WANTED: Maverick DesertWolf Centre Diff

[wintersdawn]

3 minutes ago, TrueBlue said:

Also, I've just checked my emails... Modelsport DID respond to me.. on the SAME day I sent the message, May 10th, lol... how did I miss that?? 

Glad you found their message lol!

[wintersdawn]

[wintersdawn]

The above was regarding the Timberwolf and seems there may have been a spur gear alternative based on the comments, available from Modelsport, long gone now tho:

https://m.facebook.com/OfficialMaverickRC/posts/maverick-rc-timberwolf-and-desertwolf-options-and-upgrades-are-here-from-carbon-/654721914679492/

[TrueBlue]

Is he talking about the centre spur gear? Because yeah... long gone now, lol... I definitely couldn't find one, not even on Wheelspin where spares are still available. 

Dude wasn't happy, lol... giving the old Eff this and Eff that. But yeah, forking out £300 for a car then have it discontinued 3 years later with most of the spare parts being lost to the tides of time.. I'd feel pretty peeved as well.

[wintersdawn]

Yes, think he must have been as, to my knowledge, there's only one spur gear, in the centre diff.

Don't blame him either but I guess, even after they were discontinued, there would still be left over stock on model stores and don't suppose they'd add a note saying 'be aware if you buy this, it's actually discontinued, including parts etc', even if they should.

I'm starting to wonder how many they sold of the TW and DW, maybe in the low hundreds each in the UK...

Over the last four years I've only seen about half a dozen of DW & TW combined come up for sale on eBay, although could have missed some.

[TrueBlue]

I haven't seen a single Desertwolf or Timberwolf show up on eBay as of yet... but since I didn't even know about this thing until November last year, I could also have missed quite a few. I've been looking on eBay since and all I've ever found searching for Desertwolf are the two body shells. I haven't actually searched for the Tiimberwolf yet. Of course, searching for parts using their part number yields more results. 

It's possible the DW and TW sold very little in the UK over the course of a few years. If it's only a few hundred that's pretty depressing. Loads of people missed out on a pretty interesting buggy. I feel quite privileged to own one, lol.

Still waiting for Modelsport to receive the back order and ship it out... ordered on Thursday I think. Taking it's time to get to Modelsport. Also just purchased a butt-load of paint, and a Subaru Impreza body shell. Now I have 4 shells to paint!

[wintersdawn]

I got mine from eBay, where did you get your DW from?

It is pretty sad how unsuccessful the DW and TW appear to have been but so glad we discovered them. Don't imagine I'll ever like another RC more and, as you know, I've had quite a few.

Hope you're body shell reaches Modelsport soon so they can ship it out to you. Glad you got your paint, so you've got everything you need now.

[TrueBlue]

Since you got yours from eBay, how much did it cost you? I was very lucky in getting mine. Someone who had purchased a few PC parts off me on eBay asked me if I wanted something called a Maverick Desertwolf. Said it was a 1:8 scale buggy... I said I never heard of it. He sent it to me, I paid for shipping... TOO MUCH I might add, £25... the shipping label on the box said £7... I think I got kinda cheated there, lol. So all in all, someone "gave" it to me, technically for £25. I had to purchase a load of spare parts and electronics of course.

It is rather They seem like pretty good buggies as well. Built well, seem sturdy, not sure about the stock electronics since I never had them... shame they seemed to die out before they have a change to really make an impact.

I hope so.. I know they had to backorder it, but I didn't expect it to take this long just to receive it from their suppliers or where ever. Hopefully soon though.

[wintersdawn]

Sorry to hear they over-charged you on the postage for the DW, but £25 generally is really good.

I came across the listing of my DW on eBay and it was an auction with a £200 start price.

They were also taking offers, so I thought about what to offer, I didn't want to offer something ridiculously low as they'd probably decline it. Also, I felt like it might not be around long, due to its rarity and someone else might get their offer accepted whilst I was wasting time with low offers and counter offers.

I therefore decided, as I really wanted it and hadn't seen one listed for ages, to offer £150 plus postage and they accepted it. 

My Timberwolves were both from eBay too and about £90 each plus postage I think.

[TrueBlue]

Haha, yeah I was a little miffed after looking at the postage stickler when I got it.. but £25 was still a good deal, even just for the rolling chassis, it had a body shell in great condition AND the wing. 

An auction, with £200 starting price? £150 not too bad at all, especially since it still had all it's original electronics (I think?). Good thing they accepted it then. 

And the Timberwolves were only £90? Even better bargain! Did they have everything included as well, like the original electronics? So all three were pretty good prices then... good thing you came across them when you did, otherwise you might have missed out on them.

[wintersdawn]

Yes, the DW had the original electronics, as did the TW's and am happy with the prices I paid, even more so now I'm aware of the cost of importing a new DW from New Zealand!

The first TW had the turnbuckle upgrade included, not fitted and the second had a sway bar upgrade fitted, a carbon fibre front chassis brace and some other standard spares.

Both TW's came with the original Maverick transmitter and receiver but sold them as I already had my favourite transmitter/receiver, an Austar AX-6S, which can be paired with up to 15 receiver's and has great functions and range.

