Tamiya and other R/C vehicles (not just for Christmas)

Thanks entirely to this thread, I now own three RC cars, and get ludicrously regular deliveries of spare parts.

For the most recent car, I’ve disappeared down a rabbit hole of building a custom light controller, so that I can have remote light control and working brake lights.

Initial prototype using a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller:

3D printed case with mount for pogo-pin connector so that I don’t have to disconnect/reconnect the wires on the body:

And now some custom PCBs have just arrived from China:

Which due to a parts shortage were only part-assembled and I had to hand-solder the processor.

So as a pretty much direct result of this thread, I now also own a load of equipment for doing surface mount soldering, and was finally tipped over the edge of buying a 3D printer.

This place is expensive.

So…
I’ve had this wee beauty since Xmas day, 1981! Just over 40 years now – when I was 10 🤔

Inspired by this thread, I’m going to try to get her running again. I realise that might mean replacement of virtually every part!

Where do I start though? Power train – batteries/motor. Then radio gear and then servos? I’d like to fix the shell too but that will be last.
It hasn’t ran since ’82. When it died, my dad bought a hotshot! Which has long since disappeared, unfortunately.

Any advice gratefully accepted, cheers, Paul

Racing fighter arrived today.

Going riding tonight, but after I might cut the shell out and start masking for paint job.

pandhandj
Free Member
So…
I’ve had this wee beauty since Xmas day, 1981! Just over 40 years now – when I was 10 🤔

Inspired by this thread, I’m going to try to get her running again. I realise that might mean replacement of virtually every part!

Where do I start though? Power train – batteries/motor. Then radio gear and then servos? I’d like to fix the shell too but that will be last.

Well, the shell looks pretty good. It looks like a pre-built thing so I wouldn’t know where to start with its electronics but one option would be to see if you could fit in modern radio gear, battery and speed controller. Should think you’d want to be careful not to put too much power through it, a modern motor might eat the gears. This assuming it isn’t valuable and that spaghetti junction of wires doesn’t appeal. If you think that’s the track to go down I’d start by seeing if the motor runs just connected to a battery. And looking at transmission, tyres etc which might not be replaceable. If that’s all good you can probably jerry rig modern everything else in. Battery choice and fitment would then be the obvious challenge. Receiver and ESC you’d just tape/velcro somewhere and hopefully that’s a standard enough sized servo you could replace it.

Got the van out for the first time this week with the kids; went down very well, even if it did have a tendency to traction roll with a six year old at the controls.

That looks very purposeful, like it a lot!

Thanks entirely to this thread, I now own three RC cars, and get ludicrously regular deliveries of spare parts.

I’m up to 8! 5 still in use, 1 in bits as I cannibalised it for parts after getting fed up of it breaking all the time and 1 I sold on. Roughly £1.5k sunk into the hobby so far, crazy for what it is and how short a time I’ve been doing it.

Fun though.

Yep. 2 cars, 3 tanks and a butt load of spares.

Recommendations for on line model shops please, normal models not RC (yet).

@scruff Howes, TJD, Leeds Model Shop all good.

New build.

Got my Wltoys 124019 a week ago and surprised my sons with it after school. They went mental! Took it out for a drive in a sandy gravel spot where a digger has been working and it flies!

Thankfully the control has a speed dial so I could turn it right down for them. At full throttle it’s flipping fast. I can’t imagine how fast the brushless versions are.

Battery life is respectable too, despite being throttled down most of the time, we were out over 35 minutes. Decently long for me.

Nice work there @Merak – have considered one of these to ease myself back into the hobby (raced 1:10th buggies late 80’s/early 90’s).

A question though… Polycarbonate/Lexan shells usually get painted on the inside (or they did back in the day). 2nd pic shows red all over, 3rd and 4th pics show the added blue highlights on the nose and tail – how have you done the blue highlights if you painted red first as 2nd pic suggests?

@hopkinsgm

Yeah red sprayed from the inside. Protective film removed from outer shell then the blue masked and sprayed on top with polycarbonate then lacquered.👌

Moar paint..

Still chipping away at this.

Oooooo.
I got back into this about 10 years ago after 20 years off.
Currently running a couple of 10th Scale EP touring cars (indoor/outdoor) will probably convert them both back to outdoor spec as we have a nice long tarmac circuit now, a couple of 8th buggies (electric), and still have my 10th buggies, but they rarely get run as the local offroad track isn’t really 10th friendly. Flat out down the back straight and the bumps in the track are enough to break suspension arms! There’s a new indoor 10th buggy track about an hour away that’s now open all year round, so might dig out my slicks and have a play.

Planning to start racing again this year as well, as the last couple of years i’ve been a) far too busy and b) far too skint.

