Looking for a new basher

[Kowalski86 4274]

3 hours ago, Rijkvv said:

It's time for me to make a few confessions.

I do have an XV01 Long Damper Spec. Brand new.

I'd go ahead and build your XV01, you don't get much better than that for a parking lot racer.

The TT-01E has better steering than the TT02, that's about it. You have to hack it up to make it into a "rally" car and an assortment of other things.

The TA02 was designed a long ways ago for silver can motors and MSCs, it holds up to better power but I find on-roaders (or rally) cars more fun at "scale" speeds.

[Rijkvv 66]

Do you know that feeling, that you have a (very) strong opinion about something, and then suddenly you change your opinion 180 degrees? That kinda happened to me the last days concerning buggies. They look fun indeed, I can go on a bit rougher terrain than my XV-01 (which I still might build anyway), and so I'm thinking about getting a buggy. Maybe not as realistic, but with 1:10 cars I don't get near the levels of realism of tanks and truck anyway, and those are far beyond my budget.

I'm mainly looking at the 2wd buggies. Easier maintenance I assume. Besides of that, as for 4wd buggies I think there's only either expensive 400+ Euro kits, kits which are maybe less reliable, or TT-02B's, of which I haven't read that many good stories. The only 4wd buggy I'm looking at now is a Dark Impact, but reading the recent topic about the DF-03 makes me a bit anxcious to use that. The DT-02 and DT-03 on the other hand get a lot of praise from what I've read so far, especially for entry level kits. Might also be a bit safer to use a brushless motor in, though the motor I've seen recommended somewhere (Bluebottle) needs soldering and I don't have the tools or the confidence (yet) to do that, so I would probably go with a Tamiya TBLM or Torque Tuned anyway for the time being.

Any preference of one chassis over the other in terms of reliability? I'd go for CVA's and ball bearings anyway (Sand Viper and Nissan Titan (DT-02) have them both, from what I've read the DT-03's have CVA's included?). I've heard about the DT-02 shock tower being a point of concern, but the Nissan has a crossbrace fitted, and there's also the Carson aluminium brace which I could get. As for the DT-03 maybe carbon shock towers? Any other weaknesses?

Then I'm undecided what servo to fit. There are some great recommendations to find but I'm not sure if those apply to me as well. I've read quite a bit about BEC's but didn't get a clear picture. The M-08 uses a Savox (1251 maybe?), I've read those can demand a high current, but so far no problems yet. But that one has a Hobbywing 1060 which I believe has an internal 2A BEC. The Tamiya ESC included in some of those buggies kits has 1.5A IIRC. I prefer to use those ESC's, and not to use an external BEC, and I understood that means as a rule of thumb a maximum torque of 4.5kg/cm which I believe severely limits my options. Or is that something that you never reach in practice? Any servo to recommend? Preferably a bit less expensive, but with build quality, reliable and a bit fast (I believe I've read 0.13s is a good speed)?

[Kowalski86 4274]

1 hour ago, Rijkvv said:

Do you know that feeling, that you have a (very) strong opinion about something, and then suddenly you change your opinion 180 degrees? That kinda happened to me the last days concerning buggies. They look fun indeed, I can go on a bit rougher terrain than my XV-01 (which I still might build anyway), and so I'm thinking about getting a buggy. Maybe not as realistic, but with 1:10 cars I don't get near the levels of realism of tanks and truck anyway, and those are far beyond my budget.

I'm mainly looking at the 2wd buggies. 

Any preference of one chassis over the other in terms of reliability? I'd go for CVA's and ball bearings anyway (Sand Viper and Nissan Titan (DT-02) have them both, from what I've read the DT-03's have CVA's included?). 

Then I'm undecided what servo to fit. There are some great recommendations to find but I'm not sure if those apply to me as well. 

More often than not I've considered selling my on-road stuff and sticking to buggies.

The nice thing with 2wd buggies is that they work fine on asphalt once you change the rear tires. Unlike on-road stuff, twigs and bumps don't throw off buggies, they can jump, they don't collect crud, and they don't need perfectly smooth dirt patches.

This is technically a 4wd buggy meant to look like a truck, but it can tackle terrain that always broke my TT-02 rally car.

If you don't mind going off-brand the Kyosho Dirtmaster isn't a bad kit. It's tougher than the DT buggies (since it uses better plastic), and it's cheaper than the BBX.

Tamiya no longer makes a chassis for the DT-02, and it's cheapo ABS, I wouldn't buy one for a runner. I'm actually somewhat disappointed that Tamiya doesn't seem too interested in making another entry level 2wd buggy atm.

[Rijkvv 66]

Thanks for the suggestion, just have been looking a bit at the manual and that looks like a promising quality kit. I'm going to ask my local hobby shop if they can get Kyosho parts, just in case. Maybe watch and read some reviews and build reports. The price though is quite hefty compared to a DT-03, not sure if I can get permission from the missus after I explained that buggies are much cheaper... 

[Kowalski86 4274]

47 minutes ago, Rijkvv said:

The price though is quite hefty compared to a DT-03, not sure if I can get permission from the missus after I explained that buggies are much cheaper... 

It may seem that way at first, but the Dirtmaster doesn't need bearings nor any extra reinforcements off the bat, on top of it having a wider range for gearing and a slipper clutch.

The DT-03 only has two pinion choices, a plastic motor mount (that's known to overheat most brushed motors), and will always be more limited as a buggy even of its fully hopped up.

