ZenMoto

I had a bid in for 3 sets of Tamtech, but had to go to a meeting and missed the end of the auction! ...anyway, I'm looking for some Martini decals for my buggy. They don't have to be 1/10 scale so not necessarily the set from the 037, but let me know if you have anything like that. I don't care about the Martini livery colors/stripes, just the Martini logo and misc badges. Thanks

Haha, my bad ...I had my cambers reversed! lol Well, you know what I meant anyway. Shodog, that is a beatiful buggy!!!

It's normal and due to the suspension gemoetry. It has a snigle swingarm so the camber of the wheel travels along an arc when the suspension works. When sitting at rest there is a negative camber to the wheel; at some point along the travel of the suspension when being compressed the wheel will have a nuetral camber and when fully compressed a positive one (with the bottom of the wheel pointing away from the chassis. It's perfectly normal. Parallel swingarms (usually unequal in lenght) go a long way to keeping the camber consistant throught the travel of the wheel.

I used the Pactra black-metallic on my CLK Mercedees. The finish was subtle, but very nice. ...and it has taken some serious abuse without chipping or flaking. I'd simply pick up the Pactra and go to town! []

So I built it today, and will drop my ss5800 brushless system in it tomorrow! I still need to paint it though. Being a huge Rally fan, and a HUGE Lancia fan, I'm thinking about doing this: What do you guys think?

Thanks for the info guys, I just got back from Ultimate Hobbys. ...picked up a new xxx-4 G+ $286. I'd love to chat, but I gotta go build! []

Thanks for the info, the more I look into the xxx-4 the more I'm jonesing to get one. I don't know anything about Schumacher cars, but I kind of want to get a new kit ...no surprises that way! lol ...of course that depends on how cheap is cheap! []. Let me know more about the Schumacher, you can hit me offlist at rc@zenmoto.net. Thanks Josh.

Great thread for me, I am thinking of a Losi xxx-4 (I just posted in the "Other Makes" forum for opinions). I'll most likley sell my hopped up (a lot) TB-02 to pay for it, but I'll still have my TA04 for my steet speed addiction. [] Do you guys have any strong opinions on the xxx-4? ...any other reccomendations along the same lines? Thanks

I currently have a few Tamiyas, and love most of them for what they are, the Monster Beetle for being an old-school, cool kit, the King Blackfoot for a fun romping toy, and my TA04 for an outright blindingly fast joy to drive. ...the problem is I don't have a true, go anywhere assault vehicle! [] The KB is the closest I have but it wheelies and flips too easily on rough terrain. I'm thinking (even though it's a race-oriented car) that the xxx-4 is what I'm looking for. Does anyone here have one? I'll probably be posintg my TB-02 up for sale soon (LOTS of hop ups on it) and use the money towards a new kit. I was planning on making a rally car out of the TB, but now I think that would simply be too fragile for my speed and air addiction. [] If anyone has any input, I'm all ears. I want a 4x4, so no 2wd buggy reccomendations please, but otherwise I'm open to suggestions! Thanks.

Hey Mike, if any of those bags include the monster beetle body posts, I'll take a set off your hands! I think they are plastic parts G tree and E tree. Let me know if you've got them and we can work something out. Thanks!

That's sweet! Something makes me really, really want one of those for running around the office! I have visions of an onboard wireless camera and delivering things to my boss' office! Be sure to document the build up and post pics! One thing I'd love to do if I ever get one is bust out the paints and give it a dark brown wash and airbrush in some weathering. All the ones I've seen built look too ...clean!!! Such a detailed dump needs to look like it's been around the quarry a few time! Have fun!

Great idea about the cable-tie ...I never thought of that. Thanks!

Interesting. Thanks for the reply. Maybe it's just my "motorcycle tuning" mentality, but I really enjoyed playing with the shim stacks to get the suspension perfect for the conditions. I suppose the differences are fairly minute though. ...but reading about people going to the extents they do to set up a chassis for racing, I'm amazed that fully adjustable suspension isn't on the list of things to have. I was just curious, thanks for posting.

Hey I'm glad this thread came up. I'm finally getting around to running my KB and find the steering is horrible. I bought the kit used (barely) but in great shape, owever, the servo saver has so much slack in it the truck wanders wherever it wants to go, and reverse is a joke completely. lol Is there anything I can do to stiffen up the steering so it's a bit more precise (like having any precision at all)? I bought some BPM oil shocks off ebay which work better, are threaded and have slighlty onger travel, and the truck is fully ball-raced. My only complaint is the shoddy steering. Any thoughts? Thanks.

