87lc2

At first I thought you meant semi truck build - talk about diving in head first You're not kidding about value of other brands vs Tamiya. I'm determined to stick with Tamiya cars for on road racing, but you can get budget all out competition kits these days for the price of a basic TT02 kit (Sakura, Xpress).

I'll give it a shot and see how it goes. The car cornered great, I had no issues with the diff as tight as it can be. I'm sure a locked diff is not the way to go on asphalt, but we're using pretty low power motors with very high grip so I think it could work for my driving. I guess we'll see. Thanks again. I absolutely love how these cars drive and the concentration it takes to drive them well. I was racing a few classes yesterday and Pro Spec was after F1. Without fail I went wide on the first 3-4 corners every single time in that car after driving the F1. The TT02 felt like an absolute boat compare to the F104, it took a little bit to get used to going back and forth between them. I'm just glad Euro Trucks weren't directly after F1, that would have been a mess for me

Sounds good, thank you. Out of curiosity, what did you not like about the locked rear? Still new at this and thinking a locked rear will help based on one race day with high grip carpet, but maybe that's not the answer. If I'm looking for more exit speed, is there anywhere else I should be looking? Car moves great once it gets going, but seems to bog down a bit coming out of the corner. Current gearing is 2.72:1 (68/25). I did start the day at 3.09:1 (68/22) but the car was too slow. Trying to learn what I can about these cars.

Great, thank you. It looks like both are readily available in the US and use Kimbrough spurs which is nice since I already have a few. Do you have any experience with either on an F104? They both look similar to the Tamiya setup but would be nice to know that they'll fit without any problems.

I am currently using the 1/8" diff balls, I know that for sure. I'll get a set of those bushings to try it out. I definitely want to try something reversible in case I want to go back or end up running the car on asphalt in the summer, I assume I'd want some diff action then with much less traction. Just to confirm - there is no spool available for these, correct? Just want to be sure, because if that's an option I'd give it a shot. Thanks again guys, very helpful as always.

Thank you. I just remembered I'm running a Kimbrough Spur and Yokomo diff balls, any idea of they would work in the KB spur? Interesting points you make. I'm still new to F1 (obviously) so will take any advice given. The carpet is very grippy but motors are not powerful - we run 25.5 locally. I do feel like the car is diffing out so I will give it a try. I started the day with the diff in the stock setting and it felt better when tightened up a bit so I can only assume corner exit would get better with the diff locked. Also going by the fact that the other experienced racers in the class all had lockers. I intend to try a bit of tuning on the car next time out (didn't touch anything all day yesterday other than tightening the diff a bit), so I'd at least like to try running it locked to see if it helps.

Hey Guys - What the best way to lock up the diff on an F104? Or better yet, is there a spool available? Raced mine on carpet for the first time yesterday and I absolutely loved it! Car drove great out of the box and was very predictable and direct on CRC tires. Took the win in a-main by a lap and even beat a couple XRay chassis. Was happy the little F104 did so well, but really feel like it need a locker to see its full potential on high grip carpet. I was definitely losing time on corner exit due to the diff and have plenty of grip, want to lock it up.

Yea, but if you buy him something cool and he loses interest its yours, haha. Still need to get my hands on that TT02R from my nephew...he'd never know it was missing.

No, of course not! It's completely wrong of them to post as their own original ideas without giving credit. As you said, its great for us to all share ideas in the hobby, but a simple mention of where it came from and who spent the time on it is surely warranted in cases like that.

Yea, I love when they ship from NC. Problem is most of the stuff I order seems to come from CA, takes forever compared to how quick Tower used to get me stuff. Oh well, is what it is. Just have to plan ahead.

Well that's just wrong...

Like some others have mentioned, if you tailor the experience to what you want it can be great. I resisted for years and used my wife's FB for Marketplace until she got annoyed with all the messages so finally broke down and made my own. It's been great, I just ignore things I don't want to see and get to see all of the stuff I missed out on not being on there. Biggest thing for me is the groups and its pretty much all I look at (I have most of my friends muted so I don't get to see their personal crap that I don't care about ). It's also the only place to keep up on local RC race schedules and things like that, would be completely in the dark without it in regards to that. Give it a shot, can always just delete your account if you don't like it.

Yup, I'm done with Tower as well unfortunately. They overcharged me by a good amount a couple months back and never got the money back. Not to mention my points were all messed up, same as you. Stuck with Amain now which isn't much better but at least I get charged the right amount. With them being in CA shipping takes forever. Currently have an ESC on the way that was supposed to arrive Wednesday but shipping went dark and then resurfaced in Alaska this morning, wonderful. It was for a new car I was supposed to race on Sunday and can't find one locally so that's a bummer.

