RustyUs

378, that's a lot of motor in that B4 ! Reminds me when I stuck a Castle 5700kv in a buggy; on high grip track...quite the handful to say the least.

RustyUs

Something that just kinda happened really quick like... the passing of the baton. The baton being a Yeti. The fist year of ownership was great, then, day by day; month after month, I fell out of sync with the rock racer. If I traveled 10 minutes to my favorite biking trail that is in the woods, and brought along the Yeti, maybe I would have found the ultimate place to run it. I don't like to travel anymore, so I gave the Axial rock racer a new lease on life. Hopefully, the new owner will put it to good use.

Usually I feel that seller's remorse thing when I am packing up a RC to be shipped. Not this time. I suppose I'm getting better at letting things go .

378

My Feedback: (4)

I'm fairly certain that's the motor Associated put in the car when they built it all those years ago. It really is a rocketship. I can reel 4-5 lengths in on much MUCH higher end 4wd buggies down that back straight. It's nuts. I do have it attached to a Castle SV3, however, and that's set to 'balls-to-the-wall' at the moment. I might actually go in there and turn the punch control down to about 70% to try to reign in the wheelies a bit, or play with the throttle curves to soften the low end somewhat. I don't think i'd mind having it suddenly ramp up near the top third of the acceleration curve, at that point torque'd be dropped down enough that it won't wheelie anymore.

The tuneability of Castle ESCs via Castle Link is amazing. I'm not much of an electric guy, but that's pretty much sold me on always using Castle ESCs in my electric models. Just wish they had the android app out, I'd buy the bluetooth adapter in a heartbeat so I could adjust it at the track with my phone(Bit unwieldy lugging a full size gaming desktop down there just for the off chance I'd need to tweak an ESC setting, yanno?).



I'm also no stranger to a 5700kV Castle motor. That's what I have in my CA-10. Originally I bought that motor paired with the SV-3 for that truck, figuring I'd want it to have a bit of wheel speed through 32:1 gearing and a LOT of torque on hand as I planned on it being able to move cross country with a gross vehicle weight of around 40lbs and on hard pack dirt/pavement with a GVW of 60 pounds(And it does this with grace and ease!...remind me to finish working on its trailer sometime soon), but it didn't take long at all for me to realize that sensorless brushless in a scale truck drives like absolute butts. So I got a sensored Mamba Micro X Crawler Edition in the CA-10 and parked the SV-3 in the spare parts bin. I don't have that issue in the B4.2, it seems to run just fine sensorless, so that's probably where the SV-3 will live for quite a while.

Dsim97

Haven't really done much recently but I did a part time Job at a camp fixing and repairing RC cars. This may be a bit off topic but was wondering if there are any fun games I could incorporate into the mix. Most of the kids just ride them around till the battery gets low and they sometimes race them which they get bored of pretty quick.

378

My Feedback: (4)

NEw parts are in, B4.2 is running sweet again!

378

My Feedback: (4)

Drove the hell out of the B4.2 today and it drove back under its own power this time! The wheel bearings are pretty dickered and the front springs are sunk so badly that it rides like a TC up front, but by jove, I got pleeeennntty of track time in. And the car drove pretty good!

378

My Feedback: (4)

Couple days ago I took the ol' SC10GT out for a spin, and it decided it wanted to be incredibly cantankerous until it had run for a tank or so. Generally when they do that they're getting tired. As it happens, my NTC3 is down for the long term and it has a perfectly healthy OS 18 CV-RX in it.

Also convenient, both vehicles use 48p gearing, and 1st gear of the NTC3's clutch bell happens to line up perfectly with the SC10GT's spur. In light of that, and the fact that sourcing an overhaul kit for the AE 18X is going to be less than pleasant, I have carb seals en route and will be swapping engines. But something else came to mind while I was sizing things up: What if I swapped the NTC3's two speed over in its entirety as well?

