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I've got an HPI MT2 that's had pretty much every part on it forcibly upgraded. It's an awesome hobby as long as you've got (1) a good place to run (2) some disposable cash to throw at fixing the thing every few times you take it out and (3) some amount of mechanical know-how. If anyone's thinking of getting into RC, one big piece of advice: BUY A FAILSAFE UNIT. These things You can buy it now, or you can buy it after your vehicle goes out of radio range or otherwise glitches out and slams into a tree at full throttle. A few years ago, I was running my truck around a field where the battery pack somehow got unplugged from the electronics. With no power to move anything, the throttle and steering just stayed where they were, and it ran itself in several broad circles before finding its way into a very solidly planted metal fencepost. The entire front end got destroyed. Both front wheels flew off and the aluminum chassis bent like a taco. Good times. One of these days, I'm going to have to buy a new pullstarter and get running again.
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Apr 27, 2009 02:42
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Cheap little brushless trucks are so much fun. Here's mine skipping around on top of some snow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpYTIt_5biU
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Feb 26, 2014 15:41
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Many thanks to ColonelJohnMatrix for letting me bug him with various scale RC questions. I ended up buying the SCX-10 Deadbolt, and have been having a grand ol' time throwing it around the past few days. Just trying to get a sense for where I can go, I put on a set of 2.2 Masher 2000 wheels from an old nitro stadium truck, and ripped through a few creekbeds this weekend. Good times all around.  
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Jun 16, 2014 00:24
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Yeti looks awesome, though I can't quite think of any place around here where I'd be able to really get it up to speed and enjoy it. That said, I finally found a good use for the drainage creek out behind our house. SCX-10 Deadbolt, first time out with the replacement 55t motor. I'm loving the additional low/middle-range throttle response I get, really makes it easier to navigate slippery rocks and dirt without spinning. 
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Jun 30, 2014 01:58
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Wheeeee
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Aug 10, 2014 22:09
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Bumping with some pictures. Had a chance to head out on a local trail with some buddies a few weeks back.  This guy detonated just a few feet onto the trail, something about a driveshaft pin. Whoops.  A couple of the rigs  Obligatory (yes, I do believe that's an Escalade body on a Wheely King?)  Stumped  A fun little section of the trail. Certain doom off to the right, just out of frame  Nobody had more fun than the guy who brought a Wraith  Forgot the specifics on this rig, but was pretty fun to watch  again  Wraith attempting to power out  My XJ rustling some leaves  Jeep in the water, Jeep in the water  Someone's Honco made a terrible noise and found itself in 2WD mode. Needed a little help making it back up to the trail.
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Nov 13, 2014 18:00
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Gorson posted:Been out of the RC game for a long time and had no idea RC rock crawling was a thing. Those trucks are amazing! Are they built from kits or scratchbuilt? They're all based on some sort of kit (Axial SCX10, RC4WD Trail Finder, HPI Wheely King  ) but they don't stay stock long. New motor, different gearing, specialized tires, a beefier bumper to replace the one that got snagged last week... plus, painting bodies is a pretty fun and relatively inexpensive way of customizing the overall look.
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Nov 14, 2014 14:13
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Diplomat posted:I'm looking to casually get in to the hobby and I have a few questions. Kits are good for people who know ahead of time that they're going to upgrade everything right away. If I know that I want this specific motor, this specific ESC, this specific radio system and this specific servo, I can save some money by buying just the base chassis and adding that stuff in myself. People on forums go overboard when talking about must-have upgrades. The way they go on sometimes, you'd think you need to buy $800 in upgrades just to get the thing to move. Brushless motors are more efficient than their brushed counterparts, so you get more power. Downside being the price and that they're generally not able to handle mud and water as well as a big dumb brushed motor, which you can just spray out with motor cleaner every once in a while. If you're after a stadium truck, you've got a lot to choose from from a lot of vendors. I think Tower Hobbies even has their own in-house brand that looks fairly impressive on paper. edit: yeah - http://rcdriver.com/tower-hobbies-cutback/
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Nov 25, 2014 20:59
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Jekub posted:I picked up an HPI Wheely King for my youngest for Christmas, found it for a very good price on ebay. Does anyone have any experience with them? Specifically what is liable to break first in the hands of a five year old? Might as well stock up on the spare parts now so he doesn't have to wait around for it. I went out bashing/crawling with some guys a few weeks back, and someone's kid had a Wheely King. He must've driven it straight into every single tree in the place, and the only thing that broke was a headlight. I was honestly surprised at how well it held up.
