Percymon
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Posts posted by Percymon
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I bought a set of ansmann buggy wheels with pin spikes fitted lasted week. They seem very soft so I'd avoid them for use on hard ground, although at £9 for a set of wheels n tyres they are still cheap.
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I've started refurbing my set, one had a crack in the outer rim edge but i managed to repair that with some CA adhesive.
As to the other nicks at the edges, deeper ones i 'filled' with styrene* , prior to a light sanding. Smaller nicks disappeared with the sanding.
* an offcut of styrene sheet is very handy for these sorts of purposes, put some plastic magic or similar adhesive onto the sheet offcut, mix with a small paintbrush and you have a nice styrene solution, that can be painted quickly onto damaged areas. You need to be quick because the solvent loading in the adhesive is very high.
Repairs are invisible once sanded back, and being white in colour present no challenge to cover with paint.
Mine will be black inside and out as a base coat, with chrome finish on the outer face - all going to plan !
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Did you calibrate the ESC correctly ?
the first movement of the stick is taken as forward (as far as the esc is concerned).
Another option is you have the motor wires crossed - i think its oraange from the esc to yellow on the motor, and blue esc to green motor of the top of my head but can check later if you like)
Whether the stick is in N or R doesn't really matter though - it operates the same.
Mine kicks into reverse pretty quickly, far quicker than the Tamiya 101 esc on my sons Rising Storm.
You would know if you had it wired backwards to the motor as forward would be 50% power and reverse would be very fast. The brakes would also only work when travelling backwards.good point oh wise one
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Where do you get those Chrome Seben racing wheels from ????
Can someone give me a link please???
Cheers
I bought via uk eBay but they sell direct at www.seben-racing.de
They were about £17/$27 delivered from germany to uk. Tyres are harder compound than the ansmann pin spikes I got this week.
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I'd assumed the OP was buying new kit, so the Hotshot will have the top access cover which helps (a bit anyway!) get to the electronics.
Very much horses for courses - i went for the hotshot purely based on my starting point,although i suppose it could quite easily have been made into a boomer. For me the Hotshot was a bit more iconic (although that coud be a nieve view), and the monoshock suspension (with its inherent running issues) made it different o my other buggies and imo is a bit of Tamiya engineering history.
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Thanks kaiser - i'd sort of realised the error of my post and was modding it when you kindly replied.
That rules out the ground pounder then - stick to clod as the base point !
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Oh hells bells guys - i was coming round to the idea of a new Clod kit, then someone mentions CPE !
Now i am completely confused
and really need an idiots explanation to help me out....If i were to buy a basic chassis kit like the CPE Predator http://www.crawfordperformanceengineering....?products_id=50 Would i just hook this up to some Clodbuster Fr and Rr axles / gearboxes,,front steering, aftermarket dampers , motors and esc ?
If the above is somewhere near right, could u do similar with the ground pounder (lower CofG) chassis http://www.crawfordperformanceengineering....;products_id=52 or is that so far off the clod that its a bag of trouble ??
I told you i was confused !
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Here's what I've done with mine:
Hand made 4 link suspension. Made from 4mm threaded rod, 6mm aluminium tube, some 4mm nuts (all available from BnQ relatively cheaply) and some Traxxas 4mm ball ends (from ModelSport.co.uk for about 8 or 9 quid for 8 iirc). Also some 100mm big bore Traxxas shocks. I pinched these from another kit, but I'd imagine you'd get a set for less than £20 if you shopped around.
Lock the rear steer.. Hand made from a bit of bent and cut aluminium sheet and steering arm:
2WS conversion. Essentially there are lugs on the ends of the clod axles and on top of the wheel hubs that restrict how much throw you have in the steering. Cut those off (with a dremel or hacksaw) and just fit a longer servo horn to maximise the extra movement. You can also make up a mount so that the servo sits on top of the axle and steers the one axle, instead of the stock setup that puts it in the middle of the chassis and steers both.
