The "oops, I broke it" thread

[Mad Ax 9306]

So this was going to be a rant, but instead I decided I would start a new thread topic for everyone to relay their "dangit" moments.

I have few rules when it comes to RC, but one is: if I don't want to break it, I don't drive it. Sure, it's frustrating when a bash is cut short due to a technical failure, annoying when it's the same part over and over again, embarrassing when it's something I should have known about - loose wheel nuts, for example. (I'll never forget the day when I took off my stock Tamiya slicks and fitted Sorex tyres. I figured since I never glued Tamiya tyres, I wouldn't glue these either. Lined up on the grid, my number was called, gave it full throttle, all four tyres launched themselves into the air and my TA05 got stuck on the grid... )

But I digress. Generally, if something breaks, hey ho, it can be repaired. If not, it can be broken up for parts and made into something else. Or sold on to someone who will repair it. I don't race or bash my cars if I know I'll be upset when (not if) they break. That's why I have so many shelfers and so few runners.

What prompted this story happened today, this lunchtime - but it began a few weeks back when I came to book myself into the Iconic RC Revival at the end of July. Basically I was too lazy to get booked in early and I missed my chance to enter the 4wd buggy race with my HotShot, so I booked myself into the wheelie and rally support events instead. That meant I had to repair my TB01 and get it set up properly.

I'd consigned it to the shelf because the diff outdrives were chewed up so bad it wouldn't run any more. In fact I hadn't even noticed that one had come out completely - the chassis was handling so bad in its last race that the loss of drive from one end wasn't apparent. It was never going to run again without new outdrives.

Ebay beckoned, new hardened outdrives sourced and purchased, and a week later they arrived. I've been really busy at home, so they sat on my shelf for a week, but last night I took advantage of a spare 30 minutes and fitted them. Wow, the old ones were in bad shape! But the new ones went straight in, along with a new ESC and receiver.

I took the car with me to work today so I could give it a test-run, and at lunchtime I popped out to a local gravel car park. I almost abandoned the plan when I saw an elderly couple relaxing in the shade of a tree, as I didn't want to disturb their peaceful reverie, but I figured I could stay over the other end of the car park and not make too much noise. I pulled out the TB01, plugged in a battery, set up the radio. Endpoints, trim, everything, all spot on, followed by a few small circles to make sure everything was as it seemed. Anticipation building all the time.

And then I gave it full beans. I haven't run this car properly in a long while, but the Super Stock TZ always gave it buckets of punch. Plenty of weight made it a nice handler too, especially on the bumps. Mass is the best damper of all

But something wasn't right. It seemed to have no power at all. The motor was spinning and I could hear the gears whirring, but it wasn't going anywhere fast. How disappointing, something must be wrong.

I pulled it up at my feet and gave it throttle again - only the front wheels turned.

Hey? Gearbox failure? Split dogbone? Stripped spline?

Nope. One missing dogbone and a missing diff outdrive

That obviously took just one lump of full throttle from a rolling start to pop out that dogbone and send that completely new outdrive spinning off into the gravel.

That must be my shortest ever bash - discounting the minute I spent doing circles and setting up the trims, it lasted all of about 5 seconds.

Off to ebay now to buy another set of hardened outdrives and some TB01 universals

Let's keep this thread open for more "oh darn, I appear to have broken my car" moments...

[taliesin 260]

One day I was outside happily driving my first ever proper hobby grade RC - a Losi XXX Stadium Truck RTR set up with a Novak Brushless system - when there was a tremendous explosion. Apparently the Nimh battery pack dead shorted somehow??

Anyway, yeah ... it broke.

[Sandster 285]

After refurbishing my clodbuster (which included stripping the old paint from the body, sanding, repainting and new decals) I took it over to a very large grass area for a test run. My 7 year old daughter was desperate for a shot of it and seeing how I was in a very large grassed area with absolutely nothing to crash into apart from one lone "no ball games" sign pole I thought why not? Whats the worst that could happen?

Of course the worst thing that could of happened was she could drive it full speed ahead into the sign pole and put the first blemishes into my pristine paint work. And you know what? Thats exactly what she did. Doh! Back to the lunchbox for her.

[Dojo Dave 889]

One day I was outside happily driving my first ever proper hobby grade RC - a Losi XXX Stadium Truck RTR set up with a Novak Brushless system - when there was a tremendous explosion. Apparently the Nimh battery pack dead shorted somehow??

