Radio control

[.:4:.]

So my short course truck. Theres no factory upgrade for a wheelie bar. But it goes good, any speed under say 70 if you nail it, its on the rear bar. So no aftermarket wheelie bar fits the stock rear bumper assy. So today i fitted an aftermarket rear assy and wheelie bar. The aftermarket rear assembly is way more rigid. My main issue with the stock one was it would flex and impact the body, hence why the rear of the body was cracked and getting a bit hows it going. I did also get a new body, but until the original is bad, ill stick with it.

[.:4:.]

Seriously, if its not 1 thing its another. So i swapped out the steering servo in my monster truck today, everything steering relateted looked good. Its a bit of a fiddly job. Not hard, just fiddly. So testing the thing and dialing in steering trim it acted up a bit. Ahhhh, if you want to **** me, atleast take me out for dinner first. The servo rod decided to bend on the test run. It was straight when it was taken off and re fitted, but whilst it didnt snap, it said no. End of the world? No. Its my cheap part thats the weak link in the steering, so last time i snapped one i bought 2. A time pain, as in i had to pull apart the same stuff twice, but i had a new one. Out of annoyance i have ordered a metal servo link. Future me will regret that. The stock plastic one is cheap and my weak link. The metal one is still cheap (talking $6 V $14) but will probably move the failure point up the line to expensive steering stuff. Its all upgraded so other bits are $50+.

[.:4:.]

Made a bit of an impulse buy for my short course truck. So factory optional parts, so my logic is should do atleast something.
For an off road car the thing handled really well. Yeah it has upgraded shocks and springs already.
So i put on swaybars. I havent done my reasearch yet, they are adjustable. So out the pack is how they are at the moment.
Didnt have great expectations, but i was impressed.
I beat the crap out of that thing, but the added stability i can beat on it harder. Yeah thats probably going to cost me through added breakage, but hey, if you dont break it your not trying hard enough.

[.:4:.]

So my official test driver, my son, did his first official test drive of my short course truck since its had a wheelie bar and sway bars fitted.
So, he started off driving it like he used to as he knew the charicteristics of the thing. So before if you got on it to hard too soon it would ride the rear bumper and go a bit left to right and not end too well. Now it rides the wheelie bar and the rear swaybar stops the left to right stuff. So its more confidence making to launch harder. Same thing with cornering at speed. You can brake later and corner faster as the sway bars keep it more stable.
My official test driver did roll the thing way more times then usual. But he knows i dont care, and you only find the limit if you pass the limit.
So i waited for his general consensus before giving my opinion. I agreed with him. Overall it is easier to drive. And much easier to drive fast. The thing is still stock motor and esc. So handling doesnt effect top speed.

[.:4:.]

If theres something i enjoy less then doing the same job twice, its doing the same job 3 times.
So for context. When my kid was working out the limits of the suspension stuff on my short course truck, i was ripping my monster truck. My monster truck i run an adapter for a standard size servo and an aluminium standard servo horn. That works fine but puts the servo arm at a weird angle. So i lost steering. The screw that attaches the arm to the servo horn had ripped out taking the threads with it, so just banging in a new screw was not an option. The 2 minute dodgey fix was shove a pop rivit in and bend it up. Not ideal, but a 30 second fix, it worked.
So stuffed servo horn? Not the end of the world. I have 4 spare plastic ones. So yesterday i pulled apart the sterring stuff, slapped on a plastic servo horn, zeroed out the steering trims and as the fit was different, adjusted the servo linkage so with the trim at zero it would go straight. Gave it a test, yes it went straight but 15 seconds in it lost steering. Yep broke the servo horn. So hooray for me, i got to pull the thing appart again. Atleast this time i didnt need to align the thing. The plastic horns put the servo link at slightly less of a weird angle. So anyhow horn 2 was fine, ran the thing for about 10 minutes and decided to check the mailbox. Hmmmmmmm.
So the factory option adapter for regular size servos that i had is plastic. It flexed, so months ago i ordered an alloy one from germany of all places . Yep, that was what was in the mailbox. It also came with an alloy sevo horn thats properly spaced out to fit the car. So that was round 3 of pulling the car back appart. Because the servo horn actually lines up with the servo linkage, well that meant round 2 of steering alignment. So im happy with the end result, the journy was a tad bit annoying.

