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Pablo68

The Worst Tamiya Chassis to work on of all time.

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Honestly, I don't know as I haven't had every Tamiya RC there is, but I'm putting forward a nomination.

The Fox.

Sure, it was fun to build, it looks cool, but I just wanted to work a bit on the position of the steering servo because I used an aftermarket servo saver (Kimbrough).
Jeehosephat. I have had to pull most of the car apart. I mean I've read the user reviews and such, but I didn't think it would be THAT bad.

Has Tamiya released a chassis that's worse to work on?

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The Fox is a colossal pain to work on. God forbid I have to adjust the MSC in mine 

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I love it for many reasons but for me the Astute.

Supposed to be Tamiya "race" car but so overengineered, heavy and brittle (not to mention tail heavy and understeering badword to drive) it was dead in the water until massively revamped / simplified with the SA.

 

*edit - didn't see the "to work on" bit.... To work on - avante. So many parts. 

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The Hotshot is likely equally 'fun'.  Those were released around the same time so I'm not too surprised they are both a bit of a pain.  ;)

 

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At the risk of being stoned to death now but for me it's the Porsche 959. Ok, of course i haven't worked on every tamiya chassis yet but i cannot remember a construction more crippled than this one.:wacko:

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Yep, Fox-marine is the worst for me too.  

The upper and lower halves are bolted together as if Tamiya tried it to be a submarine or something. (it's not water proof) 

The rear suspension is attached to the upper half.  The front suspension is attached to the lower half. 

To replace a servo, I'd have to split the car in half.  It's a mildly interesting but confusing chassis. 

XW2gi9Y.jpg

 

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Striker ( I’ve not many chassis to compare against!) - unless you’ve mastered it you’ll need 4 hands to hold and mount the gearbox back on whilst balancing both rear hubs and dog bones trying to line up 4 ball joints into sockets.

However that Fox sounds a right faff, glad it’s not on my wish list now ;)

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While the rest is simple, I'm not looking forward to the day I will have to work on the gearbox of my Konghead!

I've never owned a Fox, but that's one I've heard of many, many times. It must be a serious pain in the a.

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1 hour ago, Jason1145 said:

Striker ( I’ve not many chassis to compare against!) - unless you’ve mastered it you’ll need 4 hands to hold and mount the gearbox back on whilst balancing both rear hubs and dog bones trying to line up 4 ball joints into sockets.

Can confirm :P

I was ultimately not a fan of the original Audi Quattro, for its convoluted steering system and rear suspension complexity (reassembly was particularly painstaking). Working on an Astute was a chore for all the metal bearings that the chassis used, and when I ran an Avante I figured the metal ball-end joints needed servicing/replacement every 5 minutes - I loved that car, but it proved too difficult for me to work on to enjoy as anything less than a racer. Ultimately, my own opinions must have to do with my intended use; as a non-racer I probably did not appreciate the Astute or Avante enough.

I would be interested in seeing if any on-road chassis make this list - I imagine it would be for a similar reason for me disliking the Astute and Avante from a maintenance aspect.

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Haven’t worked on enough to really make a well informed decision but I can’t imagine it getting much harder than the fox. Love my 2 foxes but ffs they are a pain in the butt. Especially if you wanna adjust the esc brakes or anything like that. Way too many things to take off to access it. 

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I'll pop a quick vote in for the Super Hotshot... Want to re position the speedo? That'll be a good hour whilst you remove the undertray, battery, disconnect the motor leads so that you can unscrew the entire lower half of the chassis tub... but only after you've popped off the steering links from the uprights.. All whilst trying not to poke yourself in the eye with one of the two metal antennas! 

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Yep, another for the Fox (well,Novafox), car arrived from Tamico before the elecs arrived, so built it whilst I was waiting, you know, to just throw the elecs in after.....🤬

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I think I've built about 50 and probably the worst to build and maintain was the 501X. First of a generation, way too complicated, far too many small parts, you had to take most of it apart (and lose all of those small parts) to undertake the most basic maintenance. I had to take 2 chassis to the track every time because trackside maintenance between races (~20 mins) was practically impossible - you ended up with a 50% built car when your next race started (which was really embarrassing). Also the fixing hardware that came with it was so soft that every screw would foul after you used it twice. Shocking really given it's a TRF.

99% fixed with the 511 thankfully (still needed an aftermarket screw kit).

 

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43 minutes ago, djmcnz said:

I think I've built about 50 and probably the worst to build and maintain was the 501X. First of a generation, way too complicated, far too many small parts, you had to take most of it apart (and lose all of those small parts) to undertake the most basic maintenance. I had to take 2 chassis to the track every time because trackside maintenance between races (~20 mins) was practically impossible - you ended up with a 50% built car when your next race started (which was really embarrassing). Also the fixing hardware that came with it was so soft that every screw would foul after you used it twice. Shocking really given it's a TRF.

99% fixed with the 511 thankfully (still needed an aftermarket screw kit).

