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

I *may* have just bought one of these Remo crawlers, which was RTR £130ish from China on the Bay. Escaped import stuff, too. Initial impressions are very good – turning circle is dreadful, though – even worse than the Axial SCX10 it’s a clone of, so I need to remedy that. Otherwise, the kids (and I) love it 😉

Hoping to have my old Tamiya Terra Scorcher running by the end of the week.
Ecs arrived and waiting on radio. I have old batteries to make a start, then will invest in better ones once it is up and running.

Really fancy a petrol engine car though…….

Merak

Member
Ooh I fancy one of those Mavericks. What shell are you putting on it?

Not sure yet.

This article https://www.thercracer.com/2016/01/maverick-scout-review-and-video.html?m=0 shows a nice HPI Ford pickup body, also seen a couple of Beetle shells that should fit….

I’d love a MK1 Range Rover body but can’t find a light lexan one.
A Defender or G Wagon appeals or possibly some kind of Jeep.

The original body is growing on me, but it’s not going to last.

Great fun yesterday climbing over bags of compost, old logs, rocky flower beds etc.

I just need to learn how to drive it properly. 🙂

I’ve been having fun playing with my smt10 and building a small track in the garden with jumps and stuff. Just about getting the hang of j flicking it which is super useful in a tight space.

All the feedback I read was it was too slow, well anything faster would be nuts to control!

Any suggestions for a complete robust and cheap version I can get for the 3.5yr old? He is too much of a liability using the current one – nearly took his brother clean out yesterday

I hope there is enough room in this RC party for a total noob.

Being at the right age to know that the coolest toy in the 80’s was a Tamiya buggy, friends had a wide range from Grasshoppers to FAV’s, and having never been lucky enough to have one, Father Christmas was nice enough to get my boy the Tamiya Rising Fighter.
What a hoot. He loves it to bits (almost literally, still honing the driving skills).
We built it up pretty quickly to get it rolling (he is still only 6 so he wouldn’t have coped with a long build time) and as a result its totally stock. Me being a total Noob didn’t fit sealed bearings or nothing.
However, the Internet is full of rabbit holes, some of them Rising Fighter shaped. We are now in the process of gathering upgrade parts for ‘Project Ultimate Fighter’.
So far we have;
– Sealed Bearings
– Square spike front tyres.
– Absima oil damped shocks
– New body to spend some time on while the original gets trashed.
– New driver as I rushed the first and could do better.

I have to say, at 47 years I do feel a bit self conscious about this new hobby but I used to build static models as a kid / teen and the upgrade parts and tweaks are sooo much cheaper that MTB parts. Plus Mrs Wachowchow is happy for us to do the work on the dining room table rather than being banished to the shed with the bikes.

Research shows that the new Absima shocks will need to be stripped down from new, lighter oil fitted and the internal (valve / disk) de-burred from moulding flash or whatnot and the stock friction shock springs used to reduce pre load.

Exciting stuff indeed. It really seems to have awoken a passion for stuf looking the part too. My static model days were building HotRods from stock car / truck kits.

TL;DR – Aren’t RC buggies brilliant!!

That Remo looks good for the money! I think if the axles are the same ones as I think they are, you should be able to improve turning circle by clearancing the steering links- countersunk bolts, maybe a little mild cutting. A more powerful servo’ll usually help too since there’s so much tyre resistance, I’ve ended up with 30kgs in both of mine and it makes such a difference when crawling. Or try and find a lower rear gear for hte back diff for a redneck dig effect…

Nice that they’ve stuck a 550 in it, no replacement for displacement

Cheers NW.I think there are a few avenues for fiddling – the links, as you say – heightening the main (straight) one so it clears the gear case and then increasing the servo lever. I like the idea of the more powerful servo too. Tempted to play around with 4ws too, but that’s a bit spendy, so maybe further down the line 😀

I have to say, at 47 years I do feel a bit self conscious about this new hobby but I used to build static models as a kid / teen and the upgrade parts and tweaks are sooo much cheaper that MTB parts.

Yup 🙂.
The self consciousness soon disappears – I’ve never really suffered anyway, which helps.
And you’ve got a six year old, the perfect excuse. We often have the five year old granddaughter on Sundays and just watching her and her mates laugh themselves silly whilst chasing the thing about has been one of the highlights of my year.
And always get random blokes, usually with partners/kids in tow coming up and asking about it. They usually start off a bit sheepish then eventually ask for a go. Honestly, I should be on commission.

