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

[El Gecko 1344]

21 hours ago, Nikko85 said:

Also starting to wonder if two MF01x cars is excessive so I can have both at the same time.

If you have two (or more), you can race them against each other

[Nikko85 3454]

3 hours ago, El Gecko said:

If you have two (or more), you can race them against each other

I'd have to have friends who like RC first, although I do have a few nephews, and a baby on the way!

 

[OoALEJOoO 3127]

On 10/4/2021 at 3:36 AM, Nikko85 said:

Also starting to wonder if two MF01x cars is excessive so I can have both at the same time. 

You can make the second one a trial truck. The small wheelbase, paired with large tires leave almost no underbelly whatsoever, perfect for a truck that virtually doesn't get stuck anywhere.

In spirit it would be a Tamiya 1/32 Mini 4WD on a larger scale.

This way Edgar could fearlessly go where no other cat has gone before  

[Nikko85 3454]

That does look great. When I was making my MF01x I was trying to avoid the monster truck look because I've already got a few of those (Tamiya Pumpkin QD, Radio Shack Mini Clod and GF01) which all have 115 mm tires and can go anywhere.

I thought that adding 70 mm tires might push it into oversized territory, but when I compared it the the QD Pumpkin (same size 1/14 body shell) it looks tiny in comparison..

...although it is pretty much the exactly same wheelbase (give or take 5 mm).

However the idea of an MF01x with a widened stance and larger wheels to make a proper stadium truck is very tempting.

Whilst I was trying to go for a more scale approach (like the Taiyo Nissan 4WD) the King Cab (Tamiya's much less scale version) is also an option. It's halfway between a normal truck and a monster. Perhaps 90 mm wheels or so? I'd need to widen up the car, but I'm sure someone can help tell me what I need, I'd assume I'd need new lower arms and dog bones? I've read it's possible, but can't find where.

Although I don't need any more RC cars, I really do like the idea of using both these shells, and something that's halfway between the two cars makes more sense than another GF01. I was thinking of going lower and a street version, but the car I've got already is limited in where I can run it, and I've not got a large tarmac car park to play, more dirt and grass.

Back to this build I finished the final thing that was bugging me; the on/off switch. I made a little box for it, and double sided taped it to the chassis. I kept the plastic blue, as it matches the colour theme of the car I think, and will match the white/blue/red car too.

Also, did you order your dill bits? I do want to see this with that Tyco shell, that's almost the original Taiyo again.

 

 

[OoALEJOoO 3127]

The ringbell sounded yesterday afternoon and like a child in Christmass I promptly started work on the truck, even managed to complete the chassis in a single sitting

The suspension could be made with more ground clearance than what I expected, about 24mm rear and 26mm front (using 70mm TT01 racing truck tires). I used Tamiya Super-Mini shocks (54753) with no spacers.

The rear right suspension top ball joint would hit on the hump where the shaft enters the gearbox, severly limiting down-travel. This was solved by using a ball connector with a 5mm offset.

Overall the build came out nicely. I struggled a little with the drilling, my fault for using a cheap $1 HSS (questionable) drill bit. The trick was clamping the shaft against a chair. The first hole came out a bit at an angle. Seeking perfection, another attempt was made on the other end of the shaft. This one came out quite good. There is now the hole made during the first attempt right at the middle of the shaft (if someone asks, it's not an error but weight reduction ).

At the end I did shorten both the total shaft length and the hole position by the theoretical 53mm reduction in wheelbase. Gear meshing seemed ok.

Using the springs that came with the super-mini shocks made the suspension way too stiff. The standard kit springs made it a bit softer but still not soft enough as I would prefer for a trail truck. There is virtually zero compliance with ground terrain as is.

A few quick test runs without body showed that the Axial 55T motor + 16T pinion made the car faster than I would like for a trail car. The car could easily wheelie if reversed and then accelerated forward, and this is with small tires!! A higher-turn motor (80T perhaps) could be a future upgrade which should allow more control at low speeds, with potentially the added benefit of lower power consumption. Speaking of which, the 6xAAA bettery pack seemed to hold quite well, seems the 55T motor's low current draw does not overwhelm the battery. If the 1,000 mAh is an indication, it should last at least 15 minutes of trailing. For the moment I just had the battery tucked into the central opening but will make some sort of holder for it this weekend.

