Monster Beetle Issues

[PoD2k2 99]

My wonderful other half has bought me a Monster Beetle for my Birthday. Ticking one off of the 'Wanted as child list'. Apart from the usual bearings etc is there anything else to watch for on these?

[Tamiyastef 2547]

Wonderful indeed . Never had one of these (my only ORV chassis adventure was a King Blackfoot) but I hear you need a 3D printed brace to keep the gearbox together...

[Kowalski86 4076]

Mainly the notorious gearbox issues, the cheap fix is to buy a 3D printed brace from one of the members here, the expensive fix is to install an MIP ball diff. Sometimes rear axles can act up iirc.

You may want to consider a lexan shell for running dependingon how you drive, Monster Beetle shells aren't super durable yet they're quite costly to replace.

[Pablo68 1095]

If it's being run on stock power you should be ok. Many have said that their gearboxes have started to click after a few runs, not my experience though, and I put a brushless system on mine.
As said above, there are options out there to stiffen/strengthen the gearbox plates to prevent this though.

[Willy iine 18826]

Is the clicking noise from the bevel diff jumping the gears?  If so, I had that problem back in the 80's with my Frog.  One semi-hot motor and gearbox went to craps.. then the drive axles started to skip, but I believe Tamiya addressed this weak point on the re-re?

 

[Busdriver 6281]

@Xeostar produces/ed a very successful brace for the ORV chassis. Send him a PM or Search for ORV brace on this site for details, a lot of members run them including me and no clicks !!!!!

[Kowalski86 4076]

5 hours ago, Willy iine said:

Is the clicking noise from the bevel diff jumping the gears?  If so, I had that problem back in the 80's with my Frog.  One semi-hot motor and gearbox went to craps.. then the drive axles started to skip, but I believe Tamiya addressed this weak point on the re-re?

Usually it's the diff gears that begin making that clicking noise. It's a cheap fix (and a good time to try out a different spur gear), just annoying. 

Some re-released ORVs got dogbones, others got universal axles.

[Kowalski86 4076]

5 hours ago, Busdriver said:

@Xeostar produces/ed a very successful brace for the ORV chassis. Send him a PM or Search for ORV brace on this site for details, a lot of members run them including me and no clicks !!!!!

I can second this, Xeostars a good, honest member to deal with. Currently I run a hot stock motor in my Frog with no clicking.

[moffman 5933]

I would recommend if you are planning on running it anywhere near hard don’t put to much effort into painting the body to a high standard because when it goes over all your work will be for nothing so just build it put the decals on it and have fun! You will probably get away with a sport tuned motor anything more powerful you’ll probably stress the gearbox to the damage point!