I was out of the sport for a few years ('89-'05) and am now the proud owner of a couple Tamiya kits, my favorite being the TA04. For all these new touring cars, I have the TRF dampers. The thing is, for as much as they cost, and as pretty as they are, the suspension adjustments are limited to the valve (number of holes), the weight of the oil, and the spring and the orientation of the shock body. Anti-roll bars are another form of suspension tuning that I'm not going to dive into, needless to say it is available and can be very usefull as well. However, when I raced my Hotshot (waaaay back in the day) the hop-up shocks had a shim stack, just like real shocks. (remeber the hop-up shocks for the Hotshot? ...four yellow shocks to replace the pair of red ones) This allowed a racer to adjust the compression and rebound differently. This was important for courses with woops as you could set your suspension for a faster rebound but heavier on compression. This would give you a soft, smooth landing, but as soon as the car left the ground the suspension could quickly extend to it's full range of travel. Why don't they do that anymore? ...or do they still on the buggys? ...I've gotta get me another one of them. I know you don't jump touring cars much, but looking at the TA03 and other rally (or rallye for our British friends) car threads makes me think that kind of adjustability would be handy on even these chassis. I suppose there's nothing stopping me from getting some wafer thin plastic and cutting out my own shim stacks, while switching to alighter oil, but I'm still curious if anyone still does this kind of suspension tuning. ...ok, I'm done rambling for the evening.

Thanks ...any idea how to do the math on that? lol Seriously, I haven't a clue how to combine ratios to get the correct one? Thanks.

If anyone has a TA04 manual they would be willing to part with, please le me know. Not looking for a freebie, but the car I bought didn't come with one (ebay) and I'd like to have it for obvious reasons. My car is a TA04-R but any manual should suffice (R.Pro, TRF, etc). Thanks.

...I HATE this posting system. ...log in, click on a post, reply ..."Invalid name or pass" ...click back and BAM ...3 paragraphs GONE! [] Anyway. ...as I just spent half an hour typing... I'm confused about how to figure the ratio. I thought going smaller on the spur gear would give me an even tighter ratio. Say I use a 100T spur with my 37T pinion (I typed that wrong before, it's not a 57T pinion), wouldn't that give me a ration closer to 2.5:1 rather than increasing it up towards the 7:1 that I'm told I need? Also, as I bought my car used, it came with no manual or extra parts so I have no idea what "stock" is, nor do I know what pitch the gears are which makes it hard to shop for parts online. If you could throw any info my way, I'd certainly appreciate it. Thanks again for all your help.

Hey guys, I just put the novak @@5800 system in my TA04, and it's plenty fast, but it overheats and shuts down. ...of course I just checked the gearing (I bought the car used, with no extra gears) and it is set up at a 57T pinion and a 128T countershaft ...that makes it close to 3.5:1 ratio. So if 7:1 is the golden rule I should be putting an 18T pinion gear in? ...I just want to make sure, it seems that it will be geared awfully low; wouldn't that make it run even hotter? ...regardless, this thing is sooooo quiet. Especially compared to my TB-02 (with a Reedy Flash Point 15x2 in it) ...that thing could wake the dead. The TA04 with the brushless just whispers by! lol Thanks.

Novak has a high-voltage, heavier duty, more torque driven brushless for the trucks out called the HV-Brushless. Supposed to be a drop in replacement for the stock motor in the E-Maxx. The set (with speed controller) is about $270 at Tower.

Yeah, I don't know that I'll go brushless, it's a lot of $$$. OTOH, I have to get a speed controller and receiver for my TA03, I might just transfer the stuff from the TA04 into the 03 and use the stock motor and get a brushless system for the 04. ...we'll see, right now I'm too busy spending money on my dirt-bike.

Thanks man, I'll have to give them a call next time I want something. As for the cars, I'll try to get some pics of them in their current state and post them ...the poor TB02 is all disassembled awaiting those final parts from Juaquim. The Monsters of Stock motor that came in my TA04 siezed tonight too. [] ...perhaps I should have pulled it and looked at the brushes when the thing arrived! lol It has less than an hour on it since I got it. ...I'll probably chuck it in my parts box and pick up a new Reedy ...or maybe go brushless! Hhhmmmmmmmmm!!! [] Thanks again.

I didn't know there was such a thing as tamiya Direct. ...how do I get in touch with them? (I'm going to go search their site). Thanks for the tip. []

The funny thing about the "jump" was that someone left a medium sized 3-ring binder on the floor at the end of the hallway. I hit the binder fairly slowly, the car only jumped about a foot past the binder but it did blow out the lower suspension mount and the drive cup (that comes out of the diff). I replaced the cup with the reinfoced "lightweight" ones, but I need to wait another week or so to get the rest of my parts from Hong Kong. ...man I wished Tamiya had better distribution. All I hear from the hobby shops is how impossible it is to ever get anything from Tamiya, which is doubly frustrating considering their US headquarters is right down the street! [] Ah well, in the meantime I'm having fun romping the TA04 around the carpeted hallways, and my power-slide is coming along really well ...I rarely smash into the wall sideways anymore! [] (that poor yellow Alteeza body is not lookign to happy though) lol

Nice ladybug!!! []