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Dec 11, 2014 17:54
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drat. I've always wondered how quick those things are. Looks like it could be a bit of fun in the right conditions. We got a light dusting here last night, just enough to warrant taking out the Wraith and ripping around the backyard a bit. In other news, it's also very hard to balance an 80-200 lens in one hand and an RC controller in the other. 
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Dec 11, 2014 19:45
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Somewhat Heroic posted:Speaking of weird stuff that gets me excited: We finally got snow on Christmas. Here is my Blizzard doing what it does best Snow is so much fun. We got a dusting here today. Took the Wraith out with a few new upgrades and hooned it around the driveway for a bit. 
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Jan 3, 2015 22:31
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I got some new Mickey Thompson Baja Claws for my Wraith
an AOL chatroom fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Jan 24, 2015 |
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Jan 24, 2015 07:23
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It's a 1:10 scale blizzard here in NY!
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Jan 27, 2015 14:36
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slidebite posted:^^ Looks cool as hell. Does battery performance degrade appreciably in cold weather? Probably, though I haven't really gone on any long runs in the winter. It certainly wouldn't surprise me if accumulated snow sapped some overall capacity. slidebite posted:I think I might want to put some light buckets on the big yeti. As an R/C vehicle newbie, how to the attach electrically? Are there ports on the receiver or something you can typically hook up to? The buckets will be a perfect fit, though I can never quite get over how freaking expensive they are. For lights, the simple LED kit is nice, though if you want more lighting options, check out one of the dozens of RC lighting controllers available on Amazon. I think Neweer sells one. I've had it wired into the body for my scx10 for a while, had it underwater and everything, and it's been fine. Usually, you just connect it to the Battery port on the receiver. If that port is already used up, you can buy a splitter for a few bucks. slidebite posted:e: What kind of glue do you need for gluing tires to rims? Just a CA? If you want to glue tires, you can use CA. I'd suggest spending a few extra bucks on beadlock rims and going that way, though. Once you glue a tire to a rim, it's pretty much there for good, and hard to fix/adjust anything without ripping the rubber. slidebite posted:ee: My big Yeti has a fan on the ESC. It does not turn on when I connect the batteries. Is that a problem? Or are they thermostatic and only turn on when needed? Does the fan ever come on? I usually see a little spark when connecting batteries. I'd imagine it'd be pretty bigger with two batteries. As long as you're not doing it backwards, where you'll hear a big CRACKCRACKCRACK, you should be fine.
