all have their merits.
Our crawlers are great for what they're great for. Nice to learn linkage suspension and loads of body options, fun to take for a little walk and see what you can/can't drive it up, and my 9 year old isn't going to break my ankle with it. No diffs. Expensive when you add up all the extra bits you need but at least we haven't broken anything. The vast majority are "ready to run" though - kit market is limited. Don't know why that is.
Our buggies are a blast to crash about at the beach or in an open space but not so much on woodland trails so in practice they don't see much action now we have other things, but in the first 6 months they did get heavy wear. The build was very straightforward and quick. But ours are simple entry level. For learning by changing them you need lots of parts and/or crazy ideas and you're only going to take it so far. And if you run them much you might get a lot of breakages.
The rally car is my current favourite. It's limited on the terrain it can cover but it's all drifts, squealing tyres, hanging out the back end and losing it when you overcompensate. Adjustments to shocks, diff oil and whatnot have made lots of difference and taken it from almost undriveably bonkers (because I fitted a fast motor) to quite controllable. It remains close to stock so although it was a relatively expensive kit there's not much on top. And so far breakages not a big issue. But the dog hates it. Also, so many body shell options. It's very close really to a touring car, same wheelbase, wheels, same shells available. Can often be done on same chassis (TT-02 being an example).
For learning by changing them you need lots of parts and/or crazy ideas and you’re only going to take it so far. And if you run them much you might get a lot of breakages.
Yeah, all the cars i have are full race spec, the adjustability is, errr, extensive. Two of them even have flexible shim stacks in the shocks to change compression and rebound characteristics. Suspension is pretty much fully adjustable double wishbone on all of them.
It wears, a lot. It's not exactly fragile, but i carry a full set of spare wishbones, driveline parts, shock towers etc etc.
When you see what the front spool and suspension assembly looks like... you get an idea
It’s here, and I’m really glad I didn’t go for anything faster 😀
@squirrelking did you find the back end of yours had a load of sag? I’ve wound on some preload, but definitely looked like it wanted to drag it’s bum along the ground and cock a front wheel in the air
Now you mention it mine does that as well, I've noticed it cocking the front right in the air, never thought to adjust the suspension. It had been bounced about a bit at that point though so who knows if it was doing it from the off.
I've just whacked a few turns of preload on the rear shocks. Seems to come back to a more even position now, will see if I've helped or ruined it later on (sensible money is on the latter).
Was good fun regardless, even if just on the greasy road and bumpy grass outside of the house
Mine is soft enough to jump a 5 flight of stairs and land it 😆
I need some expert help, that might be able to assist . . . with a toy 🤦♂️
We’ve got one of these, and it’s surprisingly good fun.
Unfortunately my eejit of an eldest dropped the controller in water. Then “accidentally” did it again 2 mins later. Megalodon is now uncontrollable, there’s no saving the controller.
Clutching at straws, but does anyone think there’s any chance that getting a 2.4GHz (cheap) transmitter has any chance of working?
On the HBX front. That’s still good fun, and can certainly take a hit!
Controller will be bound to the receiver. Is the receiver replaceable? If it is then you could swap out for a new receiver and controller. Not the cheapest option though.
Anybody know where I might find Long boss pinions in larger sizes? Looking for around 40T in 48dp. Can't find anything larger than 31T from the usual rc suppliers.
@mashr - that will have a very basic 2-in-1 ESC/receiver in it which don't correlate with aftermarket stuff. Smyths have them at £52.99 so it'll be cheaper to just buy a new one rather than go through the trouble of replacing the electronics.
Thanks folks confirmed my suspicions. The steering setup is very different to normal (think tank steering, but surprisingly well done) so goodness knows what’s going on inside and info isn’t forthcoming.
Anybody know where I might find Long boss pinions in larger sizes? Looking for around 40T in 48dp. Can’t find anything larger than 31T from the usual rc suppliers.
Asked this for you on my RC group's Facebook page and the two experts (they sell stuff like this) said that you won't find anything larger than 27-28t in long boss due to the forces involved. Custom is a possibility but it's likely to snap or just not stay tight on the motor shaft.
Thanks for the reply RJ. Not sure I agree about the force thing though. It sounds backwards to me.
in any event this is for a fwd touring car running 17.5t fixed timing so loads are not high.
The alternative which the team drivers use involves a short boss pinion mounted right on the end of a motor shaft and taking a dremel to the top deck of the car in an area where there isn't much material to lose and is designed to flex.It's not clever.
