How can I improve monster beetle's handling?

[Wooders28]

1 hour ago, ruebiracer said:

diff problems and clicking noise, go cheap with an screw through the outdrives old frogshot mod

Wonder if a small thrust washer would help stop if unscrewing, but - 

 

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=24674&id=3142 

 

[LMF5000]

I'm running a 20T brushed motor on my monster beetle and have no gearbox clicking problems (or at least not yet). But if I did, an easy solution seems to be to fire up my 3D printer and make the reinforcing side plates, like these or similar - https://www.printables.com/model/445917-tamiya-orv-blackfoot-gearbox-brace

[ruebiracer]

6 hours ago, Dangerous_Beard said:

Well that's alright then. 

Sorry @Dangerous_Beard, that was not intended to say don´t do it. But in my personal opinion, it´s not changing driveability too much. For sure it´s tougher.

[ruebiracer]

5 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

Wonder if a small thrust washer would help stop if unscrewing, but - 

 

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=24674&id=3142 

 

I always used a good loctite, and anti wear grease on the flathead screw end. Didn´t have a loosening since 2014. This mod is in all my 3 runner MB´s so far. Can recommend it highly.

[ruebiracer]

1 hour ago, LMF5000 said:

I'm running a 20T brushed motor on my monster beetle and have no gearbox clicking problems (or at least not yet). But if I did, an easy solution seems to be to fire up my 3D printer and make the reinforcing side plates, like these or similar - https://www.printables.com/model/445917-tamiya-orv-blackfoot-gearbox-brace

That´s what I meant. Easy to bolt on, but nothing for me personally. Optical reasons and the ball bearings of the diff are still loaded with the separating force of the diff gears, which want to move outwards fully pressing on the inner ball bearing ring. But we know from many users, it stops the clicking noise. I´m not saying it doesn´t work...

[ADRay1000]

x2 to a bigger aluminum steering horn.  I use one of these in my MB and Frog. greatly improves firmness and throw.  

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313616108458

[Frog Jumper]

13 hours ago, ruebiracer said:

I always used a good loctite, and anti wear grease on the flathead screw end. Didn´t have a loosening since 2014. This mod is in all my 3 runner MB´s so far. Can recommend it highly.

Doesn’t the FrogShot mod “lock” the diff, ie the two side cannot move independently???

ETA reading more I see that the two sides can me moded so they move freely.  That brings up another question: does the screw head wear out the inside of the free moving cup???

[magnumb]

Best thing i did was to install a Fusion Mini16 brushless system with HW adapter plate.

Cut 180grams off the chassis! Which for this is huge.... everything else is kinda futile. 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, ADRay1000 said:

x2 to a bigger aluminum steering horn.  I use one of these in my MB and Frog. greatly improves firmness and throw.  

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313616108458

These are fantastic. They are worth every penny. 

[Guest]

14 hours ago, ruebiracer said:

Sorry @Dangerous_Beard, that was not intended to say don´t do it. But in my personal opinion, it´s not changing driveability too much. For sure it´s tougher.

Mine is a blast with all the upgrades, I fitted a HPI Firebolt motor to mine, 2s lipo and Spektrum radio gear from my Arrma Gorgon. It's a little rocket now, the front wheels do tend to lift a bit as the shocks are stiffer but the back end is pretty low. It handles superbly. 

[LMF5000]

Thanks for all the updates everyone! Just to make my intentions more clear, this was mainly bought for my wife (she liked it because it looked like Herbie) and I thought it would be a great introduction to R/C for her. I have other high-performance machines for myself, and I knew before I bought it that the monster beetle wouldn't have amazing performance or be able to withstand much more speed and power, so I'm not looking to spend much on improvements. I've already fitted ball bearings during assembly, and a slightly hotter 20-turn brushed motor so at this point am mainly interested in tweaks or very low-cost upgrades that make a marked improvement to performance.

