Juggular

I wonder why there are less people between 20-30. Is that the hump when people get tired of it and sell everything? If so, I'm glad to report that the last count couple of years ago was 36, so I'm probably over 40. (Hey, I think I should have as many cars as my age! I have few more to buy then. My wife won't be happy with that reasoning. Women are so illogical when it comes to RC logic.)

That looks like Elon Musk, scared sh**less (because it's going too fast?)

The way I see it, even if you are a jet pilot, you can enjoy slow Piper cub. You wouldn't want a 500hp engine on a fabric covered plane, though. I forget if my vintage Blackfoot has sticky grease in the diff or not. But it didn't have the diff problem with Sport Tuned. (I ran it on a very rough surface. Even the tires would shake loose from the wheels from time to time.) Below is my Brat chassis which definitely has sticky diff grease. (Below photo shows it wearing a vintage Blackfoot body. It's not mounted. Mounting points are different.) Ceramic grease has microscopic glass beads that's designed to be slippery. This 3Racing diff grease is designed to do the opposite; it does not slip. (USD $8.44 is like 8 times cheaper than a ball diff.) It's like melted caramel pulling on your teeth (don't chew this stuff, kids, it's probably toxic). Assuming that there isn't a large play in the gearbox, this may help preventing diff gears from jumping a tooth. But not on a strong motor. I didn't go beyond Sport Tuned. 13.5t might work, if you don't go too big on the pinion. (It has much greater torque. Normally, you would want to use bigger pinion. But I'm not sure on the stock diff, even with sticky diff grease.) As for batteries, 138x45x25mm 2S Lipo didn't quite fit. The battery door shuts fine. It even has a couple of mms to put on beads of hot glue. I didn't want the aluminum pieces rubbing on the battery case. But the side brackets had to be widened temporarily. You only need about 3mm from each side. You could use longer screws and some spacers.

Hmmm...dog bones don't usually make noises... unless it's rattling back and forth between cups (or when one side of the dog bone is at the edge of the cup. Sometimes aftermarket parts might be just a mm long or short and that could create a problem). The distance of dog bones between two cups can be tricky to judge sometimes. You could take out the spring, and make the two cups line up directly. That's where the two cups are closest. So it's easier to judge where the dog bone is located between two cups. I often use one o-ring where it goes in too deep. Since the wheel-side cup is lower, it tends to be that cup that gets the o-ring, and the gearbox often does not get it. But sometimes it bounces into the gearbox side too deep and make noises. So install o-rings on both, but end up making the dog bone bind in the middle of the suspension stroke. (I even tried to cut o-ring in half, like one side of a bagel. If you want to do that, the pink sponge is easier.) As a side note, the discussion of 'phasing' came up several years ago. Since then, I've been weary of universals. I have a hard time telling which axles of cross of the universal corresponds with the dog bone's single axle. You can't go wrong with phasing if it's just a pair of dog bones.

I remember that MF01X IDF jeep! With that body, the tires look so much like Wild Willy tires. I must have glanced over the fact that those were smaller tires! That thread has a lot of very useful info.

Wow, actually the sand scorcher rear tires look pretty good to me. I'm quite surprised! (The Traxxas tires are about 66 OD. So they are slightly smaller than Sand Scorcher tires, but noticeably larger than Rally Block tires.)

Painted the shell first, then build the chassis of MF-01X. It does seem to go faster that way. I should've stickered before the chassis also. I have a feeling that it might stay like this for a year...

I was thinking about getting a cheap drill press for $40. I do have a Dremel somewhere. Very hard drill bits would be needed. https://www.amazon.com/Milescraft-1097-Stand-Drill-Rotary/dp/B0001GMENE/ref=asc_df_B0001GMENE/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309807921328&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10389995620707150125&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007298&hvtargid=pla-435539745523&psc=1 As for tires, Traxxas 7674X looks to be in good size for the stock body as this youtuber demonstrates (I have them on mine too). These are just as fat, but the diameter is exactly what I wanted. (But probably too tall for the Nikko body? It barely fits the VW wheelwells.)

