markbt73

Or you could be lazy and leave it white and cover it in stickers, like I did.

Someday I want to restore a Wild One and an original Blackfoot. Both would be runners, without too much concern for originality as long as the "essence" of the vehicle is kept intact. Other than that, I just want to focus on improving the vehicles I have, not going crazy, but minor tweaks here and there. I don't really have any interest in something I won't drive, so unless the deal of a lifetime materializes in front of me (a $25 SRB at a garage sale or something), I only really want those two cars. So yeah, I guess I have a plan.

Traxxas makes waterproof servos now. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti00...=LXTKL0&P=7

I use a Futaba 2PCKA Magnum Junior that I've had for several years. It's 75mhz, has all the adjustments I can figure out how to use, and is weighted/balanced correctly in the hand. I put a Kimbrough scalloped rubber grip on the wheel to replace the smooth foam one, which makes a huge difference to the ergonomics of the thing. I'd like to upgrade to 2.4 so I could stop misplacing crystals, but it's too expensive at the moment. Before that I had an Airtronics XL2P for about twelve years. When I find a transmitter I like, I tend to stick with it.

Happens all the time on those chassis. I never found a solution for it. If the shrinkwrap is already torn, you might think about taking off the plastic end cap before you re-wrap it. Not having that little lip on the last 1/4" of the pack might make it slide out easier.

"The" wrench? You don't have scores of them, hiding in kitchen drawers and backpacks and car glove boxes? Meeting at night in secret, and plotting to stage a coup on the socket set for toolbox dominance?

This is something I've been doing for a while now, and I thought somebody might benefit from the idea. When I take a car someplace to run, I hate to lug along my whole big toolbox. I'm not going to need a soldering iron or an airbrush or five different screwdrivers just to keep the car up and running, so why carry them? Instead, I made up a little repair kit that fits inside a tiny Tupperware container, about 2x2x1 inches. Inside the container are a Tamiya box wrench, an L-wrench for pinion gears, some zip ties, a couple squares of double-stick tape, a small roll of electrical tape, a spare rod end and ball joint, a couple body clips, and a couple wheel nuts. Basically anything that's likely to break/loosen/get lost on a day at the park. This plus a Leatherman for screwdrivers and pliers is enough to do minor repairs and keep the day from getting ruined. And since it's in my pocket, I can do repairs on the spot instead of having to carry the car back to the toolbox.

It might. It will certainly struggle. I tried that combination once, with a 27 turn, and it just wasn't any fun. Very fast on level ground, but it took forever to get up to speed and it had no guts at all off road. I think I ended up using HPI Super RS4 wheels on it (the same size as standard 2.2 buggy wheels).

Wow. Kudos to Futaba's BEC circuitry then, because I didn't even think of that. And yeah, an ESC will have one of three setups: 1. 0-50% of throw is brakes, 51-100% is reverse 2. Time delay (sometimes adjustable) between brakes and reverse 3. "Double-click" setup (the way Tamiya ESCs are, and my personal favorite). 1st push is all brakes until you return to neutral, then 2nd push is all reverse.

Lunchbox, or anything with a short wheelbase and big tires. It's like driving a cartoon.

They always do these when I'm too broke to buy anything.

I thought we already did the "other hobbies" thread, but anyway, here goes: I write fiction, currently working on a novel, and I also have a book of short stories I'm going to try to get published one of these days. I also have a blog of old memoirs and essays called Breakfast in Davenport. I'm a pretty fair rhythm guitar player. I've played in two cover bands before, and a couple friends of mine and I were trying to get something going before I left Los Angeles, but it never worked out. Also on the musical front, my wife has got me singing karaoke now, too. I'm not as nuts about it as she is, but I did win an "Impersonator Night" contest back in L.A. doing Elvis Costello. I used to restore/modify old guitars as well, but it's too expensive. So now I mess around with cheap guitars. My current project is a Squier '51. Rewired with a 3-position toggle switch and a new bridge pickup from Guitar Fetish, as seen here. My next project on the musical instrument front will be building my own Class A tube amp from a kit. I'm also learning how to cook, and trying to learn something about wine. And one day, I want to restore an old truck, either a 1950s era pickup or a Scout/Jeepster/Bronco.

I've been thinking about adding one more car to the fleet, once money isn't so tight. I want a 4WD truck, and I've been trying to figure out what the best all-around package would be. There have been some great releases recently, but oddly, the one I'm gravitating towards is the one I originally thought least likely: the 58406 Cayenne S kit. Here's why: first, according to the Tower Hobbies website, it will come with full bearings. Tower has been wrong before, so I want to verify that before I order, but if it does, that's one less thing I have to buy. (I can't find anything either way about bearings on Tamiya's site.) Second, it's a chassis I know and love; I had a TA01, a TA02, and a Blazing Star in the past. And third, I don't think much of 1:1 Cayennes (a Porsche SUV always seemed silly to me), so I won't feel bad about trashing, and ultimately replacing, the shell. I know everyone's all excited about the CR01 and the new Hilux, but they're both far out of my price range, and even it I had the money, more than I can justify for a toy. I thought about the re-re Pajero, but I'd be afraid to bash with it for fear of banging up the body, much as I love that solid rear axle chassis design. I want something I can abuse with impunity. I also considered the Dualhunter, but it's hideous, and I want something more scale. Tower lists the Cayenne as not being in stock yet, but with a price of $159. With bearings and an ESC (I have no problem with the TEU101; all of mine work great), that's a bargain. (It's still more than I can spend at the moment, but soon, hopefully.) Does anyone have one of these kits yet? Can you confirm/deny the existence of ball bearings? What about a ball diff in back like the old TAs?

