THE HP FREAK

My Feedback: (1)

HI!... Yes I do realize what a ball diff is supposed to do. Not new to RC. But the ball diff in these things is junk. Ca'ing a ball diff is nothing new. Guys have been doing it for years. Either CA or hot glue, or epoxy. Easy way to make a spool. I find the car is 10 times easier to control with the diff locked.

Eman77

Ok, fair enough - just checking, since you get a wide variety of experience (and wackiness) in individuals with this hobby.

I'm curious though - why did you order another ball diff after you CA'd the first one? Insurance?

THE HP FREAK

My Feedback: (1)

HI!... I ordered another ball diff due to I ordered the aluminum drive cups and since my plastic drive cups are now CA glued to the main diff gear, it would be kinda hard to remove them.

FeoTT

To anyone who is interested ebay has a listing for some 3racing springs for a gb-01. I think they had 5 in stock. Jus search gb-01 and look for newly listed.

THE HP FREAK

My Feedback: (1)

HI!... Well I got a new addition to my TAMTECH family today. Got this one off E-BAY. The guy I bought it from bought a ton of upgrades for it. Got it for $165 with a tom of extras. This thing is like it just came out of the box. As soon as I got it home I tore into it. I tightened up the front/rear diffs, pulled the brushed Tamiya Sport Tuned motor out and replaced it with a 7800KV brushless motor. Put 45 weight oil in the after market aluminum shocks and stretched the springs a bit. Swapped out the Tamiya electronics for a EZ-RUN 25AMP ESC and Hobbyking micro receiver. It's only got a 16 tooth aluminum pinion gear on it currently. Waiting for my 18 tooth to get here still. Also running a Zippy 1800mAh Lipo. It hauls but pretty good. Probably around 30MPH. The 4x4 is so nice. It takes off hard without spinning out like my 4x2 Tamtech's do.

Eman77

sweet looking buggy! Thanks for sharing the pics.

THE HP FREAK

My Feedback: (1)

HI!... Well I took the Tamtech "HOTSHOT" out last night to bash around in a parking lot. A buddy was checking it with my radar gun. Clocked in at 63KPH (39MPH). Fast little bugger. That's with the 16 tooth pinion. I'll be going with a 18 tooth next week. Should hit 70KPH I would think. I just need to get the 12mm hex adapters so I can run some road tires on it.

Scouser

Hope you don't mind me adding a bit of info you might find helpful. I have the GB01 Hornet and the GB03 Hotshot and plan to race them over the winter. I obviously changed the horrible air shocks first for some 3Racing ali ones and fitted a 3Racing aluminum steering set to the Hornet. Next thing was to switch out the plastic diff for something stronger. I was going to get the ali upgrade from Tamiya but found these http://www.miwahobby.co.jp/eindex.html If you look on the left you will see the Tamtech parts option, then if you click it, at the bottom on the right you will see the diff they do. It is hardened steel and should be a fit and forget item. I plan on sticking with brushed for now but have fitted a 1:10 scale speedo with a Graupner Speed 300 motor. I will let you know how things work out if anyone is interested.

THE HP FREAK

My Feedback: (1)

HI!... I went to the link you posted but it's mostly in Chinese or something. I can't read any info on the steel center diff your talking about. Got any other info on it?

Scouser

Sadly not, the only info I have is from their page. Google translate helps but not much!! The diffs themselves are just the same as any 1:10 scale ball diff, just ooks like they shrunk in the wash! In the pack you get the two diff halves and the centre screw and the delrin cup for the other side. You use the balls that come form the Tamiya diff but I have 2mm ceramic ones fitted. All I can say is that when you build them, the diff is really nice and smooth and gives you alot of confidence to put loads of power through it. Sorry I can't be any more help but if you drop them an email they have always responded very quickly to me and they reply in english too!

Scouser

Wow, guess these don't have much of a following any more!
Just a bit of an update for anyone who still runs a TT. Been racing the Hornet for a while and found a few things whilst doing so. First was that the GB01 front end was a bit weak. That was replaced with the GB02 front end conversion. This is a million times stronger but the shock towers dont allow and shock placement options, they are fixed 'straight up'. I also found that the lower rear chassis plate is a bit of a weak spot so this was replaced with the 3Racing aluminum version. I got the Tamiya heavy duty hingepins for the rear and now the whole car is much more resilient to impact. Other upgrades were 3Racing ali rear hubs and ceramic diff balls but neither of these are particularly necessary!
I ditched the brushed set up and went for the Orion Vortex brushless system with a 6000kv motor. When fitting this I got the Tamiya side impact bars and mounted the aerial outside the body line. This meant the stock aerial mounting parts on the top of the chassis were redundant. I Dremelled them flat and in doing so, gave myself loads more room to mount the electrics. I thought the stock plastic pinions might struggle with this a bit so I also got the 3Racing heavy duty steel pinion kit. I have been running it with the 14t pinion but will be trying the 16t for the next race as it still wheelies on hard acceleration despite the slipper being properly set.
The last issue is with the ride height. For bashing it is fine but for racing it is just too much. I did try fitting limiters in the shocks but the result was that the shocks didn't have enough force to rebound at the front. My next race I will be fitting a brass weight under the battery to see if this helps any.
Like I say, I dragged this thread back from page 13 so I don't know if this info is useful to anyone but thought I would post it up anyway.

woodsrider

Thanks for digging it up. I love this thread. I have a fleet of Tamtech buggies and enjoy reading about them. 

