SlideWRX

Sonoma - occasional use Maita - daily Corvette - sentimental MGB - sentimental but sell in a few/many years? Sonic - future kids car Sonic #2? - wifes car Nova - SENTIMENTAL The three sentimental cars really does put a crunch on space/funding. I would say there is a possibility of getting a small trailer to replace the Sonoma. I wouldn't try to buy someone else's used truck. Maintaining a used truck is going to be cheaper than buying a new truck, even if fuel lines and/or brake lines are in the near future. As for the state of the US vehicle market, yeah it is quite messed up. "Mid-size" is basically full size from 30 years ago. The Chip Shortage that came with COVID caused OEMs to build the most expensive trucks with what they had. For some reason, after things got back to normal, they thought they could just keep producing the expensive ones only - move up the food chain. There are only so many people willing to pay those prices however, and car companies forgot that. People mostly don't want all the BS that was attached to those expensive models, they just put up with it. Now the OEMs still don't want to build the cheap trucks, but the market is asking for it... China is going to fill that need. As for new-ish, the Ford Maverick may be an option, even if it is unibody & FWD... Or a Hyundai Santa Cruz. I f you are looking for a bigger bed on a smaller truck though, that will be harder to find.

Yep. One time it was for spring perches for CVA shocks, another was a custom bit holder I designed. Different vendors/printers, both came out good.

I just got the same error yesterday. Today I am a member but not subscriber. I confirmed the payment went through.

If you can download or already have the 3d part file, I have used craftcloud to find a printer to print parts for me.

I didn't see a mention of this upgrade in your comments - 54560 - Lightweight gearshafts. Probably an imperceptible change for most of us, but if there is a difference I'll bet the stock motor racing would show it. I think others have had some spare 5mm carbon fiber shaft laying around have cut replacements from that as well.

There are narrow 2wd, regular 2wd and 4wd front - all different widths I believe. There are Traxxas 1771 spiked front tires that might be 2wd regular width, that are listed as 2.1" so they might fit Tamiya wheels if you want to stay with the Tamiya wheels. Lots of options in the true 2.2" size out there though!

Race vehicles tend to have a couple spots where they 'carpet bomb' sponsors, so it doesn't look out of place.

Welcome to Tamiyaclub. Where in the world are you located? The stock rear Hornet tires do get worn down quite fast, especially with some on-road running in there. The EVO came with 12mm hex adapters to fit onto the stock setup - they are fairly long things that also use the pin to hold the wheel to the driveshaft. Carson seems to have a popular all road/terrain set: https://www.carson-modelsport.com/carson_en/spare-parts-accessories/rc-accessories/rc-tires-rims/buggy-tirewheel-set-all-terrain-bl22-500900027-en.html Kyosho has some rear tires that *might* fit on Hornet rear wheels: https://kyoshoamerica.com/sct002mb.html I don't know if anyone here has done that swap.

So after the photo shoot I took the Hornet EVO for its first spin. Plenty of pep with the 17.5 motor - I could get more out of it with adjusting the timing and changing spur gears, but for now it is plenty fast. My grass has been shooting up in the wet spring weather we have and so the EVO was struggling to keep going in it. At least with the brushless motor it didn't get to hot or burn out. Tomorrow it gets mowed, but today it was at its highest. As long as I kept the speed up it wasn't too bad, but it would simply get stuck. Mostly I ended up staying on the driveway. I noticed I was having problems with centering - I apparently didn't trim the steering linkages enough to clear the suspension carrier. It felt like it was catching sometimes, and a few times I straightened the steering out, but then it would be really off. So the first 'mod' was to trim more of the steering linkages to clear the suspension carrier. Also, it felt like it had a hard time turning, especially in the deep grass which threw me off. Usually in the grass my cars can turn too quickly. Something is off in this front suspension... I think it is the shocks, just not high performance enough... I upgraded them to proper "High Performance Off-Road Racer" spec. PERFECT!!

Soo... I ended up using an old driver from another project. I have been trying paint pens/markers and other things to make it easier to paint drives and I haven't found anything that really makes me interested in painting a driver. The Hornet driver is still half or two-thirds done, and I don't feel like finishing him right now. Maybe I need to start shopping for pre-painted drivers... One thing I did do was use paint for the cage bars. it took a bit of effort with the masking to setup, but turned out well I think. Tamiya tape was important, as the regular masking tape I have doesn't seal the edges as well. Silly me, I ran out of black after one and a half coats! I had some gunmetal to back it with though. Oddly, I still didn't back it well; there are some light spots. I tried to get good coverage with the paint while doing light coats but some how spots got missed and there are spots that shine through easily with light. Not really a concern once the stickers are on and it is on the chassis. On a side note, I had bought some Traxxas black & white paint, because there was simply more paint for less cash, but it didn't seem to last that long... It did smell a LOT less than the Tamiya paints though. I went with an re-release hornet sticker pack for my Hornet EVO: I only used one sticker from the EVO pack: I tried doing white lettering on the tires - it looks better in photos than in person. That is definitely something that requires learning some patience & skill. The stickers, 'old' versus new: Like Father like Son?

