Jonathon Gillham

Some brands do say their esc is for a particular use but most seem to be general (which makes sense, why would they need to change). Often the motor turn limit gives it away, they will say its 3.5T for onroad or 2wd offroad and 5.5T for offroad 4wd or similar. I bought mine with a view to using them in any of my racecars which are F1, Touring Car and 2wd and 4wd buggies. I think the biggest thing to consider is the weight, if you're entering a clads like F1 where the weight matters then the smallest lightest one is the way to go, but in 4wd mod buggy it doesn't matter

Sorry should have added - fdr = spur/pinion x internal ratio

My Lazer is 4wd and runs 17.5T blinky and the fdr is 5.4. You have a 13.5T motor right and the XXX is 2wd? So I would aim for fdr between 6.3- 6.8 as a start point and then see if you like the way it performs and check the temps from there. You're right that brushless have a lot more torque, I was able to lower my fdr to increase top speed without noticably affecting acceleration, and at 5.5 the temps are fine, i can run about 20min before I have to think about giving it a chance to cool down. I would check my Ultima as that is 2wd but I'm currently an 8hour drive from home and won't be home for a week or so.

My ESC can be programmed to forward/brake or fwd/rev/brake. Many clubs don't want you to use reverse when racing as you can reverse into traffic, so its pretty common, although I have no idea how many won't have reverse rather than can be programmed to not have reverse. Even the Tamiya TBLE-02S can be programmed to have reverse or not. That model available privately looks good, it can handle brushed or brushless so you may be paying more for that function. I tend to buy brushless only as I won't run brushed motors (other than the kit silvercans on TBLE-02S but I like the TBLE since its cheap to put a brushless motor in) No warranty but then from what I've heard Hobbyking don't really give a warranty anyway so worth a punt at that price!

Check out RCMart, they have it for half price at the moment, at least I think its the same one.

I bet he won't be factoring in shipping to New Zealand...you could bring some down when you decide you want a summer that lasts more than an afternoon?

I have no idea but the lengthwise battery shouldn't be a problem as they always show a stick pack but you can use a shorty in them which should free up the required space. I mount the esc in front of the battery in my TRF102 so there is plenty of room

They look really good, its a shame they are so far away... I have a set the same but probably not as good, much easier than mucking around with balance boards etc

That seems far too sensible!

Luckily I don't have any ongoing projects, other than me, ie learn to drive! My plans for 2018 are to keep practicing and reducing my lap times. I doubt it includes any new kits (although my son may tell my wife that I need a monster truck like his since he'll be the only one with one...) so any purchases will be repairs for the bashers and rere's, or upgrades for the race cars if there is anything that could be improved. Actually a "project" would be helping my son learn to drive so he can come and race with me. He is getting a Futaba 3PV for Christmas which should help, it has EPA adjustment which means he can learn and then speed the car up to match his ability. He has been using the cheap gear so far which hasn't helped. I guess another project is making my wife forget about this years spending to allow some for next year...

I have been really impressed with Speed Passion especially for the price. Then again I got the esc/motor deal that is now out of stock at RC Mart... Another brand to check out is Maclan, I have only seen great reviews about them. The specs stack up really well and they are around 2/3 the price of Orion. They don't fit your vintage plans though as Maclan has only been around a couple of years. The latest Orion ESC is NZD$489 down here, and the motors are around NZD$200, so it is crazy money for their top gear. My NZD$100 Trackstar combo still clears the double...

You're right about Novak, Orion and LRP being great brands and their gear will go great in your buggy. A lot of people at my offroad club run Orion and they are consistently at the front of the pack at national events. If budget isn't an issue then go nuts and buy the best. On the track my Trackstar powered buggies keep up with the cars running Orion gear, and the Speed Passion gear in my Touring Car matches the others onroad as well, so the cheaper gear can perform just as well as the more expensive. That Novak combo you've linked looks like its for Short Course Trucks, its 4 pole which gives more torque. It would work fine in your 2wd buggy just not be optimised for it. Are you interested in taking the Losi along to club races at all? If you are, then I would check out the rules and buy the motor to fit a class. At my clubs its 17.5T, 10.5T or open motor, so you would have to run the 13.5T in either 10.5T blinky and be a bit slower than the others, or program the esc and run open/mod. Given you can gear for the motor you probably won't give much speed away anyway, but something to bear in mind.

I suspect the XV01 is mod .6 which some people refer to as metric 48p. Its actually quite a big difference between mod .6 and 48p gears (64p is pretty close to mod .4 so some people use them interchangeably). Tamiya are a pain when it comes to gears, I have swapped my TA07 and TRF102 to 48p as that is far more common and I can share pinions with my Kyosho buggies. For those it was just a change of the spur gear and pinion but I haven't seen an XV01 so no idea if its feasible or not.

I also use the equivalent of poundland superglue and it works great, but only use it on racers not bashers. The time I did it watching youtube tutorials etc it turned out rubbish and I have to reglue them every race meet, which doesnt work as its dirty. Then doing it trackside furiously between races it was perfect and I didn't glue anything that wasn't supposed to be glued. Gluing the edge of the TRF102 carbon chassis was amdifferent story though, stuck to the car stand and my thumb quietly got it apart with a knife before anyone noticed...

