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BuggyGuy

BuggyGuys TRF211XM Racer

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My TD4 was meant to last me the indoor season, and then the 201XR was meant to do for the next outdoor season (see my 201XR build thread).

But the TD4 did not perform that well at its first indoor race and needs some work, and the 201XR isn't going to perform that well on a high grip carpet track.

Buying a Team Associated B6 for the indoor season appears to be a good choice, but when I really think about it - I'd rather at least try to run a Tamiya! So that leads to this thread...

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I got this car NIB a while ago off of eBay from a UK seller - it wasn't cheap, but was needed to round out my family or 201 chassis. It's closer to being a 201XMW than a 201XM from a chassis layout and gearbox point of view, but has a unique chassis for Tamiya that's stamped rather than moulded from some type of resin ( Quick Form??? ), and rather strangely it's been done in white.

I'll be keeping hopups to a minimum with only the following planned:

- TA06 steel bevel gears for the gear diff

- Inner hinge pins at the front and rear will be swapped for the gold Ti versions

- Titanium screws will be used to retain hinge pins on the arms

- Exotek thumbscrews will be used to retain the battery.

- Might go for DB01 wing mounts but not sure yet.

- Might swap the suspension arms for reinforced versions

 

I've got an nice new servo and 8.5T motor for this build, and a reciever as well, but I'm yet to decide on an ESC

Batteries are also up in the air, the best layout for this car is to use a saddle pack or a square pack. I only have shorty or full sized stick packs so need to decide on whether to get new batteries, alter the car for a shorty, or go with a stickpack and accept a compromised electronics layout.

Disappointingly this kit must have been air freighted at some point in its life as all fluids, greases and other lubricants have been removed from the box, but having a quick sift through all the bags shows nothing else to be missing.

Fingers crossed this will be an easyier build than my 201XR - as all the bits should be in the box, as opposed to my XR and other 201s which have been built entirely from parts/hop-ups!

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This is great. At the risk of mentioning mods straight off, I built my white tube with a 3 gear laydown transmission I design. Uses a yokomo motor plate and idler, but all tamiya bits otherwise. It does mean drilling the tub though, which I understand you might not want to do, but just wanted to mention the option as you are running on carpet. 

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As with most Tamiya kits, this one starts with the diff.

You get both a ball diff and an oil filled gear diff supplied with the kit, I'm going to opt for the gear diff, which is the venerable TA06 type.

The kit includes metal cross shafts for the diff, but does not include the steel gears, so I've picked up a set of gears and the VG O rings. Team Associated Green Slime will be used to help ensure leak free operation. All the fluids had been removed from this kit when I received it, so I'll be using some 3000 CST diff oil from CoreRC

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Next we build the rest of the gearbox - the 211XM uses a 4 gear standup type, the latest and greatest competition cars tend to use a laydown type which improves handling on high grip tracks - @ThunderDragonCy makes a conversion as mentioned above that can be ordered through Shapeways. I'll be building this car pretty stock for now, but maybe my next 201 type car will use that and a Cobra Racing chassis...

First we have the idler gears, which are the same as found in the standard 201 (but are the tougher reinforced type)

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Counter gear is also the same as a stock 201, I might swap this one out for a lighter one, but don't have any in stock at the moment

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Then we come to the first of the nicest parts on this car, the gearbox case. It's machined from aluminium and beautifully made. This is wider than the blue alloy case that came with the 201XM, but should be the same as the one found on the 201XMW:

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I used a thin sliver of ceramic grease on the gears at this point. We join the two gearbox case sides and attach them to the motor plate and then move on to parts bag B:

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Clutch next, the 211 comes with the "cooling pressure plates" as Tamiya call them, a blue flanged nut, and the slipper pads from the TRF501X. It goes together exactly the same as a stock 201/DN01 slipper assembly.

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Moving on - we need to complete the rear shock tower assembly, attach it to the gearbox:

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Interestingly the manual points out that DB01 wing mounts can be used in place of the stock parts so I'll keep an eye for a set of those!

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Skipping ahead a little, In my eagerness to make this car as good as it can be (having test fitted some Lipos and electronics in the chassis) I've ordered the following...

- Sky RC 160 amp Toro TS160 ESC: https://www.skyrc.com/TS160

- 2 x Intellect BRCA legal square pack lipos:  https://www.rccarshop.co.uk/IPSQ2S6800PT2-INTELLECT-LIPO-LIHV-6800MAH-2S-SQUARE-7-6V

- And the completely outrageous bit, a KO Propo Ex-Next with a pair of receivers: https://www.kopropo.co.jp/en/products/view/10683

The last one wasnt strictly required, and I could have carried on with my Spektrum DX5C, but I always used to use a KO in my competition cars years ago and felt like I should do the same again if I could. I will retire the Spektrum to garden car duties!

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The next step is to put some bolts through the chassis to support the battery mounting, and to attach the rear gearbox assembly:

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The RF suspension amount appears to be made from brass, and is approximately 15g heavier than the original 201 item

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The waterfall brace included moves the motor around 8mm further rearward compared to the XM version 

 

 

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We then mount the brace to the chassis:

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Gather the hardware for mounting the rear mounts and wishbones, the only hopupnjere is the Ti coated shafts for the inner suspension pins:

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The arms are not the reinforced versions, bit the hubs are the CF version from the XV01: 

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Hard hex head ball connectors provide the link for the rear, crub screws get sunk into the surrounding holes in the XV01 hub to help secure things:

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Another tiny hopup - using Ti screws to retain the hinge pins:

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In real life I'm a little ahead of the posts here in a rush to be ready to race this coming Sunday. I've had to order some white star dish front wheels as I don't have anything in stock that's slim enough to run Schumacher cut staggers. All the 201 wheels I have are to wide for a good fit on any slim competition tyre :-(

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19 hours ago, BuggyGuy said:

In real life I'm a little ahead of the posts here in a rush to be ready to race this coming Sunday. I've had to order some white star dish front wheels as I don't have anything in stock that's slim enough to run Schumacher cut staggers. All the 201 wheels I have are to wide for a good fit on any slim competition tyre :-(

 

 

If the star dish work then that's great. I ended up using Schumacher slim fronts for imperial bearings and buying the optional imperial size front axles. 

