TL01 LA build for carpet track

[Gratuit 76]

Hi!

TL01 is why I left the RC world more than 20 years ago, and also why I came back in the hobby some times ago.
A bit of history: I've started my "carrer" with a second hand Monster Beetle in the early 90's, then have owned a TA02 and a TA03F pro. There where club races organised by a RC shop near my place, and I had great times driving there (even if I wasn't very good at it). I live near the track of Spa-Francorchamps, and on the side of the big races like the GT 24 hours and the F1 GP, there is another 24h race just for Citroen 2CV. The shop (wich sadly disapeared since then) had the Idea to make a 24h race for RC cars. So, in a covered parking inside the pits, we where racing stock TL01s with 2CV bodies for 24 hours, starting and arriving 1 hour before the real cars. There where just some hop-ups allowed like bearings and a fast release system for the batteries. I took part several times (even won one edition with our team), but have no pictures of this as it was in the late 90's / early 00's, so not in the smartphone area where you have so many pictures of anything that you don't even look at them   
Long story made short, I had sell all my other cars and only kept the TL01 that had ridden an edition of the 24 hours. I just had changed some parts like gears etc. Car that someone stole from me during a club race... As I was a student at this time and prefered to throw money drinking beers than in RC cars, I stopped the hobby.
But 2 years ago, my son in law turned 10 and I wanted to buy him an RC car for his birthday. I remembered the good old days (but had forgot about the money it cost ) and started to look after a second hand Tamiya instead of a new cra%%y Nikko of whatever. I came accross a strange car, a TL01 crossed with a TT02T Sandshaker. Complete (just without battery) for 100€. So that was his gift , and I've bought a XV01 for me so we can drive together.
As he had broken a driveshaft and that the new parts are quite expensive (actually, the shipping costs more than the parts themselves), I've found a batch of parts with 2 scrapped TL01, so now we have enought spares to repair when he crashes. And... after some research (on this forum and other sites), I've found that one of the 2 is a TL01 LA, that even comes with stabilizers. So I thought that it could be a good Idea to rebuild it in order to take part to some club races that take place on a carpet track here in the area.

So first I've had to collect all the missing parts. The hardest to find were the front uprights that were missing and that are specific to the LA version. Thankfully, a shop near my place could find some, these where the last ones

The rest of the parts were easy to get.

So now I'm ready for the build. All I've done till now is to tap all the chassis holes so I can use m3 screws in place of the self tapping ones.
 

[Gratuit 76]

I could make a bit of work the chassis today.

I've build the diffs, one just with graphite grease, and added some diff putty in the other. As information on this is quite difficult to get, I will make my own experience
 

Im' a bit afraid that the putty gets in the space around with centrifugal forces. Does anywone knows if those diff houses (for GF) would work in the TL01?

 

I also made new shafts out of aluminium in order to gain some weight...

Next step: I will certainly cut in the chassis in order to be able to fit some square shaped lipo's as I have 4 of them and don't want to buy some sticks just for this chassis. I'll design and 3d print some retainers for normal and short lipos.

 

[svenb 4267]

I used to race a TL01 which I converted to LA spec. Basically gave it as many hop ups as it needed but didn't both with the lightweight chassis as I was told they broke to easily.

I upgraded to a TA03F then a TA06.

The TA06 was to tricky to set up so went back to the TL and enjoyed that more than the other two, although the 03 is a great chassis.

I tried a 10.5 t brushless in the TL and a lipo , that used to crab sideways under acceleration 🙄. I still own it and it's been hopped upped and placed on the shelf.

Look forward to the rest of your build/racing.

[Gratuit 76]

The work on the chassis is going on quite well.

I've cut the battery tray to accept the square shaped lipo's. Not so clean but it works.

Then I designed and print a first retainer to see how it fits.

I'm quite happy with the result, just some parameters to adjust and a bit of rounding and I will be able to print the final part.

Next step: designing the other retainer, and then going on with the build

[Gratuit 76]

Hi everybody !

I could achieve a bit of work on the chassis in last days.

The retainers are in place, and I'm quite happy with the result:

 

So I could go on with the direction servo. I've used a high torque saver for m chassis, and home made turnbuckle. I will certainly buy some real turnbuckles in the future, but for now I've choosen the cheap solution

 

I've made 3 different center shafts as the holes where not that straight and the car made a lot of noise. But after many tests I've found that the noise came from the front differential gear. Now it sounds better.
I use sealed bearings outside, and just schielded ones inside.

 

I will use a T2M Rush 17.5 combo on this build (because I have it). The problem is that the pinion's screw sits at the end of the shaft.