Just had the (still unpainted) Lunchbox out for a spin in the garden and around the close – so glad I ignored the naysayers, it’s just brilliant, much more fun than the TT02B buggy for some reason.
Even my wife likes it, she thinks it’s cute and it makes me happy, which makes her happy. Everyone’s a winner 😊.

Off to Wales tomorrow. First RC crawler up Snowdon? Just charging all three batteries as I type this……

EDIT – scratch that, bin dun – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVzQ-5_cWuw

I’ve ended up with 30kgs in both of mine and it makes such a difference when crawling.

What would you recommend Northwind? And thanks for all the advice so far…..

I do feel an idiot too tbh but I went for a group crawl around a pretty popular path near glasgow and the reactions from random passers by were so great. Yeah it’s ridiculous but it’s the sort of ridiculous that we could do with more of.

I can’t recommend servos as I keep exploding them! But the Power HD 20kg ones are ridiculous value. I’ve switched both of my crawlers over to Turnigy 959s, 30kg and all-metal (usualyl what happens with cheap strong servos is the gears are strong enough but they’re mounted into plastic in the case, and that’s what breaks). So far they’ve both been faultless but then they should be, they’re £30 each 🙁

Quite a few crawlers have gone up snowdon!

Cheers fella.

Just found some you tube footage of Snowdon – bah!
The slate quarries it is then 🙂

Yeah it’s ridiculous but it’s the sort of ridiculous that we could do with more of.

Absolutely. Completely harmless and so much fun.

My daughter(7) and I have just completed our joint-birthday project, the ever popular Lunchbox!
I ditched the shocks swapping to Absima adjustables for build

I didn’t have an LB myself when I was a lad, always had a hankering for one but had Hornet, grasshopper etc then quickly moved on to more capable race buggies with a Mardave Meteor before taking to the rostrum at the local race club with a Schumacher Cat XLS.

The Lunchbox was a blast earlier today, my daughter has picked it up fairly well and it seemed pretty stable contrary to its rep, I’ll put that down to the shock setup.

Anyway, here’s how she looks.

Apologies having issue posting images from IMGBB

https://ibb.co/SmZWXLW

https://ibb.co/sJtty6K

Love that lunchbox, I wanted one of those back when I was a kid 🙂 Nearly built a crawler with a pumpkin body on it

Does anyone know what the story is with proline tyres and beadlock compatibility? I’ve got a reasonably nice set of chinese metal beadlocks, I like ’em but they just won’t hold my lovely proline XLs on them. I really just want a simple 2.2 steelie look wheel but I don’t want to pay proline prices…

As promised in a previous post a few pics of my stupid fast Hpi 5b ss. Shame I can’t get rid of the hosting site advert.

One for the surfers…

diz, thats a monster! Love it! I used to have a redact 1/5th e-rampage, with an upgraded motor, that was fun for a while but it broke something EVERYTIME we went out with it. Oh, and I knocked my 7 yr old son over with it. Not a good moment that 😳

As with others no doubt, this whole thread is making my trigger finger itchy… 😆

How are people finding the Absima shocks out of the box?

I have fitted a set to the Rising Fighter. I used the springs from the standard friction shocks as they are lighter than the Absima ones. First time out, the top shock eye snapped on one of the rears. I am thinking they are over damped.
I bought some 350 cp shock oil which made no discernible difference. I guess that is what is provided as standard.
Next step is to drill the pistons to loosen up the damping ( I have a spare set, already).
Is this the wisest path?

The Terra Scorcher is nearly back to life . Got a new ECS , radio , receiver , batteries .

Tried it last weekend with 30 year old batteries and it went for a while but then stopped working . Recharged the battery , ECS makes a sound and led comes on but engine and direction not working .

Received my new Nimh batteries today , tried them in the car and the same , ECS is on but nothing works . I cant charge the batteries as still waiting for a charger .

Could it be that batteries havent got enough charge in them ? or can you blow a receiver ?

Quick PSA.

The Euro Car Parts 55% off sale ends in 5 hours.