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Jan 27, 2015 19:19
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Riller posted:Hey guys, I've read about the past year's worth of posts in this thread, and it's really got me wanting to get back into the hobby. I bought a Redcat Shockwave a few years ago, and while it has been fun bashing around on the street and baseball fields, I'm looking to upgrade and switch from nitro to electric. I'm really digging the Axial trucks and the Trail Finder 2. I really like the scale/model building aspect, and I'm not looking for anything that has to be fast, so I'm thinking that the Wraith is out. Besides, I don't have a ton of money to spend on immediate upgrades for it. I'm looking for something that I can take with me for walks in the park near my house. It has paved, gravel and dirt trails along with a small creek and plenty of rocks and logs. I would like to be able to buy some accessories for it as I go and put on some nicer bumpers, a winch, etc. Scale RC is a great way of making walks on trails more interesting, and because your truck doesn't have to be able to go much faster than you can walk, that means you can load it up with a torquey motor, crazy low gearing, and not worry about smashing into a lamp post or curb (instead, you'll worry about falling off a cliff or into a fast-moving stream ) It's also fun and relaxing just trying to slowly make your way from point A to point B without flipping or needing an "airlift". I recently started hitting the local trails with some other RC guys, and that's been great times. - You can think of the Axial/Tamiya camps kind of like Hot Wheels and Matchbox. Tamiya kits are really detailed and look pretty much like scaled down versions of their fullscale counterparts, where Axials are a little more capable for getting out and over stuff. The chassis is also set up differently, though I really can't comment on what those differences might mean for actual driving. - I've gotten 3+ hours out of a 5000mAh 2 cell Onyx battery. It's kind of ridiculous how much power you can store in a LiPo battery, just make sure you store & charge safely. - They're pretty much the same with the exception of wheelbase and electronics. Newer ones have a waterproof AE-5 ESC, which is fine, just no fancy features. The only things that may be incompatible between platforms would be the gearing, which may be 48p or 32p, but that's like $15 in parts to swap out a pinion and spur if needed. You also get your choice of wheels/tires between models, so there's that. Other than that, buying one version won't stop you from using SCX10 parts marked for another. In fact, most parts don't even specify. - Kits are good if you know exactly what kind of electronics you want to use and would end up just throwing out the stock parts anyway. Part of the fun for me is putting stuff together, so I'd actually rather spend the extra money to know that I get a few afternoons of building to enjoy. Plus, with the Axials, you get the upgraded links, which make a noticeable difference. - That combo comes with a NiMH battery pack and charger, not LiPo. You really want to go with LiPo for long trail runs. There are combos for the newer ones that have LiPo power that might make more sense. - Pretty much anything is a good starting point. Motors and gears can be had for cheap, and can be swapped out easily to adjust how fast things are. I've got an SCX10 that's purposely slow as balls, but tons of fun out in the sticks... and then a brushless Wraith just flat-out rips. Both are fun for different reasons.
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Jan 31, 2015 16:51
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Riller posted:Thank you for answering my questions. This was a huge help! While I'd love the fun of putting a kit together, I think that I'm going to end up going with one of the Axial Power Wagon LiPo combos. The stock stuff will let me enjoy it immediately and then I can buy upgrades here and there. Can I ask what kind of motor and gear combination you're running in your SCX10? Nice, glad I could help! A while ago, I was bombarding ColonelJohnMatrix with questions about the various Axial kits, and I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable as him, but I'll toss in where I can. One of the nice things about these trucks is how easy it is to swap out motors and gears, so when I'm crawling in the woods, I use a regular Axial 55T motor with 8:56 gearing. It's SLOW. When I want some extra speed, I swap in a Holmes TorqueMaster Expert 27T with a 12T pinion on it, and then it'll spray dirt if I want it to. Takes all of about 12 minutes.
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Feb 3, 2015 16:59
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T1g4h posted:Out of curiosity, what's the average run time on most scale crawlers? I keep looking at Axial SCX10s as something to maybe delve into later this summer, just wondering what to expect re: battery life. There's a nice walking trail nearby that goes along and over a creek, figured that might be perfect to take one on. My scx10 with a 40t motor and a 4000mah 2s lipo will run for about 2.5 hours. These batteries pack an absurd amount of power.
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Mar 25, 2015 02:04
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Yup, you can build a brushless setup that moves nice and slow with lots of control as long as it's a sensored motor with a high turn rating and you've got the right gearing. The only real concern there that with a sensored motor and ESC, they're going to be a lot more succeptable to getting messed up in water and mud.
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Mar 26, 2015 18:22
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jonathan posted:With the turn rate being high, won't that limit top speed when I switch to high range ? I don't understand turns at all other than higher # = better for crawling usually Yup, you'll be trading in speed for torque. As one goes up, the other one always goes down (with the same motor, anyways). This post by Harley on rccrawler might help. He kind of spells it all out here: http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/axial-wraith/346212-choosing-motor-esc-your-wraith-gearing-added.html This was written for the Wraith platform, but people use Wraiths for just about anything, so you can apply it to whatever you're looking to do in RC.
