Advice on new years treat to me! - Truck!

[blakeatron]

Well ive gone and done it, just ordered my aeromax and MFU from Stella!

But ive only built a few kits before, so is there anything i should really look out for?

ive heard the gearbox can be a bit of a fiddle?

is it worth fitting a bearing set?

can anyone recomend any other bits to do?

its my birthday soon ish, and the wife has promised to get me a trailor! - really fancy getting the flatbed trailor with lighting kit and motorized legs, but sure i read on here that it looks a bit out of scale?

[Corpse Thrower]

Definitely fit ball bearings!! Buy from Stella, and get them to throw it in the kit box for you so you have them for the build.

The gearbox is easy. Just follow the instructions to the letter, and double check everything after you've done it.

What radio are you using?

[blakeatron]

too late to order bearings from stella! but ive got a supplier of them already!

got a Futabu 4ex-fm 4ch 40mhz set for christmas - think it is meant for planes but should work!

also ordered one of those shift gate things that you stick on your transmitter, are they any good?

[Burn Out Boy]

I think you have got a great new years present. There fun to build and drive. Get yourself a trailer and try to drive it around the furniture. or even better a 2 trailer combo. 

One thing I would do is try to improve the turning circle which is quite big by lightly filing stops away or leaving the lower front shock mounts off just to get a bit more turn 

I installed a 4:1 reduction gear box on one of mine, This makes slow speed control much much better for manovering. The 3 gears still give a good turn of speed. I like it but, a disavantage is the reduction gear box I have from Carson is quite basic and makes a bit of gear noise. Quite a bit actullay, which I find annoying!! . If any one else knows of other suitable reduction boxes I would be intrested.

I have the speeker mounted without the speeker box due to space reasons I would reccomend to install the box as the sound is much better

You can't go wrong with installing bearings  

I have had a shift gate but find they get in the way more than helping. You will soon get the hang of the gear change just play around and find what suits you 

 

happy building

[Tamiya1/10]

Well ive gone and done it, just ordered my aeromax and MFU from Stella! But ive only built a few kits before, so is there anything i should really look out for? ive heard the gearbox can be a bit of a fiddle? is it worth fitting a bearing set? can anyone recomend any other bits to do? its my birthday soon ish, and the wife has promised to get me a trailor! - really fancy getting the flatbed trailor with lighting kit and motorized legs, but sure i read on here that it looks a bit out of scale?

Which trailor you like will be personal choice, but I found the box trailor is a better scale for all the rigs and the gasoline tanker is best with the GlobeLiner.  What I mean by scale is the Aeromax or Knight hauler seem to be a "bit" larger size / length wise than say the gasoline tanker.  You may disagree. 

As for the motorized legs is a cool option but becareful during operation, you may accidentally release the trailor when steering the rig. (the right joy stick controls the servo the releases the trailor/which automatically lower the legs and also steers. 

You will find painting, decaling and adding the plastic parts will take more time than building the chassis and running gears.  watch out for the placement of the 2 rear axles, if placed incorrectly, the axles could be going in opposite direction at the same time.

[dj destiny]

Im part way through building my first truck, I got the Volvo and have a Flatbed trailer which should be delivered today!

When I first looked through the manual I thought it looked abit daunting, especially the gearbox.

But once I got started it was no harder than the handful of Tamiya cars/buggies Ive built over the years. If anything, the gearbox was the bit I enjoyed the most!

Im planning on replacing the flat bed trailer in the future with a Carson curtainside one, but couldnt afford to get one at the moment 

[blakeatron]

thanks for the advice!

1/10 - when looking through the showrooms here i thought that the aeromax did indeed look to be quite long, and the flatbed seems quite short in comparison!

i prefer the scale of the box trailor, but like the idea of getting a forklift and making boxes, pallets, barrels etc for the flatbed! what a choice!

what other companys trailors can you use/modify? searched for carson, but cant read german!

[Shodog]

The box trailer does look nice. 

The problem I have found with it is that the panel sides rattle.  This is especially noticable with the vibration unit that comes with the MFU.

Really i think the nicest trailer by far is the tanker.

The key with building these trucks is following the instructions super carefully.  The MFU install is a chroe in itself.  there are several wire an I suggest you try to keep them as organized as possible.  Here are some pics I shot of the MFU install in my king hauler.  http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.a...28594&id=34

 

 

[Tamiya1/10]

i prefer the scale of the box trailor, but like the idea of getting a forklift and making boxes, pallets, barrels etc for the flatbed! what a choice!

what other companys trailors can you use/modify? searched for carson, but cant read german!