These simple, cheap mods won't break the bank, and absolutely transform the truck. It still bounces around a little (anything with tyres that large will!), but it's much more stable, doesn't crab after a turn, falls over far less frequently and is just generally a complete hoot. If you go for a full on mod-clod be prepared to spend a lot of money. Personally, I think you only really need to do that if you're going to race or look at putting stupidly quick motors in. For just general bashing, what I've described there will do you just fine!
Hope that helps.
2W
That helps a lot !
I'd forgotten about the rear steer, so locking that out i'd imagine firms the back end a fair bit, but then places more load at the suspension arms/axle mounts ?
I like the idea of the axle mounted servo too, moves a small amount of weight down to axle level , which can only help.
How robust is the chassis tub - if i end up stiffening the suspension with stronger springs/harder dampers am i in danger of just breaking plastic chassis tubs ?
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Sorry folks, me again with more questions...
Watched a load of youtube vids with the boy last night, he thought the Clod awesome but a bit bouncy and unstable at speed, and the dual hunter a great machine for general bashing.
I'm now wondering, if i can get hold of new Clod kit, what i'd need to do to it to make it more a 'racer', and a less a bouncy monster truck ? Obviously i can't do much about the height aspect, but handling ?
How much effect would some decent oil dampers and springs make ?
Are there ways to increase roll stiffness ?
Would i be better with a non Tamiya chassis kit combined with clod parts such as the axles/gearboxes? And if so is there a cheap(ish) chassis that would suit my needs. I'm assuming here that even a basic rock crawler chassis is going to be too articulation biased for my needs ??
Sorry for all the questions but been browsing RC4WD store and i'm completely baffled now !! I'm happy to buy bits n bobs over time if needbe but need to be realistic and think about the cost being similar to a Clod kit (£210) with some mods (£50 ? ).
Thanks again.
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I think this picture sums it up:
Must try harder - not enough mud by a long way !
Good to see people put them to use
Bought a can of Fastrax Rally Blue for son's Rising Storm - this is the third can of colour, so hopefully this is the one !. He wasn't happy with boxart cherry red (too pink) which i'd put with the kit at Xmas, decided he wanted blue so bought blue, then realised the decals are the same blue so will be lost on the car !
You live n learn (hopefully !)
Postie delivered steel pinion for Hotshot resto and a set of Ansmann Racing buggy wheels for bashing. Check where my EZRun system (just leaving HK according to the tracking system)
Filled in a few nicks and dents on the original Hotshot wheels, ready for sanding tonight and hopefully black and chrome painting at the weekend.
What's next ? - researching my next project !!
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hi all
Ive just managed to resize my pics, And with your help know where to get my parts and what to get (LOL)
Maybe going for a Baja bug or a Monster Mini....
Good choices and a monster mini will be a bit different to the norm!
Don't forget to look at cheap Chinese toys in supermarkets and pound shops, these ca sometimes throw up shells of the correct size and drivers figures!
Measure your wheelbase and cut a piece of paper or string the correct length to use as a measure when out shopping lol!!
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If its as much for display as it is for running then i think the Hotshot has more interest with its monoshocks front and rear. For running the monoshock isn't the best apparently , but i doubt in general bashing use you'd notice much difference with the twin shock rear of the Boomer.
I'd also say the Hotshot is possibly the more involved build, albeit marginal. I've really enjoyed restoring my Hotshot, a heck of a lot more enjoyable than the Rising Storm 4wd i built for my son at new year.
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Antics supposedly have them too. http://www.anticsonline.co.uk/1650_1_1317759.html
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the blue super clod is being discontinued. metallic version (with esc) still being made.
most likley scenario is they will add an esc to the super clod, maybe change a few things and call it the sototallyawesome clod.
And there in lies the gamble, grab one of the last while you can, only to find 3 months time another updated version with esc and 550 motors comes out !
We were warned mind...
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What thickness of sheeting should I be using for the rear wing? I reckoned 2mm (80 thou) thick would be alright, 1mm is probably too thin but much thicker and it would be hard to shape properly.
