33 replies to this topic

[Japanscaledriver]

Thought I'd post here and maybe other people who've built and started running their Bruiser can comment.

I ran mine yesterday for the first time, here is a simple video of that.

Driving

- The truck is built mostly stock.
- Springs are built according to the manual, three leafs, oil in the shocks is stock.
- The Tyres are NOT glued yet, I only meant to just show it to my friends but ended up driving it.
- That's why it doesn't have rear tail lights and there is tape on the back window.
- I'm running a stock 540 with a 15 tooth steel pinion.
- The front diff is NOT locked in the video, but the rear diff IS locked.

Observations:
- I have now locked the front diff.
- I will try a set of CR-01 tyres on the wheels and see what it looks like.
- If I feel ambitious, I will take one leaf out of the springs and/or add wheel weights.
- The body is so beautiful, I'm afraid to roll it over and scratch the paint!

[backtomyroots]

Wonderful video, never thought I'd be seeing video of a new built bruiser along with all the soon to be new builds

Ya-hoo for Tamiya !

[mongoose1983]

Looks really beautiful, and even though I'm not a fan of the decals you used, I must say the paint job is really awesome!
Anyway, I wanted to ask you (now that you ran the truck) how does it feels compared to the original Bruiser? I heard the gearbox sounds different, and the front axle seems to work much tighter (or at least better than my original RC truck).
Also, I used to have a stock Hilux High-Lift with Bruiser tires and was wondering if it feels a bit like one of those when running. What would you say?
Congrats again for your great looking truck, and THANKS for sharing the video

[OldSchoolRunner]

Just run it and enjoy it. Don't worry about the body if it gets a couple character scuffs here and there! The only thing that I would like to see is video of when you change the tires. I think those side walls are too stiff and you might be loosing traction because of it! Just my thoughts
OSR

[ozace]

fantastic looking machine. I cant wait to get one

[Japanscaledriver]

Thanks for the comments, yeah, eventually it will have its first roll over, then I won't worry too much about it.
I can only compare it to a Mounty I have, which has 12mm hex adapters from RC4wd, which make it quite wider than it should be.
My F350 Highlift had only single leafs and stock tyres. It twisted the leafs very quickly.

I think it drives well for what it is.

Little pic with the CR-01 tyres on.

[matman]

Thanks for the comments, yeah, eventually it will have its first roll over, then I won't worry too much about it.
I can only compare it to a Mounty I have, which has 12mm hex adapters from RC4wd, which make it quite wider than it should be.
My F350 Highlift had only single leafs and stock tyres. It twisted the leafs very quickly.

I think it drives well for what it is.

Little pic with the CR-01 tyres on.

Them tyres will make a big difference , as the bruiser ones were to hard .
Also the tyres will help the springs , as the tyres should take some slack , bounce etc .
I was going to get my CR01 tyres out & put them on my old bruiser , to show you .
I have put blackfoot tyres on my bruiser as they were softer . I like the look of them CR01
tyres on your bruiser . So i may give that a go . Great thread .
You could get another body & paint that for a runner ?. jr-rc had them , but went very fast .
Thank you , for your info .

[lee1980]

Are the re-re bruiser tyres not softer than originals were? I thought i read that was one revision using softer compound from another car?

[HunterZero]

Are the re-re bruiser tyres not softer than originals were? I thought i read that was one revision using softer compound from another car?

Hmmm... Must pull out my original Bruisers to compare, but I'd say all original Bruiser tyres would have dried out a little, and would be less supple now than they were when new.

- James

[Percymon]

Hmmm... Must pull out my original Bruisers to compare, but I'd say all original Bruiser tyres would have dried out a little, and would be less supple now than they were when new.

- James

Agree with James - i have a couple of orginal Bruiser tyres lying around, and whilst they still show no signs of cracks or perishing, they are pretty hard which i've previously put down mostly to age. However, in hindsight, i think they probably started life a lot tougher then the likes of the Blackfoot/Monster Beetle tyres because all my examples of those are considerably softer. For a cheaper alternative still, you could buy the Tamiya copy wheels n tyre set from Seben-Racing which contains some nice soft tyres - these won't be comparable to true crawler tyres, but would retain a Tamiya look and offer come side wall compliance to reduce the bouncing.

[Wandy]

Was it just me that was wincing as it crashed over rocks and up the steps? I can't see the transmission and prop shaft lasting long if used like that over a period of time. Not in a million years will mine ever see that kind of terrain. Just confirms to me that the Bruiser is really not to be used as a crawler.

Nice vid though, good paint scheme too. I also liked the way the little red fella trailing behind handled the same terrain. Very impresssive.

[Japanscaledriver]

that CC-01 is a pretty cool little truck, it has a 3rd channel and extra servo... attached to the rear axle by wire cable on the right side. It's an anti- lift device. Stops the truck from rolling to the left under torque. It also has drop shackles on the shock mounts which give it an extra 20mm of droop on full extension.

The metal on the bottom of my truck doesn't have a lot of scratches on it, even after all that clunking and bashing, though it did seem pretty thin.
It's not a crawler, that's for sure, but I don't classify what I did in that video as crawling, more extreme scale off road driving.

[HunterZero]

Was it just me that was wincing as it crashed over rocks and up the steps? I can't see the transmission and prop shaft lasting long if used like that over a period of time. Not in a million years will mine ever see that kind of terrain. Just confirms to me that the Bruiser is really not to be used as a crawler.

Nice vid though, good paint scheme too. I also liked the way the little red fella trailing behind handled the same terrain. Very impresssive.

I thought the opposite - It was impressive seeing the truck running hard clambering over the rough stuff the way it was intended, and picking up a few minor scrapes underneath. While it made a few scraping noises, it was mostly at low speed so it didn't look like it was doing any damage at all.