To me I think the Tanker is the nicest.  However, I am not sure can be done or do you want to, but get box trailor, keep the bed lenght but shorten the walls and roof so you have the same wheelbase lenght as before but with a section that is like a flat bed and you can make your boxes, pallets etc and can store some inside or open. Just a thought.

[Tamiya1/10]

As for the motorized legs is a cool option but becareful during operation, you may accidentally release the trailor when steering the rig. (the right joy stick controls the servo the releases the trailor/which automatically lower the legs and also steers. 

Just to clarify the motorized legs, I believe the motorized legs kit comes with a template that fits over the radio unit thus preventing the right hand lever to accidentally shift up or down when steering the rig.  the template has a cross opening which is slightly different than the template for the gear shift. 

 

[blakeatron]

well my aeromax and mfu arrived today and wow! what an impresive looking kit! cant wait to get building - so many bits!

however will have to wait another week as i have made a bit more money on e-bay and ordered a flatbed, motorized legs, trailor light set and full bearings for everthing!

im so excited! i dont think i have been this excited for ages!

oh also won a 1/14 rc forklift from us e-bay - so even more excited!

[Shodog]

I would start painting the body now.  It takes the longest and that way while your waiting for the paint to dry between coats you can build the chassis.

[InetRC]

As silly as it may sound - if you get the box trailer along with the light kit for it make sure you remember to insert the wiring through the front panel before you do anything because if you forget you will end up having to take the bottom of the trailer apart to redo the wiring and route it correctly.

Also, the MFU lights? big pain in the ***.... make sure you label them all otherwise you will get easily cluttered and confused, especially figuring out right and left on the turn signals, etc..

Also, there is a bearing in the tranny that really should be superglued otherwise it will slide around when it shouldn't. You'll know which is is when you put the tranny together and you shift it with your hands. Just look for a bearing that could work its way loose out of its recess.

As for the trailer... I followed Jim's (Shodog) advice about dampening the panels from rattling by putting some thin wedges in the slits, but to be quite honest, I took them out because I thought the slight rattling was kind of realistic sounding (in a weird kinda way). haha

As for the motorized legs... that's one of the funnest parts of hitching/unhitching the trailer!!

-Alex

 

[Tamiya1/10]

well my aeromax and mfu arrived today and wow! what an impresive looking kit! cant wait to get building - so many bits!

however will have to wait another week as i have made a bit more money on e-bay and ordered a flatbed, motorized legs, trailor light set and full bearings for everthing!

im so excited! i dont think i have been this excited for ages!

oh also won a 1/14 rc forklift from us e-bay - so even more excited!

Throw in a 4 channel radio, servos, ESC and Al. wheels, shocks etc... I see serious coins changing hands.  Just don't let the better half see the month end statment, unless she understands or you are still single.  You are going to like the end results and you can wake the neighbors on every early Sunday mornings.

 

 

[Shodog]

Alex is right, definetly label all of the lights with provided stickers.  It makes life easier.  you also may want to braid the wires like I did just to keep them organized and not all over the place.

 

 Alex, are those the GPM wheels all polished up?  They look killer.

[InetRC]

Yep... I put every alumium option I could find on it - see here for details:

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.a...084&id=5861

You crack me up though Jim.... do you take the time to stop what you're doing and take pictures of every step in all your builds??? I don't think I've seen a build of yours not having thorough documentation. That amazes me because I know how time consuming it is! []

-Alex

 

[blakeatron]

well i couldn't hold on any longer - ran home from work! yes i did say run! cut, filed and sanded all body componants. baged these up, ran back to work set it all up in the spray room and blasted everywhere inside and out with super fine grey primer!

will let this dry tonight (left the spray room heating on low!), wet and dry it flat in the morning, leave it all day then mask up and spray my oxford-blue top coat or coats....!

i always fully finish my bodies before starting the chassis!

 

on the trailor - getting a flatbed not a box so shouldnt have any rattle, or should i?

many thanks on all the tips, the mfu did look mighty fiddly when i opened it!

[Shodog]

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=54084&id=5861'>

You crack me up though Jim.... do you take the time to stop what you're doing and take pictures of every step in all your builds???

I just usually keep a camera on the workbench so i can snap a few photos when I am working on it.  It's no where near as fancy as your awesome pics in your photo booth.