What's the longest your car has ever gone without an issue?

[Nikko85 3454]

It seems some cars can run and run, whilst others need constant attention. I was wondering, what's the longest any of your cars has gone with needing any work at all?

Has anyone had a car they've literally never had to take a screwdriver to since making? Be good to hear what your most consistent runner is. Personally I love tweaking cars, but once it's made, I don't want to have to fix it every other time I go out or go home early when something comes loose.

Probably depends a lot on what battery/motor combo you use too!

 

 

[Super ally 412]

The hornet and grasshopper are bullet proof for me,i just have to put tape on the battery cover to stop it coming off.

[alvinlwh 5895]

My, or should I say, my girl's SU-01. Always bring it as a spare so that I have something to run when my main car fails. Only time it had a problem it had was when I popped a drive shaft when I put an over powered motor in. 

 

[Willy iine 18806]

Similar to @Super ally, my 5844 Pajero (essentially a truck version of a GH) and GH I had in the 80’s drove and drove without any issue the longest, I think.   And back then I drove them hard! 

That could be because they were just so basic..

[TurnipJF 9192]

Many of my cars fall into this category, never having required any parts or adjustments due to either breakage or wear:

Grasshopper

Hornet

Grasshopper II

Mad Bull

Rookie Rabbit

Rising Fighter

WT-01

WR-01

WR-02

GF-01

G6-01

TL-01

TL-01B

TT-02 Type S

TT-02B

TB-03

FF-03

The less powerful of my two DT-02s

M-08

MF-01X 

 

[Mad Ax 9329]

Hmm, tricky to be absolutely sure, as a lot of my stuff doesn't get run that much, but of the main runners:

The G6-01 gets mountains of abuse and to the best of my knowledge has never broken.  It wears a heavier-than-usual King Blackfoot body with some heavy plastic and metal reinforcing and scale parts.  I have deliberately driven it at 90 degree kickers to try to induce a full backflip, and still not broken it.  I have somehow managed to crack the outer bead on the wheels, but that's it.  It did have a pretty crazy brushless system in but I've toned it down now.

DT-03 - pretty sure this has never let me down.  Hasn't been run as much as the G6-01, but it's done some race meets and some hard bashing at Tamiya Junkies bashes and never broken.

King Blackfoot - the toughest variant of the ORV chassis, aside from a few machine-screw-with-flange-nuts backing out and an unglued tyre coming off during a race, it's never died.  That said, I sold a restored KBF chassis to a friend over a decade ago and he recently gave it back to me almost completely destroyed - I think it was stored in the sunlight as every single tyre is perished almost beyond recognition and lots of the plastics have disintegrated.

I don't really suffer a lot of breakages with my other cars, but some are worse than others.  My Blitzer Beetle shreds wheels and axles like nothing else I've ever known, although it survived a day of hard racing at the Iconic Revival this year with no failures.  The Top Force and Manta Ray are both tough designs but I rarely seem to get a single run out of either of them without something breaking or falling off.  By the time I ran the Manta Ray at this year's Revival, most of the plastics had been replaced, and I still found another bit that wasn't right on the morning of the race day and spent an hour pulling the gearbox out to re-seat the casing.

[Nikko85 3454]

Thanks everyone.

I've got a GF01, MF01x and Pumpkin QD, so I should have some pretty bullet proof cars. Good to see the simple hornet and grasshopper also doing well.

 

[Wooders28 4723]

Most reliable tamiya, is maybe my Dark Impact. Had a ,break in, period where I was wet behind the ears, so the inevitable rear diff fault ,but since I did mods, it's been pretty bullet proof.

Most unreliable, original frog...

[Tex76 43]

Nowadays I run my cars very sparingly for lack of hobby time (1/1 cars and static models absorb most of it), therefore by memory of my youth I'd say, quite surprisingly, that my porsche 959 behaved absolutely bulletproof despite an intensive use on unforgiving terrain.

I could say the same for my RC10 Graphite (I just used to dismantle it every now and then to keep the ball bearings clean).

The Grasshopper lived a long, intense and faultless life until it fell off a wall, breaking the differential case in tiny bits.

I remember the ThunderShot to be quite tough, but clearly I'm in the wrong as I recently got its remains out and found out I had destroyed more than a couple of suspension pickup points (I've absolutely no memories of that).

I haven't got enough running experience with the Avante and Egress (both vintage, but acquired as a grown-up) to get an idea: I had to replace some suspension parts on the Avante, but they looked to be damaged prior to purchase; the Egress is clearly tougher, but I run both of them with as much care as possible.

Back in the days I had a Kyosho Salute, too, which looked to be way tougher than any Tamiya car, but suffered the only proper breakdown in my entire RC career, down to my fault really: as I got it 2nd hand as a gift from a friend, I didn't have a manual, therefore I didn't know I had to check the chain tension regularly...it eventually got loose and stripped some teeth from the rear differential case, forcing me to retire the car (which by that time was oop and impossible to repair).

[Mad Zero 316]

Mine has to be the infamous pink Gravel Hound I got off Dazmeister. He snapped the chassis in half on a ramp at K7 then I got it & ran it (very hard) for another 2yrs, it never missed a beat.

Zero transmission issues with various hot(ish) motors & no suspension breaks despite hours of ramp abuse & cartwheeling down the straight at Snetterton at least twice. I’ve destroyed a few rc cars in my time but not the GH, it still looked presentable even when I’d finished with it. 

