El Gecko
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Posts posted by El Gecko
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1 hour ago, OnTheTrail said:
While these were cool cars back in their day, it broke my heart to see Carroll Shelby team up to work on a front wheel drive car.
Agreed, that was my one gripe with pretty much all turbo Dodges. Apparently Mopar offered a RWD conversion kit for the Daytona, which IMHO would have been a massive improvement. I always wanted to drift a Daytona properly.
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Welcome to the club!
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Sure, the math is there if you want to take the time to discover it, but it's probably easier to just measure (with a GPS bicycle computer)
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8 hours ago, BJoe76 said:
As Mad Ax said, these were related, we had the Dodge Omni, which is what the top two are as well as the Plymouth Horizon, which was identical except for the badging, though they didn’t get these performance models. The 3dr cars were the same platform, just different body work and like with the 4dr, Plymouth didn’t get any of the hot rods, they tried to make their own, but it sounds like Shelby shot that down. There was even a mini truck/Ute version called the Rampage for a couple years!
Love the Rampage, I always wanted to do a turbo swap in one of these! In my past life I was a major 1:1 gearhead and TurboDodge geek. Had a turbo Caravan with a 5 speed briefly, and drove a Spirit R/T for a few years. Dad picked up another Spirit R/T from the guy who used to test it at the Chrysler Proving Grounds (test mule for Viper ABS systems), and at one point we had 4 Spirits between the two of us (2 ES, 2 R/T)
Sorry for the derail, all the TD memories just came flooding back!
Also we can't forget the baddest TD of them all
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I used mine up until a few years ago when I switched everything over to 2.4Ghz, and it's still hanging around on the shelf and in the parts box, and could still be used in any vehicle if I wanted, but yeah as others have said it's just not worth the bother these days (or the extra batteries--the old Tx takes twice as many!). I never had high-spec gear, or even multiple receivers at first, so it's really nice to have one 2.4 Tx for all cars with no crystal switching necessary.
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I've got one of these in rough shape, missing wheels/electronics/etc. from when I was a kid that I've always wanted to convert to RC. Most likely an M-chassis like the guy in the video, probably with flipped suspension arms or some other mods to line up the wheelbase properly. Possibly even a scratchbuild!
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4 hours ago, Fabia130vRS said:
if you say you are 60+ years old. Elderly people tend to have difficulties to adapt to new technologies
otherwise I would think you are inexperienced and ignorant to something superior
also I understand fear of the unknown, don’t be afraid anon. I sleep literally next to my batteries and some of them are puffed
Hey everybody, look at the BIG MANLY MAN who sleeps next to his batteries! What a daredevil!
4 hours ago, Fabia130vRS said:Take my apologies if it came across harsh.
But I am reading the comments about Li-Po and it’s like a bunch of girls complaining about how dangerous something is.
Your apology means nothing if the very next line is yet another insult. I guess it's hard for you to accept that people are different.
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My Mud (now Mad) Blaster has evolved into... The Toad
(warts and all)
(probably not permanently, but it was a lot of fun to drive with these wheels and tires on!)
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Servo saver success, finally!
Decided I didn't want to pay for a new servo saver, and I happened to have this broken spring from a pair of old bicycle brakes on hand, so I cut off a coil and did a quick and dirty Dremel lathe job on the plastic spring part to make a recess for it to sit in. (I used the flat plastic spring from the kit, rather than the stronger one with the ridge on it).
Works perfect! Much stronger than stock, actually stronger than any other servo saver I have! Yet still has a bit of spring action at the limit. And fits in exactly the same space as the all-plastic kit one with the ridge. Gonna do this to my Hornet as well!
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4 hours ago, Fabia130vRS said:
In 2023 if you are still using nimh. You are missing out big.
Nah. NiMH is good solid safe fun. No Lipo necessary
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Totally agree, I'm not a wheelie fan either.
It is fun to be able to do it on command occasionally, but it tends to be frustrating for actual driving, especially spirited, precise driving. I like a more balanced vehicle rather than something so rear-heavy, although I do see the benefits for traction, but it does go too far IMHO with all the vehicles designed specifically to wheelie.
Ever since I was able to get my Frog to do a 3-wheel drift on pavement, that's the type of driving experience I want to try to replicate in some of my other cars too, although it's difficult due to various suspension and weight bias layouts. Plus, you need a decent amount of horsepower for it, and most of my other cars are a bit underpowered.