Good deals. Any 2.4 radio for $25 is a steal. Is that the same one Tower was giving out with select Tamiya kits? I was looking at the Mercedes C11 kit and instead of a discount they were including a Tactic radio.

I found the deals to be pretty light overall this year, I seem to remember better in the past. As others mentioned HW had a nice sale so bought a few new G2 brushless systems to replace some aging systems in race trucks and AMain had 15% off of JConcepts so bought 4 sets of Tribute/Renegade in Gold compound to get ready for winter carpet season. I remember JC having 20% off on their site last year (or maybe it was 2021), but they actually had nothing on their site at all. There were a few manufacturers that I remember having decent sales in the past that had absolutely nothing.

Hmmm, that's a tough one then. I'd make him build a kit of some sort, no RTRs for sure. I want to say something off road since it would be more versatile, but hard to get under that budget with something that's not a really cheap buggy. Problem with the Tamiya stuff is that while we love them and they do have a certain charm, if the kid has seen any sort of Traxxas car in their life they'll think the low end Tamiya kit is just a junk toy that is incapable of doing anything well. I'd go with a basic TT02 kit. Let him build it, paint it and hopefully he forms some type of bond with it. I was so proud of my first RC because I build it myself. If I got an RTR as a kid it most likely would not have kept my interest for too long.

Oh I love my Blackfoot and run it often. I agree its not the greatest vehicle out there, but I love running it in stock form.

Haha, true. Funny story - I wanted a Blackfoot so bad when it was time for my first RC. I loved monster trucks and just thought it was so cool. Dad got me an RC10 instead and I was a bit disappointed. Thinking back it was the right decision on his part, but I wanted that Blackfoot so bad.

Coming from a different angle - I don't think its the vehicle that's most important, but the environment/structure it will be used in. I think getting and kid into RC these days requires some sort of usage plan to ensure they stick with it. There are so many distractions these days that I rarely see kids stick with RC unless they are in a racing environment or other structured type of activity relating to RC. When we were kids there was nothing going on so driving our RCs for 10 minutes and then charging the battery for another 30 was fine, we had time to spare, haha. Just my examples, but I've tried to get two of my nephews into RC over the years. The first got a Rustler and I think he used it 3 times max. The other started with some short course truck and he actually drove it a good bit as I got an identical one and we raced around the park a bit, still didn't last long though (maybe 2-3 months). A few years later he wanted a drift car and got a TT02R kit. Put drift tires on it, got a GTR body for it, and drove it once...reminds me I should take it from him for spare parts. My point being, I rarely see kids playing with RCs anymore, but there are always lots of kids at the track running the beginner classes and they seem to love it. My daughter is only 3, but as soon as she's ready (and willing) we'll get here whatever they're running at the track in the beginner class and she'll start racing. I think that's the only way (along with building/working on them) that you can get a kid to stick with RC these days. They need some sort of structure/goal to work towards and make it interesting. Doesn't have to be actual racing, but some sort of structured activity. Trail running, crawling, whatever. So my choice would be whatever the local track is running for novice. Latrax Rally, TT02, Euro Truck, Bandit, Slash, whatever. Or a Mad Bull, I absolutely adore the Mad Bull

1080 is a brushed ESC that you can use nimh with if you choose. It's not 100% necessary, but I wouldnt run a trail truck or crawler without one. Biggest advantage is the 7.4v BEC (the G2 has an 8.4v BEC which is awesome), but you can adjust quite a few settings that are helpful on the trail, mostly brake settings. I believe the 1060 has a drag brake, but its either 100% or 0%, pretty useless.

Lookin good. Servos and silver can should be fine, that's what I run in mine. I would recommend the 1080 over the 1060 if you'll be out on the trails, a lot more adjustment as far as drag brake and most importantly a 7.4v BEC which will help with the dual servos. They'll be a lot more responsive.

Glad you like it, the R is a great kit and was my first TT02 a few years back. I never had an interest in on road and bought it on sale at Tower for next to nothing back in 2017 or so. I built it, put a body on it, ran it once and shelved it for 5 years. About 3 months ago out of nowhere I got into on road racing and its been a lot of fun and love running my TT02s. The R is now a Tamiya Pro Spec car, I run the SRX in VTA, and we also run "stock" TT02s int he Tamiya Production Class. I love the production class, stock motor/ESC and even stock friction shocks. It's been a lot of fun and very competitive racing. Plus I finally have a use for TT02 spares, haha.

Now that's funny. The Cloo Buster cost you a relationship, haha. Probably for the best

Wow, that's outrageous. They should just shut that site down, its done. Placed all my orders with AMain in the past couple weeks. Takes forever to get from CA but at least I get charged the right amount.

Yea, the 1/8 LMTs are big and heavy - which is why I like them I'm sure I'll grab one of the little guys at some point, its just not my thing. They're already talking about adding them to the race programs here so I'll give in at some point.