The RC Car hobby thread

[RaptorSA]

Slowly buy surely getting there... need more daytime light for the build though so I came into work earlier so I can get an hour or two extra daylight this afternoon.

Most of the aluminium upgrades are going into the front bulkhead so it'll be interesting to see what a difference it makes to handling and whether keeping the nose a bit heavier is a good or a bad thing.
I also want to try the "Hot water clothing dye" method on some of the parts to see how it comes out. I have no idea if dying a black parts red is going to work.

 

[RaptorSA]

Took the day off to finish project Black Widow yesterday.
Just need to find a way to mount the wheelie bar after installing a Traxxas motor heatsink then I'm ready for the weekend.

 

[RaptorSA]

3.5 Months later and though I'd log my latest upgrades here....
So managed to get my hands on a sealed aluminium differential, which allows me to play around with different viscosity diff fluids:





...I've also upgraded to a Hot Racing Aluminium, Carbon & Plastic composite gearbox after having lot of issues with the motor shifting during jumps then chewing up the nylon spur gears, it's then when I decided "to hell with this" and rage-bought an upgrade from the stock 48 pitch gearing to this MONSTER hardened steel 32 Pitch Spur & pinion gear, the gear cover won't fit anymore but with the 32 Pitch gears you don't really need it to fit... it'll just chew up what goes in there.

The metal whine from that new spur when you're sending it is something to behold, and man, the bit of aluminium plating and those little heat sinks to draw the heat from the motor is working great... Strangely enough the added weight (I also added an aluminium rear shock tower) doesn't seem to affect the run-time or performance, I got a full 45 Minute run on my 2S 6800mAh LiPo yesterday afternoon, oh, and without even stopping for a cooling down session, tried to bash her as hard as I could to see if anything gives out, but only managed to snap the rod-end on a front shock.

 

[RaptorSA]

Oh, and with all that new strength it was also time to put some lekker tekkies onto this thing.
The amount of grip those stickies have and the dust, rocks and insanity they kick up it something to behold, and that's still on 2S batteries.
I really don't think I have the balls to open her up full throttle with my 3 Cell LiPo yet), I'll start maybe doing that if one day I change out the stock Traxxas CVD drive shafts for steel ones.

 

[Inevitability]

Man your enthusiasm is infectious, looks really awesome.
Need to get me a hobby. One that at least includes the 4 year old - this could work.

I bought a couple of cheap chinese cars from AliExpress (WLToys A999), and they are awesome for the kids.
Paid something like $50 for 2 cars (back in Feb when the $ was under R12)
... only needed AA's for the Transmitter and they were up and running.
Kids (and me, and even my dad and father-in-law) had a blast for a few weeks until the AA's died ... now I just need to get more AA's.
Only down side was the long wait for SAPO to get the thing from JIMS to my local post office.

 

[Lupus]

I've still been lazy to actually charge my batteries and get out there

 

[Tabac]

Was assembled, tested, now on display

 

[Tabac]

Old classic with twin motors.

 

[Tabac]

Traxxas E-max. These are monsters. Took one of them appart to the last pin. Rebuild, test - Also on display

 

[RaptorSA]

Nice setup HunterNW, you seem to be someone who's been in this for quite a while

 

[RaptorSA]

One of the biggest pains in the butt so far is when you end up stripping a screw head.
Just received a little screw extraction kit I found online, hope this thing works.

 

[Tabac]

Nice setup HunterNW, you seem to be someone who's been in this for quite a while

Used to be .... Sit with plenty of spares and upgrades, lights that needs to be installed. My muse left me
Now they gather dust.

 

[aagenbag2]

Hi all,

I'm new to the hobby and about to buy my first RC car later today - still struggling to make a final decision on model though.
I am looking at the HSP 1:10, 2WD, brushless, LiPo model for R2,500 or alternatively the similarly specced 4WD model for R3,500 (also HSP).

Any thoughts on which one would be best? My preference is for the 2WD model because it is lighter and simpler which should make it more damage resistant. I also like the more "realistic" handling of a 2WD model. My one concern is that it might be too difficult to control with a powerful brushless motor though.

The extra cost of the 4WD model is not a big deal, but that extra weight (it feels HEAVY!) must cause more damage on a poor landing or the inevitable crashes.

I have a few hours to decide, so any advice would be very welcome!

 

[Tabac]

Depends on where you going to drive it ? Track, grass, mud, gravel ?