Something like this:
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Those cheap black can rebuildable motors that are rebadged everywhere are not bad, but not great either. You get what you pay for, and they are a great value. Decently fast, but the lower-turn arms don't have larger wire to compensate, and are lacking torque. All of them are much better than a silvercan, but not quite to the same level as a Tamiya or other vintage brands. The Reedy Radon black cans appear to have upgraded or rewound armatures, as theirs have the correct size wire with a corresponding power increase. Just make sure to get the 3-slot version of any motor, as the 5-slot is for crawling and has much lower RPM.
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9 minutes ago, OnTheTrail said:
Tamiya US just added a listing for the BBX.
Quote• Transmission uses the TA06 rear oil-filled gear differential which allows the use of many existing Grade-Up parts.
Make up your minds Tamiya!! The box art says ball diff!
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I like the general look of it (and all the throwback design cues from old cars) but wondering about a few things...
Is the rear camber angle adjustable? (or will it be with aftermarket parts?)
What's with the big funky motor cooler shroud (a la TD2/4 turned backwards) and where is the intake for it?
Is a super low profile servo required or will there be alternate mounts for a standard one?
Will the bellcranks be mounted on ball bearings?
And lastly WHY a ball diff?? GAH. Slipper clutch + gear diff has been proven stronger and easier to work on + less maintenance.
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What a lovely car, you don't see many of those nowadays! It's such a vintage car that spares are probably hard to come by and expensive, and what you have there is in such wonderful original condition that it would be a shame to run it and possibly crash and ruin it.
I'd probably just source a vintage receiver without a transmitter, clean it up and place it on a shelf where it can be appreciated for years to come.
And get something newer to actually run. They don't make that body set anymore unfortunately (which is why they are rare and expensive now), the closest is the 240Z if you want another Datsun.
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Still working on the spring setup, but I've been playing around with some new wheels and tires from @Frog Jumper and also swapped down to a 17t motor to try to rein it in a little. Still working on the hacked-together servo saver, too. I just need to get a new one and finally be done with it.
Mrs. Gecko said it looks "posh" which might be the first time she's said that about anything of mine
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On 1/21/2023 at 10:16 AM, OoALEJOoO said:
Forgot to mention that the issue is only present when the car is on a bench and with the tires on. This video captures the effect:
Without trying to sound like a nerd (I'll probably still fail miserably
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I think there is clear evidence that the issue is not caused by unbalance:
- When pressing the suspension to make the original MB universals straight (zero droop), the wobble disappears. If it were unbalance, it would remain.
- Switching to dogbones (or even better BF universals) does not modify any unbalance. Still, it solves the issue.
- Back when I was troubleshooting my MB, I also suspected unbalance. I placed the MB rear wheels & tires on my Lunchbox and they did not wobble. I also tried putting the LB tires on the MB and, while they did not wobble on the LB, they did wobble on the MB.
So why is the wobble issue not present when the tires are off? My thought is that it's because the torque oscillation is only present when there is torque, and torque is only present with load. When the car is without tires, the load to the motor is tiny (there is a very small rotational inertia to accelerate) which would also make the torque oscillation very tiny. The moment you put the tires, the rotational inertia is orders of magnitude higher, thus requires more load & torque to accelerate. You can see in the video that the wobble is only present during acceleration or deceleration, and that at 2:30 that the wobble actually tends to disappear when the tire reaches stable speed (no acceleration, thus the torque is back to being very small). Another factor is that the mass of the tires change the natural frequency response of the system (tires off = higher frequency harder to see, tires on = lower frequency easier to see).
@El Gecko Try giving it a shot on the bench with the wheels on.
Just wanted to follow up here and say that I'm still not sure on my setup. I would like to try a set of the BF UJs to compare, because I do indeed have some vibration with the wheels on (any kind of wheels, not just big ones). It's not just during acceleration or deceleration either. I can hold throttle at a specific RPM and it definitely gets worse at some speeds, which seems to point to a bent axle or unbalanced wheel/tire. There is also a slight "flutter" I would call it, on acceleration, which I had previously just attributed to driveline flex (called "axle hop" in 1:1 cars). This flutter is possibly what you're talking about with the difference in the UJ orientations, but it doesn't seem bad enough to cause any issues on the ground. However I don't have a BF set to compare.
I also discovered some excessive wear on my diff yokes already, probably from when I was driving without bumpstops/trailing arm stiffening. This could also be causing some of the vibrations. Notice the large gap in the yoke opening above the UJ pin, it's because the pin has worn a divot inside the diff yoke--coincidentally the same sort of issue that used to happen with the old hex shafts. Although the yoke remains usable for now, it does have a lot of slop.
