mrbonez

Chuck...glad you got another job . i looked at your buggy in the market place im suprised no one grabbed it .
glad to see you in visiting your thread do you guys know how they are selling the db's so cheap on fleay bay ? are they nock off's or just rollers ?

clp.eng

My Feedback: (10)

Ya' I was wondering that myself. Obviously, that hurt me selling mine. One of the places (HopMeUp) I have bought stuff from & they seem legit.

OK, what's a "roller"? See why I'm still monitoring, I still have a lot to learn!

Chuck

NeuroThief

Chuck, I think a roller is just the chasis, no radio, or possibly no electrics at all...not sure. But I did look through those listing's on E-bay and they were indicating a NIB setup, so I too am curious how they are selling them at $98...

Michael

mrbonez

yes a "roller" usually means a rolling chassis with no electronics sometime with a steering servo but no esc radio or motor but with wheels tires shocks and such .

clp.eng

My Feedback: (10)

Thanks, fella's. Another good day as I learned something.

Chuck

woodsrider

Hi guys! So I read this whole thread and decided to grab a desert buggy from the 'bay (the sweet price really did it) Showed up yesterday and I immediately threw in a brushless motor and ESC. Cool buggy and I have some key hop-ups on the way. HOWEVER... not so sure about this controller/receiver combo... I swear - in just driving up and down my street on a few occasions the steering went left when I turned right, and vice-versa. Has anyone experienced anything like this? I know the radio is Spektrum based and I think I remember hearing sometimes these systems can be affected by common household 2.4ghz wi-fi routers?

bhchan

Hi all,
About to get my desert buggy. It'll be my first non-toy rc car.

looks like I'm jumping into this too late, since no one's selling them for $100.

from reading through this thread (5 hours of reading...), I'm wondering how many of you are still running stock shocks (since I doubt I'm mechanical enough to figure out how to attach/jerryrig aluminum shocks)

or maybe a better question is, how many aftermarket parts have you needed to buy to keep the thing rolling?
$150 is already a lot to spend to start a hobby, and I learned my lesson from trying to fly a e-heli (Eagle 50 never even got off the ground before I broke it... should find time to figure out what popped on that too... some day)

Thanks in advance and thanks for all the vids you've posted...
(tomorrow will be my last chance to return shipment before receiving to avoid any charges)

clp.eng

My Feedback: (10)

bhchan - welcome & it's never too late! I am still using the stock shocks because after the initial problem out of the box they are working just fine! A lot of guys buy these trucks to bling them out big time! The only thing I added was lights so I could drive at dusk easier when I got home from work.

I have several helis & have been trying to fly them for over 3 yrs now. I bought the buggy for some stressless RC fun. And it was! Considering what you get for 150 bucks, it's pretty cheap as these things are very durable and hi tech. The only thing I ever broke was the holder for the wing on the rearend & that was early on before I learned how to control it at high speed.

Go for it - you'll have a lot of fun. It is a really good 1st RC vehicle!

Chuck

BTW - I'm still [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/market/item.cfm?itemid=733791&electric=0]selling [/link] mine because I bought a 1/10th scale which is better for were I drive. It's slightly more than just the buggy but includes a ton of spares! Check it out....

clp.eng

My Feedback: (10)

woodsrider - I have never experinced what you described. I heard those rumors as well. I saw a vid of the Vapor airplane flying erratically at a college but I believe it ended up being a faulty Rx. I encourage you to contact HorizonHobby as they have ALWAYS been very helpful to me whenever I've talked to them.

Which BL & ESC did you put in it? Any vids????

Chuck

woodsrider

Maybe I will contact horizon. I actually hadn't thought about it much since removing the gear. As for what I put in, a hobbyking trackstar 1/18 25a esc - which is a new favorite of mine for mini RCs. A nice, small, and programmable esc with good performance. The motor I found at an RC show that was in town during Feb. I figured at $10, I couldn't go wrong. It was a sweet green, 8000kv unit that happens to go well with my green buggy. I've mated this to my Eurgle/flysky/hobbyking gt3b radio. Performance is good, and I'm happy with the speed. I did upgrade to the 3racing shocks because I'm a sucker for a bit of bling, but in all honesty - the stock shocks were pretty decent after stripping them and refilling properly with 25 weight oil. I've also added a custom LED setup operated via the 3rd channel. I have some more plans too, so stay tuned here for the whole project. I should be able to post some pics, and hopefully vids in the near future. 8)

bhchan

Thanks for the welcome, Chuck.

