cbs52

Does feel a bit odd playing with a model car as a 40 year old man, but I'll manage...

Anyway, if anyone is interested, here's my story:

Back in the early 80's, I wanted an RC car that was a bit better than the ready built toys that I had previously owned, so I got a Tamiya Holiday Buggy for Christmas. At the time, these were expensive toys, so I got the car then, and the radio gear for my birthday a month later - that was one long month! The radio gear arrived (a very cheap set where the servos worked the wrong way round, which meant some fabrication of the steering), and I had great fun with that car.

Some time later I realised that there were limitations with it - small motor, open gearbox and so on, and started hankering after something a little more substantial. At the time, the cars to have were the Rough Rider or Sand Sorcher, and these had previously been out of reach price-wise. I can't remember how, but I ended up managing to finance a Tamiya Ford F150 Ranger XLT complete with Acoms radio gear and battery. At the time this was a great car, sealed against the elements, quite fast, and a bit more fun than the Holiday Buggy.

Again, my memory is hazy, but I ended up joining the local RC car club, and started racing my car, realising quite quickly that it wasn't exactly competitive in standard form. Then followed a whole load of mods, including a Mardave front suspension (anyone remember them - really chunky plastic double wishbone setup that was easily transplantable), and so on. I even ended up building my own radio plate that was a disaster as it was made from an old unetched PCB, mounted on metal posts that caused huge interference with the radio signal whenever it was running.

By this time, I was in employment and was able to think about a new, more competitive car. At that time, the cars to get were either the Associated RC10, the Kyosho Optima or the Schumacher Cat - to be honest, Tamiya cars were simply not in the same league back then. I actually ended up going out on a limb and getting a PB Mini Mustang, which was from a company with a long pedigree in the Nitro powered market. I ran this car for a while, with some success (although I think my driving held me back), before my other hobby of fiddling with real cars (VW Beetles) took over, and the car was consigned to the loft.

So, here I am now, 20 years and 4 children later. I recently found my car in the loft, and have dug it out, dusted it off, bought a new battery (just a cheap 7.2V nicad) and today have run it again. I don't think that the Mini Mustangs were ever that successful, but they do have some interesting features like the belt drive and a two speed auto gearbox (that worked really well, except for the fact that it didn't reverse, so was no good for racing. My example has just two mods - RC10 shocks on the back, as they were simply the best shocks you could get, and drive shafts with UJs at the outer end for the front to stop the standard dog bones popping out in crashes. Still goes well with it's Demon motor.

I also have managed to collect a whole load of Tamiya parts over time, including the remains of someone's Sand Scorcher - I even have a partial XR311 or Cheetah somewhere. I am currently toying with the idea of ebaying what appears to be the valuable vintage stuff, and using the proceeds to fund something fun, like an F350 High Lift. Of course I am only doing this for the benefit of my son, who is really interested, even though he's not quite 3 yet!

Perhaps I'll turn this into a thread to track the progress of this plan, not sure yet...

paintstikker

Hey, welcome to the group, that sounds like a cool car, though I've never heard of it.

I'd suggest the F350 if you like it, but it depends what you want to do with it. It's good at scale crawling, playing around, or just to use as scale realism; but it really depends on how many mods you put into it of which it can do.

I myself have one, and I am currently running 4 link suspension on it, and a johnson 550 motor w/ 12v. Comes out good for crawling and heavy bashing, as well I find it more fun than my Savage X SS, or other vehicles. If you have any questions on it, ask, and i have pictures and videos if you would like to see them....

BTW I also have a XR311.

weez440

welcome to the foum. and welcome back tot he hobby. it seems alot of ppl are getting back into it after quite a few years worth of absense. i like paintstikker have an f-350 high lift and it was a blast to build. i am driving it all the time around the house and just using it. i find myself driving all the time over the e-savage and the revo. i just recently posted pics on here of mine. i would say it took me around 20 hours to build it and about 8 hours to put the 4-link suspension and body lift in it.

cbs52

Thanks for the welcome guys, I've been lurking in the forum for a while now, so I've seen quite a few pictures and videos - in fact I was watching some of paintstikker's videos earlier.

I would have loved a Bruiser back when they first came out, so the F350 would be the realisation of that dream for me. In common with a number of people on here, I enjoy the building process, and like the scale realism of these kits. I also don't really want to race, so I'm looking for something to bash around with on rough terrain. If I need speed, I can always gear up the Mini Mustang...

