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Nikko85

Tamiya MF-01x 186mm 1/14 scale racing pick up

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I've been busy putting together my Heavy Dump Truck and it's so much fun. I've realised that I'm going to keep it stock appearance, as it looks so cool. This still means I've got a couple of 1/14 pick up truck shells to use up. These came from a Tamiya Midnight Pumpkin QD and a Taiyo off roader. Both are around 180 mm wheelbase. It's a scale I really like, as it's super easy to throw in a rucksack and take to a park. 

Rather than make another 1/14 monster truck I thought I'd explore another Tamiya Kit, the MF-01x

I'm looking for a truck that will work well on gravel, dirt and short grass, but also be ok on road, where the monster tucks tend to tip over. 

I've done a little search here, and it seems like the chassis can be shortened, as shown by the very resourceful @JennyMo here to these sizes

171mm / 186mm / 200mm / 210mm / 215mm / 225mm / 239mm / 254mm

Looking at my shells, the 186 mm wheelbase might be perfect, giving a v. slight trophy truck appearance, with the front wheels a little forward of the arches (but just slightly..)

So, my questions:

I'm planning to make the MF-01x at 186 mm with the single short extension, but I can't find any evidence of people doing this. Would this be possible? I assume I need to cut down the prop shaft? Could I make one out of aluminium as an option too? I'd be worried about drilling the steel shaft perfectly.

What is the consensus on the MF-01x? I'd be looking to run on a torque tuned and NiMH - not a speed beast, but something that moves nicely over a range of surfaces.

The tires on the Beetle option look good, I assume the cheapest option would be to get the beetle version and sell the body shell? How much might this go for please?

Any other advice for the MF-01x anyone can give me please? Any essential upgrades?

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I’ve the Escort version and ground clearance isn’t great. Great on road and firm smooth dirt but anything gravelly or grassy and it really struggles. 

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1 hour ago, bikerclubby said:

I’ve the Escort version and ground clearance isn’t great. Great on road and firm smooth dirt but anything gravelly or grassy and it really struggles. 

Many thanks, this might be a challenge.

Can I ask if you run it with the higher or lower ground clearance settings please? 

Perhaps I'll run it with slightly larger tires - as this is meant to be a jacked up pick up.

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2 hours ago, Nikko85 said:

 

Can I ask if you run it with the higher or lower ground clearance settings please? 

I run it in the higher setting, but the shocks I use are slightly shorter. Don’t think that makes much difference though. 
 

Can get over short grass but jumps and skips. Same on gravel. Ok for small patches but not much control over direction. If stopped on it, difficult to get started again. 

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I built the MF01X Beetle and changed the tires to ‘the smoothie’ sand tires all round & the clearance is better, I put them on to fill the arches out & felt it looked better for the scale

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The Love Bug + others

By Busdriver, December 6, 2019 in The Builds

Try looking at this. This is just a copy and paste of the title as I dont know how to pull another thread into this post. The first page deals with the build of a Love Bug but the second page deals with what you are thinking about,

 

Note to self: find out how to do!!!!!

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The ground clearance is the reason I went to taller tires on my Jimny in the first place then partially why later on I added the Portals off the GF-01Tr to it.  In my case, I was planning on taking it over rocks from the get go, so the diffs are also locked with Silly Putty and put putting taller, aggressive, stickier tires on it.

 

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2 hours ago, BJoe76 said:

The ground clearance is the reason I went to taller tires on my Jimny in the first place then partially why later on I added the Portals off the GF-01Tr to it.  In my case, I was planning on taking it over rocks from the get go, so the diffs are also locked with Silly Putty and put putting taller, aggressive, stickier tires on it.

 

Thanks. For me it's mainly dirt, gravel, tarmac with many some light woodchip/grass - so not looking for a crawler type, but I can see how larger wheels would help there. That Jimny looks great, portal hubs are really cool additions too, nice car! 

In terms of scale/looks I'm going for something like a Tamiya Ford ranger - not a monster truck, but not scale road version either - wheels outside of the arches but not completely. I think at 1/14 60 mm wheels would be perfect (and correlate to a scale of 80 mm for the 1/10 look) but we'll see.

