OnTheTrail

For me, I just love a smooth working oil dampened suspension. There are times I'm just walking by one the cars on the shelf in my office and I just flex the suspension to just to see and feel it work.

Us RC aircraft guys use these from time to time to help select a new propeller size/style. You keep an eye on the volts and wattage to see what prop is more efficient with that particular battery/ESC. We do this from the ground in a static stand with a scale secured to the plane to see what prop pulls better. If that meter registers/saves highest voltages and watts, I guess you could do the same for tweaking gearing changes on an RC car. You just have to put that between the battery and the ESC and do a test run with that attached.

Very nice! You going electric or gas?

Funny you mentioned that. I thought I was the only unlucky one. I've had three different digital calipers over the years. I love them for quick, accurate (accurate enough for what I need them for....) measurements but as you mentioned, I get the same blinking/poor battery life. Seeing as they have a digital on/off (i.e. not a mechanical switch) they must always have a slight draw on the battery. As other suggest, I usually remove the battery but not always and sure enough, back to blinking. If some knows of a digital set with a mechanical on/off that's not too costly, lemmeknow.......

I've been through this many many times. Been trying to come up with the best way to charge airplane batteries from the field for years. Over the years the batteries and planes have gotten much larger in capacity/voltage so what worked 15 years ago, may not work as well for now. -Tried charging from a the car battery. It's not a matter of if, but when you'll draw down the car battery to the point where you will not be able to get the car started. 12V cigarette lighter ports can only handle so much current so be careful what you try to plug into them. Also....most new cars turn off power to that port about ten minutes after you turn off the car. You can charge from under the hood with alligator clips but keep in mind you will draw the battery down somewhere along the way. -Tried deep cycle batteries. As mentioned above they are heavy. Ungodlily heavy. My younger back didn't like them, my old back certainly wouldn't. Also, my experience as well as several of my friends is the deep cycle batteries are only good for about two years tops for the "somewhat affordable" lead acid types. Sometimes you get lucky but there's a reason most retailers only offer a one year warranty on these. A few friends have even tried two of these in parallel and one always dies off well before the other...??? -With my various experiences, I'd recommend a small inverter generator. (if you're in the US, Harbor Freight offers a 1400 watt for $429US). While you may purchase this specifically for RC, somewhere along the way you will find a need to use it for something else (power outage, camping trip, need to power a tool far away from an outlet etc) While I haven't tried the route of the lithium deep cycle batteries due to the fact that they cost as much as a small generator perhaps they'd last more that two years.

That looks amazing and needs to be sailed in my opinion. Never knew Tamiya made such a craft.

This is why I don't throw stuff like this out. (my workshop shows of this, however... )

For me it pretty much has to be scale looking. Doesn't have to be 100% but needs to look like the real car/truck it's modeled after. Oddly I've been this way as far back as I remember. I recall specifically never even wanting those exaggerated Matchbox or Hot Wheels cars that were very popular when I was a kid. If one of them was included in a set I got for Christmas, I either traded it for something realistic looking or didn't play with it. While they're very popular and cool in their own right, I've never been one to want a Wild Willy or a comical Tamiya. The closest I've ever been away from scale is the Blackfoot. While the "monster truck" look of the time wasn't very scale, we all can agree that the F150 flareside was very scale looking. Do I ever see myself as a perfectionist counting rivets? No. I just enjoy them looking somewhat real. What's great about this hobby is there's SO MANY choices we all can do our own thing and enjoy it as we like!

Folks across the pond have discussed the VAT here and how it effects their hobby budget for years but somehow seem to manage it without making it political.

Would appear so. LOL Look, I think virtually all of us come here because we prefer our Tamiya sans politics.

Because he didn't take the hint last time.....

I have the MB01 Mini Cooper on preorder from my LHS. Other than that, nothing on the list for me.

Anyone know if anyone has the M06 sway bar in stock? Been trying for a few years but can't seem to find a set. Tamiya no longer makes it ( 54295 ) . Aftermarket..???

