TheMidnight Pumpkin

Its a distraction from my otherwise hectic daily life.

I agree with MadInventor, I would think its the charger. I own a Hobbico charger that false shuts off sometimes, which equals packs that are not fully charged. Also the puffing thing is not an issue on all brands. Its mostly the cheaper Turnegy packs that fail in the massive puffing until they short out internally. Some lipo brands never seem to ever puff, even when abused. Lately I've been using the Floureon brand lipo's without any problems. I've been getting nearly double the flight times in my RC planes with them when compared to the Turnegy packs. The price is also comparable for the better quality.

I painted a few more details on my VW bus wheelie. I chose to hand paint the details over suffering with the decals since I don't appreciate having to cut them out. All those windows = forget about it! -lol I'm also going to order some shocks for my CW01 wheelies.

During the historic flood of 1993, we had gully washer rain storms everyday for over 30 days straight. I had 5 feet of water downstairs in my house. While yes we all send prayers for those affected, the other truth is that everyone needs to find peace in the fact that its completely out of our control. Everyone is a victim, so all you can do is find peace and look to the future. In '93 I sat in my upstairs window and drove RC boats in the flood water for entertainment. The phone company building across the street was manned 24/7 with pumps running, etc. Those guys were fishing from the roof of the building. I also drove my Bullhead in the flood water, as they will float for a while, until the tires fill up with water. The best thing those of us who are not directly affected by this latest tragedy is to donated money to the Red Cross. Then find ways to help once the clean up starts. The damage will be absurd. But there's nothing you can do about it, but clean up and start over. Things will get better.

I'm right there with you brother. Our house floods every 15 years as we live pretty close to the Mississippi river. Flooding sucks! But there is a sarcastic good part to having that drama in that it forces you to get rid of the old junk that accumulates in everyone's house. So at least once the clean up is done, you will have more room for Tamiya's! -lol Buy a boat, they are fun!

So a while back I mentioned that I purchased a giant amount of materials to make a large drone track for a RC flying event. So I wanted to share a teaser picture as I got it built today. But I still have to finish painting the various parts white, and add the LED lighting, etc. Here's a friend flying through one of the gates.

I have a short bit of video previously linked on this forum. But I ran it brushless for a while. I had already swapped the plastic gear in the rear end prior to installing that setup. It was actually reliable if you kept it under 60% throttle. But above that it would shake violently, balloon the rear tires until they explode the side walls, and shred the teeth off the rear end gears. So now its back to a stock brushed motor and it should be dead on reliable again. But I do have an assortment of new spare rear end gears stashed away. So parts are not a major concern. I do agree with the point you made, which is why I swapped all the brushless setups off all my cars/trucks. Today I cleaned up some wiring on a couple cars. I also will be swapping the speed controller on my TA02 chassis since its got a 1/18th scale speed controller driving the stock silver can 540. It works, but its the extreme limit for that speed controller to handle. Plus it was the only extra controller that I had at that time. So a regular TEU-104BK will be swapped on in the near future.

I upgraded the speed controller on my Pumpkin, and on my HIGHroller. I'm staying brushed on them. But now I can swap to faster motors when the stockers die. I had been running brushless on the HIGHroller. But the 8.5 was eating too many transmission gears. So back to brushed for longevity!

It doesn't take very long to take an Clod axle apart if you suspect there's damage. I doubt the grease caused a failure. Clods have been known to have an assortment of minor problems depending on how, and where you drive them. In my part of the world, its typically sandy conditions that attract dirty in the axle tubes. It doesn't take long for sand to eat a Clod axle. Otherwise they are pretty strong and reliable. In the old days I routinely used to jump my Bullhead (when it was stock) off a 4 foot high table top jump. Clods can take a beating! -lol

In my experience, the thicker the clear coat the stronger. Except when its on a thin flexible lexan body. The usage environment determines how strong, and how long the clear will last. I've always seen it weaker on lexan than the hard poly bodies. But I build my cars to drive. So crashes and one handed driving while shooting video with the other, put a beating on my toys. Plus I've been known to launch them at speed from time to time just for kicks. (makes for good video! -lol)

Thanks, I love the solar flares on that shot. We were outside of Hermann MO when we took these.

Here's some that I got: I had to shrink them as per the forums rules. But you can see sun spots, etc pretty good.

