Jonathon Gillham

My son has had a 3PV for about 7 years now and its never missed a beat. It has been a great radio. He has taken on the MT4S now as having all Sanwa is a bit eaiser rather than having 2 different rx available. Personally I would go for the 4PM (or secondhand 4PV if you can find one, I think the 4PV looks better) as the 3PV is a small radio and not as comfortable in the hand. The 3PV also has an annoying UI where you sdroll through all options to get to what you want, rather than menus. You have radios for a long time, so won't regret it in the long run.

I have the HTRC C240 which is the same charger but without the touchscreen Loads of people use them without issue, including serious racers so no issues with performance or reliability on the charger. I know what you mean about them being relatively cheap, but a few years ago during the lockdowns that was all some shops could get and they were happily selling them and now people are still happily using them. Now I forget the original question, but I fiddle with the leads and its mint!

I didn't do anything, not even heat the screwpins when building. This car has seen a few motors over the years but most running has been on a silvercan in the backyard. I have 2 more put away to build later, ideally another weekend build with my son

My experience is based on the Boomerang, Fire Dragon/St Dragon and Top Force, so close enough. All got bearings from day one. The Shots got a metal A5, and the Top Force got the metal motor mount, but also a bu ch of other things like hicaps, turnbuckles, plastic gears etc and of course being a Top Force already had the drive shaft. In many years of running the Boomerang has been amazing. It lost a front dogbone and thats it, and this is about 6 years of running. The Shots have the dodgy arms and have been replaced a number of times with minimal running The Top Force has been fine, but had the most upgrades during the build. Top Force handles the best, its night and day difference Boomerang is indestructible.

I have a couple but they dont get run much. Unfortunately they are too fast for our backyard but don't fit any racing classes. We only run cars in the backyard or at the clubs, we don't got to parks etc. I took them to a hobby shop who had a comm lathe and they sorted them for me. I didn't see the point in buying a comm lathe when its just as easy to buy a brushless motor instead. So sorry, but I'm no help here

What supplier, keen to buy for that price!

There is also the TB05, they released this in Pro and R spec. I would buy the Pro as it has adjustable motor position and is much cheaper. However when I needed a shaft drive pastic tub chassis the R was the only on available and its a fantastic kit. For parking lots don't rule out the older TB and TA cars (except the TA06, that was awful by all accounts)

Hudy and MIP are the best of the RC brands. I know people with both who have had them for years and years without issue. I have the Arrowmax purple tools which were fine for about 5 years. They are quite a bit cheaper than MIP or Hudy and I have heaps of types and sizes so it made sense. You can replace the tips, so I now have Arrowmax handles with Hudy tips on the 1.5mm, 2mm and 2.5mm so its worked out really well. I'm about to add a 2.5mm ball driver and will get the arrowmax purple for that too. I probably use mine more than most too as we run 10th on and off road, plus 8th scale off road cars so can be racing up to 3 times a month.

We have been using the 15T pinion with the kit silvercan with no issues for years. Thats running on grass too which is generally harder on the motor. A sport tuned may have an issue though as I'm pretty sure the manual specifically says not to use one. A 14T pinion may be better for sport tuned? Or the 15T if you run on concrete This is in a Boomerang and it has bearings installed.

I've used Yeah Racing and 3Racing and found them to be decent for the price. They even do titanium ones for reasonable money which are a lot stronger than the kit aluminium ones. Those brands are a good compromise of price and performance

MAH - this depends on a few things. Higher MAH will usually mean a bigger, heavier battery which lasts longer. How long is the race? 1:10 are usually 5 - 6 min so 4000mah to 6000mah is usually ok. Longer races need more mah Class - stock classes with high turn motors and no esc timing generally needs more mah. The bigger battery will give more punch for longer in the slower classes which matters in the last minute or 2. It doesn't matter for mod classes as they're overpowered anyway so you can run a smaller battery. Weight distribution. If the car is under weight you can add weight where you want it, which can include running a lighter battery with a weight underneath, lowering your COG I usually run 5000 - 6000mah and at the end of a 5 -6 min race the battery will have arounf 7.6 - 7.9v which is well above the loq voltage cutoff. If in doubt buy around this size C rating - I'm sure they all lie but bigger is better

Its about weight distribution, if you lower the rear more weight is transferred to the rear wheels. When we put adjustable suspension in the 1:1 race car it was amazing to see how ride height was used to adjust this. Put the car on corner weights, raise or lower slightly to move weight on or off that wheel. Also, with the base setup the car (fwd) felt tail happy on some sweepers off power and the advice was to lower the rear by a whole rotation on the shock body, or stop backing off so much to keep more weight on the rear (i guess thats what adult diapers are for?!) You can download the Hudy setup guide which is worth a read. It has tables in it which have the 'issue' like oversteer mid corner, with suggested fixes in the order you should do them. So it may say reduce rear rollbar, increase front roll bar, lower rear or raise front, stiff front spirngs or softer rear springs etc etc so you can go through step by step and make changes. Its quite easy to do for onroad but I really struggle with (dirt) offroad as its not so clear whether its setup or there is a big whole mid corner which you need to avoid.

I always forget about those. They would work well, with the caveat that you'd need to be experienced to set it up to work properly. There won't be any parts or setup support at the vast majority of places, but I think people on here have them running successfully Unfortunately the answer to this question always comes back to running something else, and starting out its best to run what the majority run so you can get help (and you can often buy secondhand from someone there).