I'll take some pictures soon and post them so you can see the car.

weez440

http://www.scale4x4rc.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=57 this forum might be up your alley. paintstikker and a couple others helped me out in this forum but i been going to this scale forum alot lately. this is everything about the tamiya f-350, well this part of the forum. they are very nice over there and very patient and there are tons of pictures. i was gonna keep my f-350 stock until i found this forum then i went a lil crazy.

cbs52

Been out for a few runs now, and all is looking good apart from the fact that the old ESC (Demon, I think) is not liking reverse. You can hear the relay clicking in, but only occasionally will it actually run the motor. Was fine at first, but started playing up on the last run.

Will try and find somewhere good to run it tomorrow - it's a bit boring up and down the street.

cbs52

Got plenty more time in on this over the weekend - took it to the local park where there is a patch of bare earth where a playground used to be. Ran it on there, and had a blast. Tried a different motor in it, something labelled as a Demon HT, that looked like it was a more powerful one. Seems to have a lot of acceleration but not much top end, so maybe I need to up the gearing a little. Battery seems to be getting better and seems to give me much more run time than I can ever remember getting before.

All in all, what fun. My nearly-3 year old is also enjoying watching it and is itching to have a go. I have let him try it with my help, but he jams the throttle full on and won't let go, so I think that might need to wait! I think he'll have to stick to his toy Aston Martin for now - we just need to find the ariel from the transmitter which he has put somewhere "safe".

I did take some picture this weekend, but I am having trouble with my memory card in my camera, so they have all disappeared. I'll get some more soon and post them as it seems that the Mini Mustang is not a well known model.

cbs52

Here we go - some pictures now that I have my camera sorted. Note the shrink wrapped receiver - less weight :-) I will sort out the battery connectors soon as well. The suspension is the same front and rear, and the rear has tie rods that can be positioned to give some rear bump steer. Changed the motor pinion today to give some more speed, and it is working pretty well.

cbs52

And few more, showing the bodyshell complete with club racing number (made in the days before PCs and printers) and the box I used to lug it around on.

cbs52

Latest update on this is that the ESC has now died completely and will not run forward, only reverse. You can hear it clicking, but there is no power to the motor. If I connect the motor directly to the battery, it runs fine so it's not a motor issue or connection. As the ESC is a very old Demon one, I don't think it's probably worth trying to fix it, so I need to figure out now whether to stick a 27 turn motor in it and get a new cheap ESC like the Mtroniks Viper Eco 27 or go for something a bit more expensive that will work with the triple 17 turn that I have. I like the look of the Mtroniks ESCs as they are based in the UK, are cheap and waterproof.

I have been ebaying some of my vintage Tamiya stuff, and have managed to build up quite a fund from them. Top earner was a completely unused radio box from a Sand Scorcher! However, the fund is to be spent on a new computer, so I'll have to go digging through the attic for some more stuff to sell so that I can invest some more into a new car.

paintstikker

I would stay away from Mtroniks, I have seen and had a few just out of nowhere blow smoke and fry themselves.

I'd suggest a Novak XRS, or a Futaba MC230CR (15 and 20 turn limit). You could get the original 15t Rooster on ebay, or such.

cbs52

Cheers Paintstikker, the Novak one looks pretty good to me - I like the smart braking and I have found a good deal on a new one via ebay. What are they like in terms of water resistance? I'm not looking at submerging the car, but don't want to have to avoid puddles or stay in if the ground is wet. Eventually it'll probably end up in an F350 or similar, so the robustness is quite important.

cbs52

Have had a good trawl around the Internet, and while I see that there have been a number of failures of these ESCs, in every case, the owner has found the support from Mtroniks to be second to none. I have also found many people singing their praises as reliable. I figure that the company would have gone out of business if every ESC they sold was bad, and they replaced them ad infinitum. Also, looking at the alternatives, there seems to be just as much of a divided opinion on all the budget models - many people saying they are totally reliable, others saying that they have blown several up.

For me, the attraction of the Mtroniks is the fact that they are UK based and willing to offer great after sales support. I'm going to try an RV11 and if it fries, I'll get it replaced, then if the replacement goes too, I'll get something else.

I just wanted to explain a bit so that people didn't think I was just ignoring advice :-) I'll let you know how it goes...

cbs52

The ESC has arrived and it's tiny! I know my old ESC had two big relays on it, but this one really is small. Anyway, all I need to do now is connect it up, which is easier said than done as I don'r have any of the standard connectors apart from the Tamiya battery connector. I know that it would be better not to use that, but for now I don't want to change anything on the ESC until I have proved it to be reliable.

paintstikker

Don't worry about changing the Tamiya plugs (the ol' molex connectors). My RV-15 that blew up had a deans plug soldered onto it, and they replaced it free of charge. Just make sure you make a clean solder connection and use good heatshrink; anotherwards make it look professional don't make it look crappy with tape and balled up solder.

You can buy bullet plugs at a hardware store; they are crimp with the plastic case but I just burn the plastic off with a torch or a lighter, then I open up the hole with pliers and solder the plug on (then heatshrink where the wire is soldered on).