[CMshooter]

21 hours ago, LMF5000 said:

I'm running a 20T brushed motor on my monster beetle and have no gearbox clicking problems (or at least not yet). But if I did, an easy solution seems to be to fire up my 3D printer and make the reinforcing side plates, like these or similar - https://www.printables.com/model/445917-tamiya-orv-blackfoot-gearbox-brace

I have the chinabay carbon trans plates on my runner with a budget 19t motor.  Stock (original '80s not reissue) diff is still quiet.  It was clicking with a silvercan 540 when assembled from the box of parts that became 2 blackfoots and a frog.

 

 

 

 

[ruebiracer]

8 hours ago, Frog Jumper said:

Doesn’t the FrogShot mod “lock” the diff, ie the two side cannot move independently???

ETA reading more I see that the two sides can me moded so they move freely.  That brings up another question: does the screw head wear out the inside of the free moving cup???

For sure, there will be some wear one day. That´s why I put the AW grease between the screw head and the outdrive. If there will be play, you will probably notice the clicking noise some day. Then you could still tighten the screw more. But I tend to say, that will take a long time. 

[ruebiracer]

I´ve a last Goodie for all MB lovers here: Last year I was a track marshal at Tamico offroad cup A-Final truck class, where a MB was competing with   Dyna Blasters and some Stadium Blitzers. I was absolutely shocked, what Tobias Haag was doing with the MB with serial body. Must have been the gorgeous Bud Spencer livery. Track was very loose and dry, really low grip. Guess the MB tires handled this better. Only serial Tamiya tires are allowed on TOC. If you have 5 minutes, enjoy this radical driving of him.  Mid of the video it can be seen more often, than in the beginning, but you get the impression. He managed even the big jumps. And he did hardly roll it. Was drawn in some crashes, but fantastic end result for him...

Truck Klasse - A1 Tamico Offroad Cup - EDC Kinzigtal

 

[MadAnt]

3 minutes ago, ruebiracer said:

I´ve a last Goodie for all MB lovers here: Last year I was a track marshal at Tamico offroad cup A-Final truck class, where a MB was competing with   Dyna Blasters and some Stadium Blitzers. I was absolutely shocked, what Tobias Haag was doing with the MB with serial body. Must have been the gorgeous Bud Spencer livery. Track was very loose and dry, really low grip. Guess the MB tires handled this better. Only serial Tamiya tires are allowed on TOC. If you have 5 minutes, enjoy this radical driving of him.  Mid of the video it can be seen more often, than in the beginning, but you get the impression. He managed even the big jumps. And he did hardly roll it. Was drawn in some crashes, but fantastic end result for him...

https://www.google.de/search?q=tamico+%2B+truck+final+a1&sca_esv=750131a44f996cdf&sxsrf=AHTn8zpwi_BwMF6v1A_a95sIgSZyiFPh6Q%3A1743535143368&source=hp&ei=JzzsZ4aQFNWG7NYPtNnokAw&iflsig=ACkRmUkAAAAAZ-xKN0PXAuLeqni4_VVujhupshOiTWZR&ved=0ahUKEwjGv_zGxreMAxVVA9sEHbQsGsIQ4dUDCBo&uact=5&oq=tamico+%2B+truck+final+a1&gs_lp=Egdnd3Mtd2l6Ihd0YW1pY28gKyB0cnVjayBmaW5hbCBhMTIHECEYoAEYCkjKRFAAWMg1cAB4AJABAJgBhQGgAaQOqgEEMjEuMrgBA8gBAPgBAZgCF6ACmA_CAgQQIxgnwgITEC4YgAQYxwEYJxiKBRiOBRivAcICCxAAGIAEGLEDGIMBwgILEC4YgAQYsQMYgwHCAg4QABiABBixAxiDARiKBcICDhAuGIAEGLEDGIMBGNQCwgIFEAAYgATCAggQABiABBixA8ICERAuGIAEGLEDGNEDGIMBGMcBwgILEC4YgAQYsQMY1ALCAggQLhiABBixA8ICDhAuGIAEGLEDGNEDGMcBwgIFEC4YgATCAgoQIxiABBgnGIoFwgIGEAAYFhgewgIFEAAY7wXCAgYQABgNGB7CAggQABgIGA0YHsICCBAAGIAEGKIEwgIKEAAYCBgKGA0YHsICBBAhGBWYAwCSBwQyMS4yoAfnsgE&sclient=gws-wiz#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:f03da3db,vid:U4of4MmCBFw,st:0

Ah yes happy April 1st. You got me, link goes nowhere. 

