Tamiya Nissan Titan - Slower in Reverse?

[wintersdawn 176]

Just received this off a seller on Ebay and it goes alot slower in reverse.  I've never experienced this before with a Tamiya, anyone know what might be the cause or if it is normal?

Cheers

[Mad Ax 9311]

This is normal, depending on your ESC and motor.

If you have a tuned motor with advanced timing, the timing will be retarded when running in reverse.  This gives a slower reversing RPM and some roughness in the sound.

Also many ESCs provide less overall power in reverse.  Sometimes this is programmable (check the instruction manual for your ESC) but for non-programmable ESCs it's just the way they are.

If the car came with a radio, it might be worth checking the endpoint adjustment on the radio and/or re-calibrating the ESC just in case you aren't getting the full range of travel.

[wintersdawn 176]

8 minutes ago, Mad Ax said:

This is normal, depending on your ESC and motor.

If you have a tuned motor with advanced timing, the timing will be retarded when running in reverse.  This gives a slower reversing RPM and some roughness in the sound.

Also many ESCs provide less overall power in reverse.  Sometimes this is programmable (check the instruction manual for your ESC) but for non-programmable ESCs it's just the way they are.

If the car came with a radio, it might be worth checking the endpoint adjustment on the radio and/or re-calibrating the ESC just in case you aren't getting the full range of travel.

Thanks, that's a relief.  I haven't had this ESC before, it is the Tamiya TEU-105BK, I will run the set-up on the ESC & re-calibrate to make sure reverse is set to maximum from the transmitter.  The motor looks like the standard 540 silver can.  

It is an XB model so factory assembled so didn't think it should be a problem, unless something was worn.

[svenb 3775]

Retro swap to a teu101bk that will give you 100% reverse as well as forward. 

I think anything off road shouldnt have limited reverse power. 

[wintersdawn 176]

35 minutes ago, svenb said:

Retro swap to a teu101bk that will give you 100% reverse as well as forward. 

I think anything off road shouldnt have limited reverse power. 

Thanks, ran the set-up on the TEU-105BK but the same, slower in reverse.  Tried another ESC (picture below) and full power in both forward and reverse.  Its only a £5.99 inc. delivery ESC and they make the vehicle judder a bit at very slow speed (had several of these and they all seem to do it) but at least I've got full power back in reverse.

[wintersdawn 176]

1 hour ago, Mad Ax said:

This is normal, depending on your ESC and motor.

If you have a tuned motor with advanced timing, the timing will be retarded when running in reverse.  This gives a slower reversing RPM and some roughness in the sound.

Also many ESCs provide less overall power in reverse.  Sometimes this is programmable (check the instruction manual for your ESC) but for non-programmable ESCs it's just the way they are.

If the car came with a radio, it might be worth checking the endpoint adjustment on the radio and/or re-calibrating the ESC just in case you aren't getting the full range of travel.

Still the same after re-calibration, it seems that the TEU-105BK has a built-in limiter for reverse, making reverse slower than forward.

[wintersdawn 176]

56 minutes ago, svenb said:

Retro swap to a teu101bk that will give you 100% reverse as well as forward. 

I think anything off road shouldnt have limited reverse power. 

Do you also think that the diff should be locked for off-road use? 

The diff is supposed to give better performance when cornering so don't want to lose that.

[wintersdawn 176]

1 hour ago, svenb said:

Retro swap to a teu101bk that will give you 100% reverse as well as forward. 

I think anything off road shouldnt have limited reverse power. 

Love the TEU101BK, got it in another vehicle and its great.  Not sure if the Tamiya ESC's that came after were as good, although I haven't tried them all.

[Mad Ax 9311]

54 minutes ago, wintersdawn said:

Do you also think that the diff should be locked for off-road use? 

The diff is supposed to give better performance when cornering so don't want to lose that.

A fully locked diff will make the rear spin out easily and also make it more likely to roll over.  An open diff will have lower traction on loose surfaces or on lumpy ground where the wheels aren't always in contact with the ground.  The best compromise is a sticky diff, which you can achieve with blu tac, specialist diff grease, or a hop-up ball diff.

[wintersdawn 176]

7 minutes ago, Mad Ax said:

A fully locked diff will make the rear spin out easily and also make it more likely to roll over.  An open diff will have lower traction on loose surfaces or on lumpy ground where the wheels aren't always in contact with the ground.  The best compromise is a sticky diff, which you can achieve with blu tac, specialist diff grease, or a hop-up ball diff.

Cheers for the info, think I will leave things as they are for now and see how it goes.

[Juggular 4964]

4 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

many ESCs provide less overall power in reverse

Like @Mad Ax said. 

Sometimes people put ball bearings in and end up connecting the motor and ESC wire backwards, + to - and - to +.  To remedy that, they flip the reverse switch on the radio.  Then going forward would be slower so they think something is wrong and sell it.  

So... if you haven't done it, you might connect the wire the other way around and flip the reverse switch.  I don't know about XB, but even the most rudimentary radios tend to have servo reverse (in this case, throttle reverse). 

 

[wintersdawn 176]

30 minutes ago, Juggular said:

Like @Mad Ax said. 

Sometimes people put ball bearings in and end up connecting the motor and ESC wire backwards, + to - and - to +.  To remedy that, they flip the reverse switch on the radio.  Then going forward would be slower so they think something is wrong and sell it.  

So... if you haven't done it, you might connect the wire the other way around and flip the reverse switch.  I don't know about XB, but even the most rudimentary radios tend to have servo reverse (in this case, throttle reverse). 

Cheers, the motor to esc wires are yellow to yellow and blue to green which I believe is correct.