[TurnipJF 9192]

The DF-02 is indeed a sturdy model. If I hadn't driven mine into a fullsize tractor tyre and cracked a front tower, it too would have made it onto my list of never-broken models. As it is, a full-speed collision on 2S/13.5t power resulted in only a minor shock tower crack, so I'd still say it is a tough car.

[Saito2 6686]

My original Lunch Box bought new back in the 80's never broke a single part until the mid 2000's. At that point, the body mounts started failing and I clipped a rock hidden from view which snapped an upright. My original Bullhead has never broken and aside from loosing some fasteners, neither has my original Vanquish come to think of it.

 

Edit: I guess I should add, the axle springs broke on my Lunchie on the 5th run or so, but it didn't really affect anything.

[Dakratfink 967]

I don’t want to answer this out of superstition that whatever I mention will break next. Lol

For real though my Tamiya fleet is very reliable . My Axial SMT10 has taken some abuse but the only thing I’ve really broken on it have been the result of not tightening nuts and screws enough. 

Maybe this is the relative light weight and low power with decent ( for friction damper ) suspension, but my WD-02 Kumamon Tractor is as reliable as , well, a tractor . ( more for though ) 

[Willy iine 18806]

7 hours ago, Nikko85 said:

Thanks everyone.

I've got a GF01, MF01x and Pumpkin QD, so I should have some pretty bullet proof cars. Good to see the simple hornet and grasshopper also doing well.

 

The GF01 has been very reliable.   I think the weakest links are (same with WR02):

a. Star washer on servo, retighten the screw for the servo saver from time to time.  I use an aftermarket star washer and Tamiya's high torque servo saver.

b. Suspension arm screws.. I tighten them gently every now and then.  

c. Check pinion gear wear every couple of months (or once a year in my case).  

That's about it. 

[Dakratfink 967]

4 hours ago, Willy iine said:

b. Suspension arm screws.. I tighten them gently every now and then.  

c. Check pinion gear wear every couple of months (or once a year in my case)

Same with G6-01 . And I replaced pinion with steel on that one 

[markbt73 5316]

I pretty much only run with 380s, 540s, or crawler motors. It's extremely rare when I break or wear out anything.

The biggest trouble I typically have is suspension parts getting sloppy, and occasionally those screw-in hinge pins backing out.

[Wooders28 4723]

21 hours ago, Saito2 said:

My original Lunch Box bought new back in the 80's never broke a single part until the mid 2000's

Wow!

I think I'd snapped the body posts off in the first day! 😬

[Mad Zero 316]

1 hour ago, Wooders28 said:

Wow!

I think I'd snapped the body posts off in the first day! 😬

I put metal posts on one of mine ..and snapped the chassis 

[Wooders28 4723]

11 minutes ago, Mad Zero said:

I put metal posts on one of mine ..and snapped the chassis 

I used some shock spring mounts (U bracket) and put long screws through.

But yeah, snapped big chunks out the chassis instead 🤦‍♂️🤣🤣

[Bash 356]

My XV-01 has been super reliable for me. Can't think of anything that's gone wrong in the 8 month's that I've had it for. 

[Saito2 6686]

2 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

I think I'd snapped the body posts off in the first day! 😬

I think because it was my first hobby grade vehicle that took me FOREVER to save up the money for and time it took to assemble and carefully paint it, I was very very cautious driving it. I never jumped it with the body on and I very slowly approached the limits of it handling. It was so incredibly powerful and fast compared to my 1/14th toy grade Nikkos I had prior It was almost scary with the platforms general lack of, shall we say, control.

[Alangt4 123]

My lunchbox has just ran and ran despite being lifted and crushed by kids and so on. Only thing was loosening servo screw which is loctited in now.

My old manta ray was reliable when I raced it years back… from memories at least. I have one now and a few top forces I’ve worked on. The manta ray suffers from loosening screws, broken motor mounts and other random things all the time. Then I remember the work keeping that car running! The top force cars have had some effort to make them reliable and been perfect. Once I’d swapped out OG ball diff rear plates and out drives and got the rear gearcase cover sorted they have been good. No problems with those cars at all now.

 

 

 

[Willy iine 18806]

@Alangt4 That sounds good because my CW01 (Unimog)'s rear suspension tensioner springs kept breaking after 30-40  jumps so modified mine to run 3 springs in the back.  Since then, no issue.  It should run a long time because it's essentially my 5844 Pajero with modern (at the time) updates, right?

[Mrowka 496]

Once I worked the initial bugs out of my.one re re Javelin it has been reliable.

Once I replaced the ARRMA electronics in my other re re Javelin, even with a big brushless and full house Hobbywing ESC, powerful lipo batteries, etc., it has been reliable.

My re re Ultima is too pretty to bash up.

I do not drive my OG Javelin much, because it came to me in pretty minty condition and I worry about being able to find replacement parts for it.

My Tamiya Fox has been reliable, mainly because it is also not driven much since I keep breaking it.

YMMV.

[vintagebackyardrc 135]

My original RC10 goldpan was honestly the most durable car I ever had as far as vintage stuff goes back in the day (sorry).

Hornet/Grasshopper a very close 2nd for sure. Only big issue I had as a kid were snapping off the front towers on a odd hit and the mechanical speed control.

Modern day stuff...anything Xray.