El Gecko

Never tried the Tamiya stuff, but I use CRC 2-26 Electrical Contact Cleaner (newer labels say Electronic Cleaner but both come in a red/white can). It's the same thing I use for cleaning slot car rails and controllers (similar to "Rail-zip" for model trains although that's more expensive). Evaporates dry and really improves conductivity! If the contacts are really bad, they get sandpaper, steel wool, then Blue Magic metal polish (same thing I use to restore metals on bicycles/cars), finished up with a wipe of CRC on a rag. And obviously the MSC should be tweaked for optimal contact at all positions, not too tight or loose otherwise no amount of cleaning will help

Yep, that's the best one out there at the moment, although it's kind of a pain to navigate/filter/etc. and as you said, not totally complete.

A lot of that has to do with the silver/chrome chassis, suspension, gearbox bits, etc. on those cars. Replace all of the black color except the bumper on @A-Baum's image with silver, and I bet it would be a lot closer to those "lighter, shinier" versions. Might even work better with the yellow shocks. I wonder if the silver dye/raw plastic is more expensive than black? Not sure why Tamiya would choose black for this version as it seemed like one of the highlights of the BHWO that really contributed to its unique look.

Wonder if it will look like @BubbaGump365's version or the Jun Watanabe livery from the video?

Yes, indeed. Same reason that 5000mAh NiMH cells are just a wee bit longer than 3000 or less: energy density. You can only pack so much energy into a given physical space for any type of battery, so in this case if you're trying to fit three 1S cells in the space of two, those three cells must necessarily be smaller than the cells used in the 2S setup. Which as you suspected means less mAh available and possibly lower C and discharge rates depending on the cells. So for example a 3S 2000mAh may end up being the same physical size as a 2S 5000mAh. The 3S in that case would still have more power from the higher voltage, but since the mAh is less than the 2S, it wouldn't last as long (runtime).

Those tires are rare as hens teeth and your Jeep is in really excellent condition overall! Probably not what you want to hear but it would be a shame to risk ruining it by running it, however slowly. Beautiful example, probably one of the few left.

Looking great! Are those Kyosho tires?

Agreed! Is the additional chassis bracing all locally made? Looks very stout.

Voltage is the measurement that's proportional to RPM. 4500Kv/10.5t on 2S/7.4V = 3000Kv/15.5t on 3S/11.1V = 33,300RPM in both cases The higher voltage turns the "slower" motor faster, reaching the same RPM as the "faster" motor with a less powerful battery. The advantage of the bigger battery and 3000Kv motor is in heat management. The 4500Kv motor will have less copper in the windings than the 3000, 10.5 turns vs. 15.5. So the resistance (ohms) of the 4500Kv motor is less than the 3000Kv motor. The ESC needs a certain resistance on the motor circuit, and the less resistance, the more heat is generated because the more current is allowed through. So the ESC will run cooler with the 3000Kv motor, and the motor itself will run cooler with the larger battery, even though the top RPM is exactly the same for both on paper. Taking it a step further, the reason they give you RPM/motor turn limits on the ESC is for heat and current. If you tried to run the 4500Kv motor on 3S on that ESC, the resistance would likely be too low and there would be too much current flowing through the ESC, resulting in fairly immediate thermal shutdown. The 3000Kv will generally have more torque than the 4500 on either battery, because of the higher resistance. More resistance in the motor generally means more torque.

Yes, it's all about balance, but I think it's even simpler than watts. Ohm's law: voltage = current X resistance When you increase the voltage of the battery, but keep the resistance of the motor the same, the current must increase. ESCs can only handle so much current or they overheat. A 550 motor at 12t has more material in its copper windings than a 12t 540, so the resistive load is higher. So the 550 will not move as much current through the ESC as the 540 would, for the same voltage of battery. That is why you can run a lower-turn 550 with a higher-spec battery on the same ESC as a 540 with a lower-spec battery. The current moving through the ESC is roughly the same, or at least within acceptable values for both.

