one_hit

The TT-02 is an entry level kit. Just like in 1:1, you can’t expect a Corolla to perform like a Supra. The TL-01 is not an upgrade over the TT-02. It has a less efficient drivetrain, only accepts stick packs, has a higher CoG, lacks any adjustability, and being a monocoque chassis, gear maintenance is a hassle. The only thing better on it is less steering slop due to the tie rods being connected directly to the servo saver. If it were competitive, you’d still see it in races just like you still see people running TA05’s. Most of the steering slop can be fixed for little money. Get the YR or Chinese clone aluminum steering set and a better servo saver. You don’t need the low friction suspension balls or tie rods if just bashing on the street. Just run and have fun, and upgrade as your skills improve, or as funds allow it.

Yes I guess it depends on the country. Where I’m from, with so many of my countrymen working abroad, it really is the norm to have these boxes shipped back home to their families. As long as it can be considered personal effects, not commercial in quantity and not illegal to import then it won’t get stung by customs. These freight forwarders I believe pay duties by the container. But on the other hand, if I have these items shipped via a regular courier like DHL, Fedex or EMS, then that’s guaranteed to be taxed if the value exceeds $200.

@alvinlwh the $70 shipping via sea is thru a freight forwarder so it’s straight to my door with no taxes and no weight limit too. But for HK and JP yes it’s really a good idea to get excess baggage allowance. The van service makes sense especially if traveling with kids or seniors so I will keep that in mind

@alvinlwh agree with the cardboard boxes, I always use those whenever I am in the US since transporting it isn’t an issue. The last time I was in the US, I must have filled half a dozen of those 24x18x24 boxes, not with RC stuff but mostly 1:1 car parts (Warn winch, convertible top, carpeting, mufflers, clothes etc) and then I had them shipped via sea back to my country for $70 each box. In HK though, we always take the Airport Express, and that involves walking to the designated pickup and then riding the train, and it would be difficult to lug those boxes around. Regarding the Mu, I’m pretty sure Tamiya will release them again. I hope they do the CR-V next since it’s the only one that hasn’t been re-released

I’ve always purchased kits whenever I visit HK, my tip would be to bring the biggest suitcase you can and pack light! And it also helps to bring the wife with you since you get more luggage space this was my haul in 2015 this was in 2018

Yesterday I took the XV-01 to the track. What a blast it was to drive with the Tamiya 10.5 BL motor. My buddy also with an XV-01 with a Sport Tuned motor , couldn’t believe the speed difference. So today I decided to do some maintenance. Took the front gearbox apart to check the condition of the pin slot in the idler gear. Sure enough, it looks fine. Re-greased the gears with ceramic grease and put everything back together. Will try it soon on a new outdoor off-road track that just opened

I don’t think they designed the entry-level kits with lots of slop in the hubs in order to force people to buy higher end models. Remember, the DT-03 and TT-02 are entry-level kits, designed with kids and beginners in mind. These are the people that do not even consider the higher end models for their first car. The slop is there for ease of assembly because as you found out when you tried to shim out the slop, you ended up with binding on the hubs. And hopups do exist for it as well, it’s called the shim kit. Expensive, but you can use a hop up to remove the slop. Plus, I don’t think the newcomers are bothered with the slop. I know I wasn’t when I built my first Tamiya back in 1996. And to this day, on my cheap bashing kits it doesn’t bother me. My DT-03 and TT-02B don’t have shims on the hubs. No biggie. For my use I won’t notice it.

There are cheap Chinese S-FHSS and T-FHSS receivers for Futaba. I have the $20 Corona C4SF S-FHSS ones and they work great on my 4PX and 10PX. If you want the faster T-FHSS protocol, take a look at the Dasmikro T-FHSS receivers for Futaba, they are around $27. I haven’t tried them yet because I opted to buy a bunch of the Corona ones instead because they are easier to buy for me. They’re available at the 2 biggest online shopping platforms in my country - therefore faster shipping and easy returns in case of factory defects. To the OP, For me, a radio is where I would splurge a bit because it’s your physical connection to the car and a radio that feels cheap in the hands somehow ruins the experience for me. And aside from the build quality, the latency is also noticeable. I’ve tried some cheap radios and the lag was horrible. The first expensive radio I got was a 4PK back in 2009 and it still works to this day and I am still able to use the five FASST receivers I have for it on my 4PX. Unfortunately FASST protocol was dropped on the 10PX but at least I can use the cheap Chinese ones on it. So if you buy a quality transmitter, it will serve you for many years as long as you take care of it. I myself am mindful whenever I place it on the table and I don’t ever place it on the ground cause I don’t want the bottom to get scuffed For my off-road and on-road bashers I have a Spektrum DX5C that I bought mainly because I have a couple of Losi vehicles that have built-in telemetry on the ESC. The build quality isn’t as good as my Futabas but it’s great being able to see battery voltage, amp draw and RPM and I can also adjust the ESC settings from the radio too, so no need to bust out the program card every time I want to change settings. Receivers are also cheap, around $12 for the Chinese SR3100 receivers. These receivers use bind plugs which are a hassle since I sometimes want to bind them to the Losi RTR radios so what I did was soldered a microswitch to the bind plugs and leave them plugged permanently. Now regarding stick vs. wheel, it’s personal preference. I do have a 4YWD that I bought to use on my High Lift and Scania truck (that I have yet to build) but after using it on my High Lift i went back to a wheel type transmitter. I just find it a lot easier despite having stick type ones when I first got into the hobby. So my advice would be, buy the best one you can afford, and one with cheap receivers

The Max10 Beena has is sensored, you can see the fourth cable going from the motor to the ESC. The sensor cable doesn’t have the typical rectangular connector

Finally hit the track after taking a break from RC. Was able to help a kid fix his TT-02B, he lost a king pin screw, good thing I had some spares with me

I just upgraded the damper stays on my TA08, and what does it say in the manual? To apply instant cement.

