egbasher

I just bought a Ofna Hyper10TT. Great little car. Since this is a discontinued model, I thought I should get some replacement parts before they get hard to find. I put a few things in the cart and before I knew it the total was almost as much as the car was originally. So I just bought another whole car. I added up the cost of building a car from parts and it's crazy expensive. Over $800 compared to less than $200 for the assembled car. Are we getting ripped off here or are manufacturers selling cars as a loss leaders knowing we'll all buy over-priced parts later? Am I nuts for buying a 2nd parts car?

SyCo_VeNoM

You are not nuts I've bought extras of vehicles cause I found em dirt cheap for spares... Just I usually end up throwing a whoole setup in them, and using them too, or borrowing em out when I run

Like I bought a 2nd CRT .5 of ofna for $70 cause the body which I wrecked on my original one was $50 at the LHS(before taxes >_

phmaximus

A lot depends on the manufacture and model. I've found tamiya, traxxas and losi to be very cheap with there parts. A while ago I made a tamiya Baja king from parts bags excluding wheels and electronics for $120
but I suspect that was a fluke.

Generally there a lot of extra costs assioated with the transport and logistics on spare parts and I suspect the hobby shops have a higher markup on parts when compared to kits

egbasher

I know waht you mean about turning a parts car into a runner. I did that with an Evader. With the Hyper TT, I took it apart the day I got it. It all fits into a plastic parts organizer except for chassis & wheels. You're right about spending $200 for a bunch of parts that you may never use, but I have to drive an hour to get to where I race and I want to be able to fix whatever breaks so as not to waste a race day. Maybe the TT's are more rugged but I was breaking all sorts of parts on the Evader, even after I learned to drive! So far the TT is holding up pretty good. In 6 days of racing my buddy (he also has a TT) we have broken three rear suspension arms, a CV and munched a couple of bearings. It's weird, the arms break when the cars get tangled up, not in a major crash. I was wondering about the Integy CNC Al parts. If you upgrade to aluminum arms then what becomes the sacrificial part in a crash?

SyCo_VeNoM

Do NOT go aluminum arms (specially integy)
The next part becomes the hub that it hooks onto the chassis at. I went aluminum arms on my MT2, after one run(and 3 minutes at that I did a small jump) I ripped the hinge off that holds the rear arm on. Went back to plastic arms never had that issue(or prior) It also bent the pin so a $7 for 2 arms issue turned into a $10 for the parts bag, and $2 for the pin issue.

egbasher

Thanks for the info. You confirmed what I suspected. Won't waste my money.

SyCo_VeNoM

yup I learned it the hard way
Aluminum is fine(and usually recommended) for C-hubs, knuckles, shock towers, chassis plates(actually aluminum is best for those), and motor mounts Basically things you don't want any play or give in

diff holders they are ok, but it depends what you are going for as they will add more weight with no real benefit

Aluminum is abysmal for A-arms, and bumpers in both cases they will just transfer all the kinetic energy to the next weakest part.

egbasher

Makes sense. Sounds like it's best to leave the plastic arms as the sacrificial part. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't engineered that way. Also nice that replacing a broken arm on the TT is only about a 15 minute job. Again, thanks for the info.

SyCo_VeNoM

better then a mini revo
when I swapped mine to RPM arms I think it took me like 30 mins+ as I had to take like 15 screws out, and a little pin. Easiest arm I ever swapped was my old MT1 it was literally 3 screws, and you were done (1 for chassis hub, 1 for c-hub, and one for shock mount) didn't even have to take the tires off.

Well I guess they were partially engineered that way as you need some place for the energy to go from crashes, and stuff. But it also has to deal with materials used as RPM arms while usually being stronger then normal parts, also allows for the dissipation of the kinetic energy.