How many spares do you really go through?

[TurnipJF 9192]

The only other brands I have experience with are Associated, Yokomo and BSD. I found much the same vulnerabilities as on my Tamiyas. For example, the Associated B4.2 which I repaired for a clubmate broke a front lower arm in a crash, using the same motor and under much the same racing conditions that broke one on my father's TL-01B. My Yokomo MR4-BC suffered a cracked front upright, under the same conditions and with similar power to those which led to a cracked front upright on my DT-02. The BSD Baja which I repaired for a colleague had suffered a worn out diff ring gear and input pinion following a brushless upgrade, not dissimilar to the issues one sees on the TT-02B when going brushless.

Personally, I find that spares are a performance enhancement. I am less likely to hold back when racing a car for which spares are easily available. I am even less likely to hold back if I already have spares for the most commonly damaged parts in my pit box. 

[Mad Ax 9311]

I have limited experience with other brands, but some comments I can make:

Around 1996 I had a Kyosho Sand Master II nitro buggy.  It was my one and only foray into nitro.  It was actually based on an entry-level 2wd electric buggy, the chassis even had the mouldings in it for the 6 cell NiMH.  The aluminium motor mount was screwed in as an afterthought.

Within a week I had stripped the plastic pinion/clutch.  I had to wait a while for a steel alternative.  A few days later, it stripped the plastic spur.  It also exploded the aluminium motor mount in that first two weeks.

The problem was the motor mount would shake itself loose.  It was held in by 5 small JIS screws with no threadlock from the factory (it was ARTR), and if they came loose the motor would slip around and the pinion would spin over the spur.  Vibrations at high RPM were enough to shatter the mount, which was the same cheap alu that SRB gear cases are made from - i.e. OK for an SRB gear case but not really strong enough for heavy vibrations.

It didn't help that back in those days I had no idea what JIS was and only had access to Phillips screwdrivers from my dad's tool box, so I wasn't able to re-torque the screws well enough.  It was an endless cycle of threadlocking, tightening, starting, stripping, ordering, repeating.  I used it for a few weeks before I realised I'd wasted a year's worth of savings on a car that was going to kill itself on every run.

Around 15 years ago I saw an E-maxx run flat out into a stone barrier (knocking me over and breaking the shock tower of my Dark Impact in the process).  The chassis snapped right down the middle.  Back in those days the Traxxas importer was local to Bristol, so it was repaired and running within a week.  I'm pretty sure the part was very cheap too - the owner told the importer the car had gone out of control (27MHz and I was on the same crystal without him knowing), the importer said they were very sorry the car had broken and sold the part at cost.  Not sure who many other brands would do that.  However I think the distributer changed shortly after and for a while Traxxas parts were really hard to get in the UK.

I never broken anything on my Associated B4.1 Factory despite a summer of outdoor racing, although my race buddy seemed to melt the diff on his 4wd Kyosho every week.  I think I might have lost a kingpin or something on my Corally RDX back when that was a current and competitive car, and I had to get new parts from Apex Models.  They arrived quick so I didn't miss any racing.  Apex also stocked parts for a Team Magic E4JS (I think) that I raced for a while, so when I ripped off the rear suspension on the day I bought it I was able to get it fixed up in a week.  Pretty sure those parts are like gold dust now but it was a current race car then.

I haven't broken anything on my Losi T4F yet.  Actually that's not true, last time I raced the switch wire got dragged under the chassis and melted on the road surface, so I had to bodge it with a chock-block to run the final, then in the final the CVD disassembled itself and seized, but fortunately I didn't lose any of the bits so I was able to fix it.  I bought the car ready-built and hardly run and didn't check the CVDs had been tightened properly, but it's a part I'll remember to watch in future (if I ever get back to frontie racing, at any rate).

[DayRider 311]

As far as things that I have broken, only down one side of the front end of my M05, 'c' hubs, shocks and a wish bone. The only other things I ever have to replace are tires, body's and mounts. Boy do I go through tires. I really like the feel of m grips 60d's, they have a sweet spot when they get up to temp after you have run them in a bit. But I would like them to last a bit longer.

If anyone has recommendations for any other tires, I'm open to suggestions. Usually I run on smooth concrete, but as the moment due to pandemic, I am running on tarmac and it's scrubbing them a lot faster.

[markbt73 5315]

13 hours ago, Saito2 said:

Out of curiosity, how many spares does one go through with other brands at moderate power levels and not under racing conditions? I have nowhere near the same years of experience with Kyosho and Associated as I do with Tamiya, but both their vehicles seem to be built like tanks. I've even been running my plastic fantastic Big Boss weekly of late without a single issue. I'd guess it'd be hard to break a Traxxas on silvercan power too. 

In Tamiya's defense, there were a ton of manufactures back in the day, that are no longer with us, which Tamiya had better durability than. I'm guessing Tamiya's strength and/or quality was better than Royal, Nichimo, the numerous Grasshopper clones etc. on average. The difference is Tamiya is still here and they really didn't change much (the rereleases hardly at all in some cases). Everybody else moved on with better materials. There was a time Traxxas wasn't so durable either.

Kyosho plastic cars are tougher than they seem. I've had a few Pegasus/Icarus/Bandidos (still have one), and the only broken parts I've seen are the rear cage around the motor, and one front bulkhead. The living-hinge suspension arms that everyone worried about back in the day are more or less indestructible. Raiders are rock-solid, too, except for the diff outdrives and dogbones. But Tamiya chrome outdrives and Ultima dogbones fit, and that solves that problem. Ultima/Outrage/Tracker one-piece upper links are a bit brittle, but there's an easy answer to that - upgrade to adjustable links.

The old RC10s were very strong as well, but better if you boiled the nylon parts; it made them less brittle. I've broken one or two RC10/10T arms over the years, but it's rare. The old pan chassis can get kinda banana-shaped after a while, though, if you run into too many things. Associated on-road pan cars are essentially eternal. You may shear off a body mount, maybe wear out the rear pod pivots, but the rest of it might as well be carved from one piece of the stuff Wolverine's made from.

Speaking of pan cars, another brand that deserves a nod when it comes to durability is Bolink, and I imagine the new RJ Speed kits are the same. I mean, there's not much to break or wear out anyway, but they are tough cars.

[Mrowka 493]

My various OG and re re Javelins require adjustments and tightening from time to time, but have never broken anything other than front wheel hubs. Metal hubs have so far fixed that little issue, although it may just mean that, next time I break something, that something will be further inside.

My Tamiya Fox seems to hate gearboxes.