I think lexan shells are typically 1mm. I first bought 2mm but it look awfully thick and is quite heavy as an a4 sized sheet. I've gone to 1mm now which seems better for weight but I've not started modelling it yet. I did get some 1.6mm square channel which is 1mm internal so using that at joining edges will increase contact area - that's my plan but it could all change lol!!
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Time tunnel still showing it
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Has it occurred to anyone else that the RC car reviews from 1980s magazines were not very accurate, nor exactly helpful? I don't know whether it was because of the state of RC car magazine industry at the time or maybe we were just fine with wishy-washy printed reviews (because that was all the media we had back then) in the 1980s.
Many examples of so-so reviews can readily be found on the TC archives, take these two Clod buster reviews for example"
First one:
http://www.tamiyaclub.com/article.asp?id=114
The last page of the review, the picture caption says: "Nothing on earth will break this chassis". Errr.... Hello? Run this truck hard enough and everybody discovered that the hopeless B11 plastic braces will break, and the trailing arm mounts will start to tear out from the chassis. The reviewer just hadn't the time to run the truck properly to realise that the Clod had weak points. This isn't a review. This is a reviewer making assumptions.
Second one:
http://www.tamiyaclub.com/article.asp?id=154
The last page, the reviewer states: " The bodyshell seems to be very heavy which I'm sure accounts for its strength", then also saying that in economy mode the truck is slower but has just as much torque. Errr.... Hello? Styrene bodies are so much more brittle than lexan, but are used because they allow fine detail to be moulded in. Strength has got nothing to do with it. And economy mode providing as much torque as Power mode? haha.
Going through the archived magazine reviews, many of them use words like 'should be' and 'might be' when describing the cars reviewed. They read more like 'first look' style stories than proper reviews. Like the first example, I pointed out, it tells how great and indestructable the Clod Buster is. Well it wasn't exactly true. Many of the writers were also obviously not very technically inclined.
Any thoughts?
Thanks for pointing those out - i'd not found all the archive sections til you posted this !
With hindsight they are factually incorrect (indestructible for instance), but back in the day it was reviewed and written the clod probably did seem very well constructed and stronger than other models, after all most people are amazed when opening a Clod box. If the reviewer had abused the Clod for a few months prior to writing the article they may have seen the weaknesses owners subsequently found for themselves. In this respect RC is no different to any other article - people want to hear about new and exciting models, so articles are written quickly with little actual experience. I dare lots of BMW reviews extolled the technical merits of Nikasil coated cylinder bores, but owners in the North West found out the hard way they weren't all that good when mixed with higher sulphur petrol.
Reading those articles for the first time, 20+ years on, i found to be a nice bit of nostalgia so thanks again for pointing me at the archives. there's lots more reading for me there, no doubt lots of it similarly incorrect, but still good history for a relative newcomer with a bad memory
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Well as ever the old "YMMV" addage applies, but I've never rolled mine. Granted, it's still got the standard silver can motors in it, so it's not particularly fast by any means, (but I do run the 8.4V NiMH pack that came with my Slash for a bit of extra oomph) but the thing is people do tend to make the mistake with any car of just stuffing a high power motor in something without doing the chassis work first. Something like a Clod that has a relatively high CoG and fourwheel steering with hot motors in is just asking for trouble without that groundwork.
Saying that, I do also have the mod clod that I bought from MadInventor that runs on Twin Lipo and Twin 13.5T Brushless motors. Again, converting it to 2WS makes it a whole lot more stable, so I've never rolled that either.
Still, at the end of the day it's horses for courses. If you find that the Dual Hunter is more what you're after, more power to you! I'd be interested in how you get on and what your experiences are, as I don't know a great deal about them.
Thansk again for your input - fully agree a hot motor in a less than suitable chassis is asking for trouble. Also the youtubes vids wer ona grass slope negotiated at an angle as opposed to head on, which wont have helped (CoG outside the wheel track !). Its a symptom of all high riding vehicles (scale ot otherwise), and maybe the clod is not worse thana lunchbox type chassis, maybe better with the wider track and wheelbase and more bump absorbent tyres.