 

[aagenbag2]

Depends on where you going to drive it ? Track, grass, mud, gravel ?

It is definitely NOT for racing, just general playing around. There is a BMX track nearby with a couple of ramps that I will try; other than that, mostly driving in the park (uneven grass) and the odd open gravel/tar surface. I don't think either of the models are waterproof, so I will be avoiding wet mud and wet grass anyway.

 

[Tabac]

It is definitely NOT for racing, just general playing around. There is a BMX track nearby with a couple of ramps that I will try; other than that, mostly driving in the park (uneven grass) and the odd open gravel/tar surface. I don't think either of the models are waterproof, so I will be avoiding wet mud and wet grass anyway.

Then 2wd is the one. Cheaper to maintain.

 

[RaptorSA]

It is definitely NOT for racing, just general playing around. There is a BMX track nearby with a couple of ramps that I will try; other than that, mostly driving in the park (uneven grass) and the odd open gravel/tar surface. I don't think either of the models are waterproof, so I will be avoiding wet mud and wet grass anyway.

Hey man, they are definitely waterproof (I know for a fact my 2WD HSP is) and uses a Hobbywing 3500Kv system.
You just need to take the fan off the ESC if you want to submerge it completely.

As to what you should choose, most would agree the 4WD handles much easier but I went with the 2WD as my first car for exactly the reasons you mentioned and I didn't have a single regret.
In fact, I think it's better to learn to handle a 2WD then maybe one day upgrading to a 4WD if you want to. I've been in this for almost a year and have no intention of going for 4WD, I just don't feel I need it and frankly, once you start getting a hang of it and pulling off drifts as you get better at it I'd imagine the 2WD being much more rewarding.

P.S. You can also fit the Buggy wheels from the 2WD HSP Mongoose on the monster truck if you want something that's fun for playing on sandy surfaces.

 

[RaptorSA]

Oh, and as for keeping control of the thing. Yes, those brushless systems are insanely powerful but if you stick to 2S batteries (7.4V) you'll be fine... it's when you start plugging in 3S (11.1V) batteries that things get a bit crazy.
As for replacements parts, from experience I'd suggest that when you buy it, try to get some replacement steering links for the front (the plastic ones tend to snap when you're still training and running into stuff) and maybe grab an extra pinion and nylon spur gear, they're cheap and you'll be happy you have them after the first month or so (mine lasted about a month before I had to replace them)

 

[aagenbag2]

Thanks HunterNW & RaptorSA, its great that your advice matches what my gut has been telling me!

I might pick up some spare parts, but I am lucky that there is a fantastic hobby shop with a full range of HSP spares around the corner from my office. But besides spare parts for breakdowns, are there any easy "day 1" upgrades I should consider? Or is it better to upgrade parts as they break?

Looking forward to testing it out over the weekend!

 

[RaptorSA]

Thanks HunterNW & RaptorSA, its great that your advice matches what my gut has been telling me!

I might pick up some spare parts, but I am lucky that there is a fantastic hobby shop with a full range of HSP spares around the corner from my office. But besides spare parts for breakdowns, are there any easy "day 1" upgrades I should consider? Or is it better to upgrade parts as they break?

Looking forward to testing it out over the weekend!

So that part I'm not sure about. I wanted to upgrade my 2WD (with some aluminium parts here and there) when I got it, but soon realized that it's really only the 4WD "Brontosaurus" that has a lot of upgrade options (from China) out there.
So that's definitely one upside of the 4WD... however, one thing to remember is that the plastic parts on the HSP cars is of a very soft compound, even the chassis flexes like crazy, this is actually good thing because the car tends to bend and not break in a crash. There is however one upgrade that's a must on the HSP 2WD and that's to upgrade the idle gear to a metal one since the stock one is plastic and doesn't last more than a few weeks of hard bashing (your hobby shop should know that if they trade in HSP parts, I know the rcedge shop in randburg do carry the metal idle gears).

What I did was to enjoy the crap out of the HSP then I bought a completely different car (2nd hand) when I started feeling I wanted more (more rigidity, more adjustable etc.).
The only expensive part on my HSP that gave out after a few months was the steering servo but I had a replacement lying around.

P.S. Oh, and you might also want to grab a pair of replacement steel dogbones... and if you're worried about run time, those 6800mAh Xpower 2S batteries that everyone sells (for about R760) will give you an hour's run time on that car, easily.