 

Yeah I have one of those too and you're right. I hated the screws in the main chassis plate getting unbelievably tight to the point you'd be quite lucky to get them out. Some weird binding thing going on there.

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9 minutes ago, Pablo68 said:

Yeah I have one of those too and you're right. I hated the screws in the main chassis plate getting unbelievably tight to the point you'd be quite lucky to get them out. Some weird binding thing going on there.

I had to drill a whole lot out of my first chassis... :-/

 

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I found the first gen big wheels ORV chassis to be rather unpleasantful to work on. In my case, it is a vintage Monster Beetle that had to undergo a thorough repair job.

With the chassis having its roots in the Brat and Frog, Tamiya designed an abundance of add-on parts to make a Monster Truck out of it. We're talking about the steering assembly including unique uprights/knuckles, the front shock tower, the radio box cover, the metal underguard, unique gears (10 T long brass pinion, counter gear, diff gear), rear shock mounts, motor adaptor mounts, body mounts & struts, etc.

There's so many unique hardware and plastic parts to keep track of when rebuilding a vintage ORV. And don't you dare doing the assembly in a wrong way or forgetting some vital part until the end. Dis- and reassembling the ORV spaceframe chassis is only a fun challenge if you aren't under time constraints.

 

This car is why you'll discover great enjoyment when you've eventually got to deal with something as neat as a TL-01, DT-02 or M-03 next time.

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M05, any iteration.
Do anything with the gearbox/diff? break the car in half. Change a pinion? To set the front/back spacing correctly you have to look at the spur/pinion distance, and guess what, that involves again breaking the car in half. (Because the supplied plastic 'cap' isn't 100% accurate, at least not for the Pro-versions)

Close second, the High-Lift chassis. Getting the gearbox out involves SO MANY steps, and you have to have the whole 'box out to change a pinion because the cover is half-covered by the lower half of the chassis. (I sawed the thing in half to prevent having to do this)

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I've never built a fox but plenty of hotshot/supershot and again I agree the hotshot is an absolute pain of a chassis to work on😣 it's one of those use and learn items! How many times do you think ya built it with good professionalism and then one of the wires off the speed controller wraps around the drive shaft and it's goodbye speed controller😬 that was just the last experience with the hotshot! (Still love it though!)

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21 hours ago, GregM said:

I found the first gen big wheels ORV chassis to be rather unpleasantful to work on. In my case, it is a vintage Monster Beetle that had to undergo a thorough repair job.

With the chassis having its roots in the Brat and Frog, Tamiya designed an abundance of add-on parts to make a Monster Truck out of it. We're talking about the steering assembly including unique uprights/knuckles, the front shock tower, the radio box cover, the metal underguard, unique gears (10 T long brass pinion, counter gear, diff gear), rear shock mounts, motor adaptor mounts, body mounts & struts, etc.

There's so many unique hardware and plastic parts to keep track of when rebuilding a vintage ORV. And don't you dare doing the assembly in a wrong way or forgetting some vital part until the end. Dis- and reassembling the ORV spaceframe chassis is only a fun challenge if you aren't under time constraints.

 

This car is why you'll discover great enjoyment when you've eventually got to deal with something as neat as a TL-01, DT-02 or M-03 next time.

I got used to working on the original Monster Beetle quite quickly, what with those rear hex shafts wearing out so quick. Terrible design decision using those on wheels that big, especially considering by that time dog-bones were already a thing.
Yeah I also broke a steering upright in the end hitting a curb, not the uprights fault admittedly but still.
Could never get the suspension to work as well as I would have liked too. I got so sick of working on it in the end I sold it to a mate for not a lot.

I did much better with the re-re.

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20 hours ago, moffman said:

I've never built a fox but plenty of hotshot/supershot and again I agree the hotshot is an absolute pain of a chassis to work on😣 it's one of those use and learn items! How many times do you think ya built it with good professionalism and then one of the wires off the speed controller wraps around the drive shaft and it's goodbye speed controller😬 that was just the last experience with the hotshot! (Still love it though!)

It's been theorised on here in a few places that the same guy who designed the Hot Shot designed the Fox.
I tend to think so as there are some similarities.

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On 9/20/2018 at 4:36 PM, djmcnz said:

I think I've built about 50 and probably the worst to build and maintain was the 501X. First of a generation, way too complicated, far too many small parts, you had to take most of it apart (and lose all of those small parts) to undertake the most basic maintenance. I had to take 2 chassis to the track every time because trackside maintenance between races (~20 mins) was practically impossible - you ended up with a 50% built car when your next race started (which was really embarrassing). Also the fixing hardware that came with it was so soft that every screw would foul after you used it twice. Shocking really given it's a TRF.

99% fixed with the 511 thankfully (still needed an aftermarket screw kit).

 

And BUMP!! Re-quoting this because I was just doing some work on my 501x chassis. Arrrrgh!

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