[Twinfan 2013]

12 hours ago, Rijkvv said:

Thanks for the suggestion, just have been looking a bit at the manual and that looks like a promising quality kit. I'm going to ask my local hobby shop if they can get Kyosho parts, just in case. Maybe watch and read some reviews and build reports. The price though is quite hefty compared to a DT-03, not sure if I can get permission from the missus after I explained that buggies are much cheaper... 

 

12 hours ago, Kowalski86 said:

The DT-03 only has two pinion choices, a plastic motor mount (that's known to overheat most brushed motors), and will always be more limited as a buggy even of its fully hopped up.

Yep, there's a huge difference between a DT-03 and the Dirtmaster.  I've got a fully Hopped-Up DT-03 and it took a long time to get it to handle OK and have some speed.  The DT-03 was designed around entry level racing for kids as fan as I can gather, so it has its limitations.  The Dirtmaster is based on an old race buggy.  I have a Dirtmaster in the build queue and I expect it to be miles better straight out of the box. 

 

12 hours ago, Kowalski86 said:

It may seem that way at first, but the Dirtmaster doesn't need bearings nor any extra reinforcements off the bat, on top of it having a wider range for gearing and a slipper clutch.

That's mostly true except for the steering.  For mine, I've got lined up:

• metal shielded 5X8X2.5 ball bearings x4 (Tamiya "850" size) replacing servo saver part UM583
• metal shielded 3X6X2.5 flanged ball bearings x2 replacing steering part UM584

Getting those is probably around £10 but you could always add them later  

[BuggyDad 5904]

2 hours ago, Twinfan said:

I've got a fully Hopped-Up DT-03 and it took a long time to get it to handle OK and have some speed.  The DT-03 was designed around entry level racing for kids as fan as I can gather, so it has its limitations.  

Same here. 

Not to say I don't like mine, I do, and I've reckomended it to others, but it's taken a lot to get it decent and it still has considerable limitations. There's a fair bit you can do to improve it but there's only so far you can go. Steering geo (which is OK, just limited) is an example of something you can't really do much with. Another bugbear of mine is diffs - it would be nice to fit either a sealed gear diff or an externally adjustable ball diff. And to add rear toe-in requires 3d printing. Plus it has a chassis weakness which although not disastrous is a weakness you'd rather not have. So, you're going well beyond simply buying hop ups to achieve some fairly run-of-the-mill stuff. 

To me, if starting out, the Dirtmaster looks excellent value by comparison - it's not an expensive kit really, and it doesn't really need anything extra. My only concern would be that Kyosho spares availability seems generally much less good than Tamiya's (although, I have actually bought and used some Dirtmaster parts in my own designs elsewhere, so I suppose I can't be that worried about it). 

[Twinfan 2013]

29 minutes ago, BuggyDad said:

My only concern would be that Kyosho spares availability seems generally much less good than Tamiya's (although, I have actually bought and used some Dirtmaster parts in my own designs elsewhere, so I suppose I can't be that worried about it). 

That would be my concern too, but there seems to be plenty of spares in stock or available to order at MB Models, Modelsport and Kyosho Spares:

https://www.rccarshop.co.uk/search?q=dirtmaster&take=37

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/search/?search=dirtmaster

https://kyoshospares.co.uk/search?q=dirt+master

How long that support will continue though, who knows?  But the same applies to any car really.  For the time being I'd say things look OK  

[BuggyDad 5904]

42 minutes ago, Twinfan said:

That would be my concern too, but there seems to be plenty of spares in stock or available to order at MB Models, Modelsport and Kyosho Spares:

https://www.rccarshop.co.uk/search?q=dirtmaster&take=37

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/search/?search=dirtmaster

https://kyoshospares.co.uk/search?q=dirt+master

How long that support will continue though, who knows?  But the same applies to any car really.  For the time being I'd say things look OK  

I guess as well, it might be reasonable to expect longer term support for a new platform than a rerelease of a vintage buggy (on which we may be largely basing our concern about Kyosho parts supply)? While these rereleases are not strictly "limited edition" there does often seem to be a manufacturing run and then they may stop quite quickly. 

[Rijkvv 66]

A bit of a bump, but I think that's better than opening a new topic. Some time has past, I have some new opinions/ideas but also some questions.

First the M08. I noticed there are two different sizes of M tires and it appears I have the small ones. Could the larger ones make enough difference in ground clearance to get it going on asphalt which is okay I guess but not super smooth? Does the M07 have comparable clearance to the M08?

Likewise, I might try the same surface for postal racing for my TA04SS. Chassis is finished (though I had trouble eith making a decent wiring job), bodies not (yet).

I'm definitely going to build the XV01LD. For now I'm going to use a Hobbywing 1060 brushed and a torque tuned, so I can upgrade to Lipo later on. For brushless I first want to read a bit into what gearing to use. Maybe a regular XV on the long term, though I would sell the Lancia body since I've even seen experienced people struggle with the stickers.

How beginner friendly are ball diffs? I felt the rear one on my DF03 is way too loose, but I thought I tightened it up firmly. I ask this because the basic Carten T410 seems to be equipped with those. Also every F1 and Group C, and I regret selling the Lotus with Tamiya sponsoring so if that one ever became available again I'd possibly buy it right away.

The Dirtmaster goes on the wishlist. 😀