Some quick number crunching gave me some fascinating tidbits. Keep in mind these calculations assume zero tire ballooning, but this is what I gathered:

* Trans has a 4.09:1 final drive in it.

* Stock gearing is 20/54. The calculator I use gives me an estimate of about 35MPH @ 32,000RPM, which seems about right. Feels closer to 40 in real life, likely from tire ballooning. There's a fair bit of that since I run 1.9 sized crawler tires on the truck, not 2.2/3.0 SCT style tires.

* Stock NTC3 gearing is 22/54 26/50 for 1st and 2nd respectively. That, in turn, means I'll already be going to 22/54 on the SC10GT while re-using its existing single speed spur, which bumps my base top speed to an estimated 38MPH or so.

* If I keep the NTC3 gearing and succsessfully migrate the two-speed over, I'm looking at a top speed estimate of around 45.

* If I run 20/54 and 26/48 gearing with the two speed I have a theoretical max speed of around 54MPH before tire ballooning is taken into account and an extremely punchy first gear great for doing wheelies and donuts besides


Anyone think I can coax an honest, GPS-confirmed 55MPH out of this thing if I complete this engine swap, trans swap, and re-gear it? I'm thinking I can, and I'm setting a deadline of the end of summer. GPS confirmed 55MPH SC10GT or bust!


I've also done some tinkering on the Parts Bin Special, AKA My B4.2. The NTC3 kindly donated some healthy-ish wheel bearings to replace the rear bearings in the B4.2(Two of which had become bushings...) and it donated two shiny new 'used for two or three tanks before the car decided it was too worn out to drive' 60mm GPM shocks to the front of the buggy to help stiffen it up a bit. We'll know wednesday how they make it handle but here's hoping it traction rolls less! Also has its own dedicated 2s 90c 7400mAh SMC batteries, so no more stealing packs off the CA-10 to run it!

butt_housed247

sold off 4 of the 5. the only one i have left is the RC10 worlds car re release. don't drive it much anymore (parts support sucks sometimes) so im kinda thinking about getting a new off road, but not sure what. im a basher, don't care for MT's, just couldn't get into the short course thing, has to be 1/10 scale and electric, good local parts support is a must. not finding a whole lot that's appealing. a few high end racing cars, no need or desire for one of those. idk just thinking out loud here

378

My Feedback: (4)

Status update:

* B4.2 got the hell run out of it last night. It's no longer traction rolling and it's *fast*. I'm turning low 13s around a track where literal X-ray factory drivers turn high 10s. Hell I've probably dipped into the high 12s and don't even know it(No transponder yet, previous time is based on what some people in an RC discord estimated from a clip I uploaded).

* SC10GT: Picked up another gallon of fuel as my current reserve is about one pit bottle's worth, but other than that, nothing. Still waiting on carb seals to come in but I might get the 18 CV-RX swapped over tomorrow or saturday since USPS shows the carb seals are in Nashville and that almost invariably means they'll be in my inbox the next day.

* FGX Evo: Still on the slowboat from Hong Kong but I've already confirmed that it will be legal to compete with at my local carpet track. Will it be competitive? Probably not, it's heavier than pancar based F1s, it's mandated to run 25.5t motor, and I'm a total effing newbie with <6hrs of total experience on an RC track of any sort(With all of that logged in 1/10 2WD buggy practice, I still haven't entered an actual competition of any sort).

* MCGP: Sitting idle. Nothing wrong with it, but I haven't had the urge to run it. I did stumble across the remains of a Mad Force(STRONG engine, 2/3rds of the chassis, one intact axle, a dismembered second axle(Both tubes intact, seperate, nothing in it), three of the four tires, and a bag of diff parts. Someone brought the thing in like that and the LHS wanted $30 for the engine, $40 for the wreckage of the chassis, $1/piece for the tires. If money wasn't so tight I'da bought every last nut and bolt I could find just to have spares on hand for the MCGP, and if it's still there come next paycheck I'm definitely grabbing the engine and chassis at minimum.