Anyway, yeah ... it broke.

Holy moley!

[Dojo Dave 889]

While being very careful masking my Tundra shell I decided to set it neatly between my knees not the smartest of ideas

Whole out running my then pristine Dodge Challenger body on my brushless tt01, I looked at my youngest son who was doing something naughty and drove full speed into a wheelie bin. It turned the front end inside out and the Shell into a full time runner/ basher...

[ukfox 347]

Had just cleaned and checked my emaxx.

when a friend came to see me, he had never seen anything as big as the emaxx.

so i fitted a couple of batteries and took it out the front.

Then i said do you want a go

At full throttle, he went straight in to a concrete bollard

snapped the gearbox in half lengthways

He was very apologetic, luckily i had a spare gearbox plastics, so said never mind, **** happens

[Klausen 1197]

Well being into RC's for a long time, I could continue this thread all day long but here are a few stupid things.

I drove 1/8 brushless monstertrucks for a few years, and I cannot count how many times I forgot to tie the pinion properly. The worst time was when I drove ½ an hour to a bashing spot, ofcourse without any tools. Plugged the lipos, and the car goes wroom, but doesn't move. I forgot to install the pinion...

I have been building custom E-maxx's for a decade, and can't count how many times I installed the diffs the wrong way = front and rear wheels driving the opposite direction... and it is really a pity to work on that area on E-maxx's.

The last few years I have only been into building Tamiyas, and a few Kyoshos, and haven't driven that much, but recently took out my Novafox for a ride, when my 6 and 8 year old boys where driving my Lunch Box and Leonis. I told them up and down about importance not driving into stuff, so they wouldn't brake the cars. Then I started driving the Novafox, and 10 sec's later it went sideways into a curb, breakin the gearboxcase wide open!

I was also really keen on getting a Optima Mid a few years ago, and found a Turbo Optima Mid for a decent price on US Ebay. I got a friend to buy for me and send it over. Bought Pargu wheels for it, together with a new repro body and tires from eBay When I finally had it all arriving from 3 different corners of the world to Denmark, where I live, I rapidly installed the wheels, prepped the body for painting, and then paintet it, just so I could have this awesome nice truck sat on the shelf. But in my hurry, I forgot to mask of the windows on the body. I could have killed myself right there (it wasn't that fun at the time) .

[koccena 9]

Well I bought a new Hobbywing Justock ESC the other day and before even putting it on the track I plugged in the battery backwards.

The end.

[Mad Ax 9306]

Hmm, a few electrickery daftnesses on this thread already. Reminds me of one more:

I decided to swap all my Tamiya connectors out for Deans connectors. I bought a whole bunch o'deans and a whole bunch o'solder and even some fresh new unused NiMH batteries, and I sat down for an afternoon of cutting, stripping, soldering and heat-shrinking.

I picked up one of my brand new battery packs in one hand and my side cutters in the other, put the jaws square across both cables (of course, I wanted both cables the same length - why not cut them together?) and SNIP!

fizz fizz fizz fizz burn burn burn AAARGH! The heatshrink wrap around the pack begins to peel away from the cells.

I swore to myself loudly as I picked up my marker pen and wrote "possible bad cell" on the pack, then set it to one side to do later.

Then I picked up my second brand new pack. And my side cutters. You'll like this bit. I put the cutters square across the battery leads and did exactly the same thing again

[Wez-li 1790]

One day I was outside happily driving my first ever proper hobby grade RC - a Losi XXX Stadium Truck RTR set up with a Novak Brushless system - when there was a tremendous explosion. Apparently the Nimh battery pack dead shorted somehow??

Anyway, yeah ... it broke.

That's brilliant to be fair! (Probably not at the time though)

[Wez-li 1790]

Avante 2001 + Balding test tyres + Dynatech 01R + "quick spin in the garden" =

[IBIFTKH 1369]

Sandster's Clod story reminded me of the first time I let one of my daughters use my Bullhead. 'Don't worry dad, I'll be careful' were the fateful words. 30 seconds later it was sinking upside down in a pond! Bless her little heart, she burst into tears because she thought she'd broken it and it would have to go in the bin!

And Mad Ax, this may make you feel better. I have an Axial Exo, which is great but battery access fiddly to say the least. Short ESC wires don't help. So I made up an extension lead to plug in between battery and ESC. I connected everything, and then the thought processes went something like this -

Why isn't it working?

All connected, all switched on? Yes

What's that hissing noise?

