The Boss

Hi I thought I would repost this info here about the TK/BK truck kits, some of you might be interested in this old school kit...

I wanted to see how well a 10 scale version of a Thunder King would go together and look like. This way all t maxx type bodys and tires will fit well on this kit.

This ETK has a 12 inch wheel base, monster mash 16 turn single motors, astro flight 205 speed control using twin 6 cell batt packs. I striped off the factory anodizing and just gaver it a quick polish. It has a 10 scale parma big foot body on it with stock hpi sav tires.





It turned out that the ETK is excellent for moding into 10scale, everything on the chassis fit as if it was designed for 10 scale to. With a few tools doing this mod is easy, I had a chance to test it today abit in our small back yard... goes like "jack the bear" for a little guy lol and still SUPER STABILE!. It is definatly not worth doing this 10 scale mod to save weight, The parts of the chassis I cut off came to 30 grams lol. I got 3 ETK's and I just thought shortening them to 12 inch wheel bases would make them better for running around the house in tight areas.

It is super easy to shorten the stock chassis. I recommend to anyone doing this mod only to counter sink the tranny screw holes only, the a arm support holes do not need it and just to use regular pan screws, doing this will add strength to that part of the chassis, especially when using big m/t tires. Cuting the chassis like in the pic will give you up to a 12 inch wheel base, the chassis could also be cut even shorter to give you even a 1/2 inch shorter wheel base than what is shown here.



Striping and polishing up the chassis is super easy to. all you need is some Easy Off oven cleaner, sos pads, gloves and maybe a bit of fine grit sand paper for the stuborn spots. Spray the cleaner on the parts, let sit for 5 minutes and rub off with sos pads and rags. After wards you can use most types of automotive rubbing/polishing compounds to shine the parts up, I rub the compound on the parts buy hand until the metal turns dark, then I use a cheap high speed buffing wheel to finish it off, I am not fussy so it only takes me a few minutes to do all this and get a nice cool custom finish for cheap.





Here is truck #2, this TK is using a novak 828 and will be using twin trinity scr 6 cell packs, it has trinity saphire 17 turn motors with 14 tooth pinons and the factory (small) spur gear. All these etk kits have been upgraded with the better ntk parts also. I had a chance to run ETK #1 up and down the alley way and for an elc it goes and handles great, I think? it could smoke a E maxx on a race track. Just guessing but TK #1 seems to be going 30+ mph, I want to take it to our LHS and let the guys there test it to get there opinon on how it runs compared to a e maxx, they would know better than me.




Here are some pics of #3, for my kids all 3 trucks will be using twin27 turn "roar stock" motors wired in series using a futaba 210 esc, they will be slow but will be great to run in our small back yard and should have good run times. What I am planning to do is to have a seperate tranny set up with the 16 and 17 turn motors already mounted on them with the high perf speed controls connected to them. It then will be easy for me to just swap the compete tranny assemblys with motors and speed controls out which can be done in about 30 seconds.



The only parts I made for these chassis is the upper radio tray which is just a thin flat piece of aluminum 22cm long by 4cm wide and connects at the fron of the tranny to the back of the upper front brace, using this part also doubles as a brace and reduces the chassis twist by at least half if mot more. The other part I made was the battery holder ends which is just thin aluminum angle, I use a long bolt in the factory center chassis hole that was used for the dirt gard mount.







With this chassis layout (which I think is better) you can move weight around by moving the battery packs around on the stock wheelbase version, and even if I want to go nuts on power I got room to use 4 6 cell packs on the 10scale version...28.8 VOLTS!!! lol



I got 3 of the 10scale etks done for the kids, put on some beater bodys and let the kids go at it today in the yard, for over 10 minutes me and the wife got to watch a smash up derby LOL, there is nothing those kids could not hit lol, they spent the whole time smashing and bashing into each other and nailing everything in the yard, the kits did well with excellent run time. The interesting thing about the dual motors wired in series is that the grunt/torque the kits make even when the batterys seem almost dead is excellent, these kits seem to crawl over anything even with low battery power.

Here they are the the smash up derby bodys




I bought a few Pro-Line "max type" bodys we will paint up together and make some scale looking M/T's like the new Big foot, Grave Digger, Dragon Slayer and a few others.




I have always liked the looks of sleek stadium racer bodys as much as I like M/T bodys so I was thinking if I was going for the A/E GT10 or losi XXX look with this 10scale ETK, I thought the DAHMS stadium race bodys would look good with the factory MRC race tires, these bodys can be slamed right down on this kit for a super low profile look and the wheel wells line up super nice. These bodys fit so well they seem as if they were made just for this kit.

BTW, I weighed this kit like this with the twin battery packs and it came in at just under 6.5 pounds.

http://www.dahms-intl.com/

here it is with paint



again with paint



another bit diffrent one from DAHMS


Although it's a bigger looking body, I also realy like the looks of the factory Ofna blazer bodys on this kit.