Scouser

Hi Woodsrider, I have tried several different springs on it but the best handling so far has come with the kit silver springs with 4 coils cut off as they were Waaayy too long! I have a feeling that the ride height will be solved by a combination of smaller limiters and extra weight. The preload is already wound out as far as it will go but I still need to get the front end down about half an inch!![&o]

On the TamTechs's though, I absolutely love this little thing. It is racing against top notch race prepped micros and still holds it's own. it is also the strongest buggy I think I have ever owned! One of the jumps at the track is about 11 or 12 ft of air and I have 'misjudged' some landings horribly. No matter how bad the crash, the Tamiya just flips over and keeps on going. I will be picking up a GT01 very soon as I fancy some on-road racing too.[8D]

kirbenvost

I just got into Tamtechs myself, and RC in general, soI'm really glad to see some activity here. I purchased a usedGB-01 Fox on eBay, which came with some unknown aluminum shocks, a Graupner Speed 300 6v motor, electronics and charger. Only needed a battery purchase.

So far I've had to replace the worn diff with the aluminum version, and Ialso cracked a rear hub and lower rear frame, andbenttwo suspension pins when I accidentally sideswiped a concrete wall... Temporary CA glue fixes are holding it together while I wait for parts in the mail. I also just upgraded the Tx &Rx to 2.4 so Icould ditch the long antenna, and possibly fit an extra cell under the body for 8.4v, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that yet.I've got some 3Racing shocks on order, andI've got the Soft Compound Buggy Champtires mounted on Champ wheels so I can switchwheels for on or off-road use.Oh, and I have the 3Racing heavy duty pinions on the way because I plan to upgrade to brushless soon, probably a 5050kv 4 pole system. Unfortunately my Graupner Speed suffered from a possible magnet breakage so there has been some loss of power.

I also bought a finished Champ body but I will need to convert to GB-02 suspension before I can mount it, seems like it's a good upgrade anyway.

With my leftover electronics I plan to build up a GB-01 kit for my girlfriend so we can race together, unless I can find a complete one for cheaper. Hopefully we'll be able to try our hands at custom painting too, she wants something special. And of course a few more batterypacks so we can each drive for a couple packs, and when I'm on my own it'll allow for a long driving time.

Haha, long post. Anyway, too bad these Tamtechs didn't catch on too much, but at least I was able to get into them while they're still available!

Scouser

Hi kirbenvost, good to see another TT. I think they had a brief spell of popularity when they came out a few years ago but for some reason most owners never tried to get the most out of their cars. Shame really as personally I thing they are awesome.
I raced again tonight with the weights in the car and it made a ton of difference. I also ran soft compound front tyres and it improved again. I will make some limiters this week for the shocks just to get the ride height down a bit more but it is getting close to sorted now. Down side to this of course is that I wont have any more excuses for my driving!![&:]
The GB02 front end conversion is probably the best thing I have done to the car. It is so strong, it just gives you alot more confidence in the car and lets you push it that little bit harder. I would definitely recommend it.
If you are making a GB01 for your lady, check out all the pink hop ups that Tamiya do for the cars.
One last thing, Canucks for the cup this year?

kirbenvost

Haha, maybe theCanucks will win this year, we'll see. I don't follow hockey too closely myself but of course living in Vancouver it's all around me. It would be cool to see them win for sure, I was in Calgary a few years ago when the "RedMile" first came to be. Lots of spirit all around the city, a lot like the Olympics last year.

Anyway, yeah those colored hop-ups caught my eye but she's not really a pink type of girl. Blue might be more her style. It'll all be up to her so I'll show her and see what she thinks.She's the designer/driver, I'm the builder/pit crew.

Good to hear the GB-02conversion is recommended. I actually wanted that one to begin with but it sells for so much more online.Maybe in the end I ended up spending almost as much but I'm having fun upgrading it anyway, so it's all good.

Definitely a shame these carsdidn't get more popular, I would've liked to see Tamiya continue the line. Seemed like there were still a lot of possibilities and they're so durable and affordable, parts-wise at least.Perfect for a beginner like me, and still a ton of fun for someone who's been in the hobby awhile like you. Isuppose some people may have been put off by the relative lack of performance straight out of the box, or maybe Tamiya just put the line out too late and the mini fad was already dying down. Anyway, I'm loving my Tamtech and I'm really glad it got me into the hobby.

