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XV-01 inbound (new to me) - what should I expect?

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Hi All,

 

Finally found an XV-01 to my liking on (Pro chassis, good condition) with a moderate Castle brushless system included. From the pics, it has various aluminum parts (motor mount, shocks, etc) which I assume come with the Pro kit.

 

What should I expect in terms of driving? I am curious... (I'll find out soon enough I suppose). I am getting this vehicle as my "on-road basher". I have Teknos for big truly insane big air, a Lunchbox for the beach, a Rustler for the backyard. The XV-01 will be for the streets (and the drive way, and the local parking lots). I don't have very much smooth pavement (most of what's nearby is dirty or rough or both) so I thought the XV would be a good compromise - not as sensitive and low-slung as true on-road cars but a bit more fun on pavement than my off-roaders.

 

What parts should I think about buying either as spares or hop-ups? I see recommendations for the slipper, so maybe I'll get that, although to be honest I've gotten very comfortable using the "torque control" setting on my Castle ESCs such that my slippers do less and less work these days... the torque control is truly a current limiter (unlike punch control) and as far as I can tell, when set properly, it eliminates 90% of the need for a slipper (if not more - maybe 100%). So I might be able to get by for a while without needing the slipper.

 

What about long dampers? I want *some* ability to handle bumps and maybe small jumps without bottoming out - do folks like the long damper spec?

 

Thanks! All the advice on this board is what turned me on to the XV-01.

 

 

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For bashing on asphalt? First things I'd buy are spare tyres as you will go through many. I don't see the need for a slipper in a relatively light, small tyre 1/10 car. Building the suspension to handle jumps is a compromise in an on-road car because by increasing the suspension travel and raising the car it will traction roll easily on grippy surfaces. Running a lower suspension and accepting that on jumps the chassis may smack the ground might work out better for you. I run my on-road cars around 15mm ground clearance and accept that the chassis will smack the ground every so often, or leap in the air if it hits a stone or sharp lip at speed. Not sure which dampers are required to achieve that ride height on an XV-01.

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Hi, I have an XV01 truck and rally car both are excellent handling cars on tarmac and  light off-road you will enjoy the chassis for sure.....

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Is it a XV01 pro or pro TC? 

Im assuming it’s a regular pro, which is the off road version. 

In stock form it should give the best combo of off and on road ability, in long travel format sway bars are critical off road, let alone on road. 

The long damper version only gives about 10% more travel with cva dampers. If you switch to gf01 dampers on the long damper towers you’ll gain about 30% travel on the stock setup, but not without cutting and grinding the arms, hubs and hinge pin mounts. At this point you have a lot of travel and you’ll need sway bars and a myriad of springs to get it to work. 

My suggestion is try the stock layout first with regard to suspension, you’ll likely want to firm things up for street and find some tires that are not too grippy. Stock Tamiya rally blocks are a great combination of grip and slide, but they wear out too quickly. Some of the cheaper tires can be good, some not so good. 

I don’t think the slipper will be much use to you, probably better to tune your esc to suit your situation. That being said if you plan to jump it a lot then a slipper clutch might make the belts and pulleys last longer. 

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The slipper seems to really save the driveline. I built my Pro years ago with the slipper and am still using the original belt with a 13.5t. In stock form, the car handles beautifully, and only gets better with tuning and swaybars. Mine is set up for dirt rally with small jumps, and will traction roll on concrete but not asphalt.

Other than the plastic suspension mounts, the chassis doesn't have any weaknesses. Mine has worn out several sets of balls and cups- the blue aluminum balls didn't last long at all, the good steel balls last a long time.. I broke an arm once, and a high speed curb shot broke the chassis. The front layshaft gear spun the pin slot once because the plastic spacer wore out. I've replaced all four arms a few times due to heavy wear from stones, and have worn out a few bumpers, too. Maybe six or seven bodies over the years.

My car gets a lot of abuse. Three seasons of rally racing on stony, dusty, wet and muddy courses, general bashing including big jumps on pavement, running on clay and carpet off-road tracks meant for buggies and SCTs, letting anyone who wants to drive, and, as the favorite in my collection, high mileage. I like it enough that I'm considering building a truck variant with long dampers and buggy size tires for heavier use.

I think that you'll really enjoy this one. It's easily my all time favorite.

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I agree the slipper does take a lot of stress off the drivetrain.  I'm a big proponent of the XV-01, it's a really really fun car.  Only thing I would upgrade right out of the box are the suspension arm mounts.  Get the aluminum ones.  The stock plastic ones can allow the suspenion arm to pull out in a hard crash.  Other than I'd build it and have fun! 

Here's mine!

 

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My opinion, slipper is a waste of money on a rallye car. You don’t need it. In addition to that you have an esc with launch control.. so you definitely do not need it.

I got my XV01 when it first came out and of all my Tamiya cars, my XV01 is the most used. It still using all original gears, even in the plastic ones in diff.  I have run it with 8.5 + timing and boost, on a 1/8 truggy dirt track, where it cleared all but 1 jump! This was in the early days

After that it’s been to mountains / snow, even went to Brazil for 6 months and ran at a 1/5 track there then came back to states.. I have raced it on carpet, asphalt.. there is not much it hasn’t done. now 8 years later the gear box is still all original going strong. It’s still running original belt too lol.  Never had a slipper

I race regularly on an indoor door carpet track that uses black  carpet which is high grip. These days most the buggies now run no slipper.. The reason being is that no one keeps the trigger pulled while the car is airborne so when it lands the gear box doesn’t receive a shock..

so unless your trigger happy and can’t let go of that trigger.. you won’t ever need a slipper. 

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Wow thanks for all the awesome feedback. Hard to imagine these chassis are so tough but I believe you guys. Mine should be arriving this week!

 

 

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9 hours ago, smirk-racing said:

Wow thanks for all the awesome feedback. Hard to imagine these chassis are so tough but I believe you guys. Mine should be arriving this week!

 

 

one thing I forgot to mention, if you decide to go brushless you'll need pretty long esc wires to the motor, and  balance wire will need to be pretty long as well.  The distance from the motor to the esc mounting area is pretty long.  Just a heads up if you decide to go that route.

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