vmabuck

I am literally a half a dozen runs into this hobby after a trade for a practically new N. Rustler I made the other day. Getting it down though. I am coming from a R/C airplane background so I have the general knowledge although these little engines seem a bit more finicky than my plane ones.

Anyway, so I broke a caster block today and I was looking at replacement options. I see all the fancy aluminum stuff but I am thinking of sticking with plastic. This car has the RPM arms and I looked at their site but they do not offer a hop up that I saw for the caster block of this particular car. I ordered the OEM replacement already but I did not find any other plastic option. Is there one out there that is more robust than the OEM?

I do like the idea of the aluminum blocks but I was reading that they are kind of loose. I am sure it makes sense because all of that energy would go right to the little half dog bone pieces and snap those and those are cheap and easy to replace. I liked the idea of the RPM stuff and the car came with the rears as well I just need to put those on.

1QwkSport2.5r

I thought RPM made caster blocks for the N. Rusty... If they do, I'd use them. Pretty much any plastic part that RPM makes for the truck, I use. At least for suspension and chassis. Anything else I leave factory. My N. Rusty has RPM arms, bumpers, and shock towers. (I converted mine to use Jato arms and axles). The plastic stuff (even OEM) is pretty tough. If you break certain parts more often, try cooking your new plastic parts before installing them. It makes them a little more forgiving. Boil some water gently and pop your plastic parts into the water for 10-15 seconds or so. Let them cool completely, install, and you're set. I do this routinely with RPM stuff, but it works good on OEM stuff too.

If you get crazy and decide to put a 3.3 or other .18 sized engine into your N. Rusty, the Jato suspension conversion is a good stability upgrade for the crazy power of the bigger engines. It makes the rustler about 1/2-3/4" wider.

vmabuck

Thanks for that info!

I will double check the RPM site but from what it showed they only have the caster blocks for the E versions of this model.

I like the idea of the boiling and I will do that when the replacements arrive. For now, I repaired the broken caster with a ****e load of super glue and should hold for tuning runs on pavement. I am still working that whole situation out after getting Sidewinder fuel. The came with half a quart of the Traxxas stuff but Sidewinder is all I had close to me so I am working that out...

1QwkSport2.5r

Sidewinder works okay. I've used it in the past. When I was buying premixed fuel, I really liked Trinitiy Monster HP, Byron's Gen2, and Blue Thunder. Traxxas fuel wasn't that great. Last can that I was given.... Used it to start bonfires. LoL. Junk.

vmabuck

The Sidewinder fuel is providing much more performance than the Traxxas. It idles good now and just plain rips.

I ended up just gluing the caster block I broke with some of my fletching quickbond and to my amazement it is still holding up after about three tanks of abuse. Many 3 foot'ish drop onto pavement and a few cartwheels. I was telling one of the local shops about it and he was very interested in what glue I had used. Anyway, it is Easton Quickbond Vane Adhesive Maximum Strength. For fletching arrows they develop glues that are flexible, not stiff and brittle.

I will be keeping a small bottle in my battle box for sure...

1QwkSport2.5r

That's really good to know. Thanks for the tip. I've used epoxy putty on bumper braces and steering knuckles on my 1/8 scale Losi MTs to get me by awhile. The steering knuckle repair is still holding today - it's been 3 years or longer.

Good to hear the other fuel is working well.

vmabuck

As with any super glue type repair I did finally get it to fail LOL! It took a straight shot into a tree to do it though.

But I still can't get over the difference in the fuel though. I had my temp laser out today and that thing was so dang fast. I made sure to really rap it out and it never went above 200. I could probably lean it out but it already as WAY too much power. I need to weigh it down a bit I think...