HBX Cross Tiger Tamiya replica,wilddager body blackfoot wheels tyres TL01b baja chassis

[gravediggernz]

BONZER CROSS TIGER   by  HAI BO XING

Does anybody else own one of  these.  They are a cheap

chinese knock up. I bought one for my self and it goes really well. But

I bought one for my step daughter for Xmas  and her one started

vibrating to pieces from day one. King pin fell out and whole stub axle

hung loose. Cant find king pin, use screw from garage to get her

running again. Next thing the front dif ****s its self so now its only

RWD. Which it goes very well in but this is not buy choice. The guy I

bought them off is a really nice  fellow who has spares available.

So my spares arrived today. I only got the nylon gears for the diffs.

But there is a full range of parts available. Plus all

Tamiya  parts fit. I dont know how the chinese get away with it. I

am ordering some tl01b parts today ,the B parts. Only $13 which i

thought was very good. And I am going to compare the difference. They

are identical frames to look at. These  trucks seem to be wearing

out quickly. Where as  I own Tamiya that have been driven for

years  and are still going strong.. I keep maintance up and know

how to look after my cars and trucks.  At least all tamiya parts

will fit. Silly me for thinking I could get a truck of Tamiya quality

for new at half the price. It did only cost me $200 NZ  and I have

thrashed the **** out of my one. At the skate park and all. Jumped

really well too. After about 50  to 60 massive jumps on day I go

off the step on the porch and the back end collapses. One of the Shock

struts had snapped with a crack running through the other one. I have

fashioned  up a brace out of aluminium and it is holding ok so

far.   I am sticking to Tamiya from now on . Great quality at a

great price.  With the exception of a RC10 that I have my eye on.

I've made a link( i hope) to my blog site and theres pictures there of

the truck and my other cars. With more cars to come this week.

(Birthday pressies to myself hehe) A Dirt thrasher and 2 hornets I hope.

I am new to these forums and look foward to meeting some good people.

This is a great hobby. I am surprised more people on the West Coast of

New Zealand are not into this. A decent track would go down well.

Thanks for letting me rave on. Drive hard and try not to crash!

[fmannz]

Where did you get this Bonzer Cross Tiger from? I'm assuming your in NZ BTW

FP

[jimbo858]

yeah, I have one of those that I bought used off of ebay.  great deal if you ask me. but, I do need to get a new body. the truck body that I got was completely thrashed.  I also want to get a different set of rims and tires cause the orange rim is just too fugly for me.  my only gripe with the one that I have is that the springs are too small. And I'm having a badword of a time finding shocks that are 70mm in length. that website www.morfars.com shows them as being 90mm? which is strange to me cause that's just way too long. unless they have a different aftermarketshock mount for these things?

[DJTheo]

Unfortunately Tamiya and every other manufacturer seem to be powerless to do anything against Chinese ripoffs, sad but true, the only thing we can do is to not support them. Of course they are much cheaper as they have no R&D costs, no service or support and also use less precise molds (propably made directly from the  Tamiya parts and cheaper plastic. Glad you soon discovered that its a no go.

Cheers

[gravediggernz]

Hi Jimbo. Thanks for

your reply.  Mine came with really nice chrome wheels and I bought

a spare set just 2 weeks ago with tyres. It actually goes really well.

The build quality just leaves a lot to be desired. Its just not

consistant from model to model. I can get more parts I think. I know I

can get bodies and maybe more wheels,motors 550/560 type sealed can 10

000rpm, All chassis parts. Thing is  I dont know how much stock my

man has but he says he can get more. So

they are avalable. And of course all Tamiya TL01b parts are the same.

If you could get the wheels n tyres where you are they are a great

alternative to paying for expensive genuine items for back yard bashing

and off road thrashing. They also use this chassis on a buggy thats a

replica of the Baja King/Champ and a couple of road cars that I havent

seen.

If your in australia or NZ  I could probably post you some wheels n tyres.

[gravediggernz]

Hi fmannz. Ah you a kiwi too, I got it off a guy on trademe. They were

selling for $250 and I was bidding on one that went up to 280 or so and

I pulled out and scored this one from his other auction for $228 It has

been a great introdution to the world of RC. I always wanted one when I

was a kid but could never afford the price of a Grasshopper or Hornet

back in the 80's. I saw the hornet and grasshopper demonstated at a

department store,H & J Smiths Invercargill, when I was real young.

and that memory has stuck with me all these years..

