speedy_w_beans

I did print a rear wheel last week but wasn't happy with the result. Whatever, there's a V2 on the horizon. In the meantime I worked on some battery trays. The chassis kit only supplied some large zip ties for holding a NiCd/NiMH pack longitudinally in the middle of the chassis. Rectangular hard case LiPos covered those zip tie holes, and the location of the steering servo and lack of clearance from the upper suspension rod meant it was nearly impossible to install or remove a battery without disassembling part of the chassis. Anyhow, this setup probably worked for carpet racing, old tech batteries, and peak charging between heats. But for bashing around I wanted something easier to deal with. I kept struggling with how to adapt smaller and thinner batteries to the center of the chassis, and then inspiration hit when I considered swapping the battery and electronics mounting locations. Instead of mounting a battery in the center of the chassis and surrounding it with electronics, why not put the electronics in the center of the chassis and surround them with batteries? The chassis has spare body post holes to leverage, so I quickly modeled a simple battery tray that accepts saddle pack cells. Interior dimensions are 70 mm x 47 mm, and it holds my saddle pack cells almost perfectly. Here's the outcome. The ESC moved to the center of the chassis. The battery trays tie into the spare rear body post holes, and I used the forward tray tab holes as drill guides to put a few more holes in the chassis plate itself. The trays are therefore held to the chassis with four screws each. The horizontal holes in the tabs also have button head fasteners in them, and then I have some hair bands stretched between the fasteners to act as rubber bands to hold the cells in place. I moved the receiver to the top of the servo, and then cleaned up the wiring with some zip ties. I'll solder a jumper to go between the saddle packs later. So, I'm happy with the body posts, battery trays, and axle adapters at this point. There's more work to do on wheels and headlights. Plus, I'm thinking about some protection for the pinion and spur so street debris doesn't mangle the gear teeth or invade the ball diff as much. More to come...

You can't tease us like this. C'mon, show us the rest of the shell!

Looks like the IFS/IRS rocker arms are set at the right angle, unlike the TA06. The upper suspension arms are prime for upgrade to a dual turnbuckle setup to set caster and camber. It looks like the rear has links for reactive rear steering and setting rear toe precisely. The picture calls out a LF2200 6.6V LiFe battery, but the tray looks universal. The text calls out the M07 and TB05, so maybe that's the design lineage? There's a shadow outline of a touring body, so it likely is 257 mm wheelbase and 190 mm width. To me the open questions include how much room for an ESC and how the rear prop shaft clears the battery. Looks prime for a lot of low sports car shells, not just Formula E.

I have seen one instance of a member here buying a whole collection from another member, but it was special circumstances.

I'm intrigued by this. Since it's a TC (like a TA or TB) and not a F10x, maybe it has a 257 mm wheelbase? I keep looking at the front fenders and exposed suspension arms, and I wonder where the dampers are. Is there a new IFS setup? Are they copying Awesomatix's rotary dampers? It also makes me wonder about new 1/10 low-nose bodies. They have a license for the Lancia Stratos in their static model lineup; this chassis looks like it could support such a body. Regarding drivetrain, 4WD is definitely easier to drive... Looking forward to seeing more details when they come out.

Give @acprc a try.

As soon as I saw this topic in the forum I jumped over to Tower and ordered more paint. I can live without new kits, but everything comes to a stop without paint...

I *think* a date like mid-April is just a general estimate, but an "order pending" may mean the distributor has shipped it and it's on its way to Tower. Usually the "order pending" stuff arrives relatively soon whereas the general dates are purely estimates. I wouldn't expect any accuracy around estimated dates right now due to COVID-19 for several reasons: No idea if Tamiya's plants had to shut down operations Shipping times in general have been slower as people stock up on tons of "essential" items, driving lots of freight volume Weren't some ships sitting at sea while shipping ports were shut down in some locations? No one is there to offload containers... TamiyaUSA was shut down for a period of time, including warehouse operations Tower's Super Saver discounts are similar to what they used to be a few years ago (~20% off), better than recent times There could be some quarantine boredom and "retail therapy" driving up purchases I think this disease affected production, international shipping, distribution, local shipping, retailers, and consumers to the point where supply slowed down and demand may have gone up, creating the gap you see in inventory.

