HPI, Losi, Futaba: a Hattrick!
Three brands, three breakages…
I went racing today, touring cars, outdoors at SHMCC. My aim of the day was to play with the set up of the Tamiya TRF415MSXX, I have removed the roll bars, and wanted to try it without.
I stiffened up the springs a little, and it generated a lot more grip than with the rollbars, much more stable. A little too stable, I was struggling to get it to turn in, but some fiddling with springs, droop and roll centres and I think I sorted that.
But, the day was marred by breakages. I seem to have damaged my Losi Xcelorin 17.5 brushless motor, it ‘went soft’ the last time I used it. But first run today and it was great, strong, fast, everything seemed fine. But 2nd, 3rd and 4th runs were ruined. A solder connection came off in run 2. Run 3 I thought it was a sensor lead. Run 4, it confirmed that it was the motor, it would do 5 laps, then come off the track too hot and no longer working. That’s dead then.
I borrowed an identical motor for run 5 (final 1) and that ran fine, so the speedo was okay, thankfully. I borrowed another brand of motor too, a Trinity DUO 17.5, and that was very strong indeed in run 6 (final 2), and had a great race, popped in a 19 lapper, no mistakes and a nice close race with someone using an identical motor.
The final run of the day I did half a lap and it stopped. Closer examination and it looks like the Futaba receiver isn’t working.
And then, I took my HPI E-Savage, and a friend broke the rear differential! It’s supposed to be a weak point, so I’m surprised it’s not broken before now.
Still, I had a good day!
Written by simon.
Tamiya 8-piece RC Tool set
Shared by simon
Well these are Tamiya blue, but they look a bit plasticky don’t they! No thanks.
New from Tamiya is this handy compact tool set, which includes most of the tools you would ever need when working on your car. Supplied in a base stand with transparent cover, the set includes 2 philips head screw drivers, a flat head screwdriver, a 5.5mm and 7mm nut spinner and a 1.5mm, 2.0mm and 2.5mm hex driver. Also supplied with the set is a large diameter handle that the tools can sit into to give them more leverage if needed. Available from tomorrow.
Source: Tamiya [tamiya.com]
Original Article at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RedRc/~3/qjDplhGrzvI/
Written by simon.
Rating Springs for Radio Controlled Cars
Radio Controlled Car springs come in a variety of ratings, some hard, some soft, in a mixture of colours, from many different manufacturers, in different lengths etc.
It can be a bit of a minefield, especially if you’ve gathered springs from various sources over the years.
A really simple way of figuring out what you’ve got is to get all your springs for a particular car, make sure they are similar lengths, and then just get any two, put them on top of each other and press them together, the one that squashes up the most is softer.
Take the next and compare it with one of those, soon enough you’ll have all your springs in order of hard to soft.
Now, here’s the secret, MAKE A LIST! A really simple list of colours from hard to soft.
BUT, if you have several springs that appear to be the same colour, but of different hardness, get a permanent market, and on top and bottom, just put a dash, or two dashes, or three dashes. Then in your list, call it colour 1, colour 2, colour 3.
It’s so much easier then to think “right, I need a softer spring on the rear”, just look at your list and choose the softer one.
You then don’t have to have all the springs from the same manufacturer and you can mix and match to suit.
You can even go so far as put on your list some ‘known’ springs from a manufacturer, so you know roughly whereabouts in the list you are if you are comparing setups with other people etc.
Written by simon.
Bald Racers Need Hair Dryers…
I don’t have much hair… so don’t have a hair dryer…
Recently, a hair dryer has made it’s way into my abode, via a female with long hair, and, don’t tell her this, but, I’m finding all sorts of uses for it!
I so far have used it to:
- Dry out my E-Savage after washing it
- Heatshrinking, of course
- Drying bottles before putting shock oil in them
- Heating up surfaces to ensure good glue adhesion
- Drying coats of paint on bodyshells
Hope she doesn’t find I’ve left it a bit grubby…
Written by simon.
Mirage Support of HPI Issue
Wen I recently lost part of the steering on my HPI E-Savage, I contact the importers and distributors, Mirage to see if they could help.
82024 bushing shown sticking up, half undone
The part I lost was the steering bush (Part No, 82024) and the corresponding screw (Z528). They should be firmly attached to the steering ‘rack’, and they just vanished! I guess they should have been threadlocked from factory, the one on the other side was, but it didn’t seem very firm when I checked it.
So I asked them to send replacements, and they did, Free of Charge. They took a little while to arrive, but only because they didn’t have them in stock at that time.
Thanks guys!
HPI Parts 82024 & z528 from Mirage
Replacing them was fiddly, I managed to do it without removing the whole steering from the car, and I ensured I used threadlock on them. Fingers crossed I wont lose any more.