Wasn't expecting to get anything from rc suppliers, was thinking more gear manufacturers but they don't use the same terminology in there catalogues so not sure exactly what I should be searching for.
diy option b involves machining a boss on the lathe. Overboring to a short boss pinion to say 6mm and securing it to the new boss with retaining grade loctite.
What car is it that needs a pinion that long?
Everything i've played with that could be called a "race" car seems to use stock pinions.
And it'll be the leverage on the long boss/motor shaft with a large pinion.
Wardee, yer what car is it? Not heard of this issue
RW do long pinions, website only shows 27T here but drop them a mail and they may be able to sort you out
https://www.rwracing.co.uk/product/cnc-48dp-steel-long-boss-pinions
@Mert, Quite a few racing cars need long boss pinions, e.g. things like a Schumacher L1R 4wd and some 12th scale circuit car. However most use standard short boss pinions.
The car I have bought is an xray x4f.
The car is designed to accommodate a maximum pinion size of 35T.
As standard with a short boss pinion it needs to be mounted towards the end of the shaft, and a long boss pinion would be better.
For pinions which are bigger than 35t they need to be positioned further out to avoid hitting the top deck.
Basically what's happened is some people in Europe (EtS) set some rules for a racing class which included a control esc and 17.5t motor with a 17.5k rev limit and maximum gear ratios that could be used. (4.5 outdoors and 5.0 indoors) The manufacturer XRAY has designed the car to comply with those rules which would mean a maximum pinion size of roughly 27 or 28 tooth.
The British people (BRCA) who set the rules for racing in the UK decided that they didn't want to follow european rules.
The BRCA rules use the same control motor and speed control as the Europeans but the rev limit has been reduced to 15K and there are no restrictions on gear ratio.
The result is that to get optimum performance the car needs to be geared much higher than the designer envisaged with pinion sizes of at least 40T needed on some tracks.
Speaking about rw racing, I recently purchased some spur gears and a 35T pinion from RW racing. The Spur gears are great but the new ( short boss) pinion has a noticeable wobble (even when moved inboard on the motor shaft.) I have a lot of older rw pinions which are great but they were all purchased a very long time ago.
Schumacher L1R 4wd
Ah yes, they have that odd/different layout with the slipper and belt don't they.
Not run a buggy with belt/chain since i had my Optima mid, so a bit of a grey area for me. All shaft drive buggies (and a bit of a play with a Yokomo YZ4 and the Serpent SRX4). And almost no one runs Schumacher over here anyway!
Don't get me started on some of the gearing choices you have to make to meet what seem like incredibly arbitrary committee based decisions...
@wardee yep familiar with the rules, I do 4wd nationals and follow 2wd. The FDR issue is annoying due to the rpm limit, people are going down under 3 and some cars struggle particuarly the front motor ones. Not sure which way you need to move but could spacing the motor away from the mount 1-2mm then mean a larger pinion clears? Would swapping to 64DP help?
Mad choice over here as it means people need 400 pinions etc. Should have just gone with the fdr limit instead
Also realised that that the motor shaft is effectively 3mm shorter when compared with an old speed passion motor I have. The shaft length appears the same but What they have done is added extra material to the motor can to create vents which has the effect of moving the rotor across by 3mm.
so I have made an extension for the motor shaft.
The extension is 5mm diameter so pinions then have to be drilled out to fit. The first attempt wobbles a bit as the drill appears to have gone off course when it hit the grub screw hole.
@dlr what other cars are you aware of which have problems getting the ratios needed?
@wardee Only the front motor ones, the Xpress and maybe older Arc, I think most now use the forward/mid motor ones or however you call them ie behind the front bulkhead. Suspect it's only a problem on the real big tracks. I see they are going to Mendip this year, that will need tall gearing....
Bear in mind someone might complain that you have modified a motor if doing the nationals....
If you're on Facebook then find Ben Cosgrove, he won the 2wd last year I think and is now with Xray and should be able to help even if yours is an older model. Or there is an Xray UK group I think as well. There must be a solution which doesn't require major surgery
It's not an older car. It's the latest model and only bought it about 3 weeks ago after being retired for a number of years.
Ben C trims material from the top deck and mounts the pinion as far out on the shaft as is physically possible. It is not a good solution.
Ben runs a ratio of 2.8 indoors on carpet so I don't think it's just the big tracks that are an issue.
At 3.6 I have certain cars running into me at the end of the straight at Hinckley indoors.
For clarity I haven't modified the motor. I've modified the gear and made an adapter to fit it. Essentially a DIY long boss pinion. Legality won't be an issue,
One of the things I'm not sure about is just how high I might need to go with the ratio. The limit might be about 2.7 due to the servo mount.