On a budget car this is brilliant - as many common parts as possible to spread manufacturing costs out. On a race car this is questionable - there is a lighter, stronger, faster version when designed individually. The TD4/2 is really in-between when you consider purchase cost in the home country, so using one chassis for both is fine there. Export prices push it toward either race equivalent, or stronger higher powered RTR bashers. There are several design choices that are simply puzzling, like having the servo on the wrong side. The only thing they put on the other side was the receiver - they could have swapped sides cut out several loose joints and a couple clips with just a little forethought... A weird thing really is the battery setup - they have the option to put it sideways like they did on the TD2 - They could have done that! put in the manual the option to run it down the middle. They even have history with that on their buggies with the DF-01 and others.

The Hobbywing Quicrun 1060 is the go to for a brushed ESC. Newer Tamiyas that include an ESC (at least in the US) have been going with a Tamiya branded version of it.

It's ok to have an off day; they had already given us Bob & Doug Mackenzie. I have "Take Off (to the great white north)" as part of my music collection.

Kyosho has 38mm Titanium (92413) and 42mm Titanium (92414) but oddly yeah I haven't seen 40mm. Love the build!

Googling (or rather searching on Duckduckgo) "tamiya hornet evo chassis" has this very thread as item #4 . Tamiyabase shows up as item #8, and other Tamiyaclub threads about the EVO shortly after that. For Tamiya stuff, this place is where to go, and shows up in search results. Facebook, Instagram or any other walled gardens/prisons don't let their results be searchable, so they are useless/invisible to me. Certainly a search on Google/Bing/Duckduckgo/etc. would have been useful, but also a search here on the Tamiya club forums probably would have been useful too...

If you have a bunch of stuff to order, plazajapan has the Tamiya TBLM motors mostly for ~$40-45 usd. Shipping is the thing though from there, which is why I said 'if you have a bunch of stuff to order' to spread out the shipping cost. Pretty much any properly 540 sized brushless (not a 380 in a 540 housing) will do fine in a Tamiya 4wd - it won't overheat or anything. Could it go faster if you re-gear it? absolutely. Doesn't need to be re-geared though. There are several TBLM motors; I think a 21.5, 17.5, 15.5, 10.5 at least. Which on are you looking at?

I just noticed that the extra front shock tower support feet don't touch the bottom of the chassis, like I think they are supposed to. I can slide paper under almost all of mine; the paper catches on just a little corner. I think it has to do with how much bend the front suspension carrier puts into the chassis. I thought I saw somewhere on here someone that put some spacers on the front suspension carrier to reduce the flex. Anyone have a link? I think that reducing the induced flex would help the shock tower support to sit on a more flat chassis. Anyway, I have finished the body and trying to put enough paint on the driver to say good enough.

For the stock tires, I happen to have a set of foams left over from... I don't know. They are narrow, and jammed into the fronts without issue. Probably too narrow on the rears to help much, but I wanted something in there to reduce how much the tires compress on a jump/bump. That plus the washer guard shown above should hopefully reduce damage to the shock end. I have a set of Kyosho 2.2" wheels that I will try later, but I feel like 1.9" wheels are the sweet spot like the BBX. Are there any properly classically big spike tires for 1.9" rims? I found the supplied allen wrench perfect for picking up those tiny nuts and easily putting them into the wheel. See those travel limiting fins/posts on the bottom of the suspension arms? I feel like I am going to trim those off for a bit more travel at some point... Pretty much finished on the build, just sorting out the wiring. I used the post that was there to wrap the power button wire around to keep it tidy, with an extra shock piston on top to keep it from sliding off. The sideways post in the middle is the same thing for my steering servo wire - it is realllly long. at some point I will trim it down, but for now it will wrap around that post. I think that post came off a leftover sprue from my GT-01 Tamtech build. On to the body!

Yeah, the way yours got pulled out, and OwdGinger's eyelets got tore up on the stock tires made me do virtually the same thing. 16mm machine screw to get as deep as I could into that hole, with a 5mm collar and washer to hopefully protect the shock eyelet. The hole is a little over 8mm deep, so there is a little extra room versus the ~5mm of depth from the ball socket.

