G!NhO

I got the similar shocks.
Btw my bonzer has very loud gear whine, i don't know if it's bad because it still runs great.

I also painted my bonzer body, sorry for bad quality.

TheyDontWantMusic

ah, if you're saying 50kph is excessive, what speed do you people normally aim for?

my HSP monster truck, running a 3s lipo, does 80kph, its fantastic!

that runs a 3300kv motor.

The issue with running a slower motor, such as the 1200kv, is that although you'll limit your high speed, the motor can still only spin so slowly, because it lacks the torque. Meaning, you'll get horrible low speed control.

remuspt

I wrote excessive due to what i believe are natural limitations on the Bonzer, steering slop, overall looseness of drive shaft and suspension components (and i have a lot of alloy parts), poor shock options unless you have shock towers that allow for longer ones (and i do) and poor weight distribution.

Maybe this looks like i'm down on the Bonzer, not so, but mine when accelerating at full throttle from stopped is kinda hard to control, as is turning at high speed, i like that as it's fun but i prefer when all is perfect, dunno if it's from having a motorcycling background (where all should be as perfect as possible to have safe fun, or get to mad speeds while having good control), but although i like the Bonzer's looseness and mad character for bashing, i would prefer perfect handling and i think that for the money necessary to invest in a Bonzer to accomplish that i would prefer getting maybe an E-maxx or something like that to fulfill all my bashing needs

chicaboo

I have basically rebuilt my Bonzer into a TL01B after replacing the chassis, suspension, and shocks after they have broken/worn/upgraded. The only Bonzer parts left are the body posts, steering arms and screws basically.

The funny thing is now, even with the 12T 3300kV motor the Bonzer is so stable with buggy tyres and the suspension raised as far as it goes. I'm sure when I fix my sluggish servo performance, it will flip over a few times yet.

But I agree with remuspt, I think an E-Maxx, E-Zilla, E-Revo is much better for a monster truck. I love my Bonzer, but I've wasted money on 2 motors to try and get it fast, only to find the original 550 motor being able to deliver the goods.

chicaboo

Hey gang,

I put my old Bonzer servo back in and tested it with the 12T 3300kV motor, and that fixed the steering issue. So I guess the 10kg/cm metal geared servo was drawing too much power for the battery and/or ESC? I haven't played with the 32T 1200kV motor any further yet, as I'm still fine tuning the 12T motor with timing and punch settings. I have a feeling that this ESC is a little bit buggy, so I might have to try it in the Blitz to see if it still plays up... But I might try to run an external antenna first, since I have the antenna wire under the body running from the back to the front posts. That could be the reason the ESC seems a bit hit and miss at times? Anyhow, I will try that as part of my process of elimination before swapping out ESCs,etc.

Cheers, Gav.

TheyDontWantMusic

get a bec.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_9810674/tm.htm

chicaboo

Thanks for the review, TDWM! I will have a look into BECs, as it appears I will need one if I want to use the stronger servo again.

chicaboo

Hi guys,

I've fitted a different receiver [further away from the ESC now] with an external antenna post to try and remove the interference I've been getting. I also reset my neutral/forward/reverse on the ESC. I will test this out the next available daylight session I get. I've also fitted aluminium C hubs and uprights on the front for added strength and greater steering angle. I found that I had accidentally fitted my shocks diagonally [rear springs are longer but trapped length is the same], and this was causing my car to spin out all the time. I thought the car was spinning out due to me locking the rear diff [which I did when I fitted the shocks incorrectly], so I packed the diff with heavy rubber grease, but the car was still spinning out - later to find it was the uneven shock arrangement causing the spin-outs... I think I will just leave the diff as is for now, but the speed of the motor might spit out some of the grease through the inner drive cups... [:'(] For now I'm running a 21T pinion on the standard spur gear, which I'm finding to give a fairly good mix of speed/accelleration. Having said that, accelleration is totally insane in any case! To my surprise - for a 4WD - it spins the wheels just as much as the 9T in the RWDBlitz!

The stock antenna mount is simply relocated to the end of the F/L body post mount.


