Wild One

[Rainman]

On 9/12/2019 at 8:29 AM, Saito2 said:

If its barrel rolled repeatedly or generally abused from ridiculously high jumps, the tub can start to crack. The FAV won't as its hard body is screwed to the tub adding strength, whereas the Wild One uses a lexan body devoid of this support. 

Hi all, just got myself a re-re runner to skid with my kids, but this tub cracking business scares me a bit. Any ideas where it cracks? I heard it is where the roll bar mounts to the chassis, but is it at the front or the back?

I am finding it heaps of fun on Nimh and 15t.

I'm also glad I bought it with a few scratches, it would be too tempting not to drive it if it was new.

[Saito2]

Its the front mount to the best of my knowledge. The FAV version's hard body, which screws down (rather than body clips) to the chassis top in the front, provides more support. That said, anything can break anywhere if its pushed beyond its limits. The Wild One isn't what I'd consider particularly weak if driven within its limits. It is a more scale-type buggy and likely wouldn't put up with quite the amount of abuse a RC10 of the period could withstand for instance.

[Rainman]

Thanks for your reply! I think I will put a reinforcing bar across the chassis between the two front mounts to add more support. It is surprising how much the chassis is easily able to twist in your hands as you say there is no support on the top. Running an FAV bonnet may help, but can't find any.

[KEV THE REV]

I've had a W/O that had broken at one of the rear roll bar mounts when I got it  . It could have been from a heavy crash or that the lower securing lock nut could have been done up too tight . They can also crack at the area behind where the steering rods pass through.

[Mokei Kagaku]

11 hours ago, KEV THE REV said:

I've had a W/O that had broken at one of the rear roll bar mounts when I got it  . It could have been from a heavy crash or that the lower securing lock nut could have been done up too tight . They can also crack at the area behind where the steering rods pass through.

I've seen many customer Wild Ones with cracks in the tub around the rear roll bar mount and the four 3x6mm screws that hold the bracket for the rear trailing arms. Although difficult to avoid completely, not tightening the roll bar 3mm flange nuts so hard helps. The cracks around the 3x6mm screws are harder to avoid as they most likely primarily are caused by impacts against the trailing arms, especially when the suspension bottoms out. It also doesn't really help that the pivot pins for the trailing arms aren't properly fixed in the inner mounts, putting load on the brackets that serve as outer mounts. Unfortunately, it's hardly possible to use washers under the 3x6mm screws to spread the load as it's pretty tight in that area.

[Saito2]

Wow, after reading @KEV THE REV and @Mokei Kagaku's replies, I had no idea the Wild One was so prone to breakage. I guess I've been lucky. Please excuse my ignorance and sorry if I misinformed you @Rainman. I'll have to be more careful with my upcoming Wild One runner build.

[Rainman]

3 hours ago, Saito2 said:

 Please excuse my ignorance and sorry if I misinformed you @Rainman. 

Pay it no mind  By your reply, it seems we all got more edumacated! Thanks for the follow up Kev and Mokei!

[Mokei Kagaku]

10 hours ago, Saito2 said:

Wow, after reading @KEV THE REV and @Mokei Kagaku's replies, I had no idea the Wild One was so prone to breakage. I guess I've been lucky. Please excuse my ignorance and sorry if I misinformed you @Rainman. I'll have to be more careful with my upcoming Wild One runner build.

I think you are a bit too hard on yourself.   It should probably be taken into consideration that the original release Wild One was bought by "average" customers who wanted something they could run hard and fast, just like the "average" RC car buyers now buy monster trucks with emphasis on speed and robustness more than realism and esthetics. The typical re-re Wild One buyers are probably (middle aged) adults who want the Wild One for nostalgic reasons, realism and "scale" looks, and don't run it even remotely as hard as most original release Wild Ones were back in the late 80's.  There will obviously exist some exceptions, but I think the above is generally true.

The weak points of the Wild One have remained the same (except hex shafts) on the re-re, but the generally more skilled assembly and careful (loving?) use, probably make re-res last longer.

[Saito2]

Gave some thought to the chassis cracking concerns brought up in this thread and messed around with my Wild One a bit while I was rebuilding it.

I always felt the front tower mounts were somewhat vulnerable. You can actually see the chassis flex ever so slightly when compressing the shocks. A crossbar across the top of the towers is a common fix, but liking my tweaks to be hidden, I took a different route. A section of ABS spans the lower mount bosses to hopefully give a little more strength. A top brace is likely more effective but I find this more ascetically pleasing.

Here's a bit of aluminum rod, drilled and tapped, spanning the front rollbar mounts were I've seen cracks in the past.

This is the beginnings of something I'm working on for the rear rollbar/trailing arm mount reinforcement. The outer screw is indeed too tightly recessed to reinforce. I was able to tie the inner trailing arm mount screw to the rollbar mount with a piece of aluminum angle that sits up against the old receiver battery box. I may tie to the box, though I do hate adding holes and always try to work within the confines of the available holes already present. Hopefully my mucking about hasn't made the durability issues worse inadvertently.

[KEV THE REV]

Nice work . I took the front tower flex out by using a top brace rod which stops the leverage from the top as they can't flex in or out

 

 

[Graham L]

Couldn't agree more with what's being said on this topic. I got my WO December 2023 after a 35 or so year lapse in interest and have not been disappointed, great build and a decent quality of parts. I'm NiMH with Sport Tuned and it's plenty quick enough for good fun. Now thinking of subtle mods here and there. I didn't do box art, had a look in my head and went with that.