quote:

ORIGINAL: Lilredmachine

The truck looks great Dale, especially with those meatier rims on. I know from fiddling with 1/6th scale savages that having huge MT rims and tires is an intoxicating proposition, but the reality is often disappointing.

It's good you stuck with it, I've been eyeing up a Rampage to convert to brushless where the problem of bogging with the petrol motor would be suitably offset with a gnarly enough drive system. If the truck isn't reliable though then it's pointless heaping further complexity onto it with a power conversion.

quote:

ORIGINAL: racetruck

Sorry to hear that you are giving up on the MT that gear cover did'nt have enough vent holes and that let the gears get hot and made the loctite let go leve the cover off and clean the threads off with brake clean and put the gears back on use red loctite and install the nut on and let it set up for 30 min do you have a shim on that shaft so you can tighten that nut good and tight without binding up the bearing Jim

quote:

ORIGINAL: mooman007uk

all they do is retain and build heat.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dale Gribble

What a comedy of errors this truck is for me... So, I was participating in a professional COW RC video shoot today with helicopter cams, professional photographers, the whole shabang. There was about 50 people there. I had my HPI 5B, HPI 5T and Rampage. I planned on running each one in a cycle to get each one in the video. So, after about 10 minutes of easy run time, the Rampage begins to rev but not move at the very beginning of a scene shoot!!! whaaaaa???

Upon close inspection, the Rampage failed me again... AGAIN!!! Nothing broke, but the main transmission idler gear set nut came loose after securing with thread lock AND using the nyloc nut. Really? Are you kidding me? Really?



After this mishap, I literally ran the HPI 5B & 5T in cycles for 3 hours STRAIGHT with 0 issues. It wasn't until we ran a massive launch ramp that I broke a few rod ends from the rear shocks of both HPI Bajas.

People just walked buy and talked to me about the Rampage. They just laughed at the amount of problems this platform has given me and what a contrast it was to see that break and see the abuse the HPI Bajas took. So, I have my second HPI Baja now which I should have bought in the first place. The Rampage is getting cleaned up and sold. I am 100% done with it and I can't recommend the Redcat Rampage to anyone.

quote:

Sucks you are having problems man, but I just find it amusing when hpi Baja owners have to consistently point out they have the HPI version, just the amount of times you mention it makes me chuckle.

quote:

ORIGINAL: ntrain42

You get what you pay for as they say. The very few Redcat products Ive seen kickin around here have proven to be absolute garbage and 100% unreliable. Steering knuckles(and transmission shaft bearings) seem to be the recurring issue here locally with the 2 Redcat owners I know. Nutech and more specifically HPI make a much better 1/5th scale product. Can't wait for the Baja Shortcourse SS kit to come out. Im on board for one of those.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dale Gribble

Here is a quick overview of the screw mod for the front/rear suspension arm holders for each diff for those that don't know. The idea behind the mod is pretty sound. Basically, the Rampage relies on 4 diff screws to pretty much absorb a lot of shock of the suspension. The stock plastic suspension arm holders (illustration below) use plastic pins to locate the holders on the chassis. Someone found that by screwing the suspension arm holders to the chassis instead of using pins, the diff cases aren't as subject to as much shock from the suspension and help prevent breakage.



The first step is to drill through the existing chassis holes that position the front/rear suspension arm holders onto the chassis. I used a drill bit size to allow a 10/24 size screw to pass through (right around 5mm). Then you need to counter sink the screws and use counter sink fasteners so the bottom of the chassis stays smooth.

This is what my chassis looked like when I drilled the 4.



This is a close up of the screws passing through the rear suspension arm holder with nuts holding them on the other side. The 10/24 fasteners are right about an inch in length. Note, while you can get nuts over the screws with the steering setup in place, it is FRUSTRATING. I recommend pulling the steering plate and the whole steering assembly out for this.



This is a shot of the front suspension arm holder screwed down.



Note that I did end up cutting off the V3 ears from the chassis to clear the V1 suspension arms. I am going to use limiting straps instead. I think this will be easier on the chassis and gear case by not relying on those parts to limit maximum suspension travel.