Avante Black Questions

[John English]

I'm planning to pick up an Avante SBLE and was wondering what the recommended upgrades are. Part of the enjoyment I get from building RC cars is upgrading them.

I see that hicaps are widely recommended but Tamiya only seem to have produced to reproductions for a week and then stopped. Are there any 3rd party options? I've seen people selling dampers on eBay for $100 each and the springs for $50 each meaning that a set of 4 dampers and 4 springs would be $600. I know a larger front shock tower is needed accommodate them but fiber lyte seems to have that covered. 

I've also seen some mention of needing to shim the diffs. Does it come with the necessary shims or do I need to buy them separately?

What other upgrades or modifications are generally suggested for this kit? I'm not planning to race it or do anything serious with it, just have some casual and nostalgic fun with it.

[Twinfan]

I'm no expert, but for fun I'd just fit a steel pinion otherwise leave it standard. The Black Special is the hopped up Avante anyway, I'd enjoy it as- is 

[Saito2]

I agree with Twinfan. I had to shim the diffs in my Super Avante to eliminate side-to-side play but don't recall having that issue with the original Avante series. I'd suggest driving it first before looking into modifications. The stock shocks are pretty nice too.

[moffman]

Yeah racing do a bit of hop-ups for the avante I got rear alloy rear uprights and the same for the font knuckles really top quality 

[John English]

OK, thanks. I was asking about the hicaps because a lot of people have told me that they're a must for the Avante, otherwise it's very difficult to drive on the dirt even if you're doing it just for fun.

Is the stock pinion gear aluminum?

[Twinfan]

Hi-Caps have no travel without a front shock tower change, so you may as well get an Egress if that's what you're looking for.  They come with Hi-Caps as standard.

Yes, the stock pinion is aluminium.

[Marchie]

I used VQS hi caps, which weren’t too hard to find. Use hard oil and the two-hole pistons.

As Twinfan said, you will need a different shock tower, which I have posted an stl file file for if you want to cut your own.

 

[Ty89m]

I shimmed the one-way/spur assembly as shown in the Egress manual, grabbed the genuine Tamiya machined motor mount, and an appropriate steel pinion. Mainly a shelf queen in my case, so I didn't go overboard; it's pretty nice straight out of the box.

Edit: The motor mount was for my Top Force Evo - got my wires crossed. Disregard.

[Twinfan]

3 hours ago, Ty89m said:

I shimmed the one-way/spur assembly as shown in the Egress manual, grabbed the genuine Tamiya machined motor mount, and an appropriate steel pinion.

What's the motor mount you used?  I've not heard of anyone using anything different on the Avante before....

[John English]

It's not about having hicaps specifically, but rather adding, what I've been told, is a very worthwhile upgrade.

Thanks for the link to the front tower file.

[Ty89m]

9 hours ago, Twinfan said:

What's the motor mount you used?  I've not heard of anyone using anything different on the Avante before....

Whoops! I got my wires crossed as I just finished my Top Force Evo and THAT'S the kit that got the machined motor mount, not the Avante. I've been building entirely too many kits lately.

[egalsim]

 

[John English]

Nice find. It looks really good.

[Marchie]

I had to get an aluminium steering set as the plastic parts on the sports steering set broke (don’t know if this is common though). 

The hi torque servo saver is a common upgrade (I have it installed but can’t say I really had any complaints with the standard one).

The steering rack and the rear trailing arms regularly rattle loose, so remember to check them every few of runs.

If you run the torque splitter, it has some play in it and I found it started to rattle loose after a while. I think you can add shims to tighten it up or something but I just swapped it for the centre-lock and haven’t had any problems since.

Contrary to everyone else, I actually prefer the handling with the original Avante 2011 wheels (and they look better IMHO).

Enjoy your build!

[John English]

Thanks