After a while I had a problem with the stock motor and ESC in TW1.  I wasn't sure which was causing the problem so upgraded to a HPI motor and 3S combo. It was also good to upgrade the ESC as the stock ESC needed a fan upgrade/change to make it compatible with 3S.  Also upgraded the TW2 ESC to the same 3S capable HPI ESC and fitted heat sinks/fans to the motors of both TW's and the DW.

[wintersdawn]

What motor, ESC, servo and receiver did you fit in your DW?

[TrueBlue]

The ESC and motor was a HobbyWing Combo MAX10 G2 ESC with a 4000kV motor, with a Traxxas connector, since that's what my Lipos use and I had a Traxxas Lipo charger already. It was about £130 for the ESC and motor combo.

The servo was a brand I'd never heard of until I starting looking for a servo, it was an SRT DL3017 digital servo, 15.5Kg at 6.6v... though I might look for another one with more torque and speed, spend a little more than £17 lol. 

The receiver is the same one that all my cars have (except the HPI Bullet) and it's an Etronix Pulse FHSS ET1132. I actually have an Absima transmitter, a CR6S (a good transmitter actually) but the Absima receivers are £28... but the rebranded Etronix ones are only £14. Since they work with the Absima CR6S, I buy those instead!

[wintersdawn]

Cool about your electronics set up in the DW. The HPI 4000kv motor and ESC combo I bought was around £130 too.

The standard servo in the TW and DW is a 9kg servo and is still available I think, but yours sounds good.

Glad you have a favourite transmitter too that you use with your RC's. I previously had a DumboRC transmitter which was also great, with gyro, though never really used the gryo. I sold it with my Arrma Kraton.

 

[wintersdawn]

Did you use the paper technique to set the gap between the spur gear and pinion gear when you fitted the motor, or by 'feel'?

I started with the paper technique but have started to get a feel for when the gap is right now.

[TrueBlue]

Haha, I've never actually used the paper technique for any of my pinion/spur gears... I've always done it by sight and feel. I put the gears as close together as they can go, then move them apart by a tiny bit... and that's usually enough. Seems to work fine, little no resistance between the gears and every runs smoothly.

Funny you mention your DumboRC transmitter... the Absima CR6S I have (and the Etronix EX6G) are both rebranded DumboRC transmitters. The photo shows the one I have.. is that what your DumboRC looked like? 

 

[wintersdawn]

Cool that you set the spur/pinion gear gap by sight/feel, I hadn't done many before as the Tamiya motor position was set by the screws, so initially used the paper technique, didn't want to strip my spur gear lol!

Yes, that's what my DumboRC transmitter looked like, although I had to buy the sponge that fits around the wheel separately.

[TrueBlue]

You had to buy the sponge that goes around the wheel? Did they cheap-put by not including it? Or did you buy it second hand and it just didn't have it?

Also, heard back from Modelsport about the whereabouts to my Desertwolf shell. Apparently, they *should* have it by next week. Kinda unfortunate... didn't think it would take that long!

[wintersdawn]

Yes, my dumboRC transmitter didn't come with the wheel sponge, although can't remember whether I bought it new or used.

Glad you heard back from Modelsport, hopefully, if they get it early enough next week, you should receive before the end of the week.

[TrueBlue]

Well, I painted the Desertwolf shell finally.

In the end, I didn't use Metallic Orange for two reasons... it was more expensive than the other metallic pains for some reason, and because of that it wasn't included in the Multi-Can Discount on Wheelspin. So I (stupidly?) chose translucent orange instead and backed it with white, hoping it would still be a vibrant orange. It came out... orange. But the overall effect wasn't what I wanted.

What I might do is wait a month or two (I still have 3 more shells to paint) and buy another colour... gold maybe? ...and paint it on the outside.

[wintersdawn]

Sorry it didn't come out as you wanted, can't really tell from photo, it looks good.

I guess you could do it a matching orange like the original body shell colour but gold sounds good too.

Only news I've got is that I'm going to take my DW on its first run in the morning since I owned it.

[TrueBlue]

Wait, you've never run the Desertwolf before? Was it only the Timberwolf you've driven so far? I've not really taken my DW out either, just that quick run that was cut short due to an oopsie. Hope the run goes well.... try not to break anything though.

Yeah, gold... hopefully that'll look good. The orange paint job looks fine, no problems with it.. it just isn't what I imagined, lol.

[wintersdawn]

No, not run the DW before, only run my TW's as had them since 2021.

Thanks, going to a local park where I can run it on grass and hopefully avoid any accidents lol!

Sometimes there are dogs there that give chase!  That's always fun as long as the battery doesn't go into low power mode and they take out a chunk!  That said, its never happened, as they're usually quite nervous of an RC and if it stops or turns to face them, they back off.   

[wintersdawn]

What lipo charger do you use? This is mine, goes up to 4s.

[TrueBlue]

Nothing as fancy that... I use a standard Traxxas LiPo charger, as the only LiPos I have are all Traxxas. Except the Overlander 3S I bought for the DW, which I don't even need now. Thankfully, the Traxxas charger also has a balance connector for non-Traxxas batteries, it can charge NiMH as well. Traxxas batteries have balance leads built-in to the connector.