They did, the FF04 Evo but its almost TRF level (missing some bits) with a price to match. Its basically a XV01 without the belt and all the hop ups. I stripped down and rebuilt my TA07 Exo7 today, just over a year after the flood. Plugged it in, it worked for about 5secs and then smelt funny...but its been replaced by a Yokomo BD11 so this is being rebuilt for the shelf. Loads of rusted screws and bearings, but after about 4 hours of work plus new bearings and screws its actually in pretty good shape. It looks so pretty, it has pretty much every hop up (even bulkheads) so looks amazing!

Thank you, have ordered a couple of sets - hopefully they are the old ones.

Which shop was that? I've bought all mine from rcmart, should have looked closer to home!

Funnily enough I've just rebuilt a RC10B6D (2014ish i think?) today (yep, flood was a year ago, race meet this Sunday so figured I should rebuild it!) and needed a few bits and found all locally, although admittedly 2 different shops. And there are places like Bezerk RC that make things like shock towers too, so if keeping it all Ae isn't an issue I expect these should keep going for a while yet. You raise a good point though, it would make sense to get the B74 rather than a B64 if going Ae as they are a lot newer so should have parts support for longer. Just picked up a Yokomo YZ2 DTM3.0 with 1 meeting old electronics (HW XR10 Pro, G4 17.5T and Savox 1267) for NZD580, definitely the best way to buy!

@Marchie where are you based? Those prices sound like NZD...and those tracks could be Counties or West Auckland...

For around the backyard or in the street, you can't go past the TT02B as its cheap, durable (its made of rubber) and parts are cheap and easy to get. Just don't expect much from it, and don't upgrade it at all except for bearings. If you are going to the track, then avoid the TT02B as its the worst performer on track than all the others listed (probably even worse than the Grasshopper). Its heavy and the battery placement means you have no control when its jumping. Also it becomes a lot less durable when landing jumps (rear gears will die quickly and the front arms will split and come off). I've run the Boomerang and Top Force at the track and they actually go pretty well. The Fire Dragon is very similar to the Boomerang so that will be fine too. I've heard horror stories of the Avante from BiTD but haven't run one (have a Black Special which needs building) but also know someone who used to run an Egress in Vintage and it did ok (he could win with a Grasshopper, so that probably helped). Funnily enough while the vintage scene has taken off here, you don't see Egress/Avante being run but you do see Top Force and Boomerang (variants) being run. Of course with the Kyosho, Associated, Schumacher and Yokomo rere's available now they are more popular than Tamiya. I don't have the TD4 and haven't seen one, but hear good things. They'd no doubt be good too. Now the obvious answer which totally ignores your original criteria - pick up a second hand B74.1 or B64 variant (B74.2 just out) or HB D418 (EVO is out) etc and run that. Will be much cheaper in the long run and outperform the Tamiya's (and other brand rere) mentioned above. The main advantage really is the durability though as they just don't break like a Tamiya would. Keep the motor sensible and you probably won't need any spares.

Most likely it needs the throttle reversed on the tx, and possibly swapping the motor cables over. ESC usually give lower power in reverse and go slower in reverse. So its probably set up so the forward input from the tx is actually telling the esc to go reverse.

Yep, the manual should show the sizes you need. I buy Yeah Racing bearings from rcmart in packs of 10. Never had a bad one and the price is between the bulk lots and the kits you can buy. They have all sizes available and usually the choice of metal or rubber shields.

We've been running a Novafox since early 2017 and have had an upright pull out and the servo saver worn out, but thats it. Its been run with the kit motor only (it comes with long cables so is a hassle to change). It is PITA to work on (swapped a steering servo) The chassis doesn't take a Tamiya hi torque servo saver (yep found out afetr taking it apart) but apparently the Kimbrough ones work. I have those but haven't fitted them Overall its a fun runner which understeers like understeery mcundersteeryface and is really quick off the line. It looks so good (especially next to a Boomerang) so you should get one

I would've said the thundershotdragon cars except ours have the issue with the arms splitting. Look at them funny and they split. I voted for Boomerang (because of course I would BUT) because mine is from a run ages ago and has been the most reliable runner we have. It just has bearings, otherwise its stock. It has been bulletproof with a silvercan for many hours of backyard running

Those things you've linked are all good (except the last link for the charge cable, it didnt work) I use those Yeah Racing bullets, they are great as they have the handle bit to pull them out, and you can unscrew the bullet to swap between 4mm and 5mm. Also super easy to solder as you can take them apart. Most 2S batteries are now 5mm, they used to be 4mm and some new ones may still use 4mm bullets, i'm not sure. Those gens ace redline batteries are really good, I have a bunch in 2S and 4S and they are really popular at all the clubs I go to. That charger will work fine. If you ever go to 8th scale then it'll be slow charging 4S but if you're sticking with 2s then there are no issues. As for charge cable, something like this is what you're after. https://www.modelsport.co.uk/product/monkey-king-rc-charge-lead-xh2s-balance-port-to-4mm-and-5mm-black-1--431657

Of those I would avoid the Sanwa MX6 as it has specific rx that don't work with other Sanwa radios. Other Sanwa are great, but that one is a bit of an orphan (have an MT4S and M17 so I reall nrate Sanwa). You can get clone Sanwa rx too for the other models My son has the 3PV and it works well, and if you upgraded later to the 4PM etc you can still use the rx. There are also clone Futaba rx which work fine and are cheaper than futaba ones. I don't have any radiolink gear but have heard a lot of good things about them