Double check all connections. Ok.

What is that hissing noise?

Connections double check - Ow! That battery connector is hot!

What's that cracking-plastic noise?

At this point my attention is drawn to the hard case Lipo connected to the car. The hissing noise was coming from the Lipo. The cracking-plastic noise was coming from the Lipo. Because the hard case was splitting apart because of the swelling cells inside!

So I yank the (very hot!) connectors apart to disconnect the battery from the car. Fortunately I'm working in the kitchen and there is a cold baking tray to hand, so I pop the battery onto the tray to carry it outside. Safe place to put it? Stone cold barbecue, in it goes, slam the lid, head back inside to look up how to dispose of Lithium batteries!

And the reason for all this? I'd unintentionally built a polarity-reversing battery extension lead!!!

[Silver-Can 402]

Yep - i've had second degree burns and the magic smoke from connecting up a lipo to the speed controller incorrectly. Bye-bye speed controller, bye-bye lipo...

Also had a mishap with my Hotshot. Driving around on a relatively flat and uncluttered demolition site, missed the metal peg sticking 2 inches out of the ground. Bye-bye front gearbox.

Oh well - lesson learned.

[Effigy3 1267]

Best. Thread. Evah!

[NWarty 1325]

Good Lord Ty, that battery explosion...

Luckily, I've only had pack ever detonate on me. You never know how fast you can move until running towards a hissing grenade and tossing it

[Yonez 180]

Had just cleaned and checked my emaxx.

when a friend came to see me, he had never seen anything as big as the emaxx.

so i fitted a couple of batteries and took it out the front.

Then i said do you want a go

At full throttle, he went straight in to a concrete bollard

snapped the gearbox in half lengthways

He was very apologetic, luckily i had a spare gearbox plastics, so said never mind, **** happens

Sorry?

Monster Beetle Emaxx?

Pictures!

[markbt73 5311]

One of my worst ones happened very early on in my RC career. After a summer of thrashing my original Grasshopper in completely box-stock form, it was in sad shape. So for Christmas, my dad bought me a whole box of hop-ups: ball bearings, brand-new tires and Parma chrome wheels, a CRP front suspension kit (with the aluminum shock towers), rear shocks, a new battery pack, and a Twister stock-class racing motor. I was thrilled, obviously, and spent most of the day wrenching.

Late in the afternoon, just before sunset, I charged up the new battery and headed out for its maiden run with the new goods. It was hovering around 0 degrees F, and there was a little snow and ice on the driveway. First push of the stick, and the little 'Hopper shot down the driveway at a speed I hadn't thought possible, and wasn't expecting... straight into a frozen-solid flower pot at the edge of the driveway.

Damage: cracked chassis, bent shock tower, bent shock shaft, shattered front wheel, broken bumper, and a hole in the plastic flower pot. Merry Christmas!

[Grastens 2795]

A glorious-yet-painful topic!

I wrapped all the connections on my Lancia Rally right before its first run in balloons and zip ties. I take it out, turn it on, and nothing happens... It turned out that I plugged in the ESC lead to the receiver the wrong way! Another long walk back, a minute with some side cutters, and a long walk out again saw it work. Not as bad as the multiple times I broke the original front bumper, but frustrating all the same.

I used to let kids try out my RC cars until a 6-year-old kid crashed my Buggy Champ right into a brick wall!

My Avante ran away on me and crashed at least twice due to the lack of an insulating motor plate between the motor and the metal gearbox panel.

Otherwise, I have been fortunate - most of my mistakes are of the rookie type, from when I was new to the hobby. I do remember crashing my GT-One into a fence on its first run and then into a rock much later, but that had as much to do with speed and vision as it would with any boneheaded mistake. I was so young then

[NWarty 1325]

It wasn't a Tamiya, I have no pictures, so y'all are just going to have to believe my big fish story.

January 2005 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A couple of months earlier from the date of this event I bought a 1/18 Losi Mini-T from a soldier of mine. Wow! I had no idea the amount of hop-ups this thing had. So I replace every single plastic bit with carbon fiber 3Racing stuff, Aluminum suspension arms, upgraded everthing, except the chassis. As a Christmas gift, my Dad sends me a Castle Creations Mamba brushless motor and lipos. So here is this 10" long Baja Beetle Mini-T, bristling with carbon fiber, aluminum and metal, powered by a 2-cell lipo and brushless motor. Hey, what could possibly go wrong?