While it would win no crawler championships, that's not really the point with the Bruiser - apart from the odd bit of wheel spin from lifted wheels, the suspension looked very compliant and handled the very rocky terrain quite well.

The driver just needs to try to put only one wheel at a time into the deeper gaps between rocks rather than crashing both front wheels in...

- James

[Wandy]

Fair enough. Maybe I'm just a bit squeamish when it comes to seeing a shiny new £500 piece of RC art being subjected to anything other than a bit of sand or gravel.

[Tamiya1/10]

How many of you are like me...

At first when I heard of the Bruiser re-release, I wanted one; than I changed my mind because is not exactly cheap and I have the original. Then I watched JSD video, now I am thinking of getting it. Make up your mind!!!! Anyway, I think I will still hold off since is not a limited release and could be available for some time and should Tamiya re-release the Blazer, I will be kicking myself for buying the re-re Brusier... Who knows, should I walk by my LHS the impluse buy may take over. The logical side tells me to hold , but the devil side tells me, buy it because you want it.

BTW JSD, nice paint finish on your Brusier and good video.

[Japanscaledriver]

Thanks!
I probably should polish it to make it look better.

I forgot to mention the video was taken with my GOPRO HD hero on a monopod held upside down in my left hand, along with the controller. you may notice my shadow.
Great for these slow vehicles.

[lee1980]

Thanks!
I probably should polish it to make it look better.

I forgot to mention the video was taken with my GOPRO HD hero on a monopod held upside down in my left hand, along with the controller. you may notice my shadow.
Great for these slow vehicles.

Filmed it your self as well, very cool!

[lee1980]

Thanks!
I probably should polish it to make it look better.

I forgot to mention the video was taken with my GOPRO HD hero on a monopod held upside down in my left hand, along with the controller. you may notice my shadow.
Great for these slow vehicles.

Filmed it your self as well, very cool!

[Sayer]

Hmmm... Must pull out my original Bruisers to compare, but I'd say all original Bruiser tyres would have dried out a little, and would be less supple now than they were when new.

- James

I dunno. For me, replacing the tires on a Bruiser is a lot like replacing the tires on a Jugg. Sure it'll perform better, but the truck loses 20% of its character for it.

[Mrincredible]

Looks superb.... I love the paint scheme and glad to see it is being used as intended I really want one. I have however been capitalising on all the original bruiser parts on ebay and almost have an original one with parts from all over the world! I would really like to see how the original and the new perform head to head. Has anyone got both...? How does run time and overall performance compare?

[markbt73]

How many of you are like me...

At first when I heard of the Bruiser re-release, I wanted one; than I changed my mind because is not exactly cheap and I have the original. Then I watched JSD video, now I am thinking of getting it. Make up your mind!!!! Anyway, I think I will still hold off since is not a limited release and could be available for some time and should Tamiya re-release the Blazer, I will be kicking myself for buying the re-re Brusier...

I'm in that boat as well... I really like the idea of it, but it's really a lot of money for one kit. I don't have a Bruiser, but I do have a similar truck made from RC4WD and Axial parts, and I'm afraid that if I got an actual Bruiser I'd discover that my mongrel runs rings around it. And like you, if they re-re the Blazing Blazer, I'd much rather have that; it out-cools the Bruiser by a factor of 10. Oh well; I can't afford it for a few months anyway, so I have time to hem and haw and admire everyone else's builds...

[mtbkym01]

Thanks!
I probably should polish it to make it look better.

I forgot to mention the video was taken with my GOPRO HD hero on a monopod held upside down in my left hand, along with the controller. you may notice my shadow.
Great for these slow vehicles.

I was very curious how you filmed it, great work

[Tamiya1/10]

I do have a similar truck made from RC4WD and Axial parts, and I'm afraid that if I got an actual Bruiser I'd discover that my mongrel runs rings around it. And like you, if they re-re the Blazing Blazer, I'd much rather have that; it out-cools the Bruiser by a factor of 10. Oh well; I can't afford it for a few months anyway, so I have time to hem and haw and admire everyone else's builds...

I think your mongrel will runs rings around the re Bruiser, except maybe in a straight line. I have seen an Axial crawl up an openned outdoor drain trench without drama and Pajero Metaltop XC/CC with both front and rear diff locked can't even get past the start of the incline. I guess the stocked tires and the weight distribution are no good.

I like the Blazer because of the body which is totally different than from the other 3 old 3 spd. I think for now Axial has the right capability and a nice touch for detailing.

[TongueTied]

How many of you are like me...

At first when I heard of the Bruiser re-release, I wanted one; than I changed my mind because is not exactly cheap and I have the original. Then I watched JSD video, now I am thinking of getting it. Make up your mind!!!! Anyway, I think I will still hold off since is not a limited release and could be available for some time and should Tamiya re-release the Blazer, I will be kicking myself for buying the re-re Brusier... Who knows, should I walk by my LHS the impluse buy may take over. The logical side tells me to hold , but the devil side tells me, buy it because you want it.

Not me, I wanted one and decided I'd get one as soon as they were released. Watched all the arguments about price and knew that our hobby costs money and we are suckers for our hobby so why worry about the price, it is just a matter of how long we have to save in order to get it (and how elaborate the stories we have to tell our better half to ensure there is no scorn, let alone approval). However, as the release date neared, I decided that really I want the Mountaineer so now, I'll wait a while longer and see if they release the Mountaineer. Don't know if I can last that long but I'm trying. Oh yes, I'm trying (put away that credit card!)

[Japanscaledriver]

Just take the rear cab off and fit the rear window and you can have your Mounty now.

Now Mounty stickers, but these look better with minimal stickers.