After more research and analysis paralysis and overthinking, I ended up taking my son to the park to play with his toy RC truck. Its top speed is slower than we walk! What I noticed was our local area is limited to a park and we'll end up running on a lot of grass... I think the 1/18 won't be able to handle it (even upgraded)

so, I'm gonna have to change forums now and head over to the 1/10 truck area... Slash is set to arrive on the 4th (yeah, we blew our $150 budget by almost double... I hang my head down with shame. ok, shame's done. can't wait to drive it around next week.)

clp.eng

My Feedback: (10)

If anybody still monitors this here's the latest.

I can't sell this thing so I figured I might as well play with it. I accidently had to buy a new radio (DX3C - a very long story!) so I bound the mini DB to it & took it for a ride. It seemed very slow! Since converting my Slash to LiPo I have a hard time keeping it on the ground, so I thought I'd try a LiPo on this thing.

I made an adapter for the connector grabbed a pack & went for a spin. Boy was it fast! Ran it for about 5 minutes & took it in to check the pack. I noticed a very nasty smell coming from the motor. Oops, put the wrong pack in the buggy - a 3S instead of a 2S. I let it cool down & put the 2S in & it was OK but not nearly as much fun.

Next thing I know there is a 5200kV BL motor, 18A ESC & 2 LiPo packs for an 1/18 scale truck coming via UPS!

Guess I better pull my ads & just sell the brushed spare motor!

Chuck

clp.eng

My Feedback: (10)

The parts have arrived & I started the upgrades. Thought I'd need the deeper pack holder & wasted a couple of hours replacing it only to put back the original. I did learn alot about how this thing is put together. I noticed the rear tires were in sad shape especially one of them which was bald on the inside. Need to adjust something to even the wear.

I replaced the fluid in the PLASTIC shocks & only one was very slightly down so they're still not leaking! LOL

The motor is mounted. I ordered a pinion set (14, 16 18T) & some more spares. I figured since they don't sell this any more the parts will start to get scarce soon.

For posterity, I bought the HobbyWing 1/18th scale BL setup (EZRUN Como A2, 18A ESC, 5200kV motor, comes w/ programmer for ESC).

The new Tx went back to HH for repairs (sigh...) as the roller was intermittent, so it might be awhile until I can get this thing going.

Chuck

P.S.
I ended up rereading this whole thread - we did really good! Thanks.)

clp.eng

My Feedback: (10)

Actually, that was an easy upgrade. EVERTHING FIT! Now I just need the pinions to run it. I rebound it to the original Tx to make sure it all worked. A little tight but not bad

Chuck

clp.eng

My Feedback: (10)

Oh, BTW, since the new Rx & Tx are 3 channel, I'll have the Tx turn on & off the lights. How cool is that??

Chuck

P.S.

Slash update - I bought a roller chassis (thanks to this thread!) for the 4WD version & have that up & running BL + LiPo. Speed demon.

clp.eng

My Feedback: (10)

The 20 T wouldn't physically fit becasue I couldn't rotate the motor far enough to mesh. Rather than modify the motor mount, I just went with the 18T! It's insanely fast. I'll try to get a vid after the holidays! I'm guessing I'll end up w/ the 14T as a good compromise.

Chuck

rcslsafut

wow chuck you run the tires off that old buggy glad to hear your back to work man !! havent been on here for ever , gotta clean the dust off my r/c,s and start to drive them again
my buddy just got a mini recon for his kid for christmas ...(not really impressed )

clp.eng

My Feedback: (10)

Hey, rc, welcome back! Happy new Year as well. Get those packs charged up & racing again. I've been burning up the street, the air & still crashing my helis! It's good to have money again. LOL

I had the buggy out in the street doing wheelies on demand when it suddenly just stopped. I said Oh Cr@p what burned out now? I had the 18 T pinion on but had not put the cover back on or put thread lock on the set screw which promptly got loose & the pinion fell off. Somewhere on the street in front of my house is a perfectly good pinion.

I put the 16T on (w/ thread lock & the cover) & it only wheelies now & again. Part of that could be the new set of tires on all 4 corners including the mini T fronts (the buggy fronts are discontinued). Also, my heli mentor just happens to work for a company that hops up cars so he knows a bit about these things. He looked the buggy over & explained how to set the camber & toe. Nice and stable now when it isn't airborne!

Chuck

P.S.
Forget the lights on channel 3 - they just use the power connections as there is no signal wire. Darn!