nowinaminute

Sometimes people enlist in ebays "global shipping program" which means they just send the item to ebay and ebay themselves deal with the international part. The problem is they just seem to randomly generate the shipping cost using some algorithm which can either be very reasonable or ridiculously expensive. I sold a few things GSP before and it's so random it's ridiculous. I've seen people pay $20 to have an entire RC car delivered and then other people pay $60 to have a single tyre shipped, no idea how ebay come up with those prices. If they are using GSP, it might be worth contacting the seller to see if they would be willing to post it to you themselves which would probably work out cheaper.

Same here. I've probably sold a few thousand things over the past decade or so and there's been maybe 5 occasions where a buyer has tried to rip me off. Send everything by recorded delivery and avoid selling items like phones and games consoles and you're usually fine, those two tend to be the items where you get the most scammers trying to send you back totally different (and broken) items. In terms of buying, I've never had a problem that wasn't resolved to my satisfaction. Anything that didn't arrive, I was refunded for. Anything that wasn't as described I was able to return or get a refund for. I even once got an RC truck from America via the "global shipping program" which got broken in transit. Because ebay take responsibility for the international leg of the shipping, I was refunded, got to keep the item and the seller got to keep their money too. It has always been 99% positive for me, you do get the occasional knob 'ed who tries it on but if anything, it only seems like a drama when it happens because it's so rare and out of the norm.

This is a good idea to try out, I've done the same with 2 and 3 piece wheels too, a little "corrective reassembly" to balance out warping a little. If I had to guess I would say your wheel rims will be the toughest thing to overcome without buying new ones. There's a little wobble on my brushless lunchbox but it smooths out as the revs increase. One thing, and not to insult your intelligence but is there any dirt inside the tyres? I run mine at a beach a lot and sand gets inside the tyres and then ooo boy the thing shakes like a washing machine with one towel inside! I ended up punching little holes in the middle of the tyres so it can spin back out again, otherwise it get's stuck in there. Especially with the rims glued because it get's in through the air holes and can't get back out again.

I'm running mine on a little 3200KV outrunner with 10T gearing and it's pretty well balanced on 2s, it's a good all rounder. With 3s it has a decent boost and is good for more open spaces and I especially like it at the beach. It's definitely a bit more of a handful though and I don't need full throttle as often unless I have loads of space. Traction can be an issue on sand with 3s, the diff makes the wheels spin up alternately with pulls the truck side to side. I'm going to try a diff locker next time.

Very impressive!

Totally agree, it's pretty ironic! The DT03 makes a better truck than the dedicated trucks! They were happy to put monster wheels on the DT01 but not the vastly superior DT03 for some reason. Like you say, a few minor alterations would help, bigger front shock tower so it has the longer dampers at the front too and a little beefing up here and there but it has a ton of potential.

That's what I was thinking, either sliding or just two lots of screw holes and using one lot gives a straight angle and the other gives a little kickup.

That's definitely a big part of it, the Stampy, slash and bandit etc all have prominent kickup along with the aforementioned HSP. Even the ancient Stampede forerunner, the sledgehammer has it. The symmetrical chassis system was a cool idea but it they had no choice but to give it totally level arms. And like you say, it gets squirrely at high speeds on the grey stuff because it lacks the inherently stability that kickup can offer. It also effects things at higher speeds off road because the lack of kickup makes it more prone to leaving the ground when it hits bumps. I guess maybe they could have given 2 different mounting angles for the entire gearbox so that the front could be mounted at a slight angle and the rear straight, maybe that would have helped. Interestingly, my tl-01b suffers the same issues but for different reasons, because it started off as an on-road chassis I assume they logically decided that responsive steering and agility was a higher priority than stability and bump handling.

I don't want anyone to think I hate the WR and WT01, I like them both a lot and in some situations they handle a mild brushless pretty well like on grass, dirt and sand etc but if you add in some on road, they can get pretty flustered, that's where I start to notice a difference to other brands. I've gone the route of shock towers and bigger dampers which makes a BIG improvement to articulation but I find it makes them roll easier too. If you stiffen the suspension to stop them rolling, you don't benefit from the extra articulation. If you use smaller shocks you lose some of the articulation advantage. Also the wheels scrape the arches. I love them but they frustrate me too. I love my heavy dump truck and tractors too, I love 6wd trucks and this Beetle looks awesome as well. I just wish they would update the 1/10 truck platform.

Totally, it's only a few subtle things that make a big difference. I'm not talking about making 70mph beasts either, just stuff that can handle say a 3-4000kv on 2s without becoming a real handful. The buggies like the DT02 and 03 can do that just fine but the the WT01 and WR01 not so much. They are real fun to drive within their limits with the kind of brushed motors they were designed for, they are versatile and handle well on road and off road, pretty stable and corner nice for a big truck but there's a distinct point where they suddenly become a little out of their depth and stuff like the Stampede or even my HSP Bronotsaurus is still quite composed and planted and while it can be fun trying to keep something upright, it can also become a bit of a chore sometimes too. Other brands just seem to have a bit of a higher threshold before they become a jelly on wheels. When it's a dump truck or a tractor, I don't mind working hard to get the best from it but when it's a 1/10 truck I just want a little more. I'm not asking for the world, just a slighty more capable platform with bigger suspension articulation etc.

I'd like to see a bit of both to be honest, I love stuff like this but I don't see why they couldn't make an updated 1/10 off road platform too. People act like Tamiya don't make bashers out of choice but they seem to have short memories and forgot when Tamiya blatantly copied the T-Maxx. Perhaps if they had copied the E-maxx/E-Savage instead things would be very different. The Levant is also an attempt to get some of that market but falls short due to its reliance on "legacy" parts. And the body shell can hardly be described as distinctive. There's no wizardry going on with the Traxxas Bandit/Slash/Stampede, they aren't inherently more complex or sophisticated than the WR01/WT01, they are the same fundamental injection moulded independent suspension setup, it's just they are just a little more dynamically capable. It's not as if the WR01 was deliberately designed to be not quite as good to make it "characterful" or "quirky" Seems like the biggest issue is that Tamiya are unwilling to introduce enough new parts simultaneously and prefer to pilfer the parts bin for legacy parts. But they could get a lot of mileage out of a new off road chassis, it could easily be anything from a buggy to an MT and 2wd/4wd/4ws etc and there's no reason it couldn't have Tamiya DNA through and through. I'd hate it if they stopped making quirky stuff like this but I think people would buy an updated off road platform from Tamiya if they could too. I think a new wild dagger or twin detonator would get tongues wagging.

I've in South Wales but I'm all the way over in Bridgend and I don't drive so I can't help unfortunately. I see he has a Striker now too!

I haven't got the space, money or obsession to own each of the dozens of variations of the Nikko Dictator but I do want to have a small collection that demonstrates the evolution over the years. The mk4-7 were all essentially the same so this one takes care of that offshoot nicely. This will probably be mostly a shelf queen with some light running, it's too nice to heavily mod, use and scratch up. I'll wait for a more beat up example if I ever want to do that.