Applied to the xray forum several weeks ago but my request hasn't been accepted yet.
This is detailed chatter and quite interesting. So is it the case that for racing, there are restrictions on certain items, a stock motor and speed control? We have a fairly smart tarmac track near me in Halifax and I sometimes go down with the son to watch the racing, both electric and petrol/nitro??? . Camper vans and full pits set-up, it's crazy to see how much kit is involved. I assumed it was a case of how fast can you afford to go but if there is a bit of levelling taking place, it makes it interesting.
Thinking about it, there aren't usually any one or two cars that are distinctly faster than the others..unless they have all topped out on what can be modded/£?
I assumed it was a case of how fast can you afford to go but if there is a bit of levelling taking place, it makes it interesting.
Depends on scale/class and "restrictions". Some classes are effectively a "one make" series, where everything from the powertrain/battery to the tyres, weight and drive ratios are controlled, but not the chassis. So it really is all about the driver and how the car is set up (the range of suspension adjustment on touring cars is quite phenomenal considering they are effectively "toys"). But you might have 15 different chassis and the same again of body shells...
Then some other classes are effectively unlimited. The cars still all go round the track at roughly the same speed, as they're now limited by grip and physics.
Going to an internal combustion engine adds another layer of complexity (tuning, fuel consumption, refuel strategies) and off road is a whole different thing again.
@wardee well seeing as Ben wins most of the time it is obviously a solution which works and is reliable although he will rarely crash so if you plan on doing that it could cause problems with the top deck 🙂 There are people out there who make aftermarket top decks for all brands so that would be a solution, one where it is offset or something, look up RRP Products on facebook, Dave Rand, he makes all sorts, shock towers etc and I'm sure he could make one especially if it is a common issue in the UK so could sell to others
Accidentally bought a tank, because of this thread. Nothing fancy, just a Heng Long T34, but I'm looking forward to it- I've not touched the crawlers since they got boxed up for a house move a year ago so hopefully this'll reignite some interest
Dug my Maverick Ion XT car out last week and have been having some fun with the kids with it. Yesterday after a session on a field with some grass cuttings on it stopped going. Motor was red hot. I left it to cool down, checked on it this morning, the wheels will turn side to side, but no power coming from the motor. Is there anything I can try, or is it new motor time? Is it easy to fit a new motor?
Cheers.
Just to check before you spend any money, were you doing this with a freshly charged battery? If not then you might find it is the low voltage cut off in the ESC that is stopping the motor running while still letting the servo operate.
Yep charged it up yesterday evening.
If it’s a brushed motor you could try and give it a clean by squiring some water in it, while turning the output shaft to see if it’s something that’s clogged up the brushes. They should work ok when wet but you might need to be a bit more carful with the rest of the electronics if they aren’t waterproof, so it’s probably worth taking it out of the car if you can.
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Oh god, another perfect shell from Merak!
Current state of play, in chronological order;
Tamiya TT02B:
Not the greatest tbh, although the grandkids like chasing it around.
Terrible steering, awful ground clearance, frangible plastics.
Honest opinion? Avoid.
Tamiya Lunchbox:
The most fun RC I've ever owned.
Objectively awful, but a set of nice shocks, a £20 sport tuned motor and some foams that half filled the tyres have transformed it.
Honestly my favourite.
Arrma Big Rock:
Compared to the Tamiya cars, this is like driving a Bentley.
Amazingly well designed and built, this thing is meant for better drivers than me.
I can just about drive it on 2S, on 3S I've broken a front arm and a rear hub - both my fault. The original servo wore out, but a nice replacement was £20.
Spares are cheap and it's so easy to service.
Handles superbly on the rough stuff - never felt the need to upgrade anything.
If you like things that are well designed, are new to RC and would prefer something well engineered, fast and fun, get one.
Maverick Scout Crawler:
Amazing.
Had so many expensive plans for this, but now back to stock.
Go ahead and spend £500 on a Traxxas or Axial Crawler if it makes you happy.
Have had so much fun with this. Continues to amaze.
Without doubt the best value RC out there.
Everyone from little kids to old folk seem to love it.
Get one.
Tamiya 2CV M-05 RA.
Just wasted off road, it's ended up as a track and tarmac car, no expensive mods, just nice shocks, lower ground clearance and more suitable tyres.
Honestly, it's lovely. A delightful thing. Taught me how to drive and race.
Slightly more tricky to build than a basic Tamiya, but incredibly rewarding to drive.
Team Associated RB10 RTR:
Swore I had enough RCs.
Bought one last week.
Seems like a cheap way of going racing.
Build quality out of the box is stunning.
Can't wait to get it on a track.