The XRS is pretty much resistant; most ESCs that aren't anyway will withstand a splash, but nothing heavy. Don't expect the XRS to withstand too much though, cause of the way the Rx plug is set up.

You could just stick a ballon over it.

cbs52

Got it installled at last and took it out for a bash today. Quite a difference to the old one - a lot more punch, and seemingly more speed. Whereas before it would have to be on a loose surface to spin all the wheels, it'll now do it almost anywhere. The ESC does make a screaming noise until it is at full speed, is that OK?

Was thinking that it would surely break something, and sure enough I started hearing the tell-tale sound of the drive belt jumping, but afterwards I found that this was just due to the tensioner having slackened off.

I'll get some proper bullet connectors for the motor soon to replace the bodged together efforts I have at the moment, and I will eventually get some Deans for the battery. One thing I would like some advice on is how to best mount the ESC - at the moment I have a cable tie around it which is looped through a stick-on mount of the sort that is used to tidy cables. It's secure, but moves about a bit.

paintstikker

About the ESC, that is somewhat odd as you only hear that when you barely touch the throttle. Maybe that ESC is different, who knows. The motor leads and the Tx servo reversing may be off, but I doubt it, cause then it wouldn't be set up right ATM.

Does that Mtroniks ESC have a heatsink for the bottom of it? Usually I just go get some 3M double sided sticky tape from longs or lowes, etc. but with the heatsink it might not stay on too well. Just wipe off the two surfaces it's being applied to and then stick the tape on.

j.m.

from looking at the pics, you need new tires. A faster motor and battery wouldn't hurt along with that esc.

cbs52

I should add that the screaming doesn't happen in neutral, only when you touch the throttle either way. The old ESC didn't make any sound apart from the clicking of the relays, but I checked it with my Dad (who is into RC boats, planes and helicopters as well as electronics in general) and he said it's normal. I need to do some more setting up of the braking, but looking good so far, just need some more time to run it.

As for mounting it, I'll figure out a better way soon - if I stick it in, I'll probably use velcro as I don't like sticking stuff in permanently(ish). I had thought of mounting it on the very back of the car where the receiver is supposed to go (look at the pictures and you'll see a flat bit with some pegs that are for rubber bands) as it would then be away from the receiver and more in airflow, but am worried about it being vulnerable to physical damage there.

@j.m. - yes I do need new tyres/tires as those on it are worn and the Schumacher Cat spikes that were my racing tyres are perished. I'll probably put the spikes on and run them until they fall apart, but I am not sure what tyres will fit those wheels. I know I could get some hex adapters and run moderm wheels and tyres, but this is a budget hobby for me, and I have to control costs :-)

cbs52

On the subject of tyres (US translation - tires :-)), can anyone recommend some good cheap tyres that would be suitable for running on the street and hardpacked ground. They need to fit the wheels on my Mini Mustang, which are the same fitting as older 4WD Tamiyas like the Hotshot, etc.

Also, How long should the ariel wire on my receiver be (old Acoms 2 channel) as mine seems very long and was wrapped around the receiver itself. I have unwrapped it now, as I have been having problems with range, and put the receiver back in its case to aid protection, but it is now too long and trails along the ground.

cbs52

After casing up the receiver again and unwinding the ariel cable to its full length, I found that the range was even worse, so I wound the ariel back up again and it's now back to normal. Took it for a quick bash this morning, as you can see from the picture. At one point it all jammed up completely, but after a quick push in reverse whatever it was unjammed and it was fine. I will take the underside off though to check it, and will have a go at sealing it a little more effectively against grit, if not water.

paintstikker

How about Dirt Hawgs? They should be in that size, but maybe I'm thinking of something else.

cbs52

Popped the chassis off today and removed a large piece of grit that must have caused the jam the other day. Found that water has got into a lot of places, so I squirted some oil in for now. Must get myself a small pot of grease to do the gears properly sometime. Range is now a real issue - it starts to glitch at about 10 metres or less, so I really must sort out the antenna on the receiver. I think I must have put a new wire on at some time that is too long, but it is difficult to work out how long it should be. I might just get a replacement off ebay that has not been hacked about as much as mine.

j.m.

there are some tools that you can find in a google search for antenna length. You just enter in your frequency, and it will spit the total length required for that frequency.

cbs52

My Deans connectors finally arrived this week, so I have stuck them on for both the motor and battery connectors. Tidies up the wiring a bit, and running it today, it seemed to have a bit more punch and speed. Also replaced the antenna wire today, but range is still a real problem, so I think I am going to need to invest in some new radio gear. I think I can get a reasonable 2 channel Futaba setup for around £30 if I am prepared to wait for it, or I could try my luck on ebay.