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Mar 26, 2015 21:28
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Awesome Wraith. I have mine set up with the battery and receiver up front, and ESC in the back. Ridiculous fun in loose dirt and mud. No pictures yet (still working on the body paint) but my latest project is a Tamiya Lunch Box. It was a lot of fun putting everything together, and this thing is an absolute hoot when powered with modern electronics. Right now, it's got a Hobbywing Quicrun ESC and a 20T brushed motor. Squeeze the trigger from a standstill and it basically does a backflip. After this, I'm kind of obsessed with the idea of a rally kit, so I'm gonna need someone to talk me out of buying an XV-01 and all the goodies. Help. edit: nevermind, tower hobbies' super saver discount codes were too much to resist. an AOL chatroom fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Apr 2, 2015 |
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Apr 2, 2015 03:29
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I got the Lunch Box all painted and wired up. With a 20T motor and 3S battery, it runs like stink. With the battery keeping the COG low, it's not as tipsy as you might imagine, but turning requires a certain amount of forethought, as the front wheels don't like to touch the ground all that often. 
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Apr 4, 2015 23:28
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Hit the trails today with some local crawlers. We had a couple of SCX10's, a Wraith, two Ascenders, a Tamiya CC-01 something-or-other, and a Lunchbox for farting around in the parking lot. Good, muddy times.   
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Apr 12, 2015 22:43
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Siochain posted:Awesome, that looks like a ton of fun! My SCX10 should be here Weds/Thursday, and provided my basement has quit taking on water like the Titanic, I should have it ready to play with by the weekend Leaky basements suck. We put up with that for a few years before I got fed up and spent a bunch of money on a B-Dry system. Not a drop since. Wish I did it *before* losing a bunch of appliances to a busted sump pump. On the subject of water, for receivers, I use a balloon, since the wires are thin and it's easy to get it water-tight. For ESCs, I'll plasti-dip or liquid electrical tape the circuitry minus the heat sink.
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Apr 13, 2015 05:12
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Tindjin posted:Okay so I'm going to pick up a SCX10. Should I get a RTR or the Kit? Kits don't scare me, I build planes and used to race RC 1/10 scale. Just wondering if the stuff included in the RTR is worth it for starting out? I sold 90% of my surface stuff but still have a radio and charges, would just need to buy the rest of the electronics if I went kit. If you already have electronics that you're going to use, or have something in mind that you want to use, and will get enjoyment out of building your rig, then I'd almost certainly recommend the kit. They're really not all that difficult, and you're going to have it apart in some form or another anyways. You don't save a ton of money, but you do get the metal steering and lower links, plus you get an unpainted body that you can personalize. Question for owners of go-fast cars: I just finished building a Tamiya XV-01 Pro, as well as painting the body. The look of those tall body posts sticking up always looked silly to me, and I want to keep it looking somewhat realistic. Has anybody used those magnetic body posts? It seems like they might be a nice way of preserving the look, but I'm also comparing that with just snipping the posts and being done with it that way. Would the magnets even be able to keep the body on with the force of air at typical speeds?
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Apr 15, 2015 02:58
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Got my XV-01 most of the way there. Body is held on with some 1cm-sized neodymium magnets, power is a Hobbywing WP-SC8 ESC and some $25 4300KV motor. I painted the body myself, probably a little too heavy on the splatter, but once you get started, it's hard to stop. There aren't many people running go-fast cars around here, but I may try to head over to a track day over in the next county some time and see when people get together for casual racing. Either way, this thing is loads of fun in a big flat parking lot.  