[jimbo858]

gravediggernz, thanks for the offer of help. unfortunately, I'm in the

US. But, the prices on that website seem to be really good! Yeah, I

love my little TL01B basher. It's been really rugged for me.  And

from the looks of it, for the previous owner as well. 

As for buying a vehicle that's not a Tamiya... In a funny way, I've

been actually supporting Tamiya as well with this purchase. I've had to

buy some replacement parts (due to my own stupidity, loctite + plastic

= more orders to www.tamiyausa.com).  The amazing thing is that

some of the parts on this cheap version are actually pretty good. The

receiver and esc all in one is pretty nice. I know that I've run a

Venom 21t and a 7 cell 8.4Volt battery off of it.  I've also

gotten the GPM motor mount, the GPM universal 70mm drive shafts. 

I've done things with this cheapo version that I wouldn't do with a

"real" tamiya just because... this thing is so cheap.  But, most

importantly it's made me want to restore my old Blackfoot and it's got

my interest revived into Tamiya products.  Anyways, I'm happy with

my generic/ripoff Bronzer.

[gravediggernz]

jimbo, my truck has been very good to me to. just the one I bought for

my step kid is having some teething problems.  The CPR unit is

great, just got to seal up those holes in it cause it got mine wet.

Dried it out and it was all good thank god.

What is  GPM? Also what happens with loctite and plastic?, does it make the plastic britttle or something.

 The only reason I bought this is because tamiya parts are

compatible, which is great. I need to rebuild the diff gear in the kids

one as she stripped that on the seccond day. Luckily it was the front

so she vcould still drive it. Not as well of course as all power was

now at the back wheels which made it really loose. She didn't like it

LOL. I think it was from landing off jumps with the power hard on. She

is learning tho and is quite a good driver now. I am going to replace

this parts with a genuine tamiya diff gears as they are cheap as. 

You are right some of the stuff is surprisingly good. The bodies are

excellent and great looking, tyres are cool with the chrome wheels

too.And all the metal screws and bearings are good value too.

[jimbo858]

gravedigger, well when I put some loctite on the plastic it sort of melted it. kinda hard to describe. but, basically it was bad for the plastic part. after a few minutes the plastic part just kind of fell apart. oh as for "GPM"... I'm not sure what it stands for. but, it's the name of a company that makes aftermarket parts for various Tamiya vehicles.  I found some of their stuff on

 http://www.rcmart.com/catalog/default.php?...595_424_744_707

they also make a 70mm universal swing drive shaft that I got on order as well.

[Jeckler]

I have a Bonzer as well. I think it's a decent truck. I haven't had many issues with it. Came fully ball-raced, with the chrome wheels.

However, with the gearing options of the TL-01 chassis, and the combination of those big MT tires, gearing is down the tubes. There's no way to gear lower. I put an Orion Core Stock in mine the other night and pretty much ruined it. Acceleration was blah, but top speed was ballistic. Unfortunately, after about 3 minutes it happened to come past me and I could smell the motor cooking itself. I put the stock 550 back in it and left the Orion to cool, it was literally smoking. I haven't looked at it yet, and am wondering what I might find when I take it apart. And I had the correct 19t metric pinion on it.

Does anyone know of a gear set that will lower the gearing (numerically higher)? Kind of opposite of the speed tuned set.

[jimbo858]

yeah, I had that same problem as well.  I "cooked" a Venom 21t

motor. So, far I don't see a way for the gearing to be lowered at all.

[Renco5012]

Another kiwi here

I've seen those for sale on TM, do they really do 60kp/h, or is that a load of rubbish? I've seen a rip-off Baja King made by the same company too.

Mike.

[Jeckler]

I doubt they hit 60kmh, that's about 39mph. Mine was romping pretty quick the other night though, for a couple minutes anyway.

[Jeckler]

I may have found a way to gear a Bonzer down, but have no real way to test it.

I was browsing eBay and saw adjustable motor mounts for a Clodbuster. If the motor has enough room to move towards the spur, this should work, as long as the motor has a long enough shaft for the pinion to still mesh, since the adjustable mount pushes it out a little bit. I'm hoping there's enough room to go down about 5 teeth.