My segments are more seasonal--fast buggy-type cars in the dry sun in the summer, either on tarmac or dirt, and in the soggy spring/fall and winter, it's all crawler all the time. I have felt like something is missing lately though. My Grasshopper/Hornet hybrid has been going through a mostly aesthetic series of upgrades and has been on the shelf since like June. The only thing holding me back from driving it now is taking some good pictures before I go mess everything up again The other general segment I want to get into is 4WD. I have an SG Coyote somewhere, but can't seem to find it. That was my only experience with 4WD back in the day, and it was... less than optimal. Having just done a refresh on my cousin's 4WD Slash, and seeing so many cool 4WD builds on here, has definitely piqued my curiosity about 4WD. Plus I can clearly see the benefits of true 4WD crawling vs. the more simple "tough trail" running I'm doing with my 2WD monster truck.

Love those metal bodies! Custom chassis too?

Went to the track this past weekend and it was just epic fails all around. Half the track was flooded, and the other half was dry and loose like ice, so I was out in the gravel drive/parking lot doing some drifting... until I got a little carried away and sent the Fighter Buggy DG straight into a puddle that was deeper than the car! It was quite a ways away, so I didn't even see it there through the sunlight, and although I managed to drive it out, it stopped about halfway back to me. Good thing I had put in that waterproof servo! But I figured the Rx was toast. So I laid it out in the sun to start drying out, and switched over to Black Tooth (a Traxxas Hawk/outlaw buggy like the DG). It was having a really good drive until the servo went all glitchy again. Then I discovered an odd "clink" in the gearbox, so I called it a day before I could do any more damage. That will have to get torn down and troubleshot at some point. But the great news is that the DG's Rx came back to life last night! I shut it down and disconnected the battery as quickly as I could the other day, which might have helped, but I was definitely surprised to see it power up and work fine once it dried out! So overall no lingering effects from trying to drive the car like a submarine Even the tire foams stayed dry, and the tires aren't even glued!

Yep, both of them have aluminum motor mounts, and the L-shaped bracket that holds the top of the gearbox to the chassis. White Fang has aluminum shock towers too, but Black Tooth's are FRP. Originally they were swapped--all the gold aluminum stuff was on Black Tooth, but since I had the Sledgehammer first with white plastic and gold aluminum, my teenage brain decided to reverse it to match (I got them secondhand, so I may have just returned them to normal). It also makes it look like an old RC10 a little bit. One curiosity is that the gold front shock tower is a shorter and wider version with different hole patterns than the taller black FRP version, and it doesn't fit the front body mount like it should (the FRP one fits perfect). Otherwise everything's identical. It seems like these Hawk chassis are older models judging by the gearboxes, which are exactly the same as the Sledgehammer (32 pitch gears, planetary diff, no slipper). The driveshafts and most of the suspension is the same across all the trucks too. Black Tooth is the rougher of the two, and was first one I got running again, originally just with spare parts. I only ever had one set of aluminum posts and one FRP plate to stiffen the front bulkhead, so it was installed on this at the time because I wasn't even thinking about White Fang yet. Threw on an extra set of white Traxxas shocks since I'm only running 4 on the Sledgehammer, although they're broken and have been replaced since then. The shock caps kept popping off while driving, so I eventually went with some aluminum cheapos from Amazon. You can see in this pic the ESC mounted to the L bracket because I also only ever had one of the FRP speed control plates. (More on that later.) It drove surprisingly good in this basic configuration, however there have been a lot of little tweaks I've discovered over the last few years that made it even better (although some were questionable). There's definitely some Rustler ancestry here, even though this is the "short arm" suspension model. The Blue Eagle LS (Long Suspension) was the middle link between the Hawk/Eagle and the Rustler. I believe the Hawk and the Radicator buggy, which used the same chassis, were the first "race" models with molded one-piece chassis frames in the Traxxas lineup--everything up until then was aluminum or graphite plates with stuff bolted to them. So Traxxas took the suspension setup from the Blue Eagle and put it together with the molded tub from the Hawk/Rad to create the Rustler.