Scouser

When I was choosing which micro to get, these three reviews pretty much sealed the deal! Some good info on them aswell.[8D]
http://www.oople.com/rc/photos/revie...ion/index.html
http://www.modrc.com/cars/gb02/
http://www.oople.com/rc/photos/reviewminifrog/
Post some updates on how you get on with the car, good to talk to fellow TamTech owners.

I remember the Flames loss to the Lightning, stayed up 'til 5.00am to watch it!!

kirbenvost

Oh yeah, those reviews were definitely a deciding factor for me too, the Oople ones pretty much sealed the deal.  I knew I wanted a Tamiya because I was interested in them as a kid, and the Tamtechs seemed pretty easy to get into.  I'll definitely post some updates, though I doubt I'll ever do any real racing, just driving for fun.  Can't wait for spring so I can take it outside, I've just been driving in a parking complex so far, which is fun, but I want to take it on some rough terrain and jumps.  Lots of local parks to try out.

Hah, cool about watching the Flames vs. Lightning.  For some reason I'm suprised people in the UK watch hockey, I guess I just never thought of it.  It was pretty intense then, huge crowds downtown, even lots of activity in the suburbs where I lived.  You should've seen when we won Men's Hockey Gold last year at the Olympics, it was a lot like that but even more people, and everyone was happy, high-fiving and cheering, everyone wearing red and white as far as you could see.  Pretty cool.

ohlott

What engines are you guys using? I have one frog that is stock. Another frog that has an brushed orion big block. Then a wildboar with a ezruncombo 25a 12 T 7800kv. Its fast but looking for something faster to put in a gt-01 coming next week and want to put another brushless system in it but do not want to break the bank. These little cars are fun. Both my kids and I get them all out at once and have a blast. Also what battery are you running? Is up grading to lipo that much more faster?

.

THE HP FREAK

My Feedback: (1)

HI!... I'm running a Flightmax 1800mAh LiPo in mine, with a EZ-run 25 amp ESC and 12T brushless motor. I've had mine over 40MPH checked with my radar gun.

kirbenvost

I'm running a brushed Graupner Speed 300 6v motor. Since the standard battery is 7.2v there's quite a significant improvement over even the Sport Tuned Motor. Unfortunately I broke a magnet or something, so I'm going brushless soon.

I've seen a lot of videos where even a 2-cell increase to 9.6v increases speed significantly, especially with Brushless, so switching to LiPo would definitely do a lot.

Try Hobbypartz.com for affordable Brushless options. I'm thinking of getting one of their Toro-branded systems, but I'm not sure what KV to go with. I want something faster than brushed, but not so much that it's uncontrollable or shreds up tires or anything. And while I would admit it would be cool to see my little Fox pop wheelies, it's probably unnecessary. I dunno, I'm thinking 5000 KV range, what do you guys think?

woodsrider

I've got quite a few tamtechs, most of them all with brushless systems. Have had really good experiences with the EZruns. I've both the 5200 and 7800kv versions. The 7800kv screams and you really can't beat the price of teh EZruns. I do also have a Dynamite Fuze 7000kv system, and it's a bit more $, but still reasonable, and is a really good, and fast system. I run that in my GB03 and it flies. This is all on 7.4 lipo, or 7.2 Nimh. They do really well at that voltage and are controllable for the most part, no out of hand power or anything. I'd love to go 3s lipo to play around but it's hard to source a 3s battery that will fit the Tamtech battery compartment well. I'm pretty much assuming that would be crazy speed and am already quite satisfied with the performance of these systems using my existing 7+~ volt power sources. Plus, I dont' want to crash these, I've got them all blinged out... http://tamiyaclub.com/showroom.asp?id=19676

kirbenvost

Ah, yeah, you posted a couple of those on RCTech! Bunch of great looking buggies you've got there. I love the Hotshots and the paint job on the Tamtech Desert Gator especially. I'm a huge fan of retro buggies. Retro anything, pretty much.

Good to hear the Brushless systems run fine on 7.2v, I wasn't planning on upgrading to LiPo. So would you say the EZRun 5200kv is much faster than any brushed motor? As long as it's faster than my Graupner motor, that's good enough for me.

woodsrider

I did post there too (bit of an attention ***** when it comes to my TTG babies)

As for the 5200 vs. 7800kv EZrun... I'd recommend the 7800kv actually. The 5200 was peppy but not as much of a difference between the Graupner speed 300, especially if you're sticking with Nimh's for awhile. The 7800kv will give you plenty of speed/power using Nimh's (and 2s lipo) and you can always get stupid if you want to with a 3s lipo.

kirbenvost

Cool, good to know. Do you think torque will be a problem if I go with the 7800kv and want do to a bit of 'off road driving' (grass, small gravel lol)? Or does it make less difference on lighter-weight cars like these? Well you did say plenty of speed and power. Hobbypartz is also offering 4-pole Toro motors, I wonder about those too. I think they only go as high as the 6000 range.