While the OP asked about "go anywhere Tamiya", I'd have to say, for my fleet it would be the BBX. With a larger (than most Tamiya buggies) wheels/tires, Super Stock motor and the rear stabilizer, it performs very well on a lot of surfaces. Very quick (for me) and the stabilizer makes a huge difference, especially when you run it on the road. I'm not crazy about running any RC through grass but the BBX will still do pretty well in grass. Now.......since others deviated from the original intent , if we can add in other brands, I'd say one of my TRX4s with 2-speed and selectable diffs would be the overall go anywhere RC. That's just my preference as usually my "anywhere" would include trails, hills and rocks. But when you shift to the higher gear and unlock the diffs, it's rather fun on other surfaces as well.

Hmmm, I'd have to think about this. Don't know if could narrow it down to just three. but from memory, I'd say: >Led Zeppelin (by this time I had all of their first ten albums...all in rotation...all on vinyl) >The Who - Who's Next > JVC Jazz Festival 1986 My barometer for which were my favorites back there are when I owned the same album both on vinyl and cassette. One for the house, one for the car. CD players were starting to come out at that time but way above my budget.

Glad to hear you and your doctors have you on the right track. Thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery as well as a recovery filled with lots of RC builds!

Another batch of car washes to get rid of the drywall dust. I'll do the same with the buggies sometime next week.

We have a major bath remodel that just finished up. With all the drywall sanding there was dust all over the house including my office right across the hall. All my cars had a nice layer of dust so lunch time was car wash day. Strategically got this all done before my wife came home from work.

I got this a few weeks ago from Rinskie here on TC. Got bearings and Deans connector already soldered onto the ESC. This build, when I get around to it will start out as a shelf queen (after a driveway run or two ) and then wait till my nephew's son is old enough to enjoy a hobby quality RC. I have a few RTR take-off transmitter/receivers I can toss in so we can drive together some day. Thanks again, @Rinskie !

I'm guessing it's the camera angle but to me, the car looks noticeably quicker in the first video than the second one.

Just as a quick public service announcement, ( ) anytime thread lock gives you trouble removing the screw, try a little heat. If you risk too much heat from a pencil butane torch, try resting the tip of a soldering iron on the outside of the part (i.e. the part you want to expand). This trick uses both thermal expansion of the outer metal as well as the heat helping to loosen the bond of the thread lock.

Thanks for the info but no need for the list at this time. What I ended up doing is getting a set of tires/wheels for the Rough Rider/Buggy Champ. Don't recall how expensive the were at the time but now they're plentiful due to the rerelease of the Buggy Champ.

Best of luck. It's a horrible feeling. We occasionally will have basement water issues depending on how saturated the ground hydraulics get. I've already been a nervous wreck for days while being on vacation and looking at the rain forecast back at home where I can't do anything about it.....

<I'm guessing this has been discussed previously but I wasn't able to find a post with a search> This is a trick I learned years ago when flying precision aerobatics. I thought to share this as I got an aftermarket TT02 steering linkage set and the ball ends were somewhat tight. On a test fit, I could feel they effected the movement of the suspension as well as the turning of the steering hubs. As we know, most ball links are metal ball into plastic and as such, sometimes can be too tight. In the airplanes this was real critical to have the ball links to be tight (i.e. not allow any play) but still articulate very smoothly. To do this you need to find the exact same size screw as the I.D. of the ball. Then you need to clamp that down with a nut on the other side. Only need to cinch it fairly tight, don't need to death lock it. Then you take the exposed threads and chuck them up in a high speed Dremel tool. What you're going to do it essentially spin the ball very fast inside of the plastic ball end. That said it is critical that you only burst the Dremel to high speed on and immediately off. You're basically using friction to burnish in the ball to the inner race of the plastic ball link. AGAIN, only use an instant on and off with the Dremel. You can do it many cycles if needed but if you leave it on for too long, you WILL melt plastic. You can wobble the ball around too to get other areas smoothed out. Check it each time until it feels just right. The goal is to have the ball articulated freely in every axis (including rotation) without allowing any slop. Occasionally it feels perfect when you just finish up but may tightened up ever slightly again after the piece cools a little. Not biggie, just chuck it back up and burst one more time. Hope this helps.

This is a great idea. Or even better (i.e. wishful thinking ) perhaps would be a 380 size motor with a built in ESC (think HW Quicrun Fusion ) that the overall length with the built in esc is similar to the a 540 brushed. Basically a direct drop-in size that's comparable in power/torgue/motor bolt pattern.