Just need to check everything still works after a couple of years in storage…

Hi all, bought my son a Wltoys 124019, partly as a result of this thread 😀

Bit of an issue that I think is either battery or charger related. It ran fine for 5 minutes then stopped. Turned controller and car off, then back on, ran for a bit, did the same.
Tbh I think it’s just behaving like a flat battery. Put it on charge for a couple of hours, still only runs for a few seconds. But the battery doesn’t even get warm when on charge. No lights on the charger to indicate of it’s working or not.
Anyone got any ideas?
Bit of a sad birthday boy.:(

Are you using the supplied USB charger? If so they take ages to charge a battery, they put out only 100mA so a 1000mA battery takes over 10 hours to charge. They also have no light to say they’re done. Either that or you do have a duff battery. If you have a local model shop pop into them and they’ll be able to test it for you and supply a better charger, new battery or both.

Yeah, standard charger!
Will try it for a long stretch tomorrow and see if it puts any charge in, battery is reading 3v on one side and 2.5 on the other at the mo.
I will try and borrow a charger off a local, but from reading it seems like a better charger may not be a bad thing to have anyways?
Will have a look for a local model place, but would feel a bit cheeky going in with my BangGood purchase!

Edit: it’s a 2600ma battery! The charger claims to be 2000mah…

Hiya!

Can anyone recommend a very tough, 2wd basher, nothing bigger than 1/10th for preference?

Still loving the Arrma Big Rock, something similar in 2wd would be lovely.

The Traxxas Rustler/Stampede appeals, (a newly updated version) is just about to arrive), any other suggestions?
A Mad Bull is an option, but I’d prefer something a little tougher if possible.

Thanks folks 🙂

My Mad Bull has been bullet proof once I swapped out the front shocks. The body shell took a beating when I wedged it under a gate, but that was my fault.

The roofless version with a “bubble” looks ok too.

My mad bull had been very tough too. Survived some very dubious landings at the skatepark. Comedy direction control on the gravel surfaces too! Hours of fun. It does have oil shocks rather than the garbage is ships with.

Hmmm, choices.

Harry, you’ve really had your money’s worth out of that one, looks amazing with the paint and the bubble canopy.

I’ll have a think……

What shocks are you both running?

Some no brand Chinese jobbies off eBay.

Relative merits of alloy suspension arms on a Wltoys 124019?

I managed to solve the charging issue with judicious use of a soldering iron and some warranty voiding repair work.
Then I went out for a couple of hours, and returned to see a wife pointing out to a 9 year old that yes, it was an accident, but it was still his fault that the lower arm was now in 2 pieces, that tree didn’t jump at the car.

So the choice is a new plastic arms, or a set of alloy arms (might as well do the whole lot whilst ordering from BangGood)
Obviously the alloy should be stronger, but is it better to just have the plastic ones as a sacrificial part to save the chassis?

I’d stick with plastic for the reason you mention, anything stronger will just shift the failure point in a crash somewhere else which will be more difficult, and possibly more expensive, to fix. If you want a slight improvement in strength over stock you could see if you could fit a set of the hard plastic arms from the LC Racing EMB cars.

https://dms-racing.com/spare-parts/spare-parts-for-lc-racing/lc-racing-emb-tg-spares/hard-suspension-arm-set-and-inserts-front-and-rear-4-pcs-all-emb-or-lc12b1-detail

This seems to cover most of the options you would have for replacing the suspension arms, and plenty of the other suspension parts.

https://www.quadifyrc.com/rccarreviews/project-wlcracing-124018-stage-1-suspension-and-steering-upgrades

Perfect, kind of goes with what I was thinking. Cheers!

Went to a big RC crawler meet in a quarry just outside of Shepton Mallet, organised by the Southern Scale Trail group. Took my Range Rover which has had a few modifications since I bought it.

Hobbywing 1080 ESC.
Injora tyres (Proline knock-offs)
Alloy beadlocks from a Chinese seller.
Wide arch kit.
Bobtailed the rear and hacked the arches out to give more clearance.

Looks massive now and performs miles better.

Got loads of comments about it, all positive so I’ll take that as a win! Even met one of it’s brothers that has been slightly lowered for a pure scale look, they looked ridiculous next to each other:

Also found a real Range Rover that had not survived the quarry which is normally used as a 4×4 playground:

Got to admit I’m really liking the crawling scene. Lots of friendly people, a huge variety of cars, batteries last for hours, you don’t need big spaces to let rip in and it’s just so relaxing compared to bashing.

It’s good isn’t it. I love what a broad church it is, there’s pretty much always a truck you absolutely envy but equally someone else having the best time with a bone stock entry level rig. I mean, most hobbies are basically inclusive and open but sometimes there’s a lot more barriers to entry just by their nature- I can’t take a novice mountain biking and do the same sort of riding I’d normally do, frinstance. It’s kind of lovely that you can genuinely grab a sub-£200 truck and a couple of lipos and do essentially everything that the most expensive or most developed trucks can. Sometimes even better, since basic trucks are so light.

Going to regret this and I’ve been ignoring the crawler talk until now…but…point me at a reasonable basic rig.

