Smokescreen38

I was fairly certain that I built it according to the directions but I just took it apart and double checked. It was (sadly) all matching the steps/part numbers. Including the orientation of the spur and out drives. Obviously, something isn’t right. I’m at a loss. The “one squeeze” on the spring strokes me as being very imprecise. If one were to over-compress the spring, could that lead to this issue? Thanks again to all for the input.

Thanks. I just took it all apart again and I’m not seeing what could have been assembled wrong. It only goes together one way.

I’ve had the diff out of the Egress about four times now so I figured that at this point, I have confirmed that I don’t know what I’m doing and that I could use some input. So when I set the diff per the manual (tightening until the spur no longer turns easily when the output/diff joints are held), the car will handle about one firm acceleration before the rear loosens and it becomes front wheel drive. The front differential seems to be holding up. I built them the same way (as far as I remember) but then again, as soon as I notice the rear differential has loosened (again) I stop driving so it too might loosen up given a little more time. I’ve been weary of “over tightening” but could it be that I need to tighten them a bit harder? The spur not turning “easily” is a really subjective term. How do you measure that? Thread locker is not called for in the manual but would a dab of blue Loctite on the bolt that goes through the diff be worth a try? Any suggestions are welcome!

I agree that this is an obvious negative however, it's two clips and two screws. If it takes 45 seconds longer than a normal swap, I would be surprised. Nevertheless, it was clearly a poor choice since this obviously turned off many buyers. As for what they might do with the chassis, I just hope it's something. I really enjoy driving both of the variants of the TD. They handle beautifully. I would buy another.

I agree the Micro B is too big. I saw one in the local hobby shop yesterday and it's probably 20% too large. So it looks like Tamiya used to make conversion kits for these cars! Are they available anymore? I suspect that this may end up being a project for a CAD design and a 3d printer...

I bought an Egress which arrived today. It was by far the cheapest I had ever seen one at $300 USD. It’s a bit of a thrill to have that box in my possession after drooling over that kit for several years. That box art is framable. 😁 I checked back yesterday and saw that a bunch of PS paints were on flash sale… so I got my silver paint for the Egress as well as a few other colors that I needed to restock and saved a chunk there too. My experience with Horizon has been VERY mixed. Overall, they’ve been pretty good to me.

I knew I wasn’t the only one. That fully hopped-up DB-01 is right there in the same price range and I can see how it’s the same dilemma. Many or most of these hop-ups probably won’t be damaged by using them, right? That might open some paths for you to enjoy this car, especially since stock DB01s aren’t ridiculously expensive. I know, it’s still a lot of money and doesn’t really solve your problem. Ok..yeah. This is a possibility for my Egress, especially with this protective sticker sheet. I appreciate the tip. This street driving (on expendable tires) is what I do with other models like my Hotshot 2 which gets quite a bit of careful road driving. The same applies to my TD2 Astute which I love. So far, they each still look more or less brand new aside from some dust. Scratching that expensive Egress chassis seemed like a no-go but if the decals can prevent that…

I’m Im wondering if you guys experience something similar and if so, how you deal with this. Just a bit of background: I’m in my mid 40s which seems to be just a few years younger than those of us who feel peak nostalgia over some of these vintage models. In 1989, I was just wrapping up a Transformers obsession (technically only on hold until college ) and was going headlong into the brief run of Hasbro Record Breakers: World of Speed (similar to Tamiya Mini 4WD). I adored those cars, tinkering with them and racing them against my one or two friends who knew about them. That is my link to the wonderful styles and designs of Tamiya’s glory days. The link is pretty strong. All that is to say that I didn’t even know about the Egress until a few years ago when I got sucked into the world of Tamiya kits completely. Since then, I’ve considered it to be a piece of art. It’s possibly the best looking RC (in my opinion) ever. I also wrote it off as something I would never own. It was (and still is) way too expensive for my budget to just build and look at on a shelf. It’s also way too fragile to whip around a track. Its main appeal to me is the look and the unique construction, all of which will be degraded with use. So Tower Hobbies (in the USA at least) has a “flash sale” going for a handful of Tamiya models that runs through today (April 23rd). The Egress being one of them. It’s marked at 25% off which put it just barely into the reasonable range for an RC kit in my world. With the irrational fear breathing down my impulsive neck that this might be my last chance to ever buy a fresh kit from a retailer, I jumped on it. It hasn’t even shipped yet and I don’t know what the heck I’m going to do with it. I will build it as carefully and precisely as I can, paint it to match the glorious box art too. There will be enjoyment there. Then what? Can you drive a kit like this and not gradually trash it? How? Any experiences or insights would be welcome.

Just daydreaming about a little project and I wonder what you guys think. I have never seen a Micro B up close but it looks like they might be just the right size to provide a fully RC chassis for a cool Tamiya Mini 4wd body. Obviously, some fabrication will be needed for the body mounts but would the wheelbase work? Are there other micro RC buggies that might be a better match?

On the TD2 or the Top Force?

You know how to paint a body. Nice work! Im glad you’re singing the praises of the TD2. It immediately became one of my favorite RC cars of all time and I loved it enough to buy a backup while I could. I really hope they do something else with this chassis soon. I firmly believe that the name choices, the oversight of the diff nut issue, and their choice of love-it-or-hate-it styling are the only reasons that this nd the TD4 are not beloved,

Thanks to everyone for the help. I think I figured it out. As seems to be the common wisdom, flipping the front upright/spindle parts is a free trick reduce bump steer. In my case, it seems to have had the side effect of not allowing the servo to reliably recenter! Putting the uprights back to the stock positions seems to have solved this problem.

I’ve been running my Td2 with a Speed Passion 5.5T on 2s with the stock drivetrain aside from the aluminum diff nut. I have a slipper clutch ready to go but I had finished the car before I got it and I didn’t feel like tearing the car down again just yet when it had been running so well. It has been driven on pavement only. No dirt, no grass, no carpet, no jumps. I’ve been pretty easy on it and it had been running gloriously. The motor is obviously a lot more powerful than stock. It pulls hard and clocked in at 40mph on the stock ratio (meaning that it should be pretty close to 60 on 3s). I built in a lot of expo into the throttle and make a point of not slamming the loud pedal trigger too hard…but now after half a dozen packs, the drivetrain is starting to sound crunchy. I have yet to dissect the ball diff (because I really don’t want to…) but none of the other gears look damaged. Is the ball diff that fragile? Did I somehow screw up the assembly? What is the typical failure mode for a ball diff? Anyway, I’m considering a gear diff for this thing so any advice would be appreciated.

I just got finished installing the sway bar kit on my TD2 and I opted for the stiffer bars with smooth surface performance in mind. The cars that I want to keep for a long time don't get bashed in the dirt and mud. I'm realizing that the pin spike tires and high ground clearance will need to be addressed too so it got me wondering about how to optimize these off road buggies for on road performance. Which buggies do you run on the street? Which mods did you employ? Which adjustments did you make? How did it go?

It’s not as spicy as you might think! It seems to work fine for just cruising around too. The options for brushless motors with the wires coming out of the back of the housing are limited. A used Speed Passion 5.5T sensored motor showed up and I just went for it. No regrets! Thanks to the sensor system, the high kv is perfectly manageable at low speeds. I haven’t put the gps on it yet but on 2s it goes 40mph or so which means 60mph +/- is likely on 3s. I doubt I’ll ever try it but the TD2 seems to love the high speeds. It’s locked in and silky smooth.