The diffs were built with the rear almost fully locked (a lot of diff putty) and the front midly stiff (a lot of anti-wear grease). My objective was traction for trail runs. The penaly is indeed quite a reduction in turn radius when run in high-grip surfaces (kitchen floor) but should not be too bad when running on dirt.

I'll post some pictures with the body and different wheels over the weeked.

[OoALEJOoO 3127]

From top to bottom:

• TT01 racing truck tires. Unless I can lower the body, which would require cutting plastic, they look too small (Hilux High-Lift syndrome). I really don't want to modify the body though.
• Grasshopper/Sand Scorcher rear tires. This is my favorite . The tires provide an incredible amount of traction, it's mind-boggling.
• Mud block tires. Tires look a bit skinny.
• Blitzer Beetle rear tires. Tires look a bit fat  
• Maxis Trepador. Way too skinny.
• Moster Beetle tires. Should eat a trail for breakfast.

[Aerobert 2148]

The Grasshopper/Minilite  are my favourite, too. But I also like the Mini-Monster look of the Blitzer Beetle wheel/tire combo.

 

[Nikko85 3454]

5 hours ago, OoALEJOoO said:

From top to bottom:

• TT01 racing truck tires. Unless I can lower the body, which would require cutting plastic, they look too small (Hilux High-Lift syndrome). I really don't want to modify the body though.
• Grasshopper/Sand Scorcher rear tires. This is my favorite . The tires provide an incredible amount of traction, it's mind-boggling.
• Mud block tires. Tires look a bit skinny.
• Blitzer Beetle rear tires. Tires look a bit fat  
• Maxis Trepador. Way too skinny.
• Moster Beetle tires. Should eat a trail for breakfast.

I agree with you, I think with the body height you have the racing truck tires are too small - it reminds me of mine with the 60 mm tires, it just doesn't quite look right.

I agree with your preference of the tires; the sand scorcher rears look amazing. 

I've decided that I really like the racing truck tires on mine for a scale look, however as I've got two body shells I'm going to make a second car! This one will be more monster sized - so your post is literally perfect, thanks.

I'm considering getting longer arms and dog bones (TL01 and 39 mm) to wider up the car perhaps. Can I ask what wheels you are using for the Sand Scorcher rears tires please? Something that as 12 mm hex would be amazing.

Likewise, can I ask the diameter and details of the Blitzer rears please? I think that's a close second for me, although too big wheels might cause gearing/engine issues, I can go to 87 mm keeping the same gearing as mine if I go back from a 20T to 16T pinion.

With those I'm getting a strong Tyco Hammer vibe, but a lot nicer

 

 

 

 

 

[OoALEJOoO 3127]

7 hours ago, Nikko85 said:

I'm considering getting longer arms and dog bones (TL01 and 39 mm) to wider up the car perhaps. Can I ask what wheels you are using for the Sand Scorcher rears tires please? Something that as 12 mm hex would be amazing.

Likewise, can I ask the diameter and details of the Blitzer rears please? I think that's a close second for me, although too big wheels might cause gearing/engine issues, I can go to 87 mm keeping the same gearing as mine if I go back from a 20T to 16T pinion.

For the Sand Scorcher rears you can use any M-sized wheel. I'm using Tamiya Mini Cooper Wheels 50569. You will have to glue them as the wheel size is a bit off. Instead of using the regular 5mm hexes, I had to file down some 10mm length hexes down to 8mm, otherwise the tires would touch the chassis components. Picking a wheel with more offset could allow using the regular 5mm long hexes.

The Blitzer rear tires are about 91mm OD and 51mm wide. I'm using Tamiya's Twin Detonator wheels 10440024. These wheels have a quite an offset so they don't touch the chassis. If gearing is an issue (car might be too fast and flip), you could go higher-turn on the motor.

Both of the above are standard 12mm hex drive.

EDIT: Some other possible great tire options could be:

• Buggy rears
• Comical buggy rears

I'll see if I can get some pictures with these fitted

[OoALEJOoO 3127]

Indeed the Comical Buggy rears look fantastic  They will require more offset than the current 8mm long hexes. Perhaps something around 15mm. Tires are 95mm OD and 57mm wide.

The second shot is with buggy rears. These would require even more offset! The wheels are so deep I had to fit them backwards to take the shot! 20mm offset might do the trick and could be a interesting way to finally give use to the buggy kit's spiky tires.