My 10th scale buggy doesn’t really get a lot of use. In fact I need to switch the motor out for something slower as it’s smashing through batteries, but I haven’t used it because I need a bit of space to run it

But my 10th scale crawler is much more fun. Used it today at the back of the garden, have made a little course out of pallets and various bits, kids like driving it and because it’s so much slower it’s easier for them to control.

Mine is an axial scx10ii that I bought as a built kit and then added the electrics myself. Defo spent more money on it than I’d planned to but it’s genuinely excellently. Haven’t got down to a meet yet but planning to at some point

Harry_the_Spider
Full Member

Going to regret this and I’ve been ignoring the crawler talk until now…but…point me at a reasonable basic rig.

Some manner of FTX/RGT Outback. The Outback 3 at £170 looks like utterly ridiculous value tbh, but there’s variations on that chassis from £140-ish for the RGT Bowler, up to around the £300 mark. Meaning that there’s also nice easy upgrades since you can use a lot of the bits from the higher end ones on the cheapies.

If I suddenly had no RC cars and wanted to order one tomorrow it’d absolutely definitely be the Outback 3, put it that way. I’d budget for a beasty servo and some cheap metal beadlock wheels, and a suitable lipo or two. (just about every scaler needs a servo upgrade, it’s kind of ridiculous) It’s sensibly pitched as a trail rig- it’s a less outright capable crawler than, frinstance, the RGT Bowler but it’s much nicer looking and better specced. Shame it still has the 390 motor but that’s a cheap and easy fix if required.

There’s a lot to be said for smaller crawlers but 1/10th is kind of the default option, if you go on a group crawl most trucks will be on that scale and the route’ll have been chosen for it. Though I had a great laugh running my cheapo 1:24 truck on one meet.

Yeah, i like having a couple of proper tracks in easy reach. If i didn’t i certainly wouldn’t have got back into it in the way i have, crawlers would have been more likely!

The 8th electric buggies i have will hit about 80 kph in race trim, and you need a proper bit of space to do that safely, 3 and a half kilos of buggy at that speed can do some serious damage. The TCs (10th electric) i’ve had through timing gates at somewhat over 100kph on track and geared up on a closed road at about 135, with everything turned up to 11, two runs and the whole thing shut itself down, low voltage warning, over heated ESC and motor 😀

Also destroyed a set of tyres and a drive belt. 🙁

Can’t do that in the garden or on the road outside your house.

I’ve a Gmade BOM and it’s ridiculously fun on the rocks at the beach. New version comes with hi/lo box as standard. Full builds are cheaper but half the fun for me is is the build.

@RustySpanner On tough buggies, the Tamiya DT-03 is not known to be particularly tough but I’ve done some easy mods to deal with its weak points. Mainly to brace the shock towers to the chassis. Result for me is that it has taken all sorts of abuse remarkably well post modification. Many wince-worthy impacts in the hands of over-excited children and it’s got a fairly fast motor fitted. In stock form we were killing shock towers constantly and did 2x chassis as well. Modded it’s a different prospect. It’s still a Tamiya rather than a genuinely tough basher but if you’re considering a Mad Bull and fancy some light tinkering it’s worthy of consideration I think.

Reason I flag it up is because if it’s still on Amazon for c.£75 it’s great value and it can be adjusted easily to drive really quite well. Comes with decent shocks, really just needs better front tyres (plus bearings etc as most Tamiyas need).

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Will also take truck wheels/tyres.

Interesting. What did you mount to? Did you just drill chassis and fit ball end screws?

@clubby I found unused holes in the chassis at suitable positions, so drilling not required. As luck would have it the front ones line up almost exactly with the front top shock mount points, enabling straight bar from the mount. I then have more M3 bar running left to right across the chassis, ball nuts on the outside with a little soft plastic spacing them out a couple of mm, nuts nipped up inside. It makes for a quite well braced structure that doesn’t concentrate too much force in any one spot. And it’s all parts bin stuff, pretty much.

The common failure is usually to snap front shock towers from frontal impact in a flip. The same impact can also use the tower as a lever and break the chassis nose. My fix shares this impact force with further back along the chassis and takes out a lot of the bending force. I think the plastic socket ends are a good call here too, for a bit of give.

At the back, you can similarly snap towers so my mod there braces that and the steel bracket acts as a skid too. A side benefit I’d quite like to replicate on the front.

As an aside, I have also modified the rear lower suspension arm mount points. As stock the pivots are just part of the gearbox mold. They can snap the mold. I’ve only broken one so I’m not sure it’s a serial point of failure but my son’s has developed excessive play in the same spot so it should help in that regard too. I’ve braced left to right with some carbon fibre but I had to cut into the gearbox to do it. I could be accused of tinkering for tinkering’s sake on this one…

Part of this was that I wanted to see what I could usefully hand make out of carbon board, for which I have some more ideas.

The same impact can also use the tower as a lever and break the chassis nose.

Oh, I know. Thats when the brushless motor came out and the standard one went back in.