The Boss

I just thought I would post a pic of something I am putting together/working on now, It is a elc Thunder king which has a total wheel base of 19 inches. The plan is to use 4 mod elc 540's wired in seires and use 6-6 cell stick packs (36 cells total) also wired in seires to drive it using an Astro flight 205 speed contoler. It is just in the mock up stages to get the bugs out but this is what it will basicly look like. It should be interesting to see what kind of weight it can pull and how it will go.

btw, the bigger tires are EK-4 tires and the smaller ones are max mashers. I also got an idea for a cool nitro version.

puppi350

That thing is pretty impressive. should be able to pull a small child in a wagon with no prob.

Also, do u know what aftermarket wheels/sizes (mm) fit on the TK, or what type of rig and/or adapters i can use on this thing. looking for some nice wheels, just dont know how to get them on there. i've heard to use the savage hex ones and just drill out the hole larger. is this correct?

Celicell

Hello I have a Thunderking but one of my tranny gears is stripped. where can i get some replacement parts?

GeeReg

My Feedback: (1)

Good question. Have you tried asking MRC? I'm sure someone already has and will chime in.

Haldir

Where can I get parts for the Thunder King?

Haldir

Boss you have PM.

Doahh

That is a nice car
Keep up the good work

Haldir

I need parts for my Thunder King, anyone out there can help a fellow Hobbiest out?

Haldir

I just love the size of this thing!

GeeReg

My Feedback: (1)

Ebay is really your only option, short of buying one new.

R/C fan-addict

yeah this truck will definitly pull quite a bit with 36 cells and 4 motors! my stock emaxx pulls me on a skateboard and I weight something around 115 or something like that although it is sort of slow

The Boss

Hi there, I am really sorry guys, I forgot about this thread, I usualy only check the nitro M/T truck forum once in a while (there is info there too). I have been busy with fullsize projects so I am not here that much. As far as getting parts goes, MRC sells direct to hobby stores so you need to find a store that DEALS direct with MRC (sheldons and kings had just a few kits left http://www.sheldonshobbies.com/listing/hotmrc.html, ). You can also call MRC direct yourselfs for parts (they will sell them to you if they have them in stock), just make sure you have the part numbers ready when you phone. E-bay is another place you see parts come up from time to time. These kits came out in about 1990 and MRC has been compleatly sold out of them for many years now

I still have all these kits/projects sitting on my shelf and not had any time to fool around with them because I am back into my mustangs and harleys for now.

The Boss

BTW, there is still lots of info and pics on mods and upgrades on www.rcmt.net on the thunder king kits, they have a forum just for these kits, there are price and parts lists there. Here is the link http://p083.ezboard.com/frcmtnet44998frm30 I think you must be "logged on" there to see the posts.

heres and old factory add from MRC on this kit.



here's one of my 1/8scale standard factory length 14 inch wheel base elc TK kits




here's one of my 8 scale kits with Sav/Max type wheels on it.

Haldir

They look so scale, unlike the trucks these days.

The Boss

Yup, that one of the things about these kits is they look so realistic compared to some other 8scale kits.

here are a few more of my elc 8scale TK's

Haldir

Boss,

Did you paint the bodies yourself? They look good.

The Boss

Yup, I got a limit though on how much money and time I spend on any given body, I am NOT into airbrushing any of this stuff like some guys are. I just like to use maybe 2/3 cans of hobby paint and the sticker/stripe kits that are out the help make the paint job go faster.

here are a few more 8scale bodys (using sticker kits) on my NTK kits.

Bmr4life

My Feedback: (45)

Hey guys, I just bought a stock ETK kit off of ebay. Anyone have some hints or tips for me?

Earthworm Jim

i dont own any thunder kings...i have two mt10s i was wondering if anyone knows of any parts...that i can get to make one of them lighter to compare with todays trucks....im leaving one original....any help will be great

Earthworm Jim

here are my two mt10s

NewKid

My Feedback: (1)

i had one and tried to go brushless and to say the least the hv maxx was too much power...but i am gonna get another in the future and make it as stong as possible

Corn_and_Savage_Sauce

Just thought I would post a almost brand new Nitro Thunder King on Ebay.
Check it out!

[link=http://cgi.ebay.com/MRC-NITRO-THUNDER-KING-perfect-like-new-NO-RESERVE_W0QQitemZ280050847262QQihZ018QQcategoryZ44 029QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem]MRC NTK on EBAY[/link]

Corn_and_Savage_Sauce

The Boss

I just thought I would mention for anyone that is looking for more info on Thunder King kits that there is a lot more info/threads in the monster truck forum here at RCU that might be of help. Just do a search in that forum.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_18...%2Cking/tm.htm

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_49...tm.htm#5021695

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_28..._1/key_/tm.htm

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_18...%2Cking/tm.htm

NewKid

My Feedback: (1)

just picked up my first nitro one...can't wait to run her