 

But I've found the solution, as there is no end bell like on the RS540 motors on this one, I could mount the pinion in the opposite direction.

 

The alignment is perfect. I've used the high speed gears with the first pinion I've found (23T). I may gear that down a bit if the motor gets too hot.

 

Rear suspension is on, with the original dogbones. I sprayed them with PTFE dry lube.

 

In the front I've used some CVA's I had liying. I also opted for the low friction screws.

 

Next steps: Rebuild the shocks with x-rings, adjust the droop, CAD some front bumper and stabilizer holder (as I don't have the original ones).
I'm in a hurry, because I have to be ready for this sunday (if I'm able to register to the race, it's like getting tickets for Tomorrowland )

[TurnipJF 10282]

Great to see another TL-01LA coming together. What shell are you planning to fit?

[Gratuit 76]

17 hours ago, TurnipJF said:

Great to see another TL-01LA coming together. What shell are you planning to fit?

I just bought a cheap 2nd hand Stratus body for a couple of €. Good enough to what I will do with it (i.e. crash ).

When I'll be more confident I'd like to put an Alfa 155 on it

Oh, and I could register to the "race". Wich actually isn't a race, just some club driving on carpet. Again, as I haven't driven on a real track for more than 20 years, I think it's better like this

[Gratuit 76]

Hi all!

I wanted to make a post on saturday, but I've worked hard on the car to prepair it for yesterday's driving day. The result was not so bad, I'll tell you later. But for now here is what I've done on saturday. I don't have that many pictures as I was a bit in a hurry...

First I had to rebuild the dampers with thicker oil and x-rings. I've also put some spacers to adjust the droop.

The green caps took a strange shape, if somebody knows why they look like this I'd be happy to know...

I've found a solution by putting a piece of thick foam tape in the damper head. I had to rebuild one of the dampers on sunday (a problem with a red o-ring that I used as spacer) and it seemed to work as the green cap had kept his nice round shape. 

 

I tried to print a front bumper, but it was not sturdy enough. It would break on the first impact. So I' ve made one out of a 2mm thick aluminium plate.

 

I also had to print multiple swaybar holders (the first models had to much play in them).
And the worst is that the postman didn't brought me the stratus body, so I had to use the Audi Quattro that I've painted for my XV01. Not the best for circuit as the wheel arches are quite small so it has to be mounted quite high. I also took the side mirrors off as I knew their lifespan wouldn't be that long

So here is the chassis on sunday morning, before the first driving session:

I've bought a set of carpet tires and used MR33 product on them.

With the body:

Inspiration comes from this rally car who won the "Boucle de Spa" rally in 1983 with one of my favourite Belgian drivers, Marc Duez

 

So in the first session I found that the car was very tail happy. Also, with the high grip of the tires (and high CG of the chassis...), it was prone to roll over. Before the second leg, I switched the rear springs for the soft ones, lower the car a bit and put a bit of front toe-in. Also, I just put treatment on the inside of the front tires. After that it was quite better but not perfect, so I tried with a bit negative camber at the rear. As I became more confident with the car and with my driving skills (I recall that I haven't driven on a race track for more than 20 years), I felt like I drove cleaner and cleaner, even if I crashed a lot 
And that's where the problems begins: in leg 3, it seemed to me that I had a problem with the body. I was just a missing body clip, but when I took the car to the pit to put a new one I could see that the battery was loose: the 2 caps that I had printed had broken. It seemed strange to me as I have'nt crashed that hard in leg 3 (as far as I remember). But ok, I could repair with some parts I had lying around to take part to leg 4.
And this was the worst, after some minutes here is how the car looked:

The front shock bumper support, which also holds the swaybar, broke. Again, not in a big crash, but maybe it had already been weakened in the first sessions.
Long story made short, I decided to switch to my XV01 (that I had bring with me in case of). In an half our, while eating some delicious Belgian fries (fries are orignaly from France, but are 100 times tastier in Belgium ), I skipped the long damper spec shock towers for regular ones, put the TL01 shocks and tires, changed the bumper and the motor pinion for the biggest I had in stock (I don't recall but it's the biggest that would fit under the cover, it gives a FDR of around 6 I think). Here is the result:

The lack of swaybars made the car fealing like a boat, so in leg 6 I set the droop to limit the suspension movement. No significant problem in the 3 sessions i drove with this car, it was actually way over the TL01 in terms of handling. And in speed also, because even if the FDR is quite big, with its 13.5T Justock combo it is really faster.