At the moment I've got four 1/14 scale trucks with 115 mm tires, and one with a 90 mm tires (Radio Shack Off Roader), so something a little different would be nice. 

If only grass and pebbles scaled to cars, then this would be no problem! 

 

 

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This is what I’m working on at the moment. It will have the look that you are after and will do most of what you want but isn’t an MF01-X or 4wd.  I’m part way through but it could give you some ideas. The problem with the MF01-X is it has very short length and travel suspension. Even with bigger wheels it’s not great. My Jimny is ok but vectors narrow it’s not good at racing around as it will fall over. I’ve put a 35t motor in mine to slow it down for trail running.

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Couple of options suggest themselves: if you compromise the scale look a touch, 1/10 scale 1.9" rally car wheels and block tyres are around 70-75mm. The other options would be to go more stadium truck style and get the TL01 arms and 39mm driveshafts like you have on the GF01 and widen the track, but also the articulation so you can run it higher clearance. You could still run the mf01 uprights and wheels.

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2 hours ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

Couple of options suggest themselves: if you compromise the scale look a touch, 1/10 scale 1.9" rally car wheels and block tyres are around 70-75mm. The other options would be to go more stadium truck style and get the TL01 arms and 39mm driveshafts like you have on the GF01 and widen the track, but also the articulation so you can run it higher clearance. You could still run the mf01 uprights and wheels.

If you combined all of the above with this

7E87A922-1E52-4DDF-A955-9B47076BF887.jpeg.4755123897f75b53813ea287959e360b.jpeg

this is a Blackfoot/Ranger body balancing on a MF01-X long chassis. If you raised it up and fitted long span suspension as suggested by @ThunderDragonCyhas suggested then you’ve basically got what you are looking for? Apart from the fact that this is not a 180mm body. If you check out @JennyMo’s build I believe she did an MBscaler on this length chassis. But you will have to shorten even the shortest prop shaft. You could still do the suspension mods if need be and use the QD Pumpkin body. Hope this all helps out. Let us see the outcome if you do it.

Edited by Busdriver
Additional info added
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My apologies to @JennyMo she actually used a different chassis altogether but I believe the theory is sound!!!

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Many thanks everyone, lots to think about. As I've got lots of 1/14 trucks (and the spare body), I'd quite like to keep it at this scale.

As the body I've got is only 130 mm wide, whatever happens I'll have a slight stadium truck appearance - that is fine, I just don't want to go full monster! 

70 mm could work nicely, which means I could just get the Jimny instead - and use those maybe. In terms of scale I think 60 mm @ 1/14 scale would be perfect, but there's also a question of capability too, so perhaps something more like 65 - 70 region could be better.


 

 

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37 minutes ago, Nikko85 said:

Many thanks everyone, lots to think about. As I've got lots of 1/14 trucks (and the spare body), I'd quite like to keep it at this scale.

As the body I've got is only 130 mm wide, whatever happens I'll have a slight stadium truck appearance - that is fine, I just don't want to go full monster! 

70 mm could work nicely, which means I could just get the Jimny instead - and use those maybe. In terms of scale I think 60 mm @ 1/14 scale would be perfect, but there's also a question of capability too, so perhaps something more like 65 - 70 region could be better.


 

 

Good luck

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bIWPm4j.jpg

 

Another reason for the 1/14 truck love, these two both fit in a large back pack for a quick walk to the park. These both have 115 mm wheels, so looking for something smaller than that! I've also got the Yellow Tandy Off Roader, which is the same shell size, but with 85 mm wheels. Again, it's great, but I want something that looks like it might actually exist (outside of a Monster Truck Jam).

dZCe8AI.jpg

I may just pick up the MF-01x and take it from there. I'm happy jacking up the car a little to fit bigger wheels, I just don't want to go too far. 
 

 

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My ears are burning... just a word of warning with regard to the MF-01x chassis - with the stock [length] suspension arms you are limited to wheel/tyre size due to clearance with the horizontally mounted battery - unless you fit longer arms and dog bones as suggested above, which would then offer a lot more options.