Glad you enjoyed your first run! The hopups did make it better… the aluminum steering set and high torque servo saver both contributed to the sharp and precise steering. And as you mentioned, the aluminum dampers were great. Money well spent in my opinion Regarding the turning radius, maybe you can gain a little more steering throw by installing front universals? I can’t remember it the thickness of the plastic dogbones limited the steering throw up front. Your TT-02B is almost fully hopped up anyway so it deserves some universal driveshafts to complete the package

@RC_FunLand Nothing wrong with the cheap B6 clones, but let’s not kid ourselves, with only 300ma balance current, it will take ages for it to balance my imbalanced pack. I know this because aside from the SkyRC D100, T200 and T1000, I have a couple of cheap B6 clones as well.

@bRIBEGuy nice, we have the same charger, I have a T1000 Maestro as well. I have other chargers with programmable memory but I never used that feature so I’m not really missing out. The D200neo is what I would recommend because it has the screen and 1.5A balance current of the T1000. My D100 and T200 have low balance currents and take significantly more time to charge my pack with a cell imbalance compared to my T1000. For the price it’s really a good value and I wish it had been released when I bought the T200

@Beena nice! You will surely have a blast with lipo For chargers I would recommend getting something with a balance current of 1.5A and up like the SkyRC D200neo or Hota D6 Pro. They aren’t the cheapest but they are good chargers that should serve you for many years. They are also dual chargers so you can charge two batteries simultaneously even if the battery chemistry is different

Oh and here’s all the lipos I have at home

@Nikko85 you can use a lipo alarm to check voltage instantly. Costs a buck a piece from China. Just plug it into the balance lead. You can even just stick one to each of your batteries since they are dirt cheap. That way you can easily tell which packs are charged. Takes 1 second to plug it into the balance lead. Tells you the total voltage, voltage of each cell and will warn you if the voltage is low. It’s actually easier to monitor the voltage of a lipo vs a NiMh pack.

Speaking from experience here. Over-discharging won’t make the battery explode or catch fire. Your charger just won’t be able to charge it anymore if it falls below a certain voltage. I don’t even bother to use lipo alarms on my cars with no lipo voltage protection. I just time my runs to 20 minutes max then change batteries.

Bring your wife to a hobby shop that sells lipo batteries and show her how the shop stores them - which is just like any other type of battery. Bought my first lipo in 2009 and never went back to NiMh. It’s been 14 years of trouble-free, high discharge rate, longer runtimes and more power. You will be fine.

Firmer springs up front on an oversteering DT-03 is what I recommended because you want to minimize the weight transfer to the front when you release the throttle. Let us know how it feels @skom25 maybe you can try it with the 4WD tires

Totally agree. I’ve seen a guy at the track with a solid aluminum horn snap a steering bellcrank screw on his TT-02. If that happened in a race then that’s a DNF and he probably would miss the succeeding heats because it would have taken a lot of time, and that’s if he had a drill, which nobody ever brings to the track. He could replace the tub, but again, nobody ever brings a spare tub to the track.

Here’s what I think is wrong. You tuned your suspension while it had the narrow 2WD tires. You were able to get it to handle to your liking. You then changed the front tires to 4WD tires which are wider and therefore grippier, which added steering and is now causing you to oversteer. I would reset all your adjustments to stock as stated un the manual, and see how it drives. You can also change to the firmer blue springs up front and see how that feels. Maybe dial down the steering dual rate a bit. If all else fails, you can always go back to the stock 2WD tires.

@87lc2 the white clips are called swing shaft protectors and while I’ve never had one pop off on me there was one time I helped a guy look for one of those clips at the track because it popped off on him. There’s a lost and found jar at the track and there are a bunch of those clips in different sizes so I guess it’s common for them to pop off. Congrats on the win. The track is where the Type S/SR/SRX cars shine. For me It always feels great overtaking the guys in more expensive cars with a humble TT-02

I think the problem here is that your expectations are too high for an entry-level kit. You did not want to buy hopups, but decided some parts were lower quality so you bought the upgrades, without even driving the car first. It’s like you spent hours in the kitchen cooking, then at the end you decided it wasn’t worth the time and effort, without even trying what you cooked. And it’s not like the hopups are necessary for your intended use which is just bashing in the street. Some of us enjoy the process of hopping up in increments and therefore appreciating the effect each upgrade brings or even just how better it looks. If you don’t like buying upgrades then your next car shouldn’t be an entry level chassis designed with beginners and kids in mind.

The aluminum toe in rear uprights on the TT-02 are not a gimmick. If you’ve driven one at the track you’d know the uprights are the weakest link in that chassis. Most M chassis don’t have adjustable rear toe. Only the M07, M08 and MB-01 do. M01, M02, M03, M04, M05, M06 and MF-01X don’t.