Considering there's no grass or anything green in Saudi, I get to run my Mini-T on the road; a complete concrete labyrinth of roads where I lived. I punch the throttle on my Airtronics MX-3 radio, and send this booger on its way; 45+ mph down the street like a flippin' demon-possessed Volkswagen. "Sir, she's gone to Plaid". So now I get brave and start jumping driveway lips and she takes them like a champ. I come down the street, Mach I with its hair on fire and aim for the curb /driveway lip. Bad idea....I was brave, overly confident and ultimately stupid. The Mini-T launches at a weird angle once it hits the upward slope, sails across the sidewalk at an altitude of 4 or so feet and moving at a ridiculous speed. It lands on its side and somersaults across the gravel and dirt like some Romanian gymnast on crack cocaine. About this time, everything slows down, kind of like watching your life flash before your eyes "Will it survive?" I think in that nanosecond. Or "Is my wife going off the deep end once she finds out the cost of repair parts?"

It was a glorious explosion if it hadn't been my wallet or car. Beetle body went flying, body mounts ripped off, chassis snapped in half, front shock towers snapping in two, steering rods at 90 degrees. I stood there for several moments trying to stomach what just occurred. Luckily I was alone when it happened; I'm sure that nobody saw my "Walk of Shame" as I gathered up the parts and trudged back to my place.

She was repaired back to her former glory and sold shortly after I got home. Dang that was a fun little missle

[InsaneJim69 1584]

I have loads but no pics BUT ...... someone must have had a bad day at the park right across the road from me as there appears to be remains of a possible HPI RS3/4 or similar (purple chassis nitro car) looks to be a burnt out wreckage, engine intact and chassis (ish) Will have to retrieve it tomorrow and take some pics ....... ooh possible project??

James

[ukfox 347]

Yonez

here is a pic of the emaxx with beetle body.

Its the body i had fitted to my TXT2

[taliesin 260]

Good Lord Ty, that battery explosion...

Luckily, I've only had pack ever detonate on me. You never know how fast you can move until running towards a hissing grenade and tossing it

Yeah, I was pretty upset at the time because I had NO clue why it happened or even that it could happen. Not to mention it was a total loss and pretty expensive for me at the time. Mostly though, I was just really, really happy it detonated away from me and not right in my face when removing the battery or picking it up to switch it off!!!

Of course, I had to buy another one to replace it ... and then I was laying at the bottom of a really slippery slope with no money in my wallet and a bunch of toy cars in my basement. How'd that happen??

[GregM 1109]

The Holiday Buggy 2010 was my 2nd R/C car after having started the hobby with the re-release Hornet in 2011.

It was a gift for my better half. Since she helped me building the Hornet, I decided that I'll build the Holiday Buggy and decorate the bodyshell for her. I also upgraded the motor from the supplied 380 to a 540 silvercan.

On the first day when we took both cars out, I suggested to to a quick drag race. So we put the cars next to each other, counted to three and off we went, throttle nailed down. After 30 meters or so, I turned the Hornet 180 degrees to let it return to me, and guess what - I crashed right in to the front of her Holiday Buggy. Dumb me.

The Hornet was fine afterwards, but the Holiday Buggy's bodyshell hadn't been that lucky. There were a several large cracks, seperating bonnet from both front fenders and one of the spot light mounts broke. Even if it is not as visible on the photo, I can assure you that the shell was toast.

If there was a larger bumper, I think the shell would have been protected against the impact much better.

[Theibault 1535]

I've told this story before. I received my very first rc, a Hornet for my 12th birthday in August of 85. I spent 4 days carefully building and then painting it to box art perfection. Finally, it's time for the first drive. Plug in the battery, turn on the car, turn on the transmitter (you know where this is going lol) and watch the car shoot forward. I had quick reflexes and stopped the car with my foot, in the process burning up the resistor. Dad drives me to the lhs only to be informed that they are out and won't receive any for two weeks. That was the longest two weeks of my life (imagine being twelve, impatient, having a beautiful rc, and not being able to run it for two weeks). I have, to this day, never powered on a car before the transmitter.

[bsy2010 218]

My most recent one

Probably tightend the screws too much and the wheel broke off 5 minutes into the first run with my Axial Yeti

But reading some of the battery stories here, reminded me of the times when we pumped 5 amps in our NiCds on race weekends and used the temperature of the batteries (55-58 C) as the cut off. Too bad when the temp sensor came loose