Summary of the day:
I took very much pleasure driving and setting up those cars. I felt better and better during the day. Still difficult to stay focus on my driving for 20 minutes without making mistakes, there are still much improvements to do.
Even if I know I should focus on the XV01 as it seems to be far better, I still want to improve the TL01. Because that's where the fun is for me, and I like to see the other's head when they see my old TL01 holding their new Xpress's and so

Oh, and here is how the body looked at the end of the day. After a bit of cleaning it looked better, and not too much damaged. The only anoying thing is that the colour seems to peel off. Even if I've used Tamiya sprays on a cleaned body etc. But yeah, that's how it goes for an RC body...

 

P.S.: sorry for the picture's quaility, but my phone is not good at that, me neither

 

[ThunderDragonCy 8404]

Very good job getting that TL01 on the track. I am sure with some more time and practice you will get it better. 

[MadAnt 336]

Love a good TL01 build. Making it do what it should not do is the fun part. Don't worry about a few things breaking after some some crashes, from what I was told, that's just the nature of touring cars. But one thing I did notice with having some weird crashes with mine, the TL01 is tough, and mine took flight a few times.

If you keep breaking bumper brackets, try the stock bumper and just cut some foam to fit on it and have it held in place with double sided tape like what I did. 

Or another option would be to print a bumper using a more flexible material if you can.

 

[Gratuit 76]

9 hours ago, MadAnt said:

Or another option would be to print a bumper using a more flexible material if you can.

 

This exactly what I've done yesterday

I've changed the design, adding 2mm height where the screws come. And printed the whole thing in TPU, which is not as easy to print (lot of warping, never could get rid of it whatever I've tried) and not as nice.
I already printed a bumper for the "T" version of my XV01, and the TPU holds well compared to the other PETG versions that woud break on the first schock...

 

I will keep you updated on my work on this, even if I don't know exactly when I'll be able to drive it on carpet. The club only opens sometimes on sundays (as it isn't a permanent race track), so I hope I'll be able to go there on the first of december, otherwise it'll be for next year...

 

[Honza 1169]

29 minutes ago, Gratuit said:

And printed the whole thing in TPU, which is not as easy to print (lot of warping, never could get rid of it whatever I've tried) and not as nice.
I already printed a bumper for the "T" version of my XV01, and the TPU holds well compared to the other PETG versions that woud break on the first schock...

I had the same issue with PETG. While it's soft, it's quite brittle in impacts - maybe even more than some PLA variants. Try if you can get PCTG - it's softer, but as easy to print as PETG, it handles impacts much better. I printed a bumper for MF-01X, it got heavy hit, which made a deep dent in it, but it didn't break. 

[Gratuit 76]

15 minutes ago, Honza said:

I had the same issue with PETG. While it's soft, it's quite brittle in impacts - maybe even more than some PLA variants. Try if you can get PCTG - it's softer, but as easy to print as PETG, it handles impacts much better. I printed a bumper for MF-01X, it got heavy hit, which made a deep dent in it, but it didn't break. 

I'll put PCTG on my shopping list and will give it a try next time I have to order filament. Thanks for the tip

[Gratuit 76]

I've prepared some bits for setting up the car more precisely: a stand, some set-up wheels and different gauges.

You can see that the bumper is fixed, the new support seems unbreakable. I will print a second one for the next session to be sure...
I've also changed the design of the battery retainers and printed them in TPU as well. Again, I will print some spares.

 

The wheel's diameter is too large, and I'd prefer to have the nut hidden in them to use the gauges. So I will design and print new ones (these came from thingiverse or printables, I don't remember).

 

This is how the car looks with old wheels I use for shelving and with the "new" body. I haven't cut the posts yet as I still have to set up the shocks and height before to do that, but you can see how low the Stratus sits compared to the quattro, as I had cut the posts for this one...

It will sure help to lower the CG and minimize the roll-overs for the next carpet session. I still don't know when it'll be as my agenda is quite full till the end of the year...

 

[manny 103]

On 10/17/2024 at 4:37 AM, Gratuit said:

The work on the chassis is going on quite well.

I've cut the battery tray to accept the square shaped lipo's. Not so clean but it works.

Then I designed and print a first retainer to see how it fits.

I'm quite happy with the result, just some parameters to adjust and a bit of rounding and I will be able to print the final part.

Next step: designing the other retainer, and then going on with the build

I disagree...it looks really clean! 

[Grumpy pants 5511]

Great back story, fantastic thread 👏

[Gratuit 76]

Next driving session is booked on sunday. Not a race yet, they are still playing with the timing system to avoid most of the problems on the d-day. I've been able to buy a second hand Mylaps transponder, so maybe I will have some laps time recorded. And that will allow me to better set the car and improve my driving skills.

