Maintenance service: How often?

[skom25 1245]

Hey,

As in Topic.

How often do you rebuild your models? What about shocks?

After each ride I try to clean everything with brushes and sometimes with compressed air. I run mainly on dusty gravel.

Yesterday I was little surprised because after only 2h, oil in rear CVA shocks was little dirty. It seems that those standard orings are not the best.

Any tips to maintain model in good condition?

[Beetlemankurt 676]

Hey skom25, I clean my models with a brush after a run. This is sometimes followed by armour all or a similar product for some shine . Lexan bodies might get a squirt with the hose if they need it.

I don't really rebuild shocks or anything unless it isn't working properly/smoothly anymore....a bit of the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality and it's always been fine for me.

Would be different if I was racing as that requires a much more proactive approach, but haven't done that for many a year.

Cheers

Kurt

 

[Willy iine 18806]

Maintenance is purely dependent of how hard I drive the car..  It can be years or after one day of hard driving.  

[Pablo68 1049]

Maint....what is this of which you speak?

Once they start making grinding and rattling noises is about right.

[skom25 1245]

Hehe 

Unfortunately ( maybe not? ) my cycling experience shows one thing: if you do not want problems during season, rebuild bike during winter.

However RCs are little different and less time consuming in terms of service, at least electric.

Maybe you are right are there is no reason to strip model without reason.

[Pablo68 1049]

3 minutes ago, skom25 said:

Hehe 

Unfortunately ( maybe not? ) my cycling experience shows one thing: if you do not want problems during season, rebuild bike during winter.

However RCs are little different and less time consuming in terms of service, at least electric.

Maybe you are right are there is no reason to strip model without reason.

Ha ha sorry. I should be a bit more serious.

I hate to say it but with the number of cars I have, they don't all get run as often as they should. I think I get around the maintenance side of things  doing the best I can to build them right the first time. They all get bearings, mesh set up correctly, I try not to stuff up the shocks, all kinds of things. Added to not being run a heck of a lot, it's just a quick clean after a run and things tend to be ok.

Oh yeah, where I live is mosty dry and sandy, so a clean is often body off, turn upside down and shake. True story.

[Kowalski86 3034]

Depends on which model, depends on where I drive it. My on-road cars often get a dust off after a run, off-road it depends in if the chassis is a design that's narrow and high (so doesn't catch dirt much) or a bathtub chassis buggy.

I usually only re-build my models once after I buy them, both to check for bearings, bad screws, and get familiar with the model.

[BuggyGuy 1106]

Depends on a lot of things, racing on carpet in a clean hall I only need to top-up the shocks every couple of club nights, and the gear diff a couple of times a season (same for the diff and shock o-rings).

I do brush down the car and inspect it for damage after every run though.

Outdoor buggy racing is a different story (unless on astro) - the shocks need topping up after every event (or even mid event), and the seals needs changing regularly too, bearings need a clean after every meeting as well. And the car needs to be kept as clean as possible in general so that means way more frequent rebuilds (particulary for CVD joints for example).

[RC_FunLand 167]

I rebuild my cars when they show signs of wear/break completely. For example, I had a stripped gear somewhere in my Hotshot, but refused to take it apart and fix it until the ESC burnt out.

Even now- just a few weeks ago I had replaced both the ESC and the motor with a new, faster brushless system in the Hotshot. Fast forward two weeks and my rear gearbox sounds like it’s filled with rocks and detritus- after only four runs!

It really just depends how hard I bash the car (and if I “bash” it into a wall or not ). Like I haven’t taken apart my TT-02 gearbox in over two years because it runs perfectly well with no excess grinding or unusual sounds.