Completely agree with this. I'd love to see some bodies released on the most recent TA, TB, and M chassis as complete kits.

Nice work!

Just to show how bad my eyes have gotten in the last few years, @ACCEL pointed out his build thread title is "Piano" and not "Plano!!!" How embarrassing... Anyhow, I'll shut up about Plano now... Let's get on with the good stuff, namely, the build!

The axle adapters are done. The width is 186 mm from hex to hex, just like I wanted, and they spin true. Wheels are being printed now.

With the ball diffs, two things: 1) Pay close attention to the instructions and be sure to flip it over before installing the diff screw, spring, and lock nut. It's a very tiny arrow in the illustration. Some people have missed it and wonder why their ball diffs keep loosening up. 2) The diff rings are secured to the outdrives with "synthetic rubber cement." I tried to use some Elmer's rubber cement, but it would slip the first time. After rebuilding the diffs and using the rubber cement a second time, it would stick ok. If I was building one for the first time again, I'd try some black RTV instead of rubber cement. Some people have used CA glue, but you'll never get the diff ring off if you want to replace it. Anyhow, something a little more sticky than rubber cement seems like a good idea.

Well, if it's not a tackle box by Plano Moldings or a Traxxas based in Plano, TX, then it seems like the more scholarly side of you is now showing as in Latin for "plan," or the hunter-gatherers of the Great Planes during the Archaic period. Just remember, Ella is watching...

Even lighter is a RM-01. It's 1/12 scale instead of 1/10 scale. It's around 750 grams full loaded with electronics and battery, or about 60% of a touring car. Since this is indoor and on a controlled surface (mat/carpet), the foam tires on the RM-01 should provide plenty of traction.

Ah, there are quite a few differences... Durga Based on TRF501x wheelbase and belt size Standard plastics (mostly PA and PA-GF) NiMH battery tray, usable with LiPo if you get a TA05 carbon battery strap No heat sink on the motor mount No slipper Non-reinforced drive belts Ball diffs Dog bones CVA dampers Ball bearings Basic turnbuckles and adjusters Body set, wheels, and tires RR Based on TRF501x wheelbase and belt size Carbon reinforced plastics (PA-based) LiPo battery tray Heat sink on the motor mount; exposed on the bottom of the chassis Slipper clutch standard Reinforced drive belts Gear diffs CVDs Big bore threaded dampers Ball bearings Better turnbuckles and adjusters No body, no tires (can't remember if they give you wheels or not) RRR Based on the TRF503 wheelbase and belt size Carbon reinforced plastics (PA-based) LiPo battery tray Heat sink on the motor mount, exposed on the bottom of the chassis Slipper clutch standard Reinforced (and longer) drive belts Gear diffs (with larger tooth count) CVDs Big bore threaded dampers Ball bearings Better turnbuckles and adjusters No body, no tires (can't remember if they give you wheels or not) I started with a Durga, built a pair of Rs, and have a RR in the box. When the RRR came out I skipped it due to the unique belts and gear diffs; I have too many parts accumulated for the TRF501x-based models and don't want to keep stock of TRF503-style parts.

While the printer is making the first axle adapter, I put together a model for the rear wheels using the F1 barrel profile but the touring car hex position. The face of the wheel is designed so when the F1 tire is installed, the extra sidewall leaves enough lip exposed to match the wall thickness of the center hole. There's enough tire sidewall now that I think I can cut a red circular stripe in vinyl and mimic the stripe on the original Hot Wheels car. So now it's going to take some time to print the other adapter and both wheels; hopefully the next time I post there will be some real pictures to show...