[.:4:.]

Did rc with my son today. Put new bodys on both cars, so both looked fresh. Exhibit A:

So i said be nice to it. Well, yeah fun ensued, so whilst nothing broke, things got pretty rowdy and fun was had. The new bodies are no longer mint..

[ford71V8]

Awwsome, glad you put a pic up

[.:4:.]

So today doing rc, had to stop. There was a bloke walking his dog. Dogs hate rc cars. So walked over to the bloke with my kid, just to say if your dog goes nuts its because of us doing rc over there. The dude was super chill, he said his lab chloe was old, half deaf and half blind. She deffinately did not mind a pat and a belly rub. So yeah, back into it. Later on old mate and his dog comes up and asks. So yes, toy cars. A hobby is that, playing with stuff. So thats the disclaimer. So i asked him, which do you think is faster? He said the white one. I asked him how fast you reckon it goes? He said 30. The white one is the slow one and does 104. Green one does 146. It was orange this morning, the white one was blue on sunday.
Yeah, its a hobby, you dont throw money at pointless crap if you get zero enjoyment out of it.
So toy cars, yes. Repercussions of going too fast in a real car on the street? Much worse then breaking an rc car. Damage your own car if you come acropper, damage to yourself, damage to other peoples property and even worse, hurting another person. Go fast with an rc car, you cant cop a speeding fine. Smash the thing, only thing it hurts is your bank balance replacing parts. The white short course truck, as it sits, so not including prior broken bits and not including swapping the body. About 1300. Its stock with suspension and a few other bits.
The orange one turned green. Dont ask. Its not 1300.

[.:4:.]

Oh, and before anybody says anything, yes the rims on the monster truck do look dumb. However the 12 screws in them are real, they are proper beadlocks. Tyres are belted. Why? Well going over 100 standard issue tyres let go and for whatever reason the thing just heads towards the nearest immovable object and breaks a heap of stuff.
Done that a few times.
So thats why i run belted tyres on beadlocks. Even though the look a bit goofy.

[.:4:.]

Finally had it happen today. Never had an issue with lipo batteries, kinda paranoid about them. But today had one puff up and fail. It didnt burst into flames which would have looked cool, but would have burnt my short course truck to the ground. So pretty happy that didnt happen.
But on a much lighter note, a battery doing bad things is not the end of the world, my kid and I had a good session.
I had the man to man conversation with my kid a few weeks back. It was do you know all the swear words? He said yes. I said do not swear around people, but its ok around me if its appropriate.
So my kid did a sick jump with my monster truck. Launched the thing a solid 11 foot high but landed in the scrub down an embankment. He goes 'oh ****', '****, sorry dad'. Thats appropriate swearing. Only issue was, yeah it was an epic jump, but my kid has a cast on his hand so i had to climb down to retrieve the rc car.

[.:4:.]

So last tuesday my kid and myself were doing rc. The bloke we spoke to a couple weeks earlier was walking his lovely old lab chloe. We just kept on about our business as we knew his dog doesnt care. After exercising his lovely old girl he came over for a chat. So my kid found his words and was having a chat, this bloke after last time we spoke sorta understood the whole hobby thing. But he asked,if theres money in these things, why do we beat the crap out of them?
So i had to sort of explain it. Easy way to explain was to reference that guy everyone knows. You know goes to a car dealership, buys the top of the line 4x4, fully options it, gets it and takes it to arb or whoever to get all the aftermarket stuff fitted then is too scared to take it on a gravel driveway, let alone a dirt road, but at the pub is more then happy to brag about the 9000kg winch on it that will never be used.
Not the case withy rc cars. Both started out stock. Break something, well, replace like with like you'll probably break it again. So therefore upgrade parts. So not a massive kick in the wallet all at once, just parts here or there over a long time. Yeah a couple things were done because i wanted to go faster, but in general its all done to beef things up so you can beat the crap out of them and they hold up fine. Its more fun that way. The moment you concern yourself about cost and then baby something, especially in my case, toy cars, its no longer fun anymore.