[ruebiracer]

Please check again, I corrected the URL.

 

[ruebiracer]

I could take a quick shot in the pits, beautiful car, for sure:

[MadAnt]

7 minutes ago, ruebiracer said:

Please check again, I corrected the URL.

 

Ah ha! It's real! I'm just expecting pranks today.

That Monster Beetle do be handling good.

[Frog Jumper]

1 minute ago, MadAnt said:

That Monster Beetle do be handling good.

April Fools!

 

[DearHighRacingClub]

13 hours ago, ruebiracer said:

Truck Klasse - A1 Tamico Offroad Cup - EDC Kinzigtal

So cool!

Many thanx for the link (go to 3.15 for some sweet MB action), I'd love to participate in something like that one day

Danke,

Ole

[JimBear]

14 hours ago, ruebiracer said:

Please check again, I corrected the URL.

Did you type it in all that, all over again?  

[ruebiracer]

 Luckily not, just improve my copy and paste skills... 

[Pablo68]

Making a monster truck/car out of the ORV chassis was a bad idea, but I won't go into that here.

What I have done with my MB is possibly a bit pricey for some, but it's what I did and it worked.

TRF Aeration dampers. These are spendy but change the car completely.
Kimorough servo saver, Tamiya servo savers are trash, Having said that, putting a cable tie around the Tamiya servo saver does help them.
Mounted the steering servo in a central position relative to the front wheels.
 

Just those things make a huge difference.

I bought and put on a rear wishbone set up from AMPRO Egineering on mine. It also happens to fix diff issues (click click noise and broken gears).
Cheap Hobbywing brushless combo for power.
Finally, got rid of the box cover on front of the chassis that the electrics usually hide under. Replaces this with a rigid frame (I made in myself with CAD and 3D printer) to stiffen up the front Suspension tower.

Only issue now is that it drives like any other monster truck you can think of, which kinda kills the point of having a MB in the first place.

[Starky_UK]

On 4/1/2025 at 12:51 PM, Frog Jumper said:

Doesn’t the FrogShot mod “lock” the diff, ie the two side cannot move independently???

ETA reading more I see that the two sides can me moded so they move freely.  That brings up another question: does the screw head wear out the inside of the free moving cup???

I've been running this mod on my MB for over 15 years and the only issue Ive had was rounding the screw head whilst doing maintenance as I think I used red thread lock. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Pablo68 said:

Making a monster truck/car out of the ORV chassis was a bad idea, but I won't go into that here.

What I have done with my MB is possibly a bit pricey for some, but it's what I did and it worked.

TRF Aeration dampers. These are spendy but change the car completely.
Kimorough servo saver, Tamiya servo savers are trash, Having said that, putting a cable tie around the Tamiya servo saver does help them.
Mounted the steering servo in a central position relative to the front wheels.
 

Just those things make a huge difference.

I bought and put on a rear wishbone set up from AMPRO Egineering on mine. It also happens to fix diff issues (click click noise and broken gears).
Cheap Hobbywing brushless combo for power.
Finally, got rid of the box cover on front of the chassis that the electrics usually hide under. Replaces this with a rigid frame (I made in myself with CAD and 3D printer) to stiffen up the front Suspension tower.

Only issue now is that it drives like any other monster truck you can think of, which kinda kills the point of having a MB in the first place.

Have you got a link to those TRF Aeration dampers? I might try some of those on my MB.