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Apr 18, 2015 14:08
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powderific posted:Looks great. I love my XV-01. It's perfect for the not so perfect pavement on my driveway and in the alley behind my house. Thanks! Finally got a chance to really get it up to speed and toss it around a dirt parking lot today. Well, I didn't see a large rock, and it must've whacked one of the front A-arms at just the right angle, because it cracked part of the suspension system clear off. Now I'm learning one of the big downsides of running with a Tamiya platform; most parts have to be ordered from overseas. Taking the opportunity to order a couple of beefed-up aluminum parts, so hopefully I'll be in better shape next time. T1g4h posted:That splatter looks seriously awesome. Nicely done! Appreciate it. It was a lot of fun to do. Basically, I started off masking off the front and back with newspaper and masking tape, just so I'd have pure black across the middle at a slight angle. Once that dried, I took off the tape, sprayed black paint on my fingertips (with latex gloves on) and flicked it at the area where the black transitioned to unpainted, so it'd be a splatter transition rather than a hard line. I also took a few flicks to the front and back to give it some extra detail. Then with the blue, I covered the front and dusted the back transition area quickly, waited until that dried, then attacked the entire inside with white. Because I didn't want the inside to be bright white, I hit everything once more with a light coating of black just to dull it down a bit. The spoiler is a 3-piece dealie, and I did that separately, and glued it into place.
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Apr 20, 2015 02:29
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powderific posted:Tqrcracing stocks some parts for the XV and they ship pretty fast: http://www.tqrcracing.com/shop/parts.asp?parts_p_id=7215 Bookmarked, thanks
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Apr 20, 2015 15:36
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Got the parts I needed to fix the linkage on my XV-01, so I took it over to the softball field to celebrate.   Serious fun, I'd love to get a couple people together and set up cones or something. Question, though, how tight should I be setting the belt on this thing? I had it turn inside-out once, and then jump clear off the rear pulley and get all jammed up front after like 45 minutes of power-sliding around. Any rule of thumb I should be following here?
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May 10, 2015 01:35
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Whiskey posted:Going for walks is awesome with these things. This February my house had one Stampede 2WD. Right now we still have the 2WD, a brushless Stampede 4WD, a Wraith, 3 SCX10s, and a 1/10 Yeti. My kids and I go for long walks in the woods and my son, who drives the brushless 4WD, is always encouraging me to "take the hard way" on the trails where multiple routes present themselves. Trailing has drawn my family together during the recent passing of my wife to cancer. It's become an excellent hobby for us. Real sorry to hear about your wife, that's terrible. Being able to bring people together with something fun and simple has got to help. We have a number of parks around here with multi-purpose trails, so we can get into pretty much anything.  Last week, there were three of us, and a family came through, and their son was fascinated with my friend's Honcho, so he handed him the controller and said have fun. Before heading off, his parents asked where to buy something like that because it seems like a good way to get him up off the couch. Siochain posted:I have no answers for you, but just want to comment (I think again) how loving stellar your car looks Thanks a lot! I enjoy painting the clear polycarbonate bodies. I'm actually working on a new body for my scx10, though it's going to be a little more simple than the Tamiya.
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May 10, 2015 14:11
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ColonelJohnMatrix posted:Sorry to hear about your wife, Whiskey. As others have said at least you can take a small positive away from a terrible situation. Trailing is an interesting thing where I've seen it used as a family bonding activity quite often. It's that nice mix of being laid back and getting outdoors, with spikes of excitement should you want to tackle something nutty. Looks awesome. Is the window trim painted on or stickers? There's a lot to be said for the realistic front grille as well. btw: where can I get some of those BigSquid stickers?
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May 11, 2015 14:43
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. It's funny how you can go trailing for months and outside of some mud and minor scuffs the vehicle will still look in great shape. Go hardcore crawling for 15 minutes and your rig will look like it was run against a cheese grater.