Been working on this pair for a long time now, thanks to many people here on the forum they are both actually driveable (and driving very well indeed!) First I'll show you what I started with. Missing quite a lot, and many parts were broken already as well. But I saw potential even as a kid (they were hand-me-downs from a cousin), so I kept them all these years with the thought that I would get to them one day. Well, I've finally had the opportunity, and they've exceeded my expectations. More on that later. For now, the humble beginnings:

Agreed! I would have thought last winter was the least likely time for me to burn up a servo on a trail walk, but it happened all the same

Excellent news on all fronts, love it! I'm still rocking a set of similar RaceFace cranks on one of mine (actually a BMX set up for MTB riding). Curious to hear how it rides!

That was my thinking on the Brat, too. But apparently I have no self-control

As Juggular said, the black plastic ball ends (D13) are not threaded by default--you need to thread them yourself. Luckily, the shock shafts are standard M3 metric threads, so you can use any old M3 (I prefer hex head for more leverage) to pre-form threads in the plastic. Then the shock shafts will have threads in the D13 part to screw into.

Not sure if it was a pebble or a bump or crack in the road or a gust of wind, but the Brat took a 20mph tumble, landed on its roof with the wheels spinning, and now needs even more bodywork than before (the chassis was totally fine, at least) Immediately brought it inside and switched back to the 380 motor. I thought I could tame the ancient Twisters 540 but I was wrong, it will have to find a new home in a car that can handle the power. The Brat isn't a speedrunner, anyway.

I just assumed that he had upgraded that since he has other upgrades, but the Slash Ultimate does come with the aluminum center driveshaft as stock. His had gotten bent and so beaten up by rocks that it looked like someone took a grinder to it. So that got replaced with a new one. As far as half shafts, he had his local shop replace the rears with MIP metal ones after he twisted the plastic originals and broke one. The fronts were also twisted and pretty wrecked overall, but they don't appear to bear the same forces as the rears so I replaced them with plastic again. We will see how long those last--may have to upgrade the fronts to metal at some point in the future as well.

Which part? I don't have a rere ORV but I'm curious about the differences?

I'm not sure how the HCG drives, but my cousin's LCG has big bore shocks and a good diff setup, not to mention all the adjustments/aids on the Tx, so his drives really nice, jumps really nice, and will do about 40mph on dirt. He only uses it for bashing, but could easily jump into a race with how well it's dialed in. His bashing isn't as extreme as the youtubers, but I've seen it launched higher than my head, land no problem and drive away, under complete control. The new plastics are really tough in most cases, and the only aluminum upgrades he's needed are the axle carriers, driveshaft, and most importantly motor mount. My vintage Traxxas cars are definitely not that sturdy, about the same as the old Tamiyas. I will also say that the bottom of his LCG chassis has held up really well for the most part, but the HCG would definitely take less of a beating on rough ground (probably more likely to roll over, though). In most cases it seems like LCG is the way to go.

Ah, that makes sense, even big bores would probably fit then. For the bumper, I don't think it would interfere with the swaybar during normal operation, but since the instructions say to drill out the holes in the bumper mount to 3mm, I assume the bolts to hold the swaybar are inserted from the bottom rather than the top like the old self-tappers. Which means their heads are possibly in the way of the rear edge of the bumper, causing the bumper to bend. Although I suppose if you're drilling the mount, you probably wouldn't care about taking a bit off the bumper as well, to make everything fit correctly around the screw heads.

Notice the pictures are all missing the front bumper... does that mean fitment issues? Hard to say what impact it would have on handling, I guess it would depend on how stiff the stabilizer bars are. It's also interesting that they chose to relocate the shock mount on the trailing arm--for what purpose I wonder?