RE: HPI RS4 Rally
 

LOL she is terrified of my cars. I don't know why! She loves to chase real full size cars, but she's scared of anything RC. From my T-MAXX to my Mini LST. She won't even come into my room if I have a car sitting on the floor.

RE: HPI RS4 Rally
 

:D that's funny. my friend has a dog that doesn't like road cones... but that's a different story. well, I finally went ahead and made my rally into a truck. I took the advice on the super rs4 wheels/tires. they work very well for the purpose of increasing the car's ability off road.
I also went to the local hobby shop and picked up some tall body posts, a titanium pinion gear (I had to re-gear for the big wheels), and an HPI silverado body for the MT2 and RUSH trucks. I had to do some carefull trimming to allow it to fit just the way I wanted it, and to get it to work with the body clips going across instead of up and down, on that particular part of the truck body. I think that this is the first paint job that I have ever done that wasn't messed up somewhere!
It was pouring rain today when I got back with the parts, so I didn't get a chance to run it outside, but I did drive it inside a little to test out the new gearing, and on the carpet it did a short wheelie from the front wheels bouncing over a wrench on the floor. I can't wait to see what it does when it has some tougher terrain to conquer. I can finally jump it without worrying about scraping the body on the ground when it lands! :D

oh, and here are some pics... forgive me for being such a bad photographer! And yes, I am going to trim the posts down some.

RE: HPI RS4 Rally
 

It also looks pretty mean sitting low like this. In this pic, I have it set it up as a low riding street-truck so that I don't wear out my rally tires for running on pavement, which I do pretty often. let me know what you guys think:D

RE: HPI RS4 Rally
 

That looks good! I have to do something like that too.
Yeah I noticed the rally tires actually lay down patches of rubber on the pavement. They'll wear down quick!

RE: HPI RS4 Rally
 

Mine were gone in like 3 or 4 packs:)

RE: HPI RS4 Rally
 

Yeah, because I have "S" compound tires, they wear even faster. it had excellent grip though! the reason that I said had is because I was doing a bit of off roading, when at about 45 mph, I hit a dip in the pavement, which caused the car-- uh, truck to hop up into the air. at that speed the bounce coupled with the grippy tires caused a bit of erratic handling (that I may have contributed to by trying to over correct the steering) leading to the car jumping half-way over someones lawn, and smacking the right-front wheel on a telephone pole. about 8 barrel rolls, and 3 front flips resulted. normally, I don't think that I would have broken anything, but being an open-wheel truck exposed the chassis to all of the impact that a TC wouldn't have had to put up with (body covers entire chassis)... in short,

Parts Broken:
. lower chassis plate
. right C hub
. right upper suspension link
. lost a dogbone (still not found)
. cracked/stripped motor mount support
. bent motor plate
. destroyed spur gear (from the awkward mesh caused by a bent motor plate)
. belt tensioner
. rear belt (partly shaved... I don't know how)
. lost a fan blade from the GTB
. miscellaneous screws bent or lost.
And oddly enough, the body still looks new... barely even a scratch. I don't know how I would go about replacing the chassis plate (HPI doesn't make it anymore). [:o]

Does anyone know if the mounting holes in an aluminum chassis for the nitro rs4 will line up with the bulk heads for the rally? if so, I can drill all of the rest of the holes needed, like the battery holders, or the steering servo, or whatever.
I even contacted HPI (by E-mail) and they still haven't answered me. any info on chassis options would be super greatly appreciated!
I really can't stand sitting around looking at my broken car-- uhh, baja truck... it's torture!:(

RE: HPI RS4 Rally
 

Dang! sounds like a nasty crash! Good luck finding the parts. Try RS4 sport 2 parts. The main chassis is slightly different but could work if trimmed a little. I think you can still buy them...
I'm not sure if the nitro chassis will fit. Might be worth a try.