Day two, looking more Hornety! The gear case adapters went together easy and slotted into their attachment points easily enough. The servo is an Injora I bought to see if it fits into that 'good enough' category. The bracket for the rear body posts went in ok. They use two metal screw in posts in top of that. The problem is that there isn't a specific starting angle to begin screwing those in, in order to get them to line up. the directions basically just say unscrew it and try again. Is there an alternate part to use in place of these? The bottom isn't really exposed in order to use a nut if there was a screw thread version. On to the steering! The servo arm actually requires you to trim the Turnbuckle adjuster down to get to the short length needed. I didn't get 2mm trimmed from either part; just ~1.5mm but it still went together. I put a dab of paint in the middle of the grub screw to keep track of the middle, to try and keep it equal inside both adjusters. The steering linkages have a bit of play in them. Not a concern for most, but if you want that steering to be as tight as possible, maybe some shims could go in there. Holy Stiff Suspension Joints, Batman! While I was fitting the front suspension arms to the center carrier, I noticed they were really tight. I measured the carrier and the arms, and either the arm or the carrier had to shrink by ~.1-.2mm to get smooth low friction movement, while still having zero visible free play. I spent several hours (because I was also watching youtube) trimming the arms to open up the joint; first trimming with x-acto knife, then sanding. The joints to the center carrier, and the joints to the uprights at the wheel were like this. Eventually everything swung freely, but still had virtually no gap. Finally for the night, fitting the front suspension to the body. before installing, looking at the gap between the steering arms and the carrier seems ok. MadAnt came across the issue of contact and documented trimming the linkages, and I trimmed a bit to start. before installation, it doesn't seem like there is a clearance issue; lotsa room there! However that suspension carrier bends a LOT when screwed down, and that clearance goes away.... This is with my linkages trimmed a bit. I hope the trimming was enough; I'll report back my experience.

Yep, I am tweaking my build based on some things you & others came across.

I am kinda surprised I haven't seen some more build threads of these here. This EVO I got for my Birthday, and I have basically disappeared into our 'craft room' for a week building it. When I fell back down the RC rabbit hole about four years ago, My goal was to get a Hornet body onto the DT-03 that I purchased. That didn't quite work out; the wheelbase is just too long. It stayed in the back of my mind though, watching and waiting and figuring the way I wanted to build a modern Hornet. Then the EVO came along and it was more of a must-have than anything else I've built. Gotta scratch that Nostalgia itch! Let's go: The build starts with the gearbox - straight out of a DT-02/03. I didn't take pictures of the internals, but I did pack the diff with a bunch of putty for some limited slip action. I'm using a 19t Pinion. If you want to race and get down to a 6.6 or 6 to 1 ratio, the Stadium Blitzer spur gear is a drop in replacement. I am just playing around so I stayed with the stock spur gear. I think the 19t pinion will pair well with the TBLM-02s 17.5 Tamiya motor. I was going to use this on another build but went another way. Trying out my big pair of soft touch pliers to snap the turnbuckle in! On the other side there is no room for the big guns, so the needle nose eventually did the job: I stuck an o-ring in to take up the slack. There is still a lot of room for articulation. The lower arms went on without any gap, but still swung freely without noticeable friction. Look at that articulation! If only we ended up using most of it... Note, I haven't installed the CVA ball joint mounts, as others have noted problems with them. I'll come back to that with what I hope is a solution. For the first day had very little 'Hornet' to it. More to come...

Thanks for the info everyone. I ended up buying a Fowler brand dial caliper. I couldn't quite get myself to pay for the Mitutoyo equivalent; This was about half the price of the same style Mitutoyo. Like them, Fowler is also an actual brand/company that makes calibration equipment and not just some made up Amazon brand.

The black o-rings are the usual culprit. Maybe with green slime or similar they will stick a lot less; I haven't tried it on them. The red o-rings are better, the Blue X-rings best. The dark coating on the shafts will eventually wear off as well. There is a lot of variability to the metal head shock pistons at Tamiya. The first set I got with my DT-03 noticeably wobbled in the body. I ended up replacing them with normal CVA shafts & plastic pistons, and then TRF big bore pistons (in the 'short' CVA in the rear) that fit even better. Over the last couple years I managed to acquire several sets of those metal head pistons and never used them. Then I got a Manta Ray, built it stock with the metal head pistons that came with it. Those were MUCH tighter to the bore! tight/restrictive enough that I went down from the 400 stock oil to 300. I pulled out the various sets I had left over from other builds, and the bore in each set matched, but the sets were all different from each other. 10.6mm diameter, 10.7, 10.8... pretty significant! I think the worse/smaller ones do add to the binding issue, letting it wobble a bit too much in there.

E-clips are small change! I somehow lost a driver figure for two years... I had set it aside and even put all the bits in bag to keep them together. I dug all through my storage places (the 'smart' place to keep him), my junk heap of random bits that might someday some how be used in a build or might not but look kinda cool so I can't toss them but wow that pile of stuff is getting big, dug around under the desk, moved boxes and couldn't figure out where it went. It feels like I did that every six months, because it just didn't make sense that it disappeared... I though it got bumped into the trash, gone forever. Then, while organizing the desk a bit, putting somethings into bins, I see the driver in his bag on top of a pile of stuff... I LOOKED THERE!! I SWEAR I DID!!! TWICE!!