TheManOfBronze

Just wanted to add my account of good service from Banzai. I bought some motors and ESCs, which arrived in 3 days or so via EMS, and realised I had the wrong ESCs. This was my fault, I'd ordered the wrong thing. Banzai offered to chase up the ones I wanted, and allowed me to send back the wrong ones (provided they were unopened) for a refund. Email turnaround was usually a day or so, sometimes up to a week. They were apologetic if it took them a while to respond. I ended up not taking advantage of this and figuring out that I could use the things in combination anyway, but I thought they handled my mistake pretty well. Cheers, Will

That's an awesome truck, I love all the bodywork detailing.

Soldered my first two pairs of Deans connectors.

As mentioned in the thread in electrics, I ordered two 10.5T motors and brushless controllers from Banzai, but stupidly got the wrong things (sensored motors, unsensored controllers). I was waiting for a while on a reply from them about returning and did some reading around suggesting that it was OK to use the two. Effectively the motors are just unsensored, the sensors are ignored, or that's how I understand it. So I went ahead and fitted the ESCs. I did the mods and it was all pretty smooth with the 14t pinions, so I put the kit pinions back in (and the old spur gear, so my clean one is saved for the steel pinions) and it's a bit of a missile, but not really wheelie-ing like mad yet. http://youtu.be/XsTDkF5cqn0 I suspect the weight of the 2x5000mAh NiMHs is a factor, as are the Tamiya connectors. I can get both front wheels off the ground briefly on totally fresh packs, but only briefly. Cogging is not too bad, it is noticeable from a dead stop, but not consistently so. I set the gear mesh so that the motors aren't in phase (one rotor is between the magnets where it wants to rest, the other is 'at the top of the hill') and that seems to help a bit. No issues with the drive train so far, but I did pull the rod end off the steering linkage by running into a curb, so I need to put a new one on. Is using a drop of CA a reasonable option to secure these? Cheers, Will

So I got impatient and gave up waiting to hear back from Banzai, and after reading around it sounded like it was safe to use the sensored motors with the ESCs I have, effectively ignoring the sensors. Getting it all installed was a bit of a mare, not for any good reason, but silly things like one of the gearbox spur shaft screws rounding off, and having to slot it with a file and then get it out while holding other end of the shaft with pliers (!) I got it sorted out in the end though. And it works, although I did have a nasty moment after getting the yellow and orange wires swapped over one one side, plus confusion with my radio (Futaba) needing the throttle to be reversed. I also had some cogging issues but I didn't have the same endpoints set on the mixed channels. After fixing this I ran it around for a bit - nice and smooth, lots and lots of power, a little faster than the stock setup but not vastly. Everything stays cool/lukewarm, which was definitely not the case before. I thought I should check the transmission after trying to run the motors in opposite directions, but it was all fine, thankfully, and the motors don't seem any different to how they were before. In search of more speed I reinstalled the (19t?) kit pinions and their gunky spur (so I won't harm my good spur which has only been used with the steel 14t pinions) and I'm getting great speed, but more cogging than before. I'm going to try taking it to bits again and trying to set the mesh so that one motor is in the gap between "cogs" and one is in the middle , and see if that smooths things out a bit. If so, I'll try and find some steel 19t pinions. With the higher gear ratio, I get one front tyre lifting when blipping full throttle, and braking (at full TX rate, the ESC's default rate of 30%) is ridiculously effective and tends to flip the truck end over end. But no wheelies! I'm not sure what to blame for that - perhaps the cogging is causing slower power take-up than it should, perhaps I need to glue my tyres, or perhaps I need something better than NiMHs with Tamiya plugs? Still, it's a pretty fun setup, and not a little scary. I'm looking forward to taking it down the bike track next week Cheers, Will