* NexSTAR: It has a Futaba air receiver sitting here ready to install but I haven't actually put it in, still need to harvest some servos from something for it, get it a LiFE pack, then find someone willing to buddybox me on it that's for sure gonna be at the field when I lug that thing down there. I want it in the f%*ing sky already!

* NTC3: I'm....starting to cannabalize it for parts now. It's donating its engine to the SC10GT and it's donated two shocks, four wheel bearings, two lugnuts to the B4.2. I may very well just consign it to the annals of history and let its componentry live on in other cars and projects.

* CA-10: I have 2x 1000tvl microcam and 2x switchable VTx with built-in mic, both from Eachine, en route right now. One pair is going into the CA-10. The other pair...I don't know where itt'l go. The FGX Evo is a strong contender, but so is my SC10GT(CAmera mount's gonna be a bit spindley though), and so is this next item:

* FT Spear. Nothing purchased as of yet, but I'm going to be building one of these as soon as my tax return lands. I want a plane that I can fly solo without fear of totalling an expensive, irreplaceable, hard-to-repair airframe. A foam wing designed to be easy to fly works perfectly. But ya'll know me, I can't leave well enough alone. Flite Test want you to use an 1100kV BLDC Outrunner on 3S to swing a 9x5 two blade prop. I'm going to be using two throttleable Cox 0.049 engines instead. Yes, you read that right, I'm gonig to be powering a 40" span foam flying wing with two glow engines. A helpful guy on the FT forums has informed me that a few coats of Rustoleum paint will adequately protect the foamboard from fuel residue, and it's gonna be a twin pusher besides, so I'm not at all concerned about the engines harming the airframe any. Power's not a concern either, I found a video on YT of a single non-throttled 0.049 powering a balsa-and-ply wing of similar size with authority. I'm also going to be giving it tricycle landing gear. I figure it might be 4, 5, 6 months or more before I even get a hint of a buddybox partner for the NexSTAR, but if I build and fly something like this, I can crash it and not be all that upset about losing the airframe since a new airframe is only 36 bucks and repairing it is laughably easy. I'm also not all that worried about crashing it right off the hop! My LHS has a publically available RealFlight setup in the shop that anyone in there can sit down at and have a fly, the version they have has a NexSTAR 46 in the roster, so I took that for a fly. I had no problem on takeoff, I could fly around just fine, and while they were a bit hairy/floaty I did manage to land the plane 3 or 4 times without crashing it. I did tip it onto a wingtip once or twice turning too sharp on the ground, but eh.

* Kyosho Scorpion XXL: Tentatively still go, we'll see what happens to my tax return. If nothing else demands anything of it I'll be using it to build the FT Spear and this car. Still planning on using an OS 30VG to power it, but I might just use that Kyosho mill at the LHS from the parted out Mad Force if it's still there when I'm next in.

AE B4.2 would probably fit the bill. They're a race buggy, sure, but they're tanky enough that you can bash them without ruining them(And indeed the B4.2 I race on carpet today was a basher in a previous life!). Could also look into something like an RC10T4, those are pretty tanky too.

AE parts support is good enough for how often you'll break them. AE offroads are tanks. Hell you could probably bash a B5 or B6 even though they're not really a jack-of-all-trades like the B4.2 is.

butt_housed247

thought about the B4.2 but it's discontinued, that's the same problem i have with the worlds car. i want something current. but the B6 isn't happening, it's to race car and im not stoked to have to buy new batteries. AE's current line up sucks. both losi and tl racing also suck. tamiya lacks performance. duratrax isn't making the evader anymore. HPI is hard to find. vaterra's got nothing. all arrma has is monster trucks and short course trucks. not willing to buying a traxxas, everyone i know who has one does nothing but ***** and complain about them. idk what else is even out there

378

My Feedback: (4)

It being discontinued is utterly irrelevant. Part support for it is fine. I've had no problem whatsoever replacing a bulkhead and shock towers on mine, and those only broke because the PO was in Phoenix somewhere and let the car sit in a garage or something when not used where the plastics got heat-checked/brittle. Hell, I even found outdrives for it(Mine are rusted and worn because PO let the rear wheel bearings rust into bushings and I didn't notice it until several hours of runtime) at my B&M hobby shop. What you can't get direct from Associated themselves you can get from RPM.