They’ve got Grasshoppers, Lunchies, Pumpkins, Mad Bulls, couple of nice TT02 road/rally cars (Subaru and Porsche) and the TT01E racing truck.

Paints and tools too.

I really, really, really do not need a Rising Fighter for £30 odd quid, but I can guarantee I’ll have ordered something by midnight.

Jef Wachowchow

Member
How are people finding the Absima shocks out of the box?

If they’re anything like the Fastrax ones, oversprung and overdamped. I’m modding mine in a similar manner to yours.

Stop it guys….

I used to dabble a little bit and enjoy the building/tinkering as much as running them (same as the mountain bikes).n

I keep poking my head in here to have a look and I’m seriously thinking of buying some bits from eBay and having a tinker again!

Edit, found it.

Found it.

Arse, looks like the sale code doesn’t give the full discount on Tamiya stuff – a massive 1% off when applied.

Sorry folks. 😶

Finally took the plunge…

https://www.instagram.com/p/BxaPg35Bor9/

Wow. This is one hobby I don’t think I could afford for myself or the boy. And, blinkety flip, Traxxas stuff – HOW MUCH?!?!?! And I thought Scalextric was pricey.

I bought my kids a couple of 1/10 Traxxas E-Revos. My Lad is 5 and my daughter is 8 and with the Bluetooth modules and the link app i can control the throttle and brake settings to limit the speed.
It also means i can turn them up to 100% and play myself. They are amazingly fast on 6s batteries and run for ages. I strapped my garmin to one and got to 50 at around half throttle on grass. I painted the shells for them and have upgraded some of the internals after breakages. I cant see me ever going back to nitro even though i miss the sound and smell. I certainly don’t miss the faff.

IMG_1852 by Andrew Downing[/url], on Flickr

IMG_1532 by Andrew Downing[/url], on Flickr

IMG_1844 by Andrew Downing[/url], on Flickr

I have been building up a Drift car, so complicated to get it all running sweet.

Thought I’d bump this thread rather than start a new one…

No1 Child had a cheapo Maisto 3XL crawler when he was about five, which was perfect as it was slow enough for him to control, slow enough that he couldn’t stack it into walls and break it – although he put it to the test in terms of how high a drop-off it could handle! – was waterproof so could go through streams and puddles, and was generally surprisingly good at crawling for the price. It eventually gave in to the abuse through – more on that later (and a question for the RC nerds).

Fast-forward a couple of years and he’s now saved up enough to buy a WLToys 12428.

It’s currently winging its way from an AliExpress warehouse, so he’s bugging me twice a day to check the parcel tracking app… looks like a decent bit of kit, from the many review videos we’ve watched on YouTube. Can go slow enough for a bit of crawling, but fast enough to bash around and do a few jumps at the skatepark. Loads of parts available for repairs and upgrades.

I had a Turbo Hopper as a kid and have always had a hankering to get back into it.

I built up a racing quadcopter from scratch a few years back but due to kids arriving didn’t really have the time to practice flying so was/am pretty crap at it.

Since the boy is getting a new RC car I figured he’d need someone to race against, so had to buy myself one 😊 I’ve been idly browsing for a while and keep coming back to the 1/16 E-Revo, looks fast enough to be mental but not stupidly big like the 1/10 stuff (although the 1/10 E-Revo is not off the cards…)

Anyway, I thought I’d test the water and get something similar-spec to the boy’s new car: the HBX 12891 Dune Thunder.

If anyone’s RC-curious and wants something cheap to test the water, I highly recommend it. Quick-ish (for a bottom-end hobby grade truck), supposedly waterproof (I suspect it’s just more water resistant than most, but plenty of vids show it getting practically submerged in water and mud and carrying on), and tons of fun.

Anyway, back to the cheapo Maisto 3XL… No2 Child now wants in on the RC action, but he’s only three so it needs to something slow and fairly indestructible – the Maisto would be perfect. No1 Child stopped using it when it developed the judders – if you slowly ease up the throttle with no load (i.e. in the air) it goes ok, but if you apply medium to hard throttle from the get-go it just judders and doesn’t go anywhere. Reverse is fine. Twin motors, one on each axle, and a servo (not proportional, from memory) for the steering.

