Which Buggy?

[defizr]

I'm a complete newbie to RC cars. I've had no experience of them before I bought and built a Lunchbox which is now waiting on a sunny day so I can paint it.

I've enjoyed building it immensely and have decided that I'd like to build a buggy next. The problem is that Tamiya make such a wide range I'm not sure which one to get.

I have around £200 to spend. I already have suitable radio gear so I'm looking for the buggy, ESC and servo.

If you were me what would you buy and why?

I'm in the UK and would prefer to buy from a UK shop.

[Supercoolnothing]

Are you looking for 2wd or 4wd? 

Personally I prefer 2wd cars and  you can't go far wrong with any of the dt03 chassis cars. It comes with an esc and motor so all you need is a servo. I'm a big fan of savox servo's and the savox 0252 is a brilliant choice and pretty good. The only other things I recommend are bearings and a high torque servo saver. 

For 4wd you have stuff like the df03 I can't tell you much about it because I haven't owned one yet but there's a lot of people on here who rate them. 

[TurnipJF]

The TT-02B is Tamiya's current 4WD buggy offering, available with the Dual Ridge, Neo Scorcher and Plasma Edge II shells. Plenty of build threads on here to give you an idea of what it is like. That would be my choice for a buggy build.

[ThunderDragonCy]

Another vote for DT03. Neo Fighter or Racing Fighter. With that budget you could buy a bunch of the hop ups straight off the bat and have a bunch of fun building and tuning it. As much as I applaud your wanting to support a UK shop for the purchase, currently if you go to one of the German stores (Tamico) or have a aquick search of DT03 on ebay you'll find Neo Fighter kits with upgraded motors and CVA shocks available for about £30 cheaper than UK shops have them. I bought from one of these places for my kit and then bought hop ups and parts from UK shops. Modelsport have been great. 

With that budget you can easily afford the kit, a brushless motor, steel pinion, bearings, some decent Schumacher tyres, a setting spring set and some shock oil so you can have some fun tuning the car and handling for what you want. 

I have a build thread going on mine over in The Builds forum.

[defizr]

Just picked up a Racing Fighter from Tamico for 65 quid

[defizr]

What servo do you use on yours?

[ThunderDragonCy]

Nice. Can't remember which servo I got. Was about £12 from Modelsport. Whilst you are on there get a Kimborough servo saver for a fiver. They are the arm you attach to the servo from steering. The kit tamiya one is r pretty wobbly. You need 25t spline version.

[Effigy3]

2 hours ago, defizr said:

What servo do you use on yours?

You might consider:

Savox SC-0254 Standard Size Digital Servo (Speed)  £20.69

 

 

[Dojo Dave]

If youre just bashing cheap as chips is the way to go of youre going flashy and racing then consider a bit more money servo. Take it slow and test the waters. There are alot of products out there that will do the job. Dont spend more than a 10er to start on sevos. 

[TurnipJF]

For a relatively lightweight buggy such as a DT-03 or TT-02B, you really don't need anything fancier than this:

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/alturn-usa-standard-deluxe-ball-bearing-waterproof-servo/rc-car-products/371888

 

[ThunderDragonCy]

You know what, I'm pretty sure that's the one I got for the Grasshopper3!

[Jonathon Gillham]

I've been using Futaba S3003 and Sanwa SRM102 (i think thats the model, the 102 is right) which are both the basic ones from those manufacturers and they have lasted really well for bashing,  5 months of solid abuse. However, a S3003 lasted 4 minutes (yes, really just 4 minutes) racing which I think is just the extra stress of jumping and landing, or falling over. The thing that killed it was a hard landing slightly off centred, so one front wheel landed slightly earlier than the rest.

[WillyChang]

Nah, I blame the stress from the radiation blast of that race starting buzzer 

Hence my warning  mine only seem to die during a race. In general runabouts, onroaders, off-roaders, in bashers that get lent to friends who've never driven RC before, they all survive fine. But the one time I used 1 in an M03... first heat at TCS, blammo! strips it's gears 

Around here I have an installed base of probably over a hundred S300X units everything from genuine Futaba in retail package to OEMs with identical case to offbrand clones with interchangeable parts. Tower Hobby used to sell their housebrand S3003 servo in bulk packs, plus you could get ballbearing upgrade too  before I moved on to being friendly with an HoBao chopshop getting his exRTR units. HobbyKing's cheapos look same too but I've yet to try swapping parts.

When they break though... usually the gears, second the case - ok they're disposable but I still like to fix them. Have accumulated a stash of servo parts... Futaba originals aren't expensive. Recently discovered HSP uses same too, and a local LHS was clearing our their HSP servo spares... loaded up a pile of gears & cases. 

Although since i stopped racing with S3003 I don't break any, but I'm rescuing broken ones that others chuck out 

[defizr]

Servo, servo saver, aluminium servo mount and bearings now sorted. Thanks for all the advice chaps

[Munchbox]

I built my dt03 stock with bearings and the 19t upgrade pinion. My brother loaned me a set of Shootout tires for the rear end. I'm close to par with my Lunchbox for top end, somewhere around 24mph. 

A different tire set for asphalt/concrete is recommended. You'll eat the pin spikes and slotted fronts in a hurry on that kind of terrain. 

[defizr]

The best thing is I've still got 90 quid left 

[TurnipJF]

These work well on tarmac and last a long time:

Carson part number 900027.

[ThunderDragonCy]

Yeessssssss! Definitely get a hotter brushless motor. Mine is a right laugh with the speed passion 13.5t I got from Modelsport. You'll get £15 for the kit motor selling it on eBay. 

Another set of wheels with some different tyres is well worth it. What tyres depends on where you plan to drive. What are you thinking? Street? Grass? Dirt? Gravel? All of the above?

 

[defizr]

All of the above

[defizr]

46 minutes ago, TurnipJF said:

These work well on tarmac and last a long time:

Carson part number 900027.

 

 

Do these fit straight on without mods? Are there any wheel tyre combos that would give it a bit of extra ground clearance without too much hassle?

[TurnipJF]

11 minutes ago, defizr said:

Do these fit straight on without mods? Are there any wheel tyre combos that would give it a bit of extra ground clearance without too much hassle?

They fit straight on in place of the stock wheels.

 

You might also like these:

Carson 900134, as far as I know these are DF-03 size, a little bigger than the ones I linked to previously, although I haven't compared them side by side to be certain. They also fit straight on.

[ThunderDragonCy]

Or you could go mad and fit truck wheels!

You need to buy blitzer beetle front uprights with longer axles but then the blitzer or aqroshot (or mad bull if you are full truck) wheels fit straight on. Those are schumacher 1/10 truck tyres.

[defizr]

It'd look bonkers with a set of lunchbox wheels on it

[TurnipJF]

Lunchbox rears use a different fitment, but Mad Bull rears would bolt straight on and are the same size.

 

Mad Bull fronts would also work, albeit with the longer stub axles as mentioned by ThunderDragonCy.

[ThunderDragonCy]

This has got me thinking about another dt03 project with mad bull wheels and that kamtec van body jason1145 just did. Kinda Lunchbox Ultra.