Today was the solar eclipse day in the US. I got some great pictures of totality that I will share once I get them all downloaded. Beyond that we took a couple trucks out to the track. But unfortunately it rained last night, so it was too muddy to drive on. So I didn't shoot any video of the RC's since it was just a few packs buzzing around the yard. I brought out my Clod Buster, vintage Traxxas Rustler, MRP Ripper, and vintage Traxxas Sledge Hammer. It was a fun day!

I got my Clod Buster out getting ready for a trip to the track. I'll have to shoot another one handed driving video! -lol

I prefer the "pen spring" mod over the third shock, or the brace. (except I actually used copier springs) The idea being each end of the axle housing have a spring to cushion the impacts over unsprung twisting motion like with the third shock. But really its all personal preference.... But in reply to your question. I would go 3rd shock over the brace, so you get some cushioning effect.

Its changed, today I'm seeing the Become A Subscriber link. Maybe I had a cached old page or something because I never login to the main site.

Sold this one. A guy in Hong Kong bought it. I'm mentioning it here as I'm not sure if he's on TC or not.

You sure know how to make a mess of a car! -lol But seriously, who would have ever thought a random yard sale find in poor condition would be desired enough to be completely restored. I'm impressed by the challenge ahead of you. This is going to be awesome to see!

I could not agree with this JB weld advise more! In the glue world JB weld is like having a nuke in a BB gun fight. A little back explanation for the guys not in the US. In the old days of Ford brand cars (20's - 40's) they made flat head engines in the US. I don't know about your countries history. But flat head engines were known for over heating even with everything within factory spec. So cracked cylinder heads were common on those engines. I have seen guys literally JB weld those cylinder heads back together and drive them for thousands of miles trouble free. Its truly an amazing glue in the broad usage sense.

@Peter_B I found out a few things about storing these lipo's recently. I was doing the right thing with them as my charger has a "storage" function to charge them to the correct level. (The storage level is less than a regular charge.) But these obviously have a quality problem. Then I dunked them in salt water, and trashed them (recycle). On normal use, I use a lower charge rate to charge mine slower. Yes it takes a bit longer to charge them. But it makes them last longer, so its worth it. Plus its the puffing that is the visible red flag for you to know the battery is failing. Plus if you are fast charging them to the battery size limit, and they poof while you are charging them. That is the sequence for lipo's to experience spontaneous combustion. The flame from a burning lipo is invisible to the human vision spectrum. The smoke you see from a burning lipo is the plastic the case and wires have. So my advise for anyone on the fence about lipo's would be to buy a high quality (expensive) charger and read and understand the directions before use. They will get you in the ballpark to safe operation with them. Everything I said here is mostly true for most circumstances. But those of us who fly RC planes (and other toys) these rules do not fully cover all those situations. Just a little disclaimer.

Sometimes I will add a bit of metal when gluing parts for extra strength.....forgot to add that to my previous post. In this case you can't really drill for an internal metal support. So maybe a little piece of paper clip glued on the side will keep it together.

Me, I would just use CA glue and give it a try. Worst case you have to repair it again, or just buy a new arm. A dot of glue is cheap in my world.

I've generally had great results with storing lipo's like mentioned above. But recently these Turnigy hard cased 5000's did this, and I have no idea why. They were stored charged and not touched for a couple months, and obviously not puffed when I stored them. So I would advise you to avoid this model of batteries. The other Turnigy's that I have are fine with no storage problems.

I have a few suggestions depending on the specifics of the screw. If its not completely rounded off/stripped out. 1. Try tapping the screw driver with a hammer to break the corrosion, and help it grip the screw head better. 2. You can buy valve grinding compound from auto parts stores. You dip the screw driver tip into the compound to get a tiny blob on the tip, then turn the screw out normally. The compound actually grips the metal to metal contact with a higher static of friction, which makes the screw come out easier than totally stripping it. This tip is actually from working on motorcycle engines as their aluminum cases and steel bolts cause stripping problems. If its completely rounded off. 1. Try beating the screw driver with a hammer to help it grip the screw head better. The difference here is putting a good beating on it rather than a couple taps. The idea is (if possible) that you are reshaping the metal of the screw to have something to grip. 2. You can buy "EZOuts" which is a tool set for extracting broken or stripped screws and bolts. 3. If possible, sometimes you can heat the screw with a torch to make it come out easier. 4. Drilling it out. It sucks, but sometimes its all you got.

When I login to the main page, I do not get the Become a Subscriber link as shown. Advise? Edit, I found a different link to join. It would be nice if this site had a chat box. It would be interesting to chat with others as opposed to only the forum.