An important safety tip is to make sure that your kitchen extractor has the motor outside the airflow, so you don't get sparks from the commutator igniting paint solvent vapour. (I would have thought that would be normal for an extractor, since it's dealing with airborne grease, but I'd still check.) [edit] Found a filter material supplier: http://www.addfiltration.co.uk/paint-stop-dry-glass-filter-media-50mm-deep-1m-x-20m-roll I have a Benchvent spray booth for my modelmaking and it has I think two-layer filters on the "spray face" - one is the "paint stop" type with woolly fibreglass, and behind that is a thin layer of something which is supposed to catch the slower-drying paints like acrylics. Will

The space shuttle and unimog are both awesome - I need to find my shuttle and put it together again. The great thing about the 'mog is that the compressor piston makes it rock on its suspension just a little bit, like the Tamiya MFC units do. Very entertaining! The dual power/air take-offs are a nice touch as well. Will

I'm really intrigued by these bikes, and delighted to see a build thread. Thanks for going to the effort of photographing and posting this! Will

Good to hear about good service. I mailed Banzai and they were helpful - they can do the return but need to check for stock first since they don't have any on hand. The motors are evil-looking things Will

So it turns out it was confusing enough that I got it wrong! After lots of dithering I ordered the motors and escs last week and was excited to find a Banzai packet on my doorstep today. Unfortunately I've managed to buy the 2*TBLM-01S motors I was looking for, and 2*TBLE-01 (NOT S) speed controllers So it looks like time to contact customer support. Unfortunately it looks like the TBLE-01S escs aren't in stock... Will

I agree about the engine section by the way, I was thinking of cutting it out and building something. I also wish Pro-Line provided some window trim stickers, but I guess I can make my own from lining tape, or perhaps mask and paint. Next thing to think about - while I want to use some (resized) elements of the original stickers, I might not go for a red body. I guess this is a bit sacrilegious, but I think while the gold wheels went nicely with red, a cooler colour might work better with silver? Plus I really like blue RC bodies for some reason... Will

I thought I couldn't have been the only one to want to try this That looks vety fine! I will still try talking to the guys Brom recommended to see how much custom decals would be, but the 1/10 ones look like. a great fall-back. Will

Thanks chaps, that's all useful information. The only breakage I've had so far is the prop shaft grub screws backing out, leaving the shaft flailing around until it took out one of the rear links. I didn't notice for a while as it was still making good headway on 2WD! I've replaced the shafts with the Traxxas plastic ones now so hopefully that won't happen again. Not sure what's going to break next but I wouldn't be surprised if new rod ends are a good idea eventually! Totally agree about this being a money pit, but I kept it fairly stock (and enjoyed it) last year so it's probably OK to add some new bits this year. And it's so big and satisying and awesome in a way that buggies aren't. I *think* I'm going to try dual mild brushless - not the 10.5T motors I was intending but something higher. I like the idea of spreading the high current draw (the TEU-106BK esc I have at the moment is rated up to 150A!) across two batteries. Knowing that reasonable size NiMHs give a decent runtime is really helpful. It'll be a bit more expensive than buying an EVX-2 but the bits will be useful for something else if they turn out not to suit the truck. Cheers, Will

If the Tamiya PS paints in the cans are the same as in the jars, you can decant them like njmlondon suggests. I do this a lot to airbrush with the TS lacquers. Couple of things to watch out for though - if you decant into a jar, leave the paint to outgas for a while (maybe overnight) without touching the jar and without screwing a lid on tight. It doesn't take much for it to boil at room temperature and go everywhere. After that it's just paint and you can use it like normal. It shouldn't need thinning at all since the consistency from the shaken can is just right for spraying. For small quantities it's easiest to decant straight into the AB cup. I spray about two short squirts into mine (any more will go all over) and paint with it, then repeat. I tried doing things with straws to make it neater (like WD-40 cans) but basically whatever you do is (potentially) messy, and going direct into the cup wastes less paint. You don't need to wait for it to outgas if you do this, you can paint straight away since the AB cup is open and the quantities are small. HTH, Will

Decals are an interesting question - I think a set of reproduction MB decals would look a bit too small on this, so I might have to try and do most of it with paint and use decals for race numbers and sponsors. Assuming I want an authentic MB, my wife wants me to do Herbie Thanks for the advice, maybe I should draw some mockups? Will