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I'm also in the 2WD buggy camp as usual, with my old ORVs and Hoppers/Hornets plus finally a DT02 this past year.
My favorites for driving are "outlaw" buggies with stadium truck wheels (or stadium trucks with buggy bodies), but a good old standard buggy is always a lot of fun too
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On 1/18/2023 at 11:59 PM, OoALEJOoO said:
@El Gecko The vibration issue is only really visible if you run the car on a bench, with the tires spinning in the air. I think this is because the small mass of the wheels are not sufficient to dampen the oscillation and therefore its amplitude is very visible.
When running, the tires are now coupled to the ground, and now the entire mass of the car is connected to the ground via the wheels. This pretty much makes the amplitude of the oscillation very small and difficult to see. However, the torque oscillation is still there (it is only the amplitude which gets reduced) and it will still stress the drivetrain.
The issue is present pretty much at any droop, but it does become less as the suspension compresses.
Maybe give your Mud Blaster a check on a bench. On my MB, at first I didn't notice the issue until I put it on a bench, although I don't have a real bench, just an old ESC box or whatever is handy!!
I ran the car on the bench today at all RPMs and did not get any vibration whatsoever with the wheels removed. I definitely would have seen it because the suspension is very soft, which was causing the trailing arms to "jump" under power before I put the bumpstops on. Now that the bumpstops are on, there is no indication of anything amiss--it's perfectly smooth, as it should be (same as the old hex shaft setup, anyway). I know from having the wheels on another car that they're very imbalanced, no matter what tires are on, so that could be a factor too in your case.
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7 hours ago, Mokei Kagaku said:
I also agree that the original livery is much more attractive than the liveries of later versions. In fact, I copied the decals for the first version in different sizes in the late 80's and used them as templates for masking "buggy jumping over sand dune" airbrush motives on lexan bodies. Now I would have scanned the decals, but I didn't have access to a scanner back then.
Would love to see some pics of those airbrushed beauties if you have them!
This video has also been inspiring in the same way. Only 5 years late on this one!
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2 hours ago, Frankster said:
As the spikes in my tires are wearing down I was considering to change to Lunchbox tires. This will lower ride height and have a wider stance to avoid flipping over. Any thought on this?
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If your BF or LB have the 10t pinions and motor adapters, I think you're probably geared ok for trails still. Maybe not with a 15t motor, but that's swappable beforehand. I drive my old 2WD Sledgehammer on trails all the time with a 10t pinion and 27t motor (FDR is similar to Blackfoot IIRC, and the tires are Monster Beetle size/tread pattern). Top speed is still nearly 18mph, but it putters along at walking pace just fine too, and it's surprisingly capable even with an open diff.
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Been thinking about this myself lately after seeing @Frog Jumper's fantastic CC02 Blackfoot, and the only things I can come up with are "wheelbase" and "scale". I don't like how huge the Traxxas stuff has gotten, it's basically 1/8 territory these days. It's no wonder the TRX4 is considered more capable, as it's quite a bit larger than CC02 which allows it to clear bigger obstacles. I think I'd need something with a short wheelbase because I like Tamiya bodies, and they are all short.
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2 hours ago, Mokei Kagaku said:
A little more information about the kit's origin and photos of the unfinished buggy here:
Aha, originally released in 1981! As usual, I'm late to the party
I think I like the original livery with the Chevy stepside even better! Maybe a Blackfoot/Ranger as a tow vehicle instead?
Thinking in the reverse of @Busdriver, I bet MCI could scale UP the 1:25 Revell decals to fit a 1:10 buggy and it would probably look pretty good.
Do you still have your first tamiya rc.
in Vintage Tamiya Discussion
Posted
After a small Nikko Cyclone RTR, my first hobby-grade was this Frog. It was the first RC I ever built and brought to life, and it was gifted to me in a big box of RC junk along with a well-used and abused Traxxas Sledgehammer (seen in other threads here, still sporting its junk body from back then). I recently gave it a light restoration with fresh bearings, as well as a fresh new servo, ESC, and Rx. I also restored and painted the front wheels, and the servo saver and tie rods have since been reverted to the vintage Kimbrough/Dubro setup that was fitted to my Brat. It still has the original gearbox internals and hex driveshafts, and it will do a 3-wheel drift on tarmac with that Trinity 17t motor. After experiencing the truly supple nature of this suspension, it was definitely a surprise to drive a Grasshopper for the first time a few years later. It has never had a body shell, although I hope to remedy that eventually