sand runner

[tamiya monkey]

after watching one scorcher movie after another on the beach i was wondering why they are so good, is it due to the lack of differential.  i have run a few of my cars at spurn point and had very little traction, my hornet with grasshopper rears had no grip at all, even my blazing star which is 4wd struggled, so to get to the point i was thinking of locking the diffs up before i go the beach again.

another point i killed a 14 turn motor due to it gettting a lot of sand in it as did  the others any ideas how to protect against this happening again.

[Gruntfuggly]

I ran my Baja Champ on a beach for a few days and it was fine afterwards. I would just make sure it's completely dry before brushing all the sand out...

[kontemax]

You can built some fender to protect the motor from sand. You can easly use the lexan of the bodies.

Also you can built a filter with sponge. Using thin sponge sheets and glue you can easly build a closed cilinder to cover the motor. It will be a filter allowing the heat of the motor to exit but not the sand to enter. You can fix the "filter" on the motor with a simple zip tie.

Cheers

Max

[Cul-Tech]

Locking the diff will help.

When I was young me and my friends would run our cars at the school

playground, half asphault and half gravel. My friends had a Frog Hornet

and Grasshopper, I was running an old beat up Super Champ. They would

kick my but on the asphault, however they had to steer clear of the

gravel. If they went into it they would bog and stop completely,

helpless. The Super Champ could run through the gravel no problem, it

could even stop and take off again without trouble.

Thanks to Tamiya in 5th grade I not only new what a differential was but knew there good points and bad.

[terry.sc]

No diff makes the SRBs great for running on very loose surfaces like

sand as it makes sure you always get drive. With a gear diff whichever

wheel starts to spin will get all the power, which makes it spin even

more.

I would suggest only using the standard 540 motor on sand, a piece of

tape over the slots in the can will keep the sand out. If you want to

keep the slots open for cooling it is also a lot easier to wrap some

foam around the can and tie wrap it into place.

[tamiya monkey]

cheers fellas, gave me some good idea's, i thought of putting something over the vents but was not sure if the motor would get too hot, the foam sounds good and im gonna lock the diff on the next car i take to the beech, again many thanks.

[steviedee]

i have seen some people using a section of ladies tights to cover the motor too as this stops the vast amount of **** whcih is collected whilst beech running, and also they allow cooling,just dont go using her beswt pair []

[tamiya monkey]

another good idea cheers matey

[steviedee]

no worries, at the moment, i'm in process of modding my baja champ chassis, as i'm fd upo smashing motors to bits, as the tlo1b chassis leaves to motor low and exposed and for off road running isnt good, i've kind come up with an idea for a sump guard type thing to deflect the major crud away from it and this with the tight thing should make the motors last a little longer []

[Gruntfuggly]

Make sure you post some pics when it's finished...

[volksrod68]

Strip the car down after youve finished your trip to the coast, clean it thoroughly.

or take electrics out and hose the thing down, then spray it with wd40.

I left a sand scorcher on thew shelf without washing it after the beach, and when i came to strip it for another trip the motor had seized, needed a hammer to hammer the motor out of the gearcase, wheels wouldnt move, not good!

 

[Tinno]

I have recently been running my Mad bull on the beach, some hard packed sand, and some really loose, dunes with grass.

The hard packed sand was great for a turn of speed, but once you get up a decent bit of speed, it does tend to spin out. (Trick is to look like you meant to do it)

In the dunes it was a different matter. the slightest lump, and it would snag up and just dig holes with the rear wheels (or at least one of them.)

Locking the diff made a massive diff(erence) it would climb up loose sand properly, mucho improvement.

( waterproofed and protected my electrics) then I just took the shell off and gave it a shower. (All I had a the time)  Once it was home all metal parts were soaked in WD40 overnight (screws and such). If you don't you will be in serious trouble.