[.:4:.]

Anhow, glad it happened to me.
So just for something to do i ran my short course truck. 30 seconds in it started chattering. I gave it a minute.
Yep, esc crapped its dacks.
No thats not an issue to me, its the first for that car and that car has seen a lot of abuse.
My monster truck is on esc 5 or 6 and on its 3rd motor.
No ill speak towards manufacturers, i beat the life out of parts.
Anyhow, got the replacement electronic speed controller in the short course truck today. I had my concerns the motor was shagged, motor is apples. 2 reasons i went with a stock electronic speed controller are. Talks to the bluetooth so can be easily adjusted and 2. The thing doesnt need to go any faster.
That sounds dumb coming from me when you read about my monster truck that does what danny dont does. The short course truck does a tad over 100, mods are handling wise, so corners. Its different to a monster truck.

[.:4:.]

Decided to do a nut and bolt check on my monster truck. That thing has been super reliable for months now. Hmmmmmm. Glad i looked at it. Pretty much every screw in the steering had backed out. To be fair, not much on that thing is stock, all the steering components are aftermarket aluminium with stainless hardware. So ally =soft, stainless = hard so i try to not go too nuts on loctite as if i need to take out an stainless screw i dont want to bring out the ally threads with it.
Only other thing i saw that was off. A bent spring and a cracked spring bucket. Ordered replacements, thats cheap. For the time being bent the spring back to round enough and the cracked spring seat should be fine for a few days. So heaps cheaper then an electronic speed controller. Hardest part was finding the part # for the front springs as the ones i run, they are not the factory ones.

[.:4:.]

Well another minor annoyance. Yesterday ran the short course truck again to confirm all is well with the new electronic speed controller. So ill start by stating the obvious. To swap one out, its a couple mounting screws, a few wires to un plug (or plug out if you are irish, asked an irish bloke once why they say that, his answer was out is the opposite of in) reverse the process and jobs a gooden. Nothing remotely mechanical.
Second test run. Thing turned on fine, fans were on. It went 3 feet, motor revved to the max whilst the thing coasted to a stop. No drive. My instant thought was the grub screw on the pinion backed out, thats not uncommon. Before removing the gear cover i noticed the motor had not shifted, so not a gear mesh issue, had to be the pinion. Nah wasnt the pinion, the spur gear was completely stripped. So i never had that issue when i was running slipper clutches as i had a steel spur gear. Main issue with slipper clutches is they are fragile, or atleast i broke a couple. So i have a much stronger centre diff in place of the slipper clutch. Diffs fine, but im yet to find a steel spur to fit the diff. Theyre different to the ones for the poxy clutch setups.
Not the end of the world. Whilst i had a nylon 50t spur in it, the one it munched, and not a spare 50t. I did swap in the spare 52t i had. I did order a couple 50s for it. The way things work out for me is order 2 you'll only ever need 1. And theyre only $8 each.

[.:4:.]