And you're probably not going to need very much for it, either, unless you drive like Kevin Talbot.

Also doesn't stop me from enjoying my SC10GT. Pretty much anything for the chassis or driveline that goes out on that truck I can replace, even though it's been OOP for years and years. Blew a ball diff out of it and $7 worth of in-current-production parts had that ball diff runnin' nice again....and I'm half tempted to swap it to my B4.2 and swap the B4.2's gear diff over because the parts interchange. Go figure.

'Bout the only thing that's tricky on it...ok, you want hard to replace? You try tracking down a piston/sleeve for an AE 18X. Mine is starting to get tired and I'm not even trying to source a rebuild kit right now. Instead, I'm just going to cannabalize the quite healthy OS 18 CV-RX in my otherwise down NTC3 instead.

The only thing 'hard' to replace about discontinued AE cars is engine parts. Chassis, driveline parts are dime-a-dozen even for cars that have been OOP for nearly a decade(When'd they drop the SC10GT again? 2012? 2013? NTC3 even earlier than that, too, yet I can still buy any part I want to for that car...)

Also worth noting, Associated is real good about using the same part across mane cars. For instance, the bulkhead for the B4.2 also fits my SC10GT and about 10 or 15 other trucks. https://www.teamassociated.com/parts...ront_bulkhead/ So even if the car itself is OOP, chances are, the part you broke is still used on a newer car and thus still available.

Oh, and I'd also like to point out that the T4 is still in production right now. That's...still the current 1/10 2WD ST from Associated. And funnily enough, it shares quite a healthy amount of parts with the B4.2!

butt_housed247

T4 is out of production to according to there website. being able to get parts isn't an issue, not being able to easily get parts is what bugs me. right now my worlds car is fine. but my friends car needed a rear and both front arm mounts. couldn't get them from the hobby shops, couldn't find them in stock on web stores, couldn't get them from AE. he had to get them from ebay. it's bs that you can't walk into a hobby shop and buy parts for a car that's only like 3 years old. iv been down that road with over half the cars iv ever owned, im tired of it and don't want to deal with it anymore, that's why i sold off everything else (well except the sc10, that i sold cause i hated it. it sucked at everything). i want something new that i can walk into my LHS and buy part for the next 5 years. cause having to hunt parts, pay for shipping, it's to much for a toy car and recreational play thing. im over it. if i can't find a new car that fits my criteria im not going to buy anything. ill just run the worlds car until it breaks and then sell it off and move on to something else

378

My Feedback: (4)

Welp, 18 CV-RX is swapped into the SC10GT now. I misjudged where the engine would sit, though, so instead of the 22t first gear pinion meshing with the SC10GT's spur, it's actually 2nd gear. I'm not worried about burning a clutch up...this thing's light, 2WD, with tons and tons of power, shouldn't slip the clutch much at all...but it's gonna be nuts. 26/54 on a 4.09FDR with 4.37" tall tires.

Also tore the AE 18 down. She's tired for sure, but a repinch would get it another 2-3 gallons of life if I can't find a new P/S for it. https://imgur.com/a/vCdhAWC

Maybe it's different for you, but I find it much much easier to make a part order straight from Associated with a handful of mouse clicks than drive an hour plus to a brick-and-mortar shop only to find out they don't have it on the shelf and have to order it in, then have me drive an hour down the road again to pick up the part. All I have to do is open up the manual for my car, find the part number, stab it into the search box on Associated's website, and if they don't have it in stock I just stab that same part number into Google and someone will have one. Amazon, eBay, RCMart, Banggood, all the usual suspects really. Once I've found the part in stock somewhere, it just takes a couple more clicks, a swipe of Paypal, and it's in the mail. Easy as can be.