I just looked at mine, and there's not alot of room in there, but if it can take up to a 23, why not down to a 14/15? It looks evenly set in the hole right now.

Any comments?

[jimbo858]

NO they DO NOT do 60kp/h.  More like 25kp/h.... But, I STILL like mine!

[gravediggernz]

Yea they dont do 60kph. I dont know where they get off on claims like

this. If you look on the box it even calls it a "fully ratable

racing  bycycle" runs at 60kms every an hour. Thas the chinese

tranlation to english for you I guess.

[jimbo858]

gravediggernz or jeckler!  I've gotta question for one of you.  did your Bonzer's come with one way locker differentials for the front differential?  For example, when lift the truck and turn one of the front wheels it forces ALL four wheels to turn backwards at the same time. Forwards either side spins freely "on it's own" unlike the bevel gears I'm used to.  So, I was just wondering about this.

At the moment on mine I'm gonna try to take a different route and I'm gonna gear this little truck UP.  I'm gonna order the tamiya speed gears and a 23t pinion.  The current stocker motor currently doesn't get  hot AND the motor is HUGE when I compare it to my 21t Venom motor. I'm also currently running it with a 7 cell battery with no problems.  So.... I'll keep my fingers crossed that nothing lights on fire.  Oh and I'm trying to find some way to get custom shock towers and shocks for this thing cause the stocks shocks are just WAY too small for it.

[gravediggernz]

hi Jimbo, no i never got anything like that. My truck is quite fast

tho. all those parts should fit Ok, There is a mounting hole for a 23t

21 and19 so good luck. Let us know how you got on.I was thinking of

putting a sports motor in it but the stick motor is very strong. Will

the 23t give you more top end.  i have noticed that the

pinion  gear is pressed on on my truck but parts that I can

get  show motor with no pinion pressed and the pinion gears have a

locking key in them. the only pinions I can get from my supplier are

19t. But like you say, Tamiya gears will work fine.

[jimbo858]

Hiya Gravedigger, thanks for answering me!  Yeah, I'm hoping that the 23t will give me more power and not burn up the motor. But, I went ahead and ordered an extra motor just in case.  I also got another set of rims with tires and foams for $19(US).  what a STEAL!  It is interesting though. Like you said the quality isn't consistent. For example, the extra motor that I just bought seems to be just a bit smaller than my original motor.  Oh, so what happens when you spin one of the front wheels backwards? Do any of the other wheels turn as well? Oh and the place I found that sells spare parts, they sell spare body shells for $11(US)!  I think I'm gonna pickup about 3 of them to use for bashing! I've got a Twin Detonator body that I want to use as a good shell.

[gravediggernz]

hey, when I spin a front wheel the other side spins in the oposite direction and the back dont move, same deal at the back.

[jimbo858]

whoa... okay I just compared the new "550" motor with my old "550" motor.  The old motor is about 65mm in length. The new "550" motor is only about 55mm in length.  talk about inconsistent!

[gravediggernz]

my motor has a large fan on it. Larger than any other stock motor I have seen.It is also alot longer because of this fan

[jimbo858]

Okay, so I took out the my original Bonzer motor to compare it with the "replacement" Bonzer motor that I just received. The two motors are definitely NOT the same. 

the picture above shows four motors from left to right; My Old Bonzer motor, The new Bonzer motor, a Johnson 63706 motor, and a stock param 540 sized motor. The old motor is just so much BIGGER! I think it's got similar measurements to the Graupner 700 Speed motor? I also put the new motor in my Bonzer and it just didn't have the torque or speed that my original motor had. hhhmm... more inconsistencies... first the front one-way differential and now this... oh well...

[gravediggernz]

thats a good piture man. I have a part listing that says those are 560

motors 10,000rpm. i found my truck way quicker than any stock Tamiya

buggy .i have found the shock mounts weak and broke both front and

rear.  had to reenforce with aluminium plate and glue.

[theshopkeeper]

You've been sold the wrong motor.  The 2nd motor along is the one off the MAX 4 Buggy - which is the copy of the Baja King from the same factory.  The truck has the longer motor to give it more grunt with the bigger wheels.