Last time i was doing rc with my boy, the friendly competition was hitting a small maybe 8 inch mound of sand with just the monster truck, biggest jump wins. I had just replaced the bent spring and spring bucket like for like. So my kid hits the mound a few times at 40-50kph getting about 2 to 3 foot of air and landing about 3m away. Not terrible but dunno why he didnt go full send. So i did. Also had probably the biggest barney ever with the monster truck. Ran it back maybe 60m then flat stick on the slick grass, the thing was skating about so steering was rendered almost pointless. Just before hitting the jump the thing kicked sideways doing about 100kmh hit the side of the small mound and straight into a post. The thing went about 12 foot in the air, landed 10m away then cartwheeled for another 15m but ended up on its wheels and drove back. So dad wins. My kid tried to protest as i hit something. But i got off on the well set in rules i have. Do not intentionaly hit things. This was not intentional. Didnt bother looking over the truck as it still drove alright and had battery left, so if it was busted it still worked.
Next day i did give an inspection. I have spare arms, shock towers, steering knuckles, bumpers, bash plates, the stuff you typically break. But no, what a tank. It defys logic as to how nothing broke considering ive snapped stuff before on that thing doing nothing more then walking pace.

[Late braker]

I love your passion. You’re just really into it. So cool. I’m investigating slot cars (Scalextric/Carrera). Also while in the hobby store saw a Tamiya RC Tyrell 6 wheeler F1. I think it was a ready to run not a kit. Tempted

[.:4:.]

Before covid there was a proper slot car track near my house. They shut up shop during covid though. My son and i used to frequent that place. They had 3 proper wooden 6 lane tracks. We both started off with scalectrix cars but after a while went to revos. The revos were ally chassis things designed for racing. So did everything better. We never raced them even though that place had a league going so diferent classes, scruitineering, a buy in so top 3 out of the finals take home cash.
There actually is a bit of science to slot cars when you get into it a bit. Stuff like a dirty wooden track (as in covered with rubber), rubber rear tyres work better, but a clean wooden track foam rear tyres work better. As the cars steer off the guide not the front tyres, all the fast guys coat the front tyres with superglue to make them slippery, reduce front end friction.
As for rc, if your just starting out, theres a few things to take into consideration. 1st is intended use. Theres many different styles of rc cars. 2nd is parts availability and price. So regardless of if its a road car, drift car, off road whatever, at some point something will break. And the 3rd to consider, when starting out, you dont need the fastest most expensive car, however its worth investigating whether there is a higher spec of the same car so in the future if you choose to do upgrades, bits are easy and you know they will fit. So my example here is my 4x4 short course truck. The base has a brushed motor but same chassis. I went next spec up, so same thing just brushless motor stock. My reasoning was i didnt want to spend big if i didnt know if id like the platform. Snapped an axle, no worries bought a set for the heavy duty version that went straight in. Broke a shock, plastic shocks in the bin, ally ones from the model up went straight in. For that truck, there is plenty of aftermarket support and a stack of factory upgrades too.
Same with my monster truck. Knowing parts are cheap and redily available is why im not concerned about my kid or myself beating on them hard. Its more fun that way then taking it easy because parts are expensive, not available at all, or take 6 weeks to get in.

[DJM83]

Its been nearly 12 mths since ive used mine, and ive got some time off so i might charge it up and go for a run. Batteries probably cooked though, see how i go.

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by DJM83

Its been nearly 12 mths since ive used mine, and ive got some time off so i might charge it up and go for a run. Batteries probably cooked though, see how i go.

Eh, your charger should tell you if the batteries are sad. If anything, the AA batteries in the radio will be the pain if they're dead and you don't have any in the bottom draw in the kitchen. Or maybe its just me, I hate going up the shop for just 1 item. Parking is always a pain and at my local, the car park there brings out the stupidity in the best of people.

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

Eh, your charger should tell you if the batteries are sad. If anything, the AA batteries in the radio will be the pain if they're dead and you don't have any in the bottom draw in the kitchen. Or maybe its just me, I hate going up the shop for just 1 item. Parking is always a pain and at my local, the car park there brings out the stupidity in the best of people.