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ColonelJohnMatrix posted:Thanks. Kudos to Vaterra on doing the lexan body using a plastic grill. It really makes it look much better than a standard decal. And those window trims are included stickers. Awesome. BTW, do you know what size tires/wheels you have there? A buddy of mine has an Ascender, and the body looked like it was oversized compared to the chassis, and it sounded like Tupperware when it was scraping against rocks. Yours looks a little more properly proportioned.
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May 11, 2015 17:26
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Loving that paint job. I've got a few pics from this weekend's hike through a section of the Appalachian Trail in Poughquag, NY leading out to Nuclear Lake. There were about 15 of us, and we ended up covering about ten miles. Not very technical, but still good to do as a group. I think next time we're going to try for something with a few more rocks and obstacles.           A little bit of everything out there, mostly Axial. The greenish G6 Jeep was set up with 4-wheel steering, and driven with a two-stick controller. Really messes with your head, but the guy operating it had it absolutely down by the way we made it out to the lake, and could get that sucker over just about anything. I went through two 5000mAh 2S lipos and was probably about halfway through a 3S 4000mAh by the time we made it back. Really good times. Final tally was couple of busted servos, an aluminum servo horn snapped in half (yeah, really), a broken upper link on a Wraith, a stripped transmission gear, and two disintegrated driveshafts.
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Jun 16, 2015 17:33
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Had a bad night that could have easily been a *lot* worse. I was sliding a Tamiya TT-01D around a local parking lot with some other R/C nerds when it got caught up on something. Walking over to check on it, I noticed some smoke, so I yanked off the shell and disconnected the battery, only to notice a big rusty nail poking through the 3S Lipo from the underside. gently caress. I pulled the pin that holds the battery in, yanked the battery, and chucked it out into the parking lot where it wouldn't be near anything else. We got a nice smoke and fire show for the next few minutes. Once it settled down, I sprayed some water at it and moved it into a fireproof metal box. Chassis got a little melted, but with a new battery, it was good as new. Lipos, man... drat.  
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Jul 21, 2015 05:02
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You ain't kidding. I'm just glad it was one of those easy-to-get-to batteries and not something that requires screws, or I'd be showing pictures of something else. On the spot where the battery was burning up, you could see where solder liquified and dripped onto the asphalt, like the T-1000. Anyway, some better pictures of the get-together. Unfortunately, it was *really* hot today, and people didn't really start showing up until later, when it was too dark to get non-blurry shots. My new-to-me TT-01D with a replacement battery, on nail patrol   Someone's SC10 with a retro body shell  Zippy little RC18 running around naked  FREE CANDY  Something with a 6S in it that was running around with its gear mesh set WAY too tight. Sounded like a drill with a megaphone  Squat  Savage Flux? Maybe?  My XV-01  Some racin'  Some wheelies  aaaaand some of this...  A familiar sight 
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Jul 21, 2015 13:05
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Hope you don't mind a few more random parking lot pictures.            
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Aug 4, 2015 18:43
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krushgroove posted:2 back to back trips to large scale European championships...  It all looks awesome, but those touring cars are incredible. I don't even want to think about what's required to put something like that (the event AND the vehicles) together.
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Aug 5, 2015 14:14
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jonathan posted:I much prefer our local Grande Prairie RC club facebook banner That's fantastic
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Aug 14, 2015 23:53
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I won't do the usual dump of parking lot bashing pictures (unless folks want it?) but I wanted to share this shot from Monday. You've got to love the sheer ridiculousness of it
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Aug 26, 2015 21:47
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If you insist! My TT01D  An RC18T with a 3S in it, somehow     
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Aug 27, 2015 14:37
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A few rc-related pics from the past few weeks.  A flashy-looking TA-05 v2 with a Hobbywing brushless setup. Very quick, un-flippable, and very easy to get sideways.  My new-to-me Savage Flux HP. Absolutely monstrous.  An old Kyosho Go-Kart something-or-other that was zipping around between the cones at our last get-together.  My Slash-turned-buggy with Mamba Monster 2 powerplant. Still not sure what I want to do with this one.
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Oct 1, 2015 21:26
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