RE: HPI RS4 Rally
 

yes, it was a pretty spectacular crash to watch... untill I saw a wheel roll across the street. that just takes all of the fun out of watching a crash, when you see that you really broke something! I actually saw a rally on ebay recently. I have to check and see if it is still there. then maybe there is hope. I think that HPI discontinued the pro2 also. I can always borrow my friends nitro rs4 to see if that chassis could be made to work. I think that even if I can replace the origional chassis, I will have to try to use it as a template to cut one out of aluminum.
I think it would be much more solid, even if slightly heavier than stock. it would have to be, to stand up to "truck type" driving. but it would be soooo easy if I could just bolt up a nice anodized aftermarket chassis... rather than mess up on it trying to make one myself. I must have seen about a thousand of those for the NRS4:eek:.
come to think of it, there actually was someone on RCU who had succesfully made an aluminum chassis for his rally... I can't remember his name though... oh well, time to go looking through about 1 or 2 bazillion threads for a "How-to"!

RE: HPI RS4 Rally
 

lol good luck finding it.
I saw a couple rallys on ebay just a couple days ago. One that caught my eye was a kit that someone started to build but never completed. I think it was missing the body too. so basically it was a bunch of parts, going for a really good price. I wish I could put up a link to it, but I forget where it was.

RE: HPI RS4 Rally
 

Actually, I THINK the Sprint/Sprint 2 chassis will work with the Rally.

RE: HPI RS4 Rally
 

:D:D Good news! I was at the hobby store today, trying to see about having some of the more common replacement parts ordered from HPI (like the C hubs) when I thought to take a look at some of the nitro RS4 chassis to check if they could be modified to fit the rally.

while the guy at the shop was looking through the box of aluminm chassis plates, at the bottom of the stack he came across an origional rs4 rally chassis plate! so now, there is hope for me to continue running the rally, because all of the other parts can still be ordered!:D

Before I mount this chassis plate on the car, I will try to find a machine shop somewhere that can make an aluminum one. I think that it would be easier for them to do if they had the origional one to take measurements from and stuff. I will have to see how that goes...

what kind of aluminum should I use? I guess that 3mm is the standard thickness for a car chassis. I do not want the car to weigh 3 tons with an exessively heavy chassis, but I don't want it to be super light, and then as soon as I tap a curb the chassis bends. Is "6061" or "7075" aluminum what is usually used for nitro cars? is this a direct reference to the strenghth/rigidity of the aluminum?
as much as I wanted to make an aluminum chassis for my car, it never really occured to me what gradeof aluminum to actually use, or where to get it!

RE: HPI RS4 Rally
 

6061 is usually used for the cheaper cars...7076 is the higher end stuff

RE: HPI RS4 Rally
 

Do you think that it would be easier to just buy a NRS4 chassis, and simply use the rally chassis as a template to drill the correct holes and slots, or would the NRS4 chassis be too heavy, or already have too many holes and that adding more would weaken it? I say this because I just realized that having a machine shop do it may be overly expensive.

RE: HPI RS4 Rally
 

i have a rally. does anyone know if the tamiya hummer body will fit or are their any lexan hummer bodies that will fit. does anyone know if the super rally tires and wheels are still available? i was thinking if they arent maybe 1/10 or 1/8 scale buggy wheels and tires will work. i usually find that my batterypack usually gets hotter than my motor. im running the stock pinion that came with the kit i think its 31 teeth.

sledge

RE: HPI RS4 Rally
 

dude gunnut i friggin worship u man im sold on this thing and this is gonna be my first car

i also finally found a place to buy it ( in europe thx to my friend mt)

RE: HPI RS4 Rally
 

I've been ghosting the forum for quite a while. If it's from Europe, it might the be RTR Sprint Rally, which is quite different from the RS4 Rally. I have a rs4 Rally, but recently cracked the chassis. Parts are hard to find, but like gunnut said, you can occasionally find a rolling chassis on ebay for a good price. I may soon get an aluminum chassis made using the original template made, because I have access to a machine shop at my work. If I do, I'll keep you guys updated to see how it goes.