It's mostly meant for sealed gear diffs and is too thick for normal oil dampers, but I have seen it as an option for lubricating damper tubes on pan cars (CRC Tube Lube: https://www.amainhobbies.com/crc-tube-lube-5000cst-cln4505/p453439?v=181589). 10,000 cst silicone oil would be a very sticky lube for gears; it would add a lot of drag. If you're wanting to try something different for gears, consider some dry PTFE like what is used on bicycle chains.

I ordered some tires on April 11. PayPal payment cleared on April 13. The latest status indicates shipped on April 15. Since they were just tires, I picked the cheapest option; I don't know when they'll get here. Usually it's 2-3 weeks for post and ~1 week for EMS, but as other note those times could be stretched with COVID 19.

Hmm.. Plano.. Is it because the sealed chassis looks like a tackle box to you? Or are you inspired by Traxxas?

Onward and upward... I measured quite a few features on wheels tonight. Below are some notes; maybe these will be helpful to someone else someday. I do think I have a little more insight about touring car wheel offset now, though. When someone talks about a +0 mm offset or a +3 mm offset, it's always been kind of a mystery to me what that really means in terms of wheel dimensions. I knew that more offset meant "wider," but that was about it. For reference I measured a Tamiya 24mm wide touring car wheel, and as it turns out, if you take the mounting face located 17 mm from the back face of the wheel, then subtract the typical 5 mm thick mounting hex, that aligns the centerline of the wheel with the back of the mounting hex on the axle stub. So a +3 mm offset wheel would move the centerline of the wheel 3 mm outboard, adding track width. Anyhow, my intention for measuring all these wheels was to design an adapter that goes from the RJ speed axle hubs to the standard touring car wheel, and with +0 mm offset wheels, set an overall width of 200 mm. There might come a day I want to run TC wheels on this pan chassis. For now, though, once I have adapters appropriate for TC wheels, it's possible to design a F1 wheel with a 12 mm hex so the tires with the thicker sidewalls can be used. Here's the adapter. It's very similar to a RM01 adapter. There's internal clearance for the thrust bearing, nut, and axle end. There's a M4x12 cap head screw installed from the inside to expose about 8 mm of threads for a wheel and flange nut. I'm thinking I'll add a few drops of CA glue to the screw before I install it; that way it won't loosen when I go to tighten the wheel nut later. The hub flanges on the axle measure 125.1 mm currently. With the adapter height set to 30.5 mm, two of them added to the axle creates a 125.1 + 30.5 + 30.5 = 186.1 mm width between the outer faces of the 12 mm hexes. From there any 0 offset touring car wheels that are installed will add another 7 + 7 = 14 mm of width, so the total will come out to 200.1 mm. I may add another 1 mm offset to each F1 wheel, and the rubber actually sticks out another 0.8 mm, so the width may end up 203.7 mm, which is close to the 203 mm I measure when the foam tires are installed. Here's another view with the adapter transparent. You can see the internal features this way. There's about 2 mm of clearance between the M4 cap screw and the end of the axle. The internal clearances have some margin, but there's also plenty of material throughout the whole adapter. I don't expect an adapter to crack in half and lose a wheel while driving... It's probably time to fire up the printer and make a few of these for testing. Next up will be the rear wheels.

Took a lot of measurements of the rear axle, foam tires/wheels, and F1 tires/wheels tonight. Then I did a quick and dirty model of the rear axle and the foam tires to get some idea of how things are really positioned. Note there are four mounting holes on each side's flange (only two used at a time), but in my Hot Wheels wheel model above I have five spokes. This means one mounting screw is easy to access, but the other one is blocked by the opposing spoke. I could go to six spokes, but that ruins the look compared to the original model. After a bit of trial and error and considering options, I think what's going to happen is there will be an adapter that converts the flange into a hex, similar to how it is done on the RM01 or F103GT. Since the axle is only 150 mm long, there's enough room for two M4x20 cap head screws acting as axle stubs and the surrounding material to capture them. Baseline model to start some designing with...

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/manuals.asp?cm=519 https://www.tamiyaclub.com/manuals.asp?cm=530 I suppose worst case scenario you can download the individual page images and print them all to single PDF for reference...

I miss HPI. I want a 787B!