Speaking of, I have an AE 18x piston/sleeve assembly to track down. Just need that part number.

RustyUs

Well, that's one body I've never seen on a B4.2 chassis. I wanna say the chassis is not the +8mm. Correct? Anywho. What made you decide on that Detonator body?

378

My Feedback: (4)

Welp, got my SC10GT engine swap complete.

* I misjudged the engine positioning. I ended up getting second gear meshed with the stock spur, not first, so it's actually 26/54.

* This thing has some serious punch. Imagine in your minds' eye, if you would, the rear tires of a top fuel dragster on the pre-race burnout. That's what these crawler tires do every time I open the throttle to full.

* It is amazing having an engine that will idle for more than 10-15 seconds before it dies.


I had a blowout. Anyone know where the nearest 1/10 scale Discount Tire is?
I wanted a car that could run sweet, but also a car that looked sweet. I hate the look of the cab forward bodies and I hate how bland dish wheels are. I had to cut about two inches off the nose of the body and make a few other alterations along the way to get it to fit, but the end result is great. I'll certainly never have any trouble telling my car from anyone else's on track and every time I bring it down there I have people commenting on how awesome it looks, on the old school looks.

The Detonator lid isn't made for the B4.2, but that's nothing a dremel won't fix. And that goes for a B5 or B6 later on down the road. I'll always be running that body and those wheels on every 1/10 buggy I race. You don't need to sacrifice curb appeal to go fast.


On that note, my last track outing went amazingly as well. I'm already turning low 13s on a carpet track that literal world class drivers turn high 10s on in a car that has no business being on carpet in any capacity.

RustyUs

That's exactly why I fell in love with the "4" series from Associated. I'll probably be one of those people still running the T4s and SC10s 10, 15, even 20 years from now.

Your comment about the SC10...awesome! Certain RCs are not for everyone. That's for sure. I was a buggy bashing fool from day one when I got into the hobby. I took a chance on a used SC10FT, and couldn't get enough it! I love that body rolling platform. That lead me to build two more . Now with a track that has got pretty darn rough in the past two years, my buggies had to go, and I'm not sad one bit.

The cash from the sale of my B4 started my fund for my next RC. The selling of my Yeti put me over the top on my funds.

I just cut "BAG A" open on new toy. It will be a slow build. A couple of days, at least, to get it done. Then the wait for Mother Nature to become accommodating in the form of temps being warm enough for paint to be sprayed.

378

My Feedback: (4)

I'll still be running my SC10GT that long into the future. Just need to remember to buy up 3 or 4 P/S sets for this 18 CV-RX while I still can, pop 'em into the parts bin. I think, at the rate I'm going, 4 of them will keep this engine running long into the future. Also, that thing is NUTS, went up 6 teeth on the pinion and the burnout factor still shot through the roof. Holy hell, I had this engine in an NTC3 and wondered why the car always went everywhere sideways...

Tomorrow I have some big RC plans. Gonna put some more tanks through the 18CVR SC10GT and my 3Racing FGX Evo should be in as well, so I'll have an F1 car to start building. That'll be fun, too, though I have to run a 25.5 blinky powertrain in it when I'm at the track. Nobody said I can't put something ludicrous in it at home though, swap the 25.5 blinky out for something in the 7700kV area.....

butt_housed247

way different for me. i have several hobby shops and a couple tracks within 20 minutes of home. even have AE's HQ less than 30min away. it's easier for me to just swing by a hobby shop to buy what i need. even swing by 2 or 3 while out about about. i can buy the part, take it home, install it, and drive the car all before an online shop even knows iv placed an order.



i was optimistic when i bought it cause they look cool. but i soon grew to hate that body roll. i had such a fast torquie servo that it was twitchy to drive but necessary to keep it on course. it was this fat floaty thing that wallowed everywhere. and forget about jumping it. it would be fine from the jump to the peak of air, then it turned into a kite and did whatever it wanted (usually blow over backwards or roll over sideways) and was uncontrollable. i reached my breaking point when i took it camping and dirt bike riding and went through 2 $45 bodies in 5 weeks.