I've already changed some stuffs: I've stiffen the suspension, going from 2 to 1 hole pistons everywhere. Lower the car to ~5mm F & R, and ~5mm droop front and 6mm rear. I also made 2 more diffs, so now I have: one totally free, one medium light, one medium hard and one almost locked. I've placed the locked in front (it already was) and the medium light rear. So now I will be able to change the setting quite rapidly (even if it means to split the chassis in 2 to change the front one...). After one day of driving, the front is still ok with the putty. I'm not sure the medium ones will be as consistant, I'll make a report. And maybe switch to AW grease in those (when I'll found some).

Next things to do: print some spare 3D parts in case of, front bumper holder is already done. I also have to check bumpsteer, as it seems it is not that good with the M-chassis servo horn. I'll cut the body posts when I'll be sure of the car height.

I'm looking forward to sunday

[Gratuit 76]

Here is sunday's driving day report. In summary, everything has been (almost) fine

So I first printed some shims of different thicknesses for the Servo holders so I could get rid of (most of) the bumpsteer. I must thinker to print some one-piece mounts in the future, but the result is fine. 2,5mm thick is too thick as the servo horn would rub on the chassis, 2mm are fine.

 

So after a unpleasant wake-up (saturday evening was watching rally in the cold trying to get warmer with Christmas beers ), I went to the club to see that they had placed a totaly new carpet. A dark grey one, so the real carpet racing one that is supposed to be very grippy. But the other guys were complaining that it was quite slippy. I had taken the rear sway bar off the car, hopping it would help it beign less tail happy.
The first session was quite good, a bit of oversteering but very nice compared to the last time. So I've swapped the wellow spings rear for red ones, + dubbled the treatment on the rear tires for the second session. Then it was too much, it feeled like it needed more direction.
So in the third session, I've just put one treatment on the back tires. Again, it was better, but as the track was gaining adherence, I wanted to try with the yellow spings at rear. So the begginning of the 4th session was a total disaster, as it would grip-roll in every corner. Things that hadden't happened in the first sessions, the Stratus Body was helping a lot to lower the center of gravity. So back to the stand, and I installed the red springs again.
It was better, although with the track gaining grip I had to stay very carefull in the corners. I can't do much against the high CG of the chassis itself, I have to live with it.
I still had some oversteering in the sharp corners, and after session 4 I realized that the rear diff was totally free again. The diff putty was not working anymore... So I had to split the car in 2 and try to stiffen it with watherver I had with me. Which was 500k silicone oil, that I applied just on the gears, then sealing the diffs with green slime. I only worked for a couple of minutes, but I decided to keep on like this as I had no other choice and didn't want to spend another half our to get access to the diff.
I also changed the tires, because after like 200 minutes of carpet they were dead:

So voilà, after 8 driving sessions, I can say that I get more and more confident with the car. I had no major problem, just some set up and the minor issue with the rear diff. I will try to get AW grease for the next time.
Also, my driving skills are improving. I still need to be more consistent, but I now it will only come with more driving.
They other guys are amased by how the car handels for a 20+ years old all-plastic car. They are all driving modern carbon chassis like X-ray and X-press, there was only one TT02 and a TA08.
I hope that next time there will be a race, as I feel I'm kind of ready now. I just had a bad news yesterday, as the Mylpas transponder I've bought is not compatible with their timing system. So I'll have to buy another one...

A last picture of the chassis with its new shoes

Thanks for reading !

[Chris.B 246]

I like the idea of challenging modern chassis with kind of old or simple cars.

In my last formula 1 race on carpet 2 weeks ago, I decided to use my incredibly simple Fenix F1-70 chassis instead of my Xray X1'24. Qualified 3rd for the finals. In the 2nd round of the finals I broke the front suspension of the Fenix and had to switch back to the Xray for the 3rd round. The average time with the Xray was only 2 tenth faster.

These old designs should not be underestimated .

[Gratuit 76]

2 hours ago, Chris.B said:

I like the idea of challenging modern chassis with kind of old or simple cars.

In my last formula 1 race on carpet 2 weeks ago, I decided to use my incredibly simple Fenix F1-70 chassis instead of my Xray X1'24. Qualified 3rd for the finals. In the 2nd round of the finals I broke the front suspension of the Fenix and had to switch back to the Xray for the 3rd round. The average time with the Xray was only 2 tenth faster.

These old designs should not be underestimated .

For me that's part of the fun. Although I could have spent not-so-much more money to buy a decent entry-level chassis (like an X-press XQ3S that costs 175€), I prefer playing with old stuff. That's part of the game for me, as I have as much pleasure trying to improve the car than driving it