One immediate word of warning: DON'T use your airplane radios for cars. It's illegal, and any airplane guys in the area will hate you forever if you cause interference and crash one of their birds. Get an inexpensive 2 channel surface-frequency radio. You can run 2 ESCs from one 2-channel radio with a simple servo Y-harness. I had this setup in my Clod Buster for a while, with 2 cheap Duratrax ESCs (was cheaper than buying a single no-limit reversing ESC at the time, probably isn't these days). Just make sure you get them set up the same. You'll need a battery for each ESC, and try to get the two batteries as matched as possible, so one doesn't dump before the other. Out of curiosity, how are you setting up the two motors in the Hummer chassis? Did you get a FF01 gearbox for the front or something?

Aren't there also certain flavors of the TT-01 that come with ball bearings and real shocks now? Edit: Never mind, I just checked Tower's price listings. I didn't realize the TA05 was so cheap...

How about using it on a re-re Lunchbox chassis, for a Big Bear the way it should have been? Wheelbase should be about right...

That little piece of grit in the pinion gear is enough to lock it up. Bevel gears are precise parts, and even a tiny grain of sand might as well be a boulder. Clean both gears thoroughly (an old toothbrush works great) and clean out the housing, and try again.

Best: three-way tie between an original Blackfoot, Wild Willy 2, and my current Lunchbox. All three are endless fun to just plain play around with, and all three have had the stuffing beaten out of them and come back for more. Honorable mention: Any of the RC10 variants I've had over the years: black-pan Team car, 10LSS graphite, B3, GT. Vehicles like these are what makes Associated's descent into RTR madness so disappointing. Worst, at least from a good-concept-poor-execution standpoint: Kawada 1:12 scale 4WD Porsche 911. Pretty, fast, interesting to build, but the chain tore into battery shrink-wrap, and popped off the front sprocket at least once per run, no matter how tight I set it. One side of the front suspension bound up all the time, too, even after several rebuilds. Something just didn't line up right. Dishonorable mention: Marui Big Bear. Great idea, but the Blackfoot and LB/MP just did it better.

Bricklin SV1. I'm fresh out of ideas, so if anyone else has one, please post it.

Once again I have to ask: Where's the kit version? Why is it that you can only get the super-deluxe-World-Champion-carbon-fiber-and-unobtanium version as a very expensive kit (less wheels, tires, and body), the dumbed-down RTR version, or the "pre-built" RTR-minus-electronics? I'm tempted to build one of these things from spare parts and then write the manufacturer and tell them I made my OWN kit version. Slightly off topic: the one thing this does prove is that it's still possible to make plastic pieces that look like roll cages. So why is it, exactly, that every "buggy" model on the market is a vaguely insectoid amorphous blob with oversized wheels instead of a scale model of a dune buggy? Come on Tamiya. Show them how it's done. Slap a roll cage on the DT-02 and make it a "Neo Wild One." ...I guess that's enough grumpy oldtimer ranting for one day. I'm off to work on the scratch-built exhaust pipes for my Hemi Coupe...

The best way to troubleshoot a wiring problem is to take it one step at a time, and double-check every connection. Don't assume that anything is in the right place; check it. Get out the manual for the car and the manual for the radio and the little sheet that came with the ESC and check each connection again. Make sure it's plugged in in the right place, plugged in the right way, and plugged in fully. But don't skip anything because "that can't possibly be it," because it might be. If all the connections check out, make sure the receiver antenna wire isn't touching any other wires. Or anything else for that matter. Make sure the crystal is in the receiver, and plugged in all the way. Test it with a fully-charged battery, and make sure the transmitter batteries are good. If none of that helps, you might actually have a faulty unit. It does happen, even to Tamiya. But I'm guessing not. Just take it slow and step-by-step, and I'm sure you'll find the problem.

You can't change the spur gear in any of the M-chassis cars. They don't use standard spur gears; all the gears are internal and specific to that chassis. Gearing choices are limited to the 3 different pinion choices. ...unless they made a "speed tuned" gear set for them like the TL01 that I've never heard of, but I don't think so.

I'm a tinkerer by nature. Pretty much every hobby I have or have ever had has required its own dedicated toolbox. I have messed around with real cars, electronics, model rockets, vintage guitars (you think finding the parts to build a Sand Scorcher is expensive and painful, try a 1971 Stratocaster), and woodworking. I love working with my hands, but generally only if it's something I want to do instead of something I have to do. And I've been a car guy since I was tiny. So RC is basically the ideal hobby for me. I've drifted in and out a couple times: I gave away all my RC stuff when I went to college (a Blackfoot, a Falcon, a Kyosho Turbo Raider, and a Marui Big Bear; oh how I'd love to have them back) and then took it up again a couple years later. That has happened a couple of times now. Honestly, most times it has been Tamiya that brought me back, once with touring cars, once with a fully-customized Clod Buster, and most recently with the re-releases. Their products just "talk" to me, and I can't say that about any other maker (except Associated ten years ago, before they turned into another RTR-pusher). I'll probably always build model cars, and some of them will probably be radio-controlled, and they will probably have two stars on the box. I've been building and running RC cars for two-thirds of my life; no point in stopping now.

I noticed that about mine too. I assumed it would run in after a while, and it hasn't, but that's fine since the car is semi-retired now. I'll bet after a couple dozen runs it frees up.

It's sure affecting mine. I'm unemployed at the moment.