Mad Ax
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Posts posted by Mad Ax
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also another point. the suzuki was only
called the rollover jeep because people drove them like cars. they went
too fast round corners and they pitched and rolled. THERE NOT CARS! THEY'RE NOT MEANT FOR HIGHER SPEED MANOOVERS!!!
there designed for off-road use not high speed road use. if you drive
them normally like you'd drive an old series land rover there great
cars. my dad's has a 3' lift and 30' tyres and manages to get it
round to 20/25MPH around a roundabout until the back wheel lifts then YOU EASE OFF THE THROTTLE OR IT WILL ROLLOVER!! and so would a series land rover!
I ain't gonna argue with that logic - except the Suzuki was marketed as
a fashionable runabout, and wasn't taken seriously as an off-roader
despite its ability.
Plus, my old man never rolled our 110 County once [
] -
Car or monster truck?
Primarily depends in you have a centre diff - if yes, then you can run
whatever diameters you like - although it will probably act
wierd. Diff drag (or limited slip) centre diff might cause some
wierd handling, and the diff will wear faster as it's always in use.
If you don't have a centre diff (like most touring car chassis) then
you must have the same diameter wheels, otherwise they'll be trying to
run at different speeds - they'll lose traction and spin the car out at
any opportunity.
Best bet is to keep them the same diameter [
] -
In the US, those Suzuki's are called Samurai's. Very capable little
off-roaders if you can ignore their scores on rollover tests.
In the UK they were infamously known as the "rollover jeep" after a
series of road accidents which found them spinning on their rooftops...
Note that in the UK, they were usually owned and driven by hairdressers
who bought them for their vogue factor, not for doing any kid of
off-road driving. In many way it's probably why they never caught
on in the UK as off-road cars - any serious off-road driver didn't want
to be associated with the hairdresser brigade, and so bought a Land
Rover...
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I used to have a real cooper with a UJ on the roof [
] (just thought I'd throw that in [
] ) -
I think a Land Rover defender would be superb... Or a Discovery. Both current models, so it's feasible - especially given the market for Land Rover merchandise worldwide. Although I don't know what marketing contracts Land Rover already have in place (aren't they owned by Ford now..?)
A Dodge Ram may be a possibility and would be cool, IMO.
I doubt we'll see any old-style bodies - but then you can get a lexan shell for almost any old truck these days; if you really want it, you can build it [
] -
I still like the idea of an action figure [
] For people with totally lame coordination like me, it also saves on
having to paint the damned things, too. You also have more choice
of driver style - not just the typical Tamiya man-with-helmet or the
eponymous All-American-hero (who remembers that handsome fellow from
the Brat..?) - you can have a camo'd-up action man in your Wild Willy;
a smart-suited Professor Xavier in your BMW touring car; a boy-band
figure looking the way boy-band figures always look in your Bruiser;
you can even get girl-band characters if you want to build an
equal-opportunities RC fleet [
] Of course, this may be completely abandoning the original point that RCs should be driven and not looked at [
] -
It is a shame that some kits are going for stupid money, but OTOH many of the less popular kits are still reasonably cheap.
I guess the King Cab has gained popularity as a classic because it's one of the few stadium trucks made in an era when monsters, not stadium trucks, were the norm.
The King Cab was never a true monster IMO - it sat too low, the wheels were too wide and the tyres had the wrong tread and profile, but they're very similar to the stadium truck designs that we see today.
A King Cab is on my list of "would love to own but can't afford it" models - mostly because I had one, many years ago, and I swapped it with a schoolmate for a CB radio. He stuck in a Parma motor and jumped it out of his bedroom window [
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I love the 'hopper - I've got an original one in a sorry state of
disrepair; I started to restore it, until I realised the cost of buying
new parts to replace the broken ones is almost twice the cost of a
re-re kit.
Soon enough I will buy a cheap re-re kit and make myself a new 'hopper...
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Ooh, while we're sharing links - I've not got any of my sets on-line
(decks are in a different room to the recording studio and I don't have
any long enough wires [
]) but I've got several hours worth of my ownmusic on my website, just went on-line a few weeks ago:
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Not sure what driver would look good in a Pumpkin - you might be better
off scouring the local toy store and action figures..? They would
probably look better than a Tamiya one anyway...
For the rear bed, do what I'm going to do - source some finely ribbed
rubber mat and cut it to fit in the load bay - just like the non-slip
mat that some trucks have. It will cover up the hole, and it
won't have any ridges or cracks that will take ages to fill and sand.
I'm going to do this on my lowrider pumpkin project, just as soon as I get around to it [
] Ax
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What sort of stuff do you DJ, Theo..?