As mentioned, motor oil may break down plastic parts. (That's why Tamiya gives us ceramic grease, and we use aftermarket silicone grease.) Tamiya Ceramic grease contains finely powdered sand. Microscopic glass beads are okay with nylon gears, but not really good for aluminum pinion gears. Aluminum gears become like sand-blasted after a season, because that's what's happening. But ceramic is cheap and lasts forever. Tamiya's goal is not to sell THE Best stuff on earth. If the cheap ceramic grease lasts a dozen years, that's fine. But of course, the aluminum pinion would turn into dust after 2 seasons. I prefer microscopic plastic beads (Teflon) instead of hard glass beads of ceramic. Plastic is much safer on plastic (and aluminum). And much slicker too. On teflon coated surfaces, the round teflon beads are far and between. Yet these are the slickest substance. You only need to have a very thin coat of it (like 1/100th of 1mm). So one small tube lasts 3 dozen builds. I've been using it for about 20 years, starting with Wild Will 2 in 2001. But I do use 10-30w on motor axle bushings. Most fans in my house do not have bearings. So I take them apart and dab it with a tiny screw driver dipped in motor oil. That gets this motor turning smoothly for about 8-10 months (5,700 to 7,200 hours). So motor oil is very good at reducing metal-to-metal friction. On that note, the two spots you can use motor oil is on both ends of a 540 motor (you shouldn't let it leak out. if the oil can be seen between the axle and the bushing, that should last dozens of hours). So, motor oil has its uses. Just not on any plastic parts.

Yep. The industrial way of indicating bearings seems to be "inner diameter x outer diameter x thickness." So 5x8x2.5mm for 850 (Tamiya indicates outer diameter first, so it would be easier to pick out). And 5x11x4mm for 1150. If you build just one car, pre-packaged set is convenient. If you build more than 1, using the size to buy would be cheaper (usually about $5 for 10 bearings). https://www.rcmart.com/yeah-racing-rc-ptfe-bearing-5x11x4mm-10pcs-yb6014b-s10-00001611 https://www.rcmart.com/yeah-racing-rc-ptfe-bearing-5x8x2-5mm-10pcs-yb6011b-s10-00001610

1) I prefer 15t, but if you use mildly stronger motor 18t should be fine too. 2) 32 pitch, 0.8 mod, close enough. 3) I use plastic safe Teflon grease on gears. For 3 gear transmissions, grease doesn't make a lot of difference. But Konghead has a lot of gears. I used this grease on gears. I also re-lubricated bearings with lighter machine oil (similar to Liberty oil). I used differential clay in the diffs. I can use my thumb and index finger to turn one of the drive cups and turn the motor. It does hurt my fingers a bit, but it's readily doable. And aluminum pinion lasts longer on Teflon (PTFE) grease. Tiny bit goes a long way. (Below is fully greased) Little too much, but it's okay. I'm using Teflon grease because I build dozens. But for the most part, Tamiya ceramic grease is fine. A bit abrasive on aluminum pinion, but it's okay. Sometimes I see people using automotive grease instead, but that's bad. If you gunk it up like this, any gain from the bearings is killed off. Also oil-based automotive grease can crack the plastic gearbox as well as gears. On ball diffs, I use faucet grease. I suppose it can be used on gears too, but I have Teflon grease for that. This is also rubber and plastic safe. The consistency is similar to Tamiya ceramic grease, slightly tackier, so it will slow things down a bit. I don't use this on gears. I use it between two halves of the gearbox to make it splash proof. If I want it off, it wipes off easily. Something like this is used on pool drain plugs. I imagine it could be used to protect rubber and plastic on aircrafts. So yeah, I think it can add protection if the old plastic is whitening after washing. (I mostly use alcohol to clean too, but it's good to know that I shouldn't use detergents on old plastic.)

Our goddaughter didn't know who John Denver was. She probably hasn't heard of Karl Sagan either. On that note, here is a picture of him. He was a great science educator.

The thing about a project like this is, that everything is uncertain. But when it works, it does feel good. I'm going to keep an eye out on your project. (At the moment, I have more forgotten project than projects I remember)

I'm intrigued, I might want to do something similar. Does the gearbox fit into that chassis? The remote you linked seems to have two sockets. Do they mean going forward is one channel and going reverse is another? Is that how they calculate "4CH?" I suppose if it works, 2CH is all you'd need, right? I wouldn't mind getting a cheap and true 4Ch radio set. On that note, I found another one. I suppose 1.2A ESC would be fine for 3.7v application? I don't know if it'd be better or worse.

For some time, I thought 2.8 tires mean the tire's diameter being 2.8." I now know it's the wheel's outer diameter (and tire's inner diameter). If you thought (like I did) that 2.8 inch diameter tire cannot fit onto 2.85 inch wheel diameter, don't worry. They both mean wheel's outer diameter and tire's inner diameter. (yellow line below) Like you have noted already, the outer diameter of the tire itself isn't listed, which is inconvenient. But since tire says 2.8 and the wheel says 2.85, they mean practically the same diameter. (As Frog Jumper said, 0.05 inch could be just stretched.)