378

My Feedback: (4)

If you're that close to their HQ you might just be able to call in the order then pick it up in person.

Honestly...kinda jealous you've got truly local hobby shops. My LHS has been Tower Hobbies since 2003, recently I've added AMain to the list. It's a right pain in the rear for me to buy something in a brick-and-mortar shop because, unless I'm already in that area of town anyway, it's rather hard for me to justify the drive.

That being said, I do pop down to one every wednesday to run my B4.2 on a carpet track after work. But still, once a week is the only practical time for me to visit one.

butt_housed247

when my friend was looking for the front and rear arm mounts he called them. was told they were out of stock. so even the HQ didn't have them that's why he had to get them from ebay

378

My Feedback: (4)

Stock varies. When I busted the shock tower on my B4.2 they didn't have any, but right now they've got plenty in stock.

butt_housed247

well they've been out of rc10 arm mounts sense at least mid november. 2 and a half months (maybe longer) is a long time to be without a critical part like that

suburban_hooligan

allow me to complain about AE's parts support as well. i need an inner hing pin for an RC10. i would also like to get some spare rear arm mounts sense i will soon have 4 RC10 based vehicles running. also need the idler gears for the 6 gear tranny, and some other miscellaneous parts that im sure i won't be able to get outside of ebay (which i don't use). considering these cars were re-released ruffly 3 years ago, where the F is the parts support? i swear, it almost seems harder to find parts now than before they re-released it. they re-released the platform, people bought the kits, and AE never bothered to worry about supporting them. dropped the ball big time!

in other news i put the stock steering from my worlds car re-release on my OG RC10 with graphite chassis (which oddly enough, they call it graphite, but it looks just like carbon fiber)
also placed an order on tower. got a motor, ESC's, receivers, and some other odds and ends coming. hopefully it'll be here by next weekend so i can get some more cars "finished"

RustyUs

For shame on Team Associated's re-release parts. I consider Associated to be one of the top brands that always has great parts support for their RCs years after they are put on the discontinued list. I probably have said it many times before, but that is the main reason why I always put AE atop of my list when looking for a new, or used RC.

On the subject of Team Associated, some platform categories are not being made by Associated...yet. I waited long enough. I had high hopes that the 4wd stadium truck thing would grow to be a huge class at tracks. And, yes, I bash all my "racing bred" RCs. I really wanted a T64.1 to be announced. Is it too early? I mean, it took almost a whole year for everyone to jump in the short course thing after Traxxass released the Slash. For now, I'm switching brands, because I couldn't wait for Associated/Losi/PR. I also had a little discount help.

suburban_hooligan

it's not just AE, iv noticed it with everybody. the problem today is that there's just to much of everything and nobody can keep the stock required to support it. and things change so quickly that nobody wants stock in anything.
RC10T6.1 is the current stadium truck. but RC10T6.2 could hit the market Tuesday. or worse yet (for the guy holding all the support parts for 6.1) the all new RC10T7 could be announced a month from yesterday. new kit releases have accelerated. because of that support for the current gen kits has decreased. and then to compound the problem the gap between race car and bash car has grown into one hell of a chasm. so you have fewer people running a specific platform, so support doesn't need to be as heavy.
and we wonder why the industry is having financial problems

this is why im done buying new cars. i have what i have and when i can't run that anymore im walking away from this hobby. it's not worth it anymore. it's gone from a hobby to overpriced recreational play things with no lifespan (waste of money). it's not worth it anymore