Again, both of these are 12mm hex drive.

[El Gecko 1344]

Agreed, I like the M wheels/Scorcher tires the most, but the comical wheels look great too.

Love that you've kept the Fast Traxx stickers on

[Nikko85 3454]

I can try with my GF01 wheels tomorrow (although I think the front bumper will have to go, and the body may have to be raised up) but the chassis is a similar size so it could work.

For my next MF01x I think I want to go for something similar to the Hilux Monster Racer - not quite a full monster truck, but also not standard stadiums racing truck either. 

Excited to try a few new tires for it.

[Nikko85 3454]

So, I ordered another MF01x. This one will take the second body shell, and I hope a QD Pumpkin shell too.

This one will have the widened TL01 arms (they give an extra 10 mm or so on each side) and some larger tires. I want to go with a stadium or monster racer style design. The last one ended up being quite scale for a 90s Short Course Truck, so I want this one to be a little wider, with larger wheels (perhaps 80 - 90 mm) opposed to the 70 mm I have on my current one.

I really should get into some other chassis, but I feel like I'm happy with the 1/14 scale Tamiya, and it's not a big pool (although I now want a 1/14 Thunder Dragon and Blackfoot QD!)

 

 

 

 

 

[OoALEJOoO 3127]

On 10/16/2021 at 4:44 AM, Nikko85 said:

So, I ordered another MF01x. This one will take the second body shell, and I hope a QD Pumpkin shell too.

The MF01X chassis is indeed a treat!

Finally got a chance to buy some TS sprays and start working on the Nissan shell. Removing the goo residue from the old stickers was a pain, lot's of rubbing with alcohol did the trick.

I decided to not try restoring the surfaces to mint condition, plenty of scratches all over, only a minor 1500 grit wet sand was done. White primer and TS-26 Pure White paint came out nicely. Over the next few days will be masking plus TS86 Brilliant Red, TS93 Pure Blue and at the end everything coated with TS13 Clear. After the spray work, and depending how the white bed looks, I'll consider painting the some/all the bed using X-18 Semi-gloss Black by brush.

Aiming for having the red extend all the way to the roof and window tops, like Tamiya's Kingcab and most of the liveries of the '80s.

The only aspect left to resolve is how to reproduce the white Nissan lettering on the skirt. I could get standard 10mm white vinyl letter stickers but the font will be a bit off. Perhaps a better option would be to buy some white vinyl sticker sheets, print the lettering and cut. Ideas welcome!

[OoALEJOoO 3127]

@Nikko85 Just realized a new bit of information that might be useful to you.

The MF01X uses p/n 50823 wheel axles, which is a part shared with a huge number of Tamiya vehicles. They provide the standard wheel 5mm offset.

P/n 50808 can be used instead, providing 10mm offset. This would avoid getting hex adaptors if going from 5 to 10mm is all you need. Note you would now need 10mm hexes vs the regular 5mm. Many kits provide these as spares.

I think longer wheel axles are better supported by the bearings (single piece) compared to an arrangement of multiple parts (hex adaptors).

*EDIT: According to Tamiyabase, your GF-01 Heavy Dump truck uses 50808 as standard.

[Nikko85 3454]

7 hours ago, OoALEJOoO said:

@Nikko85 Just realized a new bit of information that might be useful to you.

The MF01X uses p/n 50823 wheel axles, which is a part shared with a huge number of Tamiya vehicles. They provide the standard wheel 5mm offset.

P/n 50808 can be used instead, providing 10mm offset. This would avoid getting hex adaptors if going from 5 to 10mm is all you need. Note you would now need 10mm hexes vs the regular 5mm. Many kits provide these as spares.

I think longer wheel axles are better supported by the bearings (single piece) compared to an arrangement of multiple parts (hex adaptors).

*EDIT: According to Tamiyabase, your GF-01 Heavy Dump truck uses 50808 as standard.

Many thanks.

I actually ordered the TL01 arms to widen the next one, but that is a useful tip.

When I swapped to 10 mm hex (from the GF01) it did look great, but not enough thread for the wheel nuts, so this could be amazing quick mod. I currently use a 2 mm thick washer in between the wheel and the hex to widen a little, without the need to destroy the hex.

With TL01 arms and 50808 I'd have almost the exact same wheelbase/track width as the GF01, so a full monster truck version could be on the cards!