All the electronics are separated from the power now, so there should be no interference!

G!NhO

Looks pretty cool with that body.

I received my brushless 2700kv motor, but the esc still has to come.
But i will probably put it in my freshly bought slash 2wd.

chicaboo

Hey G!NhO, having a 9T 4300kV motor in my Blitz [similar to your Slash], I couldn't really imagine having less than that in it [a lot of guys run 5700kV 540core!]. The 12T 3300kV motor in my Bonzster Beetle with buggy tyres seems to be the most I'd want in it. So my impression is that anything around 13T/3000kV/380core would be good for a Bonzer running the smaller buggy tyres. But then, with your Bonzer tyres, you might need to put the motor where it does the most good by you?

Oh yeah, Iforgot to say earlier - since going brushless my front diff has LOTS of play in it now! Such destructive power!

Good luck with that!
Cheers, Gav.

G!NhO

Well the motor can handle up to 4s or 5s and 50.000 rpm and the same for the esc, but i can always buy a 3s and gear it higher since the motor is a true 3650.
So i guess it will be fine but ill try where it will work best, it will have enough torque though.

My rear gearbox in the bonzer is already whining like mad even without brushless.

chicaboo

It will be interesting to see, as my first inclination was to get the 2400kV 3650 540core motor with 60A ESC for my Bonzer. I don't really regret not having gone that way, as I don't have enough faith in my soldering skills. But having said that, my next move is to upgrade to Deans plugs on all my gear. This will be a good way to get better at soldering without doing too much damage, and get a bit more out of my cars. Well, they say you get better performance with Deans plugs... Anyhow, if you're going to be throwing lipos at that motor, idont' think you will have any problems.

G!NhO

Ye i will also get deans plugs if i go lipo. It's a no name brand but i don't think that matters much.
I will probably get some cheap lipos like these, do you guys know if there is any difference between expensive and cheap lipo's?
http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...ht_2076wt_1092

Btw this is the motor i have.
http://bidproduct.com/part/Product_v...MOTOR_408.html

chicaboo

I found the reason for my spin-outs. This is what brushless power does to HBX metal/alloy parts!



Only one of the bigger gears was undamaged, but every other gear was destroyed. The rear diff is a genuine Tamiya unit, and is doing just fine. This was one the last of the HBX pars left on my TL01B[onzer].

G!NhO

haha, well time for you to lock the diffs with glue then.

chicaboo

Maybe I need to lock the rear diff again [I think it's feeling loose now!], and get a Manta Ray ball diff for the front? At least with a ball diff it doesn't have gears to chew up, and it won't matter if it runs a bit loose...

TheyDontWantMusic

that really is quite poor.

the HSP vehicles don't seem to have an issue with diffs, I'm still trying to break mine!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAEyLUulL6g

chicaboo

Yep, it's no good at all... What are you other Bonzer owners doing about stopping your diffs from frying?

TDWM: Backflips are cool!

G!NhO

I think the best way to stop a diff from breaking is locking it with glue like i did on my rear diff.

RetiredRoadThunder

Man I'm rough on this thing, 2nd time out with the new dog bones and my truck turned RWD towards the end. I snapped the flanges off one of the front dog bones, good thing I ordered 4 for the 1 I lost!

Black paint looks nice G!NhO!

G!NhO

Thanks. What the hell are you doing with it that it breaks so much!

phmaximus

i tryed a manta ray diff a while ago it didn't last long
here is it fitted with an alloy counter gear, both rubbish


i found where the out put cup goes into the diff it stripes the splines off the diff cover plate, wrecking the end plate and drive cup
expensive mistake

chicaboo

I was hoping a ball-diff would last longer in the front?! I have options available to me, so I'm not worried. So long as the genuine Tamiya differential gears are stronger, I will do just fine.

phmaximus

just wondering, was the diff noisy before it broke?
i dont understand how it broke,

chicaboo

It started with the car spinning out when turning, which I thought was the shocks being on diagonally incorrect. After fixing the shocks, it was making the noise you get from a severely worn pinion gear. This is all happened in the space of one battery pack or less...