It's a fun and versatile platform, but as already commented on, not the most capable if off-road and rougher terrain driving is a priority.

Jenny x

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11 hours ago, JennyMo said:

My ears are burning... just a word of warning with regard to the MF-01x chassis - with the stock [length] suspension arms you are limited to wheel/tyre size due to clearance with the horizontally mounted battery - unless you fit longer arms and dog bones as suggested above, which would then offer a lot more options.

It's a fun and versatile platform, but as already commented on, not the most capable if off-road and rougher terrain driving is a priority.

Jenny x

Many thanks Jenny, your thread is what sent me down this rabbit hole...

As a 1/14 truck I want tires that give a similar proportion to the brat and ranger, which at 80 mm for 1/10 correspond to about 60 mm. Given the fact that grass and rocks won't scale with me I'm happy to look at 70 mm but any more verges on Monster Truck territory. I love your short Willy (stop it) but to me that looks too close to my mini monster trucks I already own.  

Likewise the standard width should work for a 1/14 off  roader but I wouldn't want to extend it further or I'I'll end up full stadium truck.

Obviously this is a performance compromise compared to bigger tires and width, but then one could argue that anything realistic is a compromise until you end up with something that looks like a Kraton or such.

I'm looking for off road in terms of loose surfaces, mud and perhaps short grass, but with an ability for on road too. I don't want to go too high, because I want to drive this on firmer surfaces where the MT trucks might roll over! Looking at some vidoes of the Beetle driving on wood chips and mud look exciting! 

I'll play around with the shell today and visually see what works, perhaps 65mm could be the sweet spot? Really the question is how I get the MFX-01 with the tires I want (and for the cheapest) - do I go for the Beetle or Jimny and sell off the shells, or do I go for a plain shell.

I'm probably planning a Torque Tuned for this - or perhaps a small light brushless motor, just to give it a slight pep in speed, but nothing too much! 

 

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A tip for making different-length driveshafts: get some #5 (5mm diameter) aluminum knitting needles, cut them to length, and cross-drill in the appropriate places. You can make any length you want without hacking up the stock Tamiya shaft. And they're plenty strong for the little MF01X.

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Thanks, that sounds like a good plan. Drilling Aluminium is far easier than steel and I can buy excess to practise. 

I also make drum kits, where I drilled lots of aluminium tube - so happy with that!!

 

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Ok, so using the shells I think a 60 mm tire is perfect for my needs, and the body will either be 170 or 185 depending on how it looks.

If I find it's too compromised I'll sell the tires and get something a little larger.

On 9/5/2021 at 2:42 PM, J@mes said:

I built the MF01X Beetle and changed the tires to ‘the smoothie’ sand tires all round & the clearance is better, I put them on to fill the arches out & felt it looked better for the scale

Just found this on the showroom, looks like that's a good option if I need to get bigger. On yours they look perfect,  but I'm already going from 1/12 to 1/14 so the 70 mm tires on yours are the exact size that 60 mm would look on mine, so we'll see. It's good to have an option however, and they are pretty cheap too (I could put a spare on the back as well)!

Thanks,
 

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No specific recommendation, per se, but a tip. 
Keep your eyes peeled at charity / thrift shops and yard sales for old Toy Grade RCs. These always vary in scale and size but can be quite detailed . You might just get lucky and find one that is what are looking for. 

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On 9/5/2021 at 6:16 AM, Nikko85 said:

I've done a little search here, and it seems like the chassis can be shortened, as shown by the very resourceful @JennyMo here to these sizes

171mm

This has really got my gears turning... :ph34r:

I'm really curious about the MF-01X but I'd probably have to do the GF01 portal mod to make it work on my local terrain.

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Another option for tires is the TT02 racing truck tires, as used on the SW01 Lunch Box Mini 

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I'll give those a look. I feel 70 mm migh be too much but I can experiment when I've got the chassis. 

Likewise it's a toss up between 171 and 186 mm but when the car is on the body it'll come clear.

 

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