Yeah for sure, ill whack it on the charge and see how it goes. Fingers crossed its still good to go.
Local track here isnt a problem always plenty space.
But where i ride my bike theres some decent space also, i took it there last year. Was good fun

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by DJM83

Yeah for sure, ill whack it on the charge and see how it goes. Fingers crossed its still good to go.
Local track here isnt a problem always plenty space.
But where i ride my bike theres some decent space also, i took it there last year. Was good fun

Its a Losi rey isnt it? You dont need a track, just terrain.
Or space depending. To be fair, say running an offroad car on just a flat cricket oval isnt much fun. No challenge, or challenge to be made. Its flat. Wow, go fast in a straight line, turn fast with no obstacles to hit, rinse and repeat. So booring.
Where my kid and I run my cars, its an easement due to the powerlines thats about 5 kays long in total. Its a bit odd as the top bit is a cricket oval, then steps down to a floodway, a few creeks that feed another creek that turns into the paramatta river then goes further as parklands.
So, typically we run up top near and on the oval. So its a community sports ground, canteen, public bog block, kids play area etc. We do not run on or near the kids play area as to not mess that up, but the council after they re did that area left behind mounds of woodchips and stuff off to the side. So for the best part, that's our terrain. If there's families using the play area, we move down the easement, same if people are walking their dogs. Just being courteous. RC cars are annoying to pretty well everyone except the person running it. I say that, and I run electric. Nitro or larger scale 2 stroke would absolutely even do my head in running one of those.

[.:4:.]

So yesterday, my 6s battery charger decided to release its life smoke. If you dont know, anything electrical runs on smoke, so if that smoke gets released then it stops working.
So i went down the hobby shoppe and its the same bloke there who was there 14 years ago. So i asked for a 6s charger that'll do 6 amps. He asks helicopter? I sad no, car.
He did his due diligence by pointing out 6s rc cars run series 3s batteries and even helicopters that run single 6s typically only run 3500mah to 4500mah batteries. But i said nope, i run a single 6000mah 6s. So righto there was 2 options for the same price, i asked which is better? Both rated to 6s 7A. He was upfront and said he has never had anyone ask about 6000mah 6s on either so has no feedback. So i picked one based purely on looks.
So paid the bloke, then he asks what car do i have that runs a single 6s battery not series 3s' batteries? So i gave him the rundown, he is an rc nerd so understood what i was on about. So in short a 4s traxxas maxx with 6s esc and 6s motor. He also understood the trials and tribulations of making something fit that doesnt.
He did question me as to why as those trucks on 4s are quick. Dunno if there is a correct answer, but 50% more power makes them quicker. Good bloke to deal with.

[.:4:.]

For the past while i had one of those niggly issues with my short course truck. So one thats not an issue if you know the trick. Kind of like that one lock everyone has had at one point where you have to jiggle the key. This case what was happening was if you were nailing the short course truck and let it coast to a stop, it would coast to walking pace then stay at walking pace. Trick was tap the brake. I did not find that annoying as usually i use the brakes to stop anyways. My son found it super annoying. No it was not throttle trim settings. But as i didnt care i didnt do anything about it, untill my monster truck started to do the same. My kid told me what the internet said which was pretty much along the lines of i need a bone marrow transplant or something. So i re calibrated the electronic speed controllers instead. Fixed the over run on the short course truck. Cannot tell if it goes any better as the thing will be on the wheelie bar with all 4 in the air on a half throttle launch.
Monster truck, yeah over run gone. Its better off the line too.
The instructions to recalibrate the esc's look simple, exactly. Took 3 beers and about half an hour to get it right.

[.:4:.]

So i did rc with my little big unit today. As previously stated i did re calibrate the electronic speed controllers on both to elevate the over run issues they both had. So given a big space, it was confirmed. No more over run. Happy days. In the same vein, in a large space. Im going to use terms to get around the forums swear filters. Being reset, both trucks like to dance. Like no pants dance.
No top speed runs, but just general beating the crap out of them. Both had all the pep in their step off the line, wheelie central. Both have speedos, but that was not the point.

[.:4:.]

