F-350 owners, your driving impressions?

[JYCM3]

Those who have their F350 up and running can you give us your driving impressions? top speed, low end torque, crawling performance etc.. is it what you expected? What you like tosee improved?

Also can someone post pics of stock bruiser next to the F350 or better yet all 3 generation of the 3spd right next to each other thanks.

 

 

[Old Busted Hotness]

I built mine with a Novak Crawler brushless system, and have to say I'm quite impressed with both.

In fact, I spent the better part of a whole day comparing the F-350 to an XC, TA02 and a homebrew TLT.

Full report here: http://www.scale4x4rc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6198

[DJTheo]

In few words:

Gearing choice is excellent, unlike the old 3 speeds all 3 speeds are usable, even off road. I and a friend of mine both decided to keep silver can and stock pinion. Top speed in 3rd isn't crazy, but scale and not too high to ruin that lovely body at the first curve. 2nd gear can climb almost anything, I mainly just used 1st for descending as it gives excellent motor braking.

Straight climbing is very good, tires and weight provide very good traction, also on sand.

Car rolls too easily aside, might try lead rings in the future on mine to lower the center of mass.

With 2WS steering radius is huge, also steering needs powerfull servo and possibly also better servo saver.

Articulation even on the softest official setting is poor, we will try though coming weekend both without damper spring or just one leaf spring.

Reliability is great, we drove both F350s for 3 hours each and no defects except of a couple of loosened screws or mirrors getting off.

As Tamiya sais needs a more powerfull then 27T ESC, the Carson 27T of my friend owas shutting down, despite that runtimes at scale crawling were great, guess just current peaks are high, average is low.

Anything else you want to know?

Cheers

[JYCM3]

Thanks for your feedbacks. Looks like its a winner.

[Thorvald]

I spent a good amount of time today out on the forest trail and found the following observations:

1. 1st gear is just right, nice low gearings and powers right on through.

2. You have to lock the diffs, it just spins off-roading with them not locked (in slipper situations). Totally different truck to drive when locked, like a *******in tank!

3. Ground clearance is WAY to low, it gets hung up on even medium sized branches and rocks. Can't even attack at an angle, it will still hang itself with just one wheel over.

4. Very tippy if you get on a side angle (two wheels on ground, two on obstacle). The thin tires may be responsible for this. Mine managed a flip over today and broke a mirror (argh...thank god for heat shrink to fix it).

5. A blast to drive! I had both my bruiser and my F-350 out, I prefered driving the F-350 amazingly enough. Maybe once I get rear hubs to lock my front on my Bruiser it will be better. Bruiser killed it in ground clearance or at least "ability to force it's way over obstacles".

NOTE: DON'T drive the F-350 and Bruiser close to each other. We nearly had a few accidents when the Bruiser slipped going up a hill and rolled back... it almost smashed the F-350 to pieces! (Bruiser's weigh a ton and have a lot of nice sharp looking metal frame bits sticking out without a body and bumpers...mine are still getting fixed up to be painted). Scared the bejesus out of me a few times!

Final impression is a very positive one, most fun I've had driving SLOW in a long time.

[Shodog]

I would echo the comments of the others.  Overall it's a great runner.  the three gears are usable.  I also like that all three gears are 4wd instead of the one with the old 3 speeders.  It's not going to win any speed contests.  I wish they would have included a black sport tuned motor though. 

[neo]

Im running my leaf springs on the soft setting, and although I havent ran the truck yet (nearly finished building) the suspension does seem a bit stiff with very little articulation. So, when you guys are running your truck does the suspension loosen up a bit and get softer?

[DJTheo]

I wish they would have included a black sport tuned motor though. 

Why, its already fast enough to roll [:S]  LOL and this way run times are great.

Cheers 

[DJTheo]

Im running my leaf springs on the soft setting, and although I havent ran the truck yet (nearly finished building) the suspension does seem a bit stiff with very little articulation. So, when you guys are running your truck does the suspension loosen up a bit and get softer?

Unfortunately not really, we will be testing these days some settings softer then the official softest, will report.

Cheers 

[JYCM3]

Thorvald, can you take pix of your Bruiser and F350 right next to each other thanks.

[JYCM3]

btw, found this online, F350 rock crawling, alot of abuse to the truck..OMG what's this guy trying to do??? total opposite from what we seen at Tamiyaclub

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InyvK6ul5Y0...ated&search=

[SGNAS]

In few words:

Articulation even on the softest official setting is poor, we will try though coming weekend both without damper spring or just one leaf spring.