It seems it has a proprietary RX & ESC in a single control board. I’ve tested the motors by applying voltage directly, they’re fine, so it’s not a fault in the wires between the board and motors. I’m a bit lost with debugging a circuit board though, and spares are not available.
Is it simple enough to buy new RX/ESC/BEC (separates) and replace the existing control board? I guess I’d have to work out all the required voltages for the components. And I assume I’d need to open up the controller and replace the TX too. Probably fiddly (don’t mind this as I love tinkering) and possibly not economical compared to just buying a new crawler, but seems a shame to bin all that plastic.

Any advice?

Mmm, the trouble with all-in-ones is you often can’t get a replacement receiver for the transmitter- and the cheaper you go the harder it gets. And the transmitter’s probably all on one board too.

I might have a spare rx/tx set that belonged to my Mauler, I don’t think the guy wanted it when I sold it… But I can’t get into that this week, flat out getting ready for a holiday, if you’re still looking in a couple of weeks give me a bump

Thanks Northwind, I appreciate the offer but I’m in NZ so it might end up being a bit spendy to post them 🙂

I won’t give Up on it just yet, but I suspect will just end up getting a new truck…

My Tamiya Bigwig is playing up, new one 18 months old not vintage. When running it won’t move again once it’s stopped, forward or reverse, unless you give it the grntledt of nudges and it’s off again. Started very intermittently, now it’s a very time it stops. I don’t think it’s electronic, the lights come on on the speed controller with a signal, no issues with steering, tried new batteries in the control unit and fully charged motor battery. I’ve stripped the rear gearbox this evening, wasn’t particularly gunked up but I’ve cleaned it and relubed.

Could it be the motor, brushes? I’d did remove them and polish them a little, seemed to make a difference for 30 seconds then the problem returns. New brushes needed or us the motor screwed?

Not sure what motor it is, but it sounds like the springs aren’t pushing the brushes onto the comm enough?

I got my original Optima going again recently. Parts are still a bit pricey though. ☹️

I’ll join the I’ve broke it party 🙁

Smt10 making not very nice noises under power, sounds like it’s the drive train like it’s got gravel in it, wheels still turn but with minor much power. Reckon I’ve stripped something.

Need the time to strip it down to find out

Where do you get axial spares from?

Yep, was the brushes. New set in and it’s running fine.

Wow! WillH brought back a whole bunch of memories with the Turbo Hopper! I totally forgot I had one of those when I was a kid! Apparently as a kid I would go everywhere with my RC’s and drive them everywhere, this included driving them to the shops on the road! It was a while ago, the roads were nowhere near as busy.

This thread has got me wanting to convert my Nitro buggy and TC to electric. Nitro is such a ball ache, but the smoke and noise is amazing!

Diz, I want that Baja!!!!

I had a Tamiya XR311, followed by a Rough Rider back in the day!

I was looking at the 1:16 rc tanks on YouTube – quite fancied one, until I stumbled upon some rc monster truck videos, which looked much more fun than a tank!!!

So I sold a couple of watches, and picked up a Traxxas X Maxx. Mrs futon remarked that it looked much better value than the watches! Wow, this thing is huge 🤯 , it’s pretty incredible. Had few niggling problems, mainly with the spur and pinion gears disintegrating- hopefully now solved with some machined hardened steel replacements. The stock servo also crapped out 😝 ! Fortunately it’s a piece of cake to work on. Overall an amazing toy car 😁

Fast-forward a couple of years and he’s now saved up enough to buy a WLToys 12428.
It’s currently winging its way from an AliExpress warehouse, so he’s bugging me twice a day to check the parcel tracking app… looks like a decent bit of kit, from the many review videos we’ve watched on YouTube. Can go slow enough for a bit of crawling, but fast enough to bash around and do a few jumps at the skatepark. Loads of parts available for repairs and upgrades.

After a ton of research, I bought our eldest a 12428. It’s an excellent choice, lots of spares and upgrades available cheaply. Loads of info on the web (monster thread on RC Groups). The plastic gears didn’t last long once I switched to 2s lipo, so now running the metal gear set. Have also upgraded to some grippier tyres. Put a 35t motor in it to slow it down for the kids too. It has taken a ton of abuse and still comes back for more. would like to upgrade the servo, but that means a complete esc/receiver/radio change, so am holding off for now.

I have a Tekno sitting in an online shopping basket just waiting for me to complete the purchase…

I finished my A2 Quattro shell recently.