Tamiya Qd Thunder Dragon

[berman]

That goes well! I love how you hear it skip along as the gearbox loads and unloads itself going over the imperfections in the road with the pogo sticks 😊

We still have a few qd bits over here, I just can't tell exactly what some of the stuff is just by it's description. Yeah am keeping an eye on ebay. Cheers

[wolfdogstinkus]

So you managed to block out my youngest screeming his head off because his big brother bumped into him and knocked him over. Then he (the eldest) stood in my path, i swerved to avoid him, flipped the car and cracked the screen on my old phone. Kids eh?. 

I was going to let him drive it, but after all that, I said no.

[nowinaminute]

9 minutes ago, wolfdogstinkus said:

So you managed to block out my youngest screeming his head off because his big brother bumped into him and knocked him over. Then he stood in my path, i swerved to avoid him, flipped the car and cracked the screen on my old phone. Kids eh?. 

lol I was going to say, they always pick the moment you try to record something to unleash badword on you!

[wolfdogstinkus]

I hadn't charged the battery before this run, recorded another run straight after and lost lots of speed so a good charge(new battery) might speed it up. Better sound in this vid, youngest stopped crying!, LOL

 

Then I could fit bigger wheels on the back but that isn't straight forward.

[wolfdogstinkus]

Just eyeing up a 3s, wondering if I can fit it in, connected it up outside the car and it is crazy fast as expected.

[berman]

16 hours ago, wolfdogstinkus said:

So you managed to block out my youngest screeming his head off because his big brother bumped into him and knocked him over. Then he (the eldest) stood in my path, i swerved to avoid him, flipped the car and cracked the screen on my old phone. Kids eh?. 

I was going to let him drive it, but after all that, I said no.

I have a wife and two kids, I feel your pain.

[wolfdogstinkus]

I had the 3s strapped on and ready for a run today but weather started raining heavy and got dark, could only manage 20 MPH without spinning out.

Will try again as soon as its dry.

[wolfdogstinkus]

35mph with the 3s!!!

Video on way.

 

[waterbok]

Well thats a great tip with the madbull hex and the m chassis tires.

Dont give up on the QD monsters they still surface for around 25-30€ every now and then. Even managed to score some buggy shells.

[wolfdogstinkus]

The mad bull hexes aren't straight forward. The axle is a 3mm thread rather than the usual 4mm if my measurement s and memory are correct. But the m-chassis tyres are a great fit, still need gluing though.

[wolfdogstinkus]

https://imgur.com/a/t7gr5

I haven't removed any material from in here. Apart from one of the plastic clips that hold the servo. It was fouling the servo wire so cut it off. Added foam tape to lift the servo slightly, drilled a hole either side of the servo and secured with a cable tie.

[wolfdogstinkus]

Should have a shot from underneath here showing the brass 5mm ball joints.

https://imgur.com/a/t7gr5

[wolfdogstinkus]

And hopefully a shot of the 3s that got me to 35.6mph.

https://m.imgur.com/a/A4nWz

[markbt73]

Looks like fun! I have fond memories of the QD cars: for an entire year in college my only RC vehicle was a QD Manta Ray, because it was cheap and I just had to have something. I lived in an old row house with a dirt cellar floor; the little QD was just perfect for tearing around down there. (Just had to be careful not to kick up dirt onto the furnace or the landlord got upset.)

[nowinaminute]

20 hours ago, markbt73 said:

Looks like fun! I have fond memories of the QD cars: for an entire year in college my only RC vehicle was a QD Manta Ray, because it was cheap and I just had to have something. I lived in an old row house with a dirt cellar floor; the little QD was just perfect for tearing around down there. (Just had to be careful not to kick up dirt onto the furnace or the landlord got upset.)

They were great little cars, came out the same factory as some of the best Radio Shack branded stuff. 

I think they are going to have a real resurgence along with the better toy grades from other brands thanks to brushless power. A lot of the old toy grade stuff was hamstrung by the motor size, they worked ok stock either by having wimpy esc's at 7.2v or using relatively high wind motors running at 9.6v but when you tried to put hugh turn motors in there they would overheat and it became clear that the vehicles were just too big for hot 280 size brushed motors.

Thanks to brushless though we now have 280 size motors that don't break a sweat powering these vehicles which has given them a new lease of life. I even saw one of those 1/10 size QD focus rally cars with one the other day and it went like the clappers!

I managed to get a beetle recently and had a brushless in there within 48 hours, great fun!

I'm on the lookout for a trailmaster now, fab little chassis but at the time it was limited by not being able to put a decent motor in there but a brushless motor should transform it!