 

The spring leaf over the main spring does not add much to the static stffness of the suspension. It would appear that it's main function is to stop the suspension "torqueing" up (some of you may know this better as "axle tramp"). Considering the rear axle, as the wheels turn forward the torque trys to push the diff nose up. Climb the truck up a steep board and you'll see that the diff nose rises, twists the springs, and the upper leaf then touches the lower leaf and adds torrsional stiffness. Without this upper leaf the main spring would try to twist into a "S" shape. Under load this torque in the "s" spring would periodically release, as you get wheelspin, and will make the axle bounce up and down reducing traction and your climbing ability.

I tried "soft setting" without the damper springs and it is much improved. Front to rear articulation combined is as good as my 4 link xc (due to rubbish articulation on front), a "stock" truck with over 2" of articulation is pretty good.

The chassis is begging for a 3 or 4 link conversion, who's going to be first? 

There are a lot of extra holes in the chassis to remount the servos in different locations and the gear box can be shifted from either end. The weight distribution is close to 50:50 front to rear. The high motor limits what bodies can be fitted (my Landrover body sits to high as the motor fouls the bonnet. I would not be suprised it the next release drives the chassis the other way, i.e. motor in the back.

 

By the way, about 7 hours build time, excluding body, but including babysitting duties. I defy anyone to do it in less than 4. So a bit different from most other modern tamiyas that can be taken apart, cleaned and reassembled in an hour. The most difficult build since my SS when I was 12.

Oh, and I have a "pile" of bits leftover[:$]

 

 

[Shodog]

btw, found this online, F350 rock crawling, alot of abuse to the truck..OMG what's this guy trying to do??? total opposite from what we seen at Tamiyaclub

=

There is some good driving in that video.  With some glued tires and losing the diff covers, that guy could really get around that course

[backtomyroots]

btw, found this online, F350 rock crawling, alot of abuse to the truck..OMG what's this guy trying to do??? total opposite from what we seen at Tamiyaclub

=

Well, that is a pretty cool video !  I am willing to bet that his tires are not glued to his rims though [].  Of course, mine will be for the shelf when it is built but it is nice to see someone using the High Lift properly [Y].

[billg4]

yeah he is over at rccrawler, those guys are really hard core crawlers

 

Expect to see more vids lik that from those guys. Great hopups and ideas can be learned from them once a few have started modding the high lift.

[JYCM3]

Yeah, if he glue his tires it will be unstoppable. I'm just surprised how well it did , it just keep on going and going, awsome.

[Stickman]

Hi,

I fitted 2 sets of WW2 rears to mine, increases ground clearance without fouling the body, though I may leave off the front bumper under the grill (might catch it under full steering lock and articulation).  I haven't had a chance to give it loads of stick, just some test runs in the back yard over some rocks.  Needs diff locks and attack angle isn't too great with the bull bar on, but will leave it to protect the body.

This is the first car I have driven with gears, top end is pretty good considering it weighs over 3kg and the lower ones give it plenty of torque, looking forward to see suspension mods, might remove the shock springs as DJTheo has done.

Cheers

Dave

[MFrV1]

I don't think I've cringed as much as I did whilst watching that video.

[Saito]

Yes, that video was truly painful to watch, but at least the truck got a proper work out.  So how does the Hi-Lift experiance compare to that of the Bruiser?  It must be a bit more capable with its lockable diffs and more usable gears.  Some larger tires as already mentioned seem certainly in order though.

[SGNAS]

Well, I got to play with mine on a big (10ft tall) "anti pikey" pile of clay/gravel mix today.

It was really impressive and could get places I've tried and failed to get my Pajero XC (locked and masses of rear axle travel).

2nd is the gear to be in when traction is an issue, 1st is too low and the tires just dig holes. It's just like a 1:1 off roader, you need a little momentum to get over some obstacles. I'm glad I did not go overboard with the paint and detailing as it has rolled more times than I care to count, no damage other than road rash though.

1st is great for crawling on a high traction surface and controlling speed steep decents.

Suddenly 4 link doesn't seem to be an issue the first mods will be to the steering to reduce turning circle (the axle cases need trimming) and the skid plate is too big and too flat.

I still think with a little work I can get my "narrowed" Wild Dagger to be as capable at climbing/scale offoading but it will only single speed.

[chrisdev01]

OK, dumb question...

 How do I lock the diffs on my F-350?

 I noticed during the build that there is a hole that gets covered by the chromed-silver diff cap.

Does this hole have anything to do with locking?

 Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Old Busted Hotness]

The hole lets you access the screw that locks the diff. Screw goes in, diff locked. Remove it and the diff is open.