I'm just getting back into mixing after a few years off - was bangin'
out an hour-long hard trance set to my entire bedroom on Saturday
night. It was pumpin' [
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Hi Joaquim,
The throttle linkage is all set up correctly - I spent quite a while
getting this right. I could open up the idle screw a little to
get it to idle a little faster; that's something I'll worry about
later. The carb won't turn past 100% throttle; the control from
the Tx is pretty good.
The engine is a Kyosho GT size 12 that came with the Sand Master kit
back in 1998. I've not used it much, since I was never able to
get it to run 100% even back then.
Is there a "golden rule" to getting the mixture right, i.e. if it spits
fluid it's too rich, if the smoke trail isn't visible it's too lean, or
is it just a case of turning the needle until it runs best?
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Anyone got any tips for getting the mixture set right on a nitro motor?
I got my Kyosho Sandmaster running at the weekend, but still having
trouble with it not running very smooth - seems to cough and miss when
revving up, and doesn't always hold full throttle (just seems to die at
what). It also cuts out when idling - it'll idle for half a minute
then shut off, and also shuts off when I hit the brakes...
TBH I only had a 10-minute play with it, and might get further if I've
got time to take it somewhere distant tonight; maybe it just needs more
running to get itself sorted out...
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Coincidence - I also got my nitro Kyosho running this weekend, after 4 years in the shed [
] If it's not been run for ages it will probably be all gummed up
inside. Nitro fuel is famous for glueing carbs together as it
goes very sticky when it dries.
First of all, screw the mixture needle all the way in (clockwise) until
it stops, making sure you count the number of full turns. Don't
tighten it otherwise you could damage the jet. Note the number
down, as it will be a reference for finding the right mixture later.
Next, unscrew the needle fully and remove it. Get some carb
cleaner from Halfords, and blast loads of it down into the hole.
I recommend you wear eye protection when you do this, as carb cleaner
is under high pressure and can have air bubbles that squirt back into
your eye. Trust me, this stings - a lot.
Pull the starter for several minutes. If you're new to nitro,
remember not to pull the starter to its full extension - just a quick
flick of the wrist is enough. Pulling the starter will suck the
carb cleaner into the motor and wash all the gunk from inside the
transfer ports.
When you're done pulling through carb cleaner, pour a bit of fuel into
the carb and do the same again - this will wash out the carb cleaner -
it won't run very happily on carb cleaner [
] Finally, give the mixture needle a good wipe and screw it back in fully
(remember the rubber o-ring; don't overtighten) and then screw it back
out by the number of full turns you noted previously.
You should be about right to get started now. Prime the motor
with fuel, attach the plug heater, and give it a few pulls - it should
fire up pretty soon. As for getting the mixture adjustment spot
on, I'm about to post a thread on this very subject - because I'm not
sure myself [
] -
dang, you had me all excited then [
] My first NIB tamiya was a Mud Blaster, which I later fitted with smaller front wheels to improve handling... I would probably buy a re-re Brat if one was ever made...
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Some people have lots of fun running their RCs on the beach - even classic Sand Scorchers, etc.
Sand does have a habit of getting in the gearbox and causing wear, so
if you're running on sand - only run RCs with sealed gearboxes, make
sure you use the fibrous pad between the motor and gearbox (rotors can
suck in sand and expell through the front vents into the 'box), and and
give it a good thorough clean and re-greasing ever so often, you
shouldn't have too many problems.
FWIW I wouldn't run on sand without stripping my car down afterwards to
clean everything up, and seeing as I don't like doing that - I won't
run on Sand much
IMO, anyway.
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I was going to pre-order it a few weeks ago (even put a post up here
about it) but unfortunately had a problem with the rent, now I can't
even afford to put diesel in my car to get to work [
]Here's hoping September will be a better month financially [8-|]
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Hmm, what I learned from my first Tamiya - a 2nd hand and very well used King Cab...
1) One battery is never enough
2) Batteries cost 10 weeks pocket money when you're 12
3) Spare parts are only available mail-order and take 14 days to arrive (circa 1992)
4) An important part will always break or wear out on the first day of
any vacation in an area that has a perfect place for using RCs, leaving
you bored witless for two weeks as you gaze forlornly at your broken
car (case in point: King Cab rear hex drives, splines wore out on the
first day of my holiday to a caravan park that had miles of twisting,
turning, narrow tarmac lanes, and we couldn't find a hobby shop in the
area)
5) Before packing the RC away into the back of the car for an hour-long
journey to a good off-roading area, make sure the receiver is switched
off - or the batteries will be flat before you get there [
]6) Just because a model is newer and NIB, doesn't mean it's better that
the 4-year old one you've got. Sold my King Cab and bought an NIB
Mud Blaster - the King Cab was a far better car; the Mud Blaster was
sadly lacking in those places where the King Cab excelled...
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Maybe the F-350 will change that a little bit. We can hope.
