My Broken Txt-1 - Tips On Repair

[Mountain]

After finally getting my TXT-1 sorted with some MTroniks Super E Truck with HPI550s @ 14.4V and 4WS I was ready for some serious bashing. (I managed to get it used and it seemed to be in pretty good condition)

I went on holiday to Scotland and decided to take it with me. The only problem I didn't take any spares with me (not that I have many for this truck)

Its a great truck and great fun to drive with 4WS. I took it out on an abandoned dry ski slope which it had no problems going up and down even though its got be a really **** terrain and steep.

The first damage came the next day when I took it out on some not bad terrain and managed to break the front bumper mounts at the point where the lower link connects to it. When one link goes then it becomes slightly difficult to drive.

So I did some in the field repairs and moved both links forward. What a mistake to make this causes the front drive shaft to be short and on the next run, ping and the E clips popped off somewhere and the shaft came apart badly damaging one of the links. Not to be outdone I simply removed the front shaft so I now had a 2WD TXT-1 which is also great fun. Noticed that the shock ball connectors on the cantilevers were starting to come out so I glued them in.

Next day I went out to a park which had roughly a 45 degree banking in it. After a lot of sideways driving it managed to get to the top only for it to go sideways and roll down the hill for about 10m or so. It was like watching it in slow motion and each roll it went higher in the air. Well that did a bit more damage losing me a suspension spring and retainer and bending one of the front cantilever rods and mangling the front anti roll bar.

Not to be outdone I managed to get it back to at least working again albeit it 2WD. Then the worst thing happened we had 4 inches of snow and I only had a 2WD monster truck. Still it went out in the snow and was great fun although got stuck reasonably often with not having front tyres to pull it out of the snow. I was desperately thinking of how to get it 4WD but alas didn't have any parts and only limited access to any other hardware.

Then I moved the lower links up to the weedy grey bits that stick out at the top and broke those on my first run with that. Also every so often the plastic links ends keep coming off.

Anyway so the point of this ramble is what's best to do to eliminate these problems in the future

Are the Tamiya original TXT-1 upgrades worth having e.g. Shocks, Metal Cantilevers, Bumper

Is the lightweight chassis any good?

Whats the best thing to make sure my links don't break in the future?

Where can I get spares from it e.g. the plastic part trees and the links.

I will try and post pics later.

[mymonsterbeetleisbroken]

Those grey plastic lower axle guard mounts are rubbish and the first thing that needs to be replaced on a txt-1 chassis.

I like to use New Era ones, they are machined aluminium and will never break:

I've done the same with with the canter lever link ball connectors on my runner txt-1 too, unless you glue them, they come undone and fall off.

New era make thicker canter lever link rods and custom chassis mounted anti roll bars too. I've never lost a suspension spring, that could have been caused by the way the truck landed

If you can get the tamiya aluminium hop ups cheaply enough then they are well worth it. If not, its worth looking at GPM and New Era Models for shiny bits.

Spares for the txt-1 are quite scarce. ebay has parts now and again. If you are going to bash the truck hard, it might even be worth buying another just for spares.

The axle cases are shared with the juggernaut 2, as are the differentials, bevel gears and axle shafts. Most of the center transmission is also a direct swap, apart from the output shaft and its bearings, which are larger on the txt-1.

The drive shafts will wear out quickly with 550 power. I've fitted tamiya TNX sliders to my truck, which are more durable than the standard shafts:

Click here :-)

Hope this helps!