I'd regard the Dual Hunter as a jacked up buggy, so in some ways its not dissimalr to the rest of my stable - perhaps its a safe option. Maybe i should get something more unstable to have greater distinction from the buggies. I should convince my boy he needs a lunchbox for his birthday !
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Good luck with the rebuild.
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I've done it / doing it currently although my start point was probably a lot worse than yours....
http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?...c=59979&hl=
Parts are widely available within the UK, although i've bought some from tamiyaparts, some from vintage-tamiyaparts and other via ebay sellers like europro and victor101 here.
I've probably spent £130 on parts including new body which on one hand is a bit silly but on the other is still cheaper than a Re-re and i've had the enjoyment of stripping, cleaning part finding etc which for me was more enjoyable than just opening a box and building new. I've also got a brushless system on route from HK.
There are few differences in the various Hotshot models, so be careful when buying parts - most parts are interchangeable, but hotshot 2 used different rear suspension set-up so has less stabilizers balls in its parts bag (2) rather than 4 for the hotshot original and re-re. Theres a thread not too long ago about gearbox cases, and specing for E clips vs the original fragile and minute C clips.
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go the dual hunter ! i have a moded wilddagger and a moded clod , both are fun but the wd ( dual hunter / wilddagger /twin det = same thing ) was the cheapest to mod , yes the front srive shafts got jamed and bent on cornering when i put 75mm alloy oil filled shocks in but a set of cv shafts fixed that . theres a heap of replacement alloy parts out there on ebay or in online shops .. mine is set up as a crawler but when standard it went quite fast with stock motors .. the only complain is some batteries are a tight squeese to get out when playing in dirt and gravel as it sometimes james the battery in . other than that ..the twin motor range is a blast ....
Thanks - found one of your older posts yesterday and am inspired by your land cruiser!. With all the alloy parts available I'm now wondering whether I'd be better buying the basic chassis parts and building from that, rather than buying a stock kit and then extra the outlay of new motors, pinions, a few alloy bits and wheels.
Are all wild dagger, dual hunter and twin detonator parts full interchangeable ?
Better start searching parts suppliers to weigh things up, although I've found a great deal on a buggy champ rere so may change tack momentarily!
In answer to my own query earlier then buying the relevant base parts IS prohibitive at UK prices.
The 4 metal parts bags, gear parts, gearbox cases and chassis come to roughly £120. Given the kit with basic 540 motors, esc, body and wheels is only £25 more its a no brainer to buy the kit and mod/hop-up as and when i like.
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the dual hunter (or any of the other twin motor trucks on that platform) have interested me. i have seen a few up close and the drawbacks i see are:
touring car friction shocks
low ground clearance
that being said i know there's shock tower extensions so you can run 4 inch shocks, but it doesn't seem to increase ground clearance much.
i love clods though, stock to wildly modified. you can't go wrong with them, they are tough, the weakpoints of the original clod have been addressed with
the super clod. and as steelrat mentioned there are some mods you can do to it and it won't loose it's cool stock appearance.
clods are a blast and theres not much out there that can compare to them.
Thanks for your comments, I found an old thread of yours when you too were having a similar dilemma. I've watched a fair videos on YouTube of the clod in the last hour or so and to be honest most seem to spend half their time stood on their front or rear bumpers or rolling over. Perhaps that's part of the charm but I was hoping for something that could run in the dry and wet mud areas with the odd burst of speed and a bit of jump action.
From youtubes evidence the dual hnter, love it or loathe it, seems more suited to my expectations - I'm happy to be corrected though !
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Was thinking about a dual hunter, may well hang on now to see what the grave digger costs, although i'd prefer it in kit form
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Just seen Traxxas are bringing out a Grave Digger in their monster Jam series - probably sacriledge to mention it here , but with a 12T 550 motor and sealed electrics it might be right up my street.
and really need an idiots explanation to help me out....
Bitza 1/10 Semi Trailer
in Monster Trucks, 4x4, Wheelie Rigs and Crawlers
Posted
Build thread here..
http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?...c=58139&hl=
An excellent project, well worth the effort and imagination - a one off, that'll be admired many times over. Congratulations