Pylon80

I remember your thread on the Sherp! What a cool home-made shell. I think you used styrene sheets if I recall... I guess that is sturdy enough for the accidental roll overs? That collection of yours is neverending 😅

I think there is a very good deal on an XV-02 in the trade or sale section of the forum these days @Krustybus 😳

At the rear, I was using XV-02 uprights from the first day so I never had any issues with jamming the drive cup 👍 Where am I headed? Well, stubborn as I am, I'm installing an EmbieRacing carbon chassis which will eliminate the steering bell cranks altogether. The belt will still be a problem but I'm hopeful I can reuse and seal the cover with... something. Most of the disappointment comes from having lusted after that chassis for years and having harbored the expectation that the XV-01 was a turn-key solution for a truly practical off-road chassis, which it's not 😔 You still have to tinker and try to seal things, just like I have been doing on my TT-02 rally. Also, as I wrote in the previous post, the XV-01 does drive amazingly which makes the whole affair all the more frustrating

It should sell for at least double what you are asking right now, if you wait a bit. I know the frustration of practically giving away exquisite stuff, and still nobody's interested 😕 but I think it's all about being very patient. Last year I "donated" an insanely rare F1 chassis on eBay; I should probably have waited a bit. Best of luck 🤞

Maybe I'll chime in with my experience on the XV-01, hopefully saving the OP from the disappointment I went through: while the quality of the kit and it's handling both on-road and off-road are absolutely incredible, that chassis did not work for me as it proved unable to cope with the small pebbles we have here in Arizona. The two issues are: 1- The steering bell cranks (not the servo) get jammed by tiny pebbles. You have to turn off the ESC/radio and shake the car vigorously while trying to turn the steering by hand until the offending tiny pebble falls out. When that happens every 3min... It gets old really quick. 2- The belt cover is open at the front and sucks in avidly the same little rocks; they jam themselves into the pulleys and you get the clack-clack-clack sounds announcing that you are chewing up the pulleys and belt. When that happens it's usually game over as you need to remove the belt cover and pry the pebble off the pulley. You could technically do that in the field in 10min or so 😅 but I usually go home in frustration when that happens. Many people have enjoyed this chassis immensely over the years and I have come to the conclusion that they run theirs either on-road, on a clean off-road track, in fine dust only or perhaps in rocks too big to be a factor. In my case it just didn't work out 😕 There's one thing that the rocks have here that could be unusual: in the Sonoran desert the sun beats on the rocks terribly hard and they somehow become crumbly. For instance if you try to pry one out with a tool it'll break apart gradually until you basically obtain sand. That means you encounter every possible pebble size from fist size all the way down to sand particles. There always going to be one that is just the right size to jam something.

Right, so with a few spacers and assuming the pinion on the motor does not run out of shaft length, I could go a little wider on both sides. That's very useful information as thanks again @svenb!

You really do own every single car ever made by Tamiya then 😅 I much appreciate it @svenb!

I was wondering if any friendly F103GT owner might be able to remove the rear wheels and get a measurement of the width, from the (vertical) face of the 12mm hex on the left to the same surface on the right. Calipers should be enough to span that distance if you have a set 🙂 The rear width is what I'm after, but since wheel width and offset vary, the hex to hex distance above would be very useful. Thank you!

Pre-eBay bumpy-bump 🙂 RS shock towers/damper rods set still available EmbieRacing top deck still available

I had that sound once on a TT-02 and it was due one of the diffs rubbing against the diff cover. It happens when you roll threads too deep or if you insert a screw too deep the the diff cover. Since you started using the stock arms again at the back, I would check the rear diff cover

1/10 scale t bone?

Driving an RC car aboard a boat!! Now that's something unusual 😅 I can't wait to see what you will be running next.

It's always the small parts that make it unpractical. Like the kingpins, bearings, suspension shafts etc. These add up very quickly. Interestingly, one can still build a TL-01 from brand new parts for around 150$ in 2025, when that car went out of production decades ago and was never rereleased. So there are exceptions. But in any case the M-05 is a wonderful little car and is going away, so hold on to your M-05 bits in case you change your mind one day With that, I'll go try to source F103 parts for the next bits-a-build 🙄

The receiver box is extremely easy to modify in order to avoid pinching the wires. You can sand or file the wire holes every so slightly to make sure nothing gets pinched. It's really for rally use though. No need for on-road 👍

You can do the TC Way. Here are the steps: - Keep the leftovers from your first TT-02 in a box/bin/bag. - Buy expensive hop-ups, but do so as a slow bleed so you don't really notice what's happening. Every time you replace a stock part, keep it and add it to the leftovers. - After 2 years or so, look at the box of leftovers and say "wow I almost have a second TT-02 in there!" - Spend a hundred dollars on the tiny bits that are still missing and obtain a second, absolute junk stock, chassis 😀 - Start upgrading the second chassis and repeat the steps above 👍