[wolfdogstinkus]

Yes looked at the trailmaster, twin motor 4wd but by the time you spend out on twin brushless you might as well go 1/10 scale. But even an esc and 11.1v 3s should wake it up a bit.

one motor 2wd

[wolfdogstinkus]

Big difference in the size of a small capacity lipo or the 8AA's that used to be required to run this car.

Even the 3s is smaller and probably lighter than 8AA's.

[nowinaminute]

22 hours ago, wolfdogstinkus said:

Yes looked at the trailmaster, twin motor 4wd but by the time you spend out on twin brushless you might as well go 1/10 scale. But even an esc and 11.1v 3s should wake it up a bit.

Depends how much you can get the parts for or if you already have some. I tend to buy parts when I see them cheap and use them across different models.

I got some motor and ESC combos on ban**ood for £12 a while back, I just put 3m dual lock on the back of all the esc's now and swap them around vehicles as and when needed. I found an even cheaper way for small cars recently. They sell the 280 size brushless motors on ban**ood for about £4.50 at the moment. And then on alie**ress you can get 30a flight esc's for £2-3 and flash them with Simonk firmware with car mode enabled to get normal brake and reverse.

I agree it wouldn't be worth spending 1/10 money on them though. Not from a logical point of view at least. Sometimes we do these things "just because" though lol

 

And yes, cars that originally had the motors running on 9.6v work great with 3s as it isn't a huge jump in voltage from 8 fresh AA to a fresh 3s but the lipo obviously holds its voltage much better. Sometimes even if you keep the electronics stock it wakes them up nicely. A lot of Nikko stuff will happily go from an 8xaa pack to a 3s lipo with no other mods.

 

[nowinaminute]

21 hours ago, wolfdogstinkus said:

Big difference in the size of a small capacity lipo or the 8AA's that used to be required to run this car.

Even the 3s is smaller and probably lighter than 8AA's.

Yes AAs of decent capacity weigh more. I do use AA cells still sometimes though, the Eneloop ones are quite punchy for what they are, not close to lipo but sometimes enough for light vehicles with small and efficent brushless motors.

I usually only do it when I'd rather not modify the battery compartment though, lipo is better otherwise in pretty much all respects, quick, easy, light and powerful.

I have some nice 1350mah 3s packs that work great with vehicles that originally run 8 AAs and they are very compact.

[wolfdogstinkus]

I just realised last night that i fitted a 2030 can but they do a bigger 24mm can that still has the 2mm shaft. 

Had a fast crash the other night, smashed my phone some more, it still works but no damage to car at all. They are tough.

[nowinaminute]

11 minutes ago, wolfdogstinkus said:

I just realised last night that i fitted a 2030 can but they do a bigger 2435? can that still has the 2mm shaft. 

Had a fast crash the other night, smashed my phone some more, it still works but no damage to car at all. They are tough.

2430 and 2435 have a 2mm shaft.

2445 has 2.3mm shaft, good for stuff that has 360 or 380 motors. For some reason brushless 380 size has 3.17mm shaft instead of 2.3mm but the 2445 motors are more than strong enough to replace a brushed 380 in my experience.

I have also reduced shafts by putting the motor in a clamp, setting it to run at low rpm and running a dremel up and down the shaft and measuring it regularly with a digital caliper. Having the motor spinning keeps it all asymmetric. I did this to reduce a 2838 shaft from 3.17mm down to 2.3mm and it worked well. Since then though I usually just use 2445 motors because they seem to be gutsy enough. I tend to judge it on temps, if the motor runs cool then in assume it's powerful enough.

No reason you couldn't take a 2445 and reduce the shaft to 2mm if you wanted to but I find brushless motors are so strong for their size it isn't really necessary. Cool though!

You should be able to go straight to a 2430 or 2435 as they are both 2mm shaft, whether it's necessary I can't say though. A 2445 would also work if you reduced the shaft but not worth the effort probably.

[nowinaminute]

Talking of the trailmaster,  I have this monstrosity upstairs at work, it's about 1/5 scale but an almost perfect clone of the trailmaster. Even the battery compartment is a scaled up 9.6v compartment and the cover over the electronics is even the same.

The body shell is as vulgar as they come with all sorts of lights and "bling"

I might try and do something with the chassis one day, might be fun to bash about in the dirt with a brushless motor. It takes a 540/550 size. I doubt it would last 5 minutes but might be fun. The gears are at least big and chunky. I have the parts to do it but it's just a matter of finding time to mess with it.