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33 minutes ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

If the star dish work then that's great. I ended up using Schumacher slim fronts for imperial bearings and buying the optional imperial size front axles. 

Yeah I have the imperial axles as well in the parts bin, but foolishly sold my stock of B4 wheels recently. The Schumacher slim fronts for bearing wheels are currently out of stock everywhere unfortunately. JC Racing make a set of B4 fronts - but I can't find the dimensions online and they don't look particular slim from the pics.

I think the star dish fronts should be ok, they are definitely slim, take a pair of 1050 bearings, and are listed as 2.2" - though I'm expecting them to be slightly poor fit for the tyres based on the other stardish wheels I have in stock - at least compared to proper competition wheels, but they should be a much better fit for the cut staggers Schue tyres than the wide 201 fronts.

This is the part I've gone for: https://tamiyabase.com/parts/4405-10445167

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Ah, shame about the Schumacher availability. IME the tamiya slim fronts are actually 2.2. It's the rears that are that weird slightly smaller diameter

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On 9/27/2022 at 2:38 PM, BuggyGuy said:

Clutch next, the 211 comes with the "cooling pressure plates" as Tamiya call them, a blue flanged nut, and the slipper pads from the TRF501X. It goes together exactly the same as a stock 201/DN01 slipper assembly.

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About the friction pads. I was asking myself where the difference is. TD4/DN1-201/TRF501 and maybe a fourth one are listed under different numbers and all fit the same size,...

Are the grey ones (501) so much more reliable?

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5 minutes ago, Collin said:

About the friction pads. I was asking myself where the difference is. TD4/DN1-201/TRF501 and maybe a fourth one are listed under different numbers and all fit the same size,...

Are the grey ones (501) so much more reliable?

The 501 pads feel like they are more consistent to me, the original 201 pads feel like they go off too quickly.

AE B4 type pads are probably the best replacements though

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Suspension arms and gearbox get mounted next, you get the 3 degree rear RR mount in the kit, it took me forever to find one of these for another 201 build, so really nice to see one included here:

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You have to shave a bit off the arms to stop them hitting the diff outdrives when the suspension is compressed, but I wanted to fit the gearbox before doing this so I could mark up the right spot.

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Should have mentioned in one of the posts above, but other than the choice of chassis material the waterfall brace and CF cross member shown above are probably the biggest change from the earlier XM 201s - on the 211XM the waterfall is bolted to the cross member, this removes a lot flex from the rear of the car that the earlier XMs had (even though they have aluminium chassis).

Drive shafts next, these are updated from the original 201's (though I think the XMW had the same setup) and feature a retaining clip to keep the pin in place, this makes me 99% certain the stub axles are the same as used in the 501x WO rear driveshafts. I think the retaining clip/spring is from the TRF417? The swing shaft is still 64mm like the original cars (so guess the whole unit came from one of the later TRF5** series car).

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Moving onto the front end, steering rack comes first:

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Only difference between this and an original 201 is the use of the hard hex head ball connectors (all ball connectors on the 211 are of this type).

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And all secured with a small top plate:

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Building up the front hubs comes next, the only none reinforced plastics are the front arms, so I'll probably swap to a reinforced pair if I manage to break the originals

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Those tiny screws that retain the hinge pin running though the hub are a pain to install - so I pretap the hole with a cap head screw thats the same thread:

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Hubs then get attached to the arms:

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Titanium screws again used for retaining the hinge pins (I've got loads of these in stock after finding them for £2 a packet delivered!)

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Next we attach the arms to the bulkhead, another hop-up here with the Ti coated shafts (£3 a pair at the moment):

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I run associated b6 front arms and knuckles/hexes on mine to use current front rims and stronger front suspension set up.

 

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How is the build going?

I saw one of these kits at Amain hobbies and (I'm in the US) It showed backorder only.  I chatted with one of the sales reps and was told they can have it shipped out in a few weeks.  I ordered the wheels separate (backorder also) so it doesn't tie up shipping of the kit.

I'm super exited.  Everywhere I looked for a trf201 is starting at 1000.00 for a factory sealed box or zahhak which is non existent. I tried to see if I could build one from parts but some parts trees are discontinued making it impossible.  Tamiya USA told me the trf201 and Zahhak are discontinued even though their website does not say so. This is probably the last chance to get one of these kits before they are discontinued. I feel like I lucked out. 

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On 2/7/2023 at 7:07 PM, danimaldaisy said:

How is the build going?

I saw one of these kits at Amain hobbies and (I'm in the US) It showed backorder only.  I chatted with one of the sales reps and was told they can have it shipped out in a few weeks.  I ordered the wheels separate (backorder also) so it doesn't tie up shipping of the kit.

I'm super exited.  Everywhere I looked for a trf201 is starting at 1000.00 for a factory sealed box or zahhak which is non existent. I tried to see if I could build one from parts but some parts trees are discontinued making it impossible.  Tamiya USA told me the trf201 and Zahhak are discontinued even though their website does not say so. This is probably the last chance to get one of these kits before they are discontinued. I feel like I lucked out. 

Build went well - I really need to update the thread. I've raced this car it's a lovely kit to build.

Are you going to race this kit? If you are you might want to make a few changes at build time depending on the surface you'll be running on and if your going to run stock or mod.

Congrats on getting one by the way!

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