I have a 3s battery that im a bit sus about. So plan was to run it down and see if a different charger balenced it more evenly. As it was damp out, i decided not to use my 3s truck as the body covers the wheels so all the crap the tyres throw ends up sticking to the underside of the body or ends up in the chassis. I hate needless cleaning. 6s monstertruck however. Wheels are outboard and it has a 40mm track width extention.
Had to go into settings to make it even recognise a 3s battery. But yes it did run on 12.6v. Its used to 25.2v and geared for that, so it was more like back in the 90s with a toy from kmart that took 4 AAA batteries. So it topped out at a massive 27kmh. Yeah.
It did run down the battery as intended, but kind of glad what happened did when it was on the monster go slow. The plastic end on the adjustable ally servo link broke.
I had a spare gpm ally servo link, so swapped the end and it was all good, im a big spares parts guy. The sus 3s battery did charge fine on a different charger.
Just for reference my 3s truck is half the weight atleast of the monster truck. It also is suitably geared and tops out at 104kmh.
I did slap a 6s back in the monster truck to both double check the steering fix and for entertainment as 27 is no fun. Steering is fixed, fun is reinstated.

[Falcon SXR8]

Got out some planes on my holidays. First time flying off water and loved it. That little red plane is a custom balsa build all oldschool and was its maiden, went very well. Also had my nitro la racer out. Just something about having a real motor in a plane just love it.

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by Falcon SXR8

Got out some planes on my holidays. First time flying off water and loved it. That little red plane is a custom balsa build all oldschool and was its maiden, went very well. Also had my nitro la racer out. Just something about having a real motor in a plane just love it.



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They look mad. Dunno with planes at all, but is it dicey on landing, as in a bit off kilter can pretty much break everything?
Other question i have in regards to nitro planes. What do you do if the tank runs dry and you cannot glide back to a safe spot to land?

[Falcon SXR8]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

They look mad. Dunno with planes at all, but is it dicey on landing, as in a bit off kilter can pretty much break everything?
Other question i have in regards to nitro planes. What do you do if the tank runs dry and you cannot glide back to a safe spot to land?

Depends on the plane as to how much abuse it can take. Once you get the hang of it you rarely completely destroy a plane just minor repairs. If you run out of fuel you do your best to get it back to your landing spot and only get one shot at it. I can go 20min with the nitro so you have plenty of time to bring it in before it runs out of fuel.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by Falcon SXR8

Depends on the plane as to how much abuse it can take. Once you get the hang of it you rarely completely destroy a plane just minor repairs. If you run out of fuel you do your best to get it back to your landing spot and only get one shot at it. I can go 20min with the nitro so you have plenty of time to bring it in before it runs out of fuel.

Love watching the planes in action. Someone always has some sort of mid air emergency but end up bringing it in for a soft (long grass) landing. There must be 1/2 dozen RC aero clubs around here, along with the 2 local airfields.

[.:4:.]

Did rc with my kid today. He never brings his out as he is overprotective of his stuff. He also is super respetive of other peoples stuff. Genuinely good bloke. But he knows the rules for my stuff. Things break, if its in the name of fun thats fine. If its intentional, not fine.
Normally im the one on his back saying go harder. Today i dunno. He went with the short course truck and whilst i was running the monster truck i sat back and watched him. No words from me, he gave that thing 11 tenths, and caught it every time it was about to come acropper. No idea what got into him. He was using the thing to the max not abusing it.
The funny part about today was, because there was a lady and her 2 young kids in the play area, we were well away from there. This lady had a pre-schooler and a todler. So i get it, you have to have eyes in the back of your head with young kids. So i stopped running the monster truck, told my kid to keep going but over there. Was speaking to the lady and no issues with her toddler pushing about my rc car like a tonka truck. She wasnt completely frazzled but her older son was having a bit of a tanty because it was time to go home. She said it was nice that i get along so well with my brother. She was a bit taken back when i told her its my son.