I can just hope it will keep more of us pipe-and-slippers [
] scalemodellers interested in the hobby without having the expense and time
of scratch-building or part-cobbling good scale RCs like over at
scale4x4rc.
I think there will definately be a market for wheels, tyres and
transmission components from the kit as people scratch-build their own
4x4 models choosing the most scale-looking parts. However I doubt
it will be immediately profitable for ebay sellers to do this, at least
not until box prices have dropped and there's a solid steady supply to
keep up demand.
Those that break up boxes to sell of trannies and axles to modders will
have an abundance of shells and cosmetic parts for Hi-Lift owners to
repair their crash damage.
OTOH, I do expect sales to drop once the initial rush is over - as has
been said before, the market is for nitro stadium trucks, not scale
models - at that point, the box-breakers will become those keeping up
the demand at keeping it in production, not the kit buyers
themselves...
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Cool vid - don't think mine accelerates quite like that tho... My
chassis it totally stock, with stock silvercan - I guess I could see
what happens with a bigger motor. I'm assuming that I wouldn't
need to adjust the pinion with a bigger motor, since the whole train
isn't under much stress anyway..?
I might invest in some adjustable upper arms, although I was hoping to
enter in the stock class at the local race circuit with the same
chassis and not sure if I could be bothered with changing the upper
arms as well as the motor and wheels every other weekend [
] andI can't really afford another chassis at the moment, especially if I'm
going to go ahead with a hi-lift in Sept...
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People tend to identify more easily with vehicles
they have seen on the street and pickups are much more common the
buggies.
Still it would be nice if it would happen and we are allowed to dream, aren't we? [
]Cheers
I suppose this is true of the truck genre in particular, but doesn't
explain why there hasn't been a good scale truck on the market for some
time - Tamiya make very good big rigs, but like all the other mfrs the
only trucks they make are monsters and stadium trucks.
In the racing buggy world, you can't buy a buggy that looks anything
like what you'd find in a real baja race these days (with the possible
exception of the Baja Champ-type shells). Things like the Dark
Impact, Gravel Hound, Top Force etc are supposedly 1:10 - but compared
to a touring car, they're huge. In this respect, a Sand Scorcher
re-re or redisigned Baja bug would be significantly smaller than a
racing buggy in order to remain in scale, and therefore wouldn't be
competitive. But I think there would still be a market for those
after scale realism rather than outright racing ability.
I guess you have a point that off-road beetles are no longer relevant
in todays world. If you see something with off-road ability,
chances are it's a truck. I just think it's a shame that if you
want to buy a buggy, you're restricted to something that looks like it
fell out of a sci-fi movie!
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Just thought I'd open up the ABS drift tyre thing again, since it hasn't been mentioned for, ooh, at least a week [
]I finally got my TT-01 equiped with HPI vintage wheels with the 6mm
offset for extra width. I used some ABS drainpipe - had to go for
grey, because they had no black in the right size. In fact I had
to use the drainpipe female-female connectors as the 50mm pipe itself
was too small, the connectors fitted on easily. There's just
enough material in 1 connector to make 2 tyres - so cost about £3 to
make all 4 tyres. Bargain.
Anyway, it had its first run last night - but it took me ages to find a
car park with no gravel in. Sadly the low-profile "tyres" reduce
the ground clearance, meaning the car gets stuck on the tiniest bit of
gravel. I haven't played with the shocks yet, but moving the
shock mounts or lengthening the stock shocks is probably the next
choice.
The second big problem was a complete lack of grip. OK, it was
wet, but even so I found it took a huge long straight to coax the car
gently up to enough speed to get some good drifts (rather than just
donuts). I didn't bring any electrical tape with me, but I might
give it a try next time I'm out to see if it will increase grip
slightly, just enough to get it moving.
Has anyone experimented with adding any other material around the tyre
to increase traction just a little? I think the front-end could
use just a bit more to help it get moving, and to influence its
direction....
Ideas? Comments? Complaints?
[
] -
Following from Shodog's post, I'm actually hoping that this is a return to scale realism across the board - not just in trucks.
The hi-lift I'm sure will be a hit, and it'll be interesting to see if
Tamiya release another shell on a similar chassis in the future - but
what about better scale buggies?
The Vintage forum shows the massive following for SRBs - and the reason
is obvious when you see a tidy Scorcher. They look fantastic -
full of scale realism - from the body detail right down to the
chassis. Compare that to a modern buggy that looks like it
dropped from a comic-book - there's no contest, really...
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looks like everyone will be running a green 'hopper soon [
]I'm tempted to buy a re-re kit so I can fix up my original 'hopper
(waaay cheaper than replacing all the damaged bits) and that green is
looking very appealing...
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Old Tamiya Fan - Egress + Lunchbox rebuilds
in General discussions
Posted
Would be interesting to see how you get on - keep us informed [
]