I charge mine as close to using them as possible. If i'm going to the track in the afternoon, then charge in the morning. I do charge them the night before if its an early start the next day. The longest I've left a battery charged is about a week. Storage charge is when you charge them to about 3.9v per cell which is like a resting voltage. My carger has a storage function so it does it for me when i select that mode. I storage charge as soon as practical after getting home from using them, which can be that afternoon or the next day. As i only really use mine for racing they are pretty much at the right voltage anyway after a race so i coukd get away without doing it. If bashing then you could have run them quite low so would need to do it as sson as you can. I think storage charge means you can leave them for ages, ie you coukd do it at the end of summer and then leave them until spring happily. I wouldn't keep them fully xharged for any length of time. My charger charges at 1C, so would charge yours at 6amps. 1C is safe, 2C is probably fine though.

Yep I put them all on my bashers, the racecars are a bit more hit and miss but they don't really have decals like bashers

Ok stupid question time, but looking at shims they appear to have those same numbers ( eg 5 mm ID, 8 mm OD, 2.5 mm width) so am I right in thinking that these will be the same size as the 850 bearings but .3mm thick? These are just an example. https://www.rcjaz.co.nz/arrowmax-am13ss0004-shims-5x8x03-10-p-90083130.html I'm putting together an order from rcjaz which I'll probably buy in January when we're back from holiday. I find rcjaz shipping to be better, RCMart seem to charge more the more you get when others will give you a weight limit to fill up, or even discount the more you spend.

Go on, you can't post a pic with an AMG mat and not say what it is...

Successful More my negotiating skills to manage to get 4 race cars past the Home Office, rather than success using the cars so far, but things are improving...oh and to get 5 other cars too. My prediction for my word for 2018 is Frustrating as my lap times don't go down as my spending goes up...

Ok thanks, good to know. The bearings in the wheels are 850s, do you know if you can get wider versions of those as that would work, I think. That would have been perfect! I will see how this goes and if the adjustment is necessary then I can buy that, it won't exactly break the bank. Trying to work out what I need for onroad has involved a lot of trial and error, the offroad cars were much easier as they were secondhand so came set up. Also it doesn't help buying a TRF102 and then trying to make it work on carpet, after reading more its pretty unanimous that this is a tarmac car...

Its currently got the kit damper oil (400wt i think, standard yellow stuff), so softer springs and I shoukd be good? I have spring kit 53440 so have some options. Good point about steering epa, no doubt i will forget though. I am most worried about the ESC so will try to take it easy. It is rated to 3.5T, hopefully it can handle 5.5T withsome boost...

A busy day of rc for me. I now have 9 cars (of 9!) that work. Just a case of putting some motors back in, soldering an esc plug, binding and installing a receiver, the usual little things that you put off when you can just grab a different car. Also my puffy lipo has returned to normal, does this mean it was temporary and is fine or will it just puff again when its used?

I missed the last race meet of the season with this car but did run the TA07 with pretty good results. I got talking to a guy who runs one of these and he told me that converting to the wide front end from the F103 or TRF101W is essential for the track we run on. He showed me a couple of setups that he had and one of them was the F103 front end which he ordered from RCMart and another was from a local shop that cost 5 times as much. I did some research and the TRF101W setup is the best part of USD$100 vs USD$15 for the F103 setup so you can guess what I chose... I got the carbon reinforced F103 front end, some 42mm titanium turnbuckles and those other pins go through the end and hold the springs and uprights in place. Comparing the F103 manual to the TRF102 manual didn't really help so it was a case of try fitting the jigsaw together and hoping. You have to assemble the uprights on the bottom part which was pretty straightforward, it was just a case of trying the different spacers and seeing what worked. Here it is complete and attached to the car, I sort of forgot to take more pics along the way. I need some shorter bolts but those work and the extra length doesn't touch the body so no real reason to change them. The wheels now fit as the uprights are shorter than the TRF102 but there is a small problem, the axles are a little bit long. This allows a bit of play in the wheels so I will need some washers, I think. Would it be best to put the washers on the inside or outside of the wheel? I gave it a test run and it seems to go ok, but given the ride height and foam tyres I just ran it in the lounge. My wife thought I was harassing the dog but the dog didn't go outside like she was told so it was her fault really. I really need a new bodyset for it now because of the changes to the front end. If I had done this one to be a replica of a team or something I may have kept it for the shelf, but I just cut more off it to make it fit. Its not ideal but I don't see the body lasting more than a season so I'll buy a new one when this one is ruined. The front is a lot wider, I think its gone from 180mm to 200mm wide, and the outside of the front wheels are now the same as the rears. I should have taken a photo of it in the box, its a tight squeeze but the box around it shows the dimensions really well. I also added the velcro for the transponder and so once the wheel wobble is sorted then this is ready to race next season. Of course that is until the first practice and I need to sort out the setup, but I think its not too far off.

I pretty much have this week off so will get the TA07 ready for a speed run in a couple of weeks. The motor is sorted, thats a 5.5T on 2s. I will be on the road which is pretty smooth but obviously not prepped so will have stones. What ride height do people use? What springs and shock oil? Anything else I need to do as far as setup?

Swapped the F103 front end onto the TRF102 for more width and it allows me to fit the wider F103 front wheels too. Also did some tinkering on the TA07 and swapped the wheel hexes to aluminum (no idea why the kit comes with plastic), swapped springs to extra stiff up front and stiff at the rear (as per Qatmax advice) and fitted a cooling fan. I hope I haven't cooked the motor already, it was smelling pretty hot at the last racemeet. Next duties for the TA07 is some speed runs over the christmas break so when the 21.5T motor is out I will reduce the timing